Self-drive Mexico: Discover the Yucatan Peninsula

Day 1

Arrive in Cancún, transfer to your hotel

Cancún straddles a lagoon on the north-eastern tip of the Yucatán peninsula. Nowadays, beyond its tourism mecca of high-rises, malls and bars is a living and working Mexican city which is home to around a million people. If you’ve just stepped off a long flight, Cancún’s white-sand beaches make it a good spot to recharge before you begin your road trip through the Yucatán.

Stay at - Beachscape Kin Ha Villas & Suites

Day 2

Collect your hire car and drive to Mayan archaeological site at Chichén Itzá. Overnight.

Our local partners will assist you with collection of your rental vehicle for the next 2 weeks or so. The Yucatán beckons and how you plan your day is up to you: that’s the freedom and flexibility that self-drive provides.

Tonight’s accommodation is at Chichén Itzá (just 2 hours if going direct) the grandest and most well organised of all the Mayan sites, dominated by the huge, symmetrical, stepped El Castillo pyramid. The origins of the site are mysterious. It has the largest and best-preserved ball court in the Americas: the venue for an ancient ritual game that was played throughout the continent, but which is still not fully understood. Archaeologists have not been able to determine whether the losers or winners were decapitated, but judging from the gory carvings along the base of the court’s walls, someone certainly came to an unpleasant end.

En route you might want to visit the laid-back colonial town of Valladolid with its grand church and peaceful plaza. It’s also a good spot from which to visit one of the cenotes which pit the peninsula. Cenotes are steep-sided freshwater sinkholes fed by underground rivers, deep enough for you to take a dip into their sparkling clear turquoise and emerald waters.

Accommodation is a short walk from the site, and in the evening there is the option to return for the Sound and Light Show.

Stay at - Hacienda Chichen

Day 3

Drive to hacienda near the historic city of Mérida, capital of Yucatan; 3 nights.

Drive towards Mérida (2 hours direct), capital of the state of Yucatán and a hacienda-style hotel on the outskirts of the city which is your base for the next 3 nights.

The city of Mérida was founded by the Maya, but in 1542 it was conquered by the Spanish conquistadores and became immensely wealthy, described as the ‘Paris of the New World’. Its income came from the production of sisal, cactus fibres that are used to make rope, and it was culturally and geographically isolated from the rest of the country until transport infrastructure reached it in the 1950s.

Today, Mérida retains a lovely colonial centre with a mix of opulent and crumbly buildings, but it is a modern, bustling, thriving city with lots of local character, some excellent places to eat and good shops and markets. The inhabitants, descendants of the Maya and the colonists, love a good fiesta, and you may well find one going on, with live music and street stalls, while you are there.

Stay at - Hacienda Santa Cruz

Day 4

At leisure at your hacienda; explore Merida or visit Uxmal.

Merida is around 30-minutes’ drive from your hotel. Stroll around the sunny streets, shop for local lace or one of the region’s famous hammocks. Outside town you might drive to the ruined ceremonial temples of Uxmal, for many the most dramatic forest-clad Maya site. It’s just over an hour from Mérida, but you enter a different world. The site is dominated by the majestic Pyramid of the Magician, inhabited by birds and bats, alongside which is an elegant ‘nunnery’ quadrangle with Puuc-style complex stonework pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle. This is the site with the most mystic ambience.

Stay at - Hacienda Santa Cruz

Day 5

At leisure or drive to Celestún on the Gulf coast.

Also in contrast to the lively city of Mérida is Celestún on the remote, undeveloped and swampy gulf coast just 45 minutes’ drive away. A low-key beach resort favoured by Mexican families, the once isolated fishing port has an inviting, broad white sandy beach and good seafood restaurants. But it is most famous for the lagoons at the entrance to town which are filled with rose-coloured flamingoes. Boat trips can be booked locally and there are car parking areas now. There are three main routes out of Mérida on the west side from the Pereferico. The newest route is via Tetiz and Kinchil, which is the quickest.

Stay at - Hacienda Santa Cruz

Day 6

Drive to Campeche; 2 nights.

Drive to Campeche (2 hours direct) on the coast facing the Gulf of Mexico. The old walled city is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site – pastel-painted mansions built by aristocratic Spanish families, pristine white churches and the shady zócalo main square evoke the city’s era of glory. There’s a lovely seaside promenade, perfect for walking at sunset.

