For later this year, I’m planning a trip with my wife to the Yucatan. My main interest is the Mexican culture and history, that is, the Mayan sites you find there, and perhaps getting a few days of rest and relaxation along the Caribbean. Perhaps. Merida looks like a nice city to visit, too. Argh. Too many options. Thing is, the RIviera Maya is soooooooo touristy. If we hit the Caribbean, is Tulum a halfway decent option (as opposed to Playa del Carmen, Cancun, Cozumel)? Still touristy, yes, but perhaps a little less so? Has anyone been to any of the Mayan sites there? Is Chichen Itza cool but overrated? You also have Uxmal, Ek Balam, Coba, Edzna, et al. My personal favorite would be off the beaten path at the very southern end of the Yucatan, a site called Calakmul, where there are few visitors due to its remoteness and the buildings are barely excavated.....and there are the sounds of howler monkeys and other wildlife. So, who’s been down yonder and what are your opinions?
Been to Tulum, Ek Balam, and Chichen Itza. Tulum is on the coast. It is a beautiful location, but the architecture is nowhere near the other two. Ek Balam was in the middle of some really thick jungle. You can climb the among buildings, if you want a more up close experience. Chichen Itza is the most touristy, but is my favorite. It was an epicenter for the culture. It has the most interesting history, in my opinion. The buildings are very impressive. The best being Kukulkan pyramid and the ball court. I especially appreciate that you cannot climb the ruins, so as to preserve them for as long as possible. I am actually going back to Yucatan/Quintana Roo in June. I will let you know if I hit up any new sights. And please do let us know where you end up going, and your experience.
Merida is my favorite place to centrally locate and then take trips from there. Make very, very good friends with the consierge at your hotel, and get him to get you a car to take you to places. Fixed price. Hit up a couple of cenotes and caves and go snorkeling. If you like fishing, go! If you don't just eat. Stay a night or 2 around Celestun or other little villages on the beach.
I appreciate the information. It will be difficult to narrow down locations to visit, especially since Calakmul is near the top of my list and not exactly an easy site to reach (it’s at the end of a narrow paved-ish road well off the main highway, almost at the Guatemalan border). I would find it a shame not to see Caribbean water while being so close. But gotta see Merida.
If we go to Celestun, those f****** flamingos better be there. They just better! We love the idea of Merida, the food, the culture, etcetera.
If you haven snorkeled a Cenote, please do. https://www.google.com/search?q=cen...rt3fAhULWa0KHTK-D2UQ_AUIDigB&biw=1680&bih=939
Just looked up the name: if you want amazing yucatan-style bbq go to momacoa in Merida. eta: and go to Cuzama, Izamal, Campeche, or wherever looks good to yall.
i love traveling in mexico and talking about traveling in mexico so get ready for a long, rambling post... one of my best friends parents are from mexico and they retired in chelem, which is a beach town near progresso, about a half hour from merida. in the late 90's they bought a house right on the beach for $30k. been there a few times. the ocean is literally about 100' from their back patio. its pretty conservative and i remember that all the women would wear full dresses when they went in the water. no skimpy bathing suites! water is emerald green and not a lot of waves. really pretty and relaxing place. there was a bar by their house that we hung out at all the time - buy a quart of beer and get all the cerviche you can eat. we would sit there all day and get hammered. merida is nice, but i feel like you only need a couple days there tops. uxmal is close and definitely worth a day trip. chichen itza is a must see if you like visiting ruins. ive been to palenque, monte alban, teotihuacan and a few others and CI is definitely up there in terms of quality and size. its touristy, but huge. not super close to any major cities, but theres hotels outside the ruins. we even stayed at one that had a pool, which was nice in the summer. theres also some cenotes around there that are worth a visit. cancun is more americanized than america. and its expensive. it really doesnt even feel like mexico, but the beaches are nice for relaxing. however, if youre looking for the "mexico experience" i would look elsewhere. if youre there though, take a bus tour to tulum. its cool and very scenic, being on the beach - but its not very big. we did a day-trip where we went to tulum and then to xel-ha (halfway b/t cancun and tulum), which is basically like an eco-schlitterbahn. its a giant freshwater bay that meets the sea - you can snorkel and see lots of colorful fish. that was the highlight of my cancun trip when i went. if you like mexico history i can recommend a couple book to read about the conquest... the conquest of new spain by bernal diaz, who was one of cortez's captains. history of the conquest of mexico - william prescott - at 1000+ pages it's the epic version compared to diaz, which is about 400. both are worth reading. i havent been to mexico since 2010 - for about 10 years i was going once a year and ended up seeing quite a bit of the country. my last trip we flew into villahermosa and went to palenque (and agua azul), san cristobal de las casas, crossed the border into guatemala and went to lake atitlan then antigua and flew out of guatemala city. one of my favorite trips ever.
