BootsnAll Travel Community

hey folks,

I'm going to do a week trip through the Yucatan peninsula probably with a car, but I desperately need some good hints what I shouldn't miss and where to go to discover some lost sights and non-touristy tracks.
Maybe hop over the border to Belize or Guatemala? Or not worth the trip?

please help with that, thx!

Nebo

A week isn't much time. There are so many must sees in the peninsula that are easily reached by vehicle that it makes no sense to go out of the way.

Be careful, some, many 'out of the way' places in the Yucatan are also centers for illegal activities, and they might not appreciate a car in their territory, or would just cause problems with your car for kicks and giggles.

So, for a week, I recommend the normal places that can be found in a guide book.

Now, if you still want to do it. you can drive your car on very bad roads, in the daytime, to a sketchy town in the middle of the jungle, a border between Guatemala and Mexico, and visit two of my favorite temples

Bonampac and Yaxchilan. Bonampak is incredible. I still wouldn't drive there. I'd take public transport to the village, where one gets a bed for the night, or a hammock, and then have a guide take you on a motor launch.

That is specical. You don't need to bring your care for it, and given that the road is bad and apparently full of drunk drivers, is a thing for caution.

If you have a car, the Ruta Puuc is off the beaten track, with some very quiet, rustic Maya ruins (nothing like the madhouse of Chichen Itza). You could also visit the Calakmul site, which I've been meaning to do for a couple of years now.

Punta Allen is where you'll want to go for quiet beach stuff. It's a very rough road south from Tulum - make sure your vehicle is sturdy, if you want to do this. You need to go at least far south on the Caribbean coast to get away from crowds of people.

hola amigo. my wife and i are in chetumal as we speak. we have been in mexico for the past four months hanging out. we couldn't wait to get to the yucatan, and then when we got there, we couldn't wait to get out. too darn many gringos and you can't see the beach for the people. pushing it a bit i know and i bet we missed a bunch but we were so looking forward to some great snorkeling and exploring, but we could find neither. the hurricanes of the past few years have changed the landscape a bit for sure.

save your money on tulum's ruins. nice location but little else. i guess i have been spoiled from other amazing ruins. punta allen is great i hear if you can handle the drive through all the 'eco' resorts. the most misused word in mexico, 'eco'.

'uxmal' ruins were fabulous but we are headed for palenque. i refuse to be disappointed there.

we just spent three days with a mayan fellow on his own island on the north end of chetumal bay. now that's what i'm talking about. no lights. no other people for a million miles. groovy

i was also looking for some excellent fly fishing experiences but i missed out on that. next time.

viva la mexico. we love you

These ideas may be too mainstream for you, but they are the places I liked the most from my week in the Yucatan a few years ago.

Felix is right that Chichen Itza can be a madhouse, but we didn't want to miss it. We planned it so we could arrive in the area in the late afternoon, check into a hotel near the ruins and see the sound-and-light show in the evening. Then arrived at the ruins at opening time next day, saw a lot before it got hot and crowded and spent the afternoon swimming in a cool cenote.

The ruins at Uxmal are very impressive and less crowded, and a good place to stay nearby is Ticul, a small town with a nice market. I didn't see another gringo in town when we were there. Our downtown hotel was Mexican-for-Mexicans, no handwoven bedspreads, just cheap, clean and motel-like. Perfectly adequate. You're also near the Grutas de Loltun from there. It's another place that's more popular with Mexican tourists than foreigners and we enjoyed our tour of the caves.

If you want to spend a few days in a city, you'll like Merida for the variety of free street performances--music and dance of many kinds, plus the usual parks, museums and colonial architecture. I bought some wonderful feather earrings from a street vendor there. They weren't just whole feathers, but had been cut into slices and re-combined in unique designs. About $2. each. If you find them, would you bring some back and sell them to me for my store? any color but orange, about 10 pairs?

In Celestun you can take a tour by lancha (motorboat) to see the flamingoes and go into the edge of the mangrove swamps. There are also night trips to see the alligators, but none were going out the night we were there.

One of my favorite ruins in the Yucatan is Ek Balam just north of Valladolid- It is not nearly as large as Chichen Itza but also does not get overrun by tourists- There are some incredible carvings and staelae in an intimate setting.