Stay at - Hotel Plaza Campeche

Day 7

At leisure in this Spanish colonial city - or visit Edzná

At leisure to explore the city, or drive to the little-visited Mayan pyramid complex at Edzná, a few miles outside town.

Stay at - Hotel Plaza Campeche

Day 8

Drive to Calakmul; 2 nights.

Drive southeast of Campeche and deep into the southern Yucatan Peninsula, today’s destination being the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. The journey takes around 4-5 hours, initially via the coastal road and the fishing port of Champoton where seafood stalls line the promenade. As you head inland, a landscape of lush cattle pasture and tropical forest takes over and shortly before tonight’s accommodation a rich seam of Mayan archaeological sites begins. You may opt to stop off at the ruins of Balamku, which remain enveloped in forest.

Spend the next 2 nights at a rustic lodge, some 60km north of the archeological site of Calakmul.

Construction of the Tren Maya railway since the early 2020s is bringing significant change to these remote reaches of the Yucatán peninsula, which hitherto remained an off-the-beaten-track destination for adventurous travellers. It’s realistic to anticipate ongoing construction as well as some heavy vehicles along the highway as associated development continues.

Day 9

Visit local Mayan sites and Calakmul.

Calakmul is undoubtedly the main reason for visiting this region, smothered in rainforest, it’s an important and very impressive site of what was once a vast and powerful city. There are 6,750 ancient structures identified there, the largest of which is the great pyramid at the site, at 45m high one of the highest temples of the Maya world.

Calakmul Biosphere Reserve is home to some wildcat species, such as the cougar, the ocelot and the emblematic jaguar, an endangered species and very precious in the Maya culture. Mammals living in this jungle are the howler monkey, spider monkey, anteater, armadillo and deer. There are almost 300 species of birds, among them: parakeets, toucans and wild turkeys. There are also about 50 species of reptiles and 400 of butterflies.

Day 10

Drive to Bacalar Lagoon; 2 nights

Today’s destination, Bacalar, is in the far south of Quintana Roo state, close to the border with Belize. The total driving time to Bacalar is just a couple of hours, allowing you time for a worthwhile detour to Kohunlich.

Kohunlich is another Mayan site surrounded by dense rainforest and which contains almost 200 mounds that remain largely unexcavated. The city was elaborately planned and engineered, with raised platforms and pyramids, citadels, courtyards and plazas surrounded with palace platforms, all laid out to channel drainage into a system of cisterns and an enormous reservoir to collect rainwater. Kohunlich is best known for its Temple of the Masks, a pyramid with a central stairway flanked by huge humanised stucco masks.

Just an hour of so east of Kohunlich is Bacalar, shortly before hitting the Caribbean coast. Bacalar is famous for its Lagoon of Seven Colours and the setting of your next 2 nights’ accommodation.

Day 11

At leisure in Bacalar

The water in Laguna de Bacalar is so vividly turquoise that it can be difficult to believe it is a freshwater jungle lake and not an extension of the Riviera Maya’s coastline. Having remained largely under the traveller’s radar until the 1990s, Bacalar is now a popular hangout for Mexicans and international visitors seeking a lower-key alternative to the Riviera Maya resorts. A growing number of fancy hotels is springing up along the idyllic shores on either side of the bohemian little town of Bacalar. The 90m-deep Cenote Azul, on the edge of town, is a popular swimming spot and kayaking is a popular activity on the lagoon.

Day 12

Drive to the Caribbean coast; 2 nights.

Mexico’s Riviera Maya beckons and it’s a 280km drive to the Caribbean coast near Playa del Carmen. It takes around 4 hours or so on a good quality highway. An hour or so before your destination is the iconic coastal fortress and archaeological park of Tulum. Until the late 1980s there was just a jumble of Mayan dwellings at the entrance to the ancient ruins. Nowadays, Tulum’s ruins are perhaps the best-known attractions of the region, with a similarly famous beach resort on their doorstep. Although the crowds and infrastructure will surprise you after your journey through deeper Yucatán, Tulum’s dreamy Caribbean setting makes it a star attraction and most would agree that a visit is a must.

Stay at - Petit Lafitte

Day 13

At leisure on the beach in Playa del Carmen

At leisure. A day to unwind on the beaches of the Mexican Caribbean. The resort city of Playa del Carmen is a short drive away and is a family-friendly place with is a plethora of restaurants, bars, shops and entertainment.

Stay at - Petit Lafitte

Day 14

Drive to Cancún and drop off car at airport; take international flight home.