Our family holiday to Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula is jam packed with fun things to do and exciting, educational opportunities to boot. It’s a perfect destination for families, with plenty of sunshine, sandy beaches and jungle ruins. Hotels have facilities and attractions for family members of all ages. Exploring by self drive hire car is not only economical; it gives you the freedom to travel at your own pace, stopping wherever your family would like a better look, but with the security of a pre-planned itinerary and accommodation booked. 

The Yucatán peninsula offers you sunny Caribbean beaches on the Mayan Riviera offering both water sports and the ruined pyramids and temples of the Maya shrouded in jungle. Following a direct flight from the UK you collect your hire car and set off on good, well-signed roads to explore - distances between attractions are relatively short, there are service stations to fill up your car and a huge range of eateries to fuel yourselves on.

From Cancún airport you set off in your car to discover the peninsula. There, you’ll find vestiges of the once supreme Mayan civilisation. Sites replete with temples and pyramids festooned with sacred carvings were, once abandoned, swallowed up by a rapacious jungle but are now gradually being revealed. There’re all rather Indiana Jones. You’ll visit the best known sites, Chichén Itzá and Uxmal, both easily accessible; your guides will explain the history while the children climb the pyramids. 

You’ll also be based at the friendly Spanish colonial town of Mérida, a friendly place with street markets, restaurants of all types and lively entertainment. You will drive up to the Gulf coast for your beachtime, at laid-back but up and coming Holbox.