Sounds like you travel to some of the places I want to visit. Guatemala will have to wait for another year; again, so much to see, and I only can take a week (9 days, including the weekends) at a time. But...Tikal, Atitlan, and some Mayan sites near the Belize border. I've seen Teotihuacan and will visit there again soon, maybe next month. It'll be the first time my wife has been to Mexico City, and she barely knows what she's in for, so that'll be nice to re-discover everything after an absence of 11 years. I've thought about that area near Progresso, especially if Merida is our arrival city. I looked at photos of Chelem. I didn't think the water there would be so pretty, but it's niiiiice.
I’ve been to all the places that you name including, Playa del Carmen, Cancun, Isla Mujeres, Conzumel. You mentioned that you no longer have access to climb the Pyramid at Chichén Itzá,I was fortunate to have gone when they still allowed you to climb it (early 90’s) and I can tell you it was easy going up, but coming down was a lot more challenging! Those steps were/are narrow, the only thing as far as safety was a single rope that you shared with people going up/down! One mistake and “ Oh well”.... Loved the observatory and the huge pit that they used to throw the bodies... Funny story: At the entrance to the ruins complex there were a few, very poor looking old Indian ladies that spoke no English, one kept saying “picture, picture” ... my wife and I looked at each other and my wife proceeded to take the picture of the old lady thinking that ... well looking back I really don’t have a clue what we were thinking, regardless as soon as the picture was taken she quickly stuck her hand out and said “1dollar”... THIS was here way of making a living!! @ROXTXIA, hope you have fun down there! If you make it to Conzumel, be sure to rent scooters!! The Island is perfect for riding them!! ....... ....... .......
i went to chichen itza in 2006 and they had the main pyramyd closed b/c an older lady had fallen down the steps just the day before. this article mentions it... http://www.calgaryherald.com/travel...llest+mayan+temple+mexico/12058389/story.html Last chance to climb: Coba, the tallest Mayan temple in Mexico Indeed, nearby—and much better known—Chichén Itzá closed its pyramid climb in 2006 when a woman died after tumbling down on her descent. She slipped on one of the steps that had been smoothed over from thousands of visitor footsteps over the decades. Other Mayan sites followed suit, roping off their pyramid temples, but not Cobá. At least not yet, but the clock is ticking. “The authorities will act soon to protect it,” Bautista warns. one thing i liked about palenque is that you could pretty much walk around everywhere and could even go inside some of the pyramids.
I haven't been to Cozumel yet, but will make there in April (won a Caribbean cruise from my job). i will definitely check out the scooter rental. Sounds like a good time. Thanks for the suggestion.
Breh, that’s awesome!! We took a boat ride from Puerto Aventuras to Conzumel. My wife actually got a little sea sick while in the boat, saying this to give you heads up if you or anyone else traveling with you gets sick easily...you can buy otc pills for that, so it shouldn’t be a biggie! Have fun!!! ....... ....... .......
The "last chance to climb" bit, not so true. Coba is very accessible for tourists and can be climbed. So, in the sense of, "not tough to get to", yeah, it's the last chance to climb, however........... Calakmul is difficult to reach and has very few tourists and you can climb the structures there. That's on my radar. They'd have to put in a better access road, put in a restaurant and shops and hotel and whatnot, and that doesn't look to be on the near horizon.
I Love, love, LOVE Mexico..........sad that we have such a strange relationship between the two countries. I do however, want one of those tourista T-shirts that proclaims "the fun side of the wall." We have a guide that we just adore, and we've used her on at least a half dozen trips to the Yucatan; she works out of Playa del Carmen (which I have to admit........has gotten too touristy), but she'd pick you up in Tulum or Puerto Morelos if you're looking for something less packed with tourists. My ten year old (and I) LOVE visiting different cenotes. One of the things she had us do was she took us to these boats that ran us to this canal that the Mayans had dug between two large lakes......the lower one brackish that opened to the caribbean. The water from the upper lake being fed from the centote system, so there's always a current going out to the sea. It was cool to just float down the canal; the boat later picked us up again and drove us through the lower lake where we saw manatees, and then out to the mouth and this beautiful mostly vacant beach on the caribbean. She knows we're fairly adventurous when it comes to food, so I can't tell you how many roadside local spots she's taken us to. Good times. She doesn't really need any new business it seems, but if anyone is interested, you can find her under "soy la pesera" in Facebook.
Too bad. I haven't been to the Mexican Mayan ruins, but did Tikal and a couple of smaller ones while visiting Guatemala, which was great. When I was at Tikal, I saw Morgan Freeman in the back of a pickup truck when, apparently, he was making The Story of God. Guatemala was great. Loved Tikal, loved Lake Atitlan, loved Semuc Champey, loved the mountains and the highlands, loved Antiqua (the colonial capital tragically ruined by earthquakes, but living frozen in time as a small, artsy artifact of what used to be). Their roads are **** though and I didn't love the overnight bus ride with a broken on-board toilet. Also, apparently their Caribbean coast sucks, so go to Belize or something for beaches.
Maybe you can drop me a "Conversation" with some recommendations. I want to hit Guatemala next year and for the life of me don't know how to squeeze it into 8 days (Tikal being a must).
I'd say there's basically 3 areas to split your time between -- the Mayan ruins in the north, the highlands in the west, and the cloud forest in the south. The other parts are low-altitude (and therefore hot) and poor and with terrible infrastructure and not much to see as I understand it. And getting between those three areas is possible but the roads are rough and slow. So, I'd say it is a matter of deciding how long to devote to each area. If you can sacrifice one or two, you gain back much of what you'd lose in travel time. I took an overnight bus from Guatamala City to Tikal, which I still think is a smart way to go despite the bad luck I had with the broken toilet. You don't waste a touring day on travel that way. If you want to see the other ruins besides Tikal, I think they are a bit more trouble to get to. The cloud forest and Semuc Champey were great for relatively unblemished nature. We stayed at hostels on our trip (which worked for us, but we avoided the party hostels), and they took us for a tour of half-submerged caves, waterfalls, climbing mountains, tubing, etc. They have low concern for personal safety, fyi. That was a great part of our trip, but that area is particularly hard to get to with the terrible roads and mountainous terrain, so you might not be able to afford the time. Don't think you can drive yourself, btw, because there are bribes that have to be paid for passage and a hired driver will know the system. Most of the culture stuff is in the Highlands, and that's the stuff I'm more interested in and spent more of my time. They have some stuff in Guatemala City, but honestly I'd get out asap. Antigua is pretty fascinating to see for the colonialism. Lake Atitlan is great. The villages around it have their own personalities -- one is a party town for the backpackers, others are more laid back with more yoga and spas, and some are not touristy at all and just have locals. You get from village to village by boat over the lake. There are volcanoes to climb, but expect it to be a time investment, probably an overnight. It takes a while to drive to one (towns aren't very close to them for some weird reason), several hours climb up, and then back down again. Things are pretty dang cheap, though not as cheap as southern Mexico. One thing I was a bit dismayed about (though it makes sense), is that the sites have one price for Guatemalans and another price (~10x higher) for foreigners. Makes sense because of the big wealth disparity between Guatemalans and tourists, and you want the high tourist dollars to help maintain those sites without locking out the locals from their own heritage. But I didn't really like the way they did it, which is just posting plainly this stark price discrimination on a sign. It made me feel a bit exploited and discouraged me from bothering with some places. I'd prefer they did something like sell locals a cheap annual pass so I would never even know I was being gouged. But I guess getting gouged is part of the experience. The van drivers, boats, vendors, etc, all look to overcharge you, and half the time I wouldn't even bother to argue it, because honestly I won't much notice paying $10 for a thing I should pay $3 for -- it's still a cheap trip compared to the money I make in the States and what I'd spend in other parts of the world. If it means so little to me and so much to the budget of a Guatemalan, it's fine.
Very informative. And compounds my problem: not enough time. 8 nights, maybe. Tikal is up there on the list. The cloud forest sounds awesome.
