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db52

Sep 25, 2006, 5:31 PM

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seek yucatan advice

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I'm flying in/out of Cancun. Arrive about noon Sat. Nov 25 and depart back to Michigan on Wed Dec 6, so have eleven days to explore. I speak Spanish at about the proficiency of a second-grader but have a little better street smarts (I hope). So I'm not worried about my ability to get around and ask directions and so forth.

My question is "what should I do for eleven days?" I plan to probably take the bus out to the hotel zone and wander around a bit taking in the sights. Depending on how late it is in the day, I may spend the night in a downtown hotel and light out for Merida the next day. (Or depending on bus schedule, might go to Merida the same Saturday night.)

Are there enough points of interest in and around Merida to occupy me for nine or ten days? Should I also visit Campeche? Anywhere else I should try and squeeze into my itinerary?

I bought the air ticket because it was a cheap price, but later on I checked the weather report and it looks like it is going to be a little bit warmer than I really like, so I am probably never going to visit this area again. Is there anything I should be sure not to miss if this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime type of deal?

I guess I am just asking those who are familiar with the area to give me some pointers as to touristic sights I should see. I'm male, 54, traveling alone with a carry-on type bag and a wad of hundred-dollar bills.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

yucatandreamer

Sep 25, 2006, 9:31 PM

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Re: [db52] seek yucatan advice

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Many visitors to the Yucatan Peninsula (aside from Cancun)are interested in the magnificent Mayan ruins that are located here. It would take a lifetime to do justice to them all. Several are easily gotten to by bus from the city of Merida. Chichen Itza, Uxmal and nearby Dzibilchaltun with its very nice little museum(not open on Mondays)The city itself has several pretty good museums and cultural activities every night of the week. These are mostly free. Check with this site to see some of the activities www.merida.gob.mx/capitalcultural/ and this one /www.culturayucatan.com/ Saturday and Sunday in town are not to be missed with all sorts of singing and dancing in the streets Saturday night. Sunday starts early with families trying out our new bicycle route and all the kiosks selling their wares, toys, jewelry, handicrafts, clothing, food and of course big hats for the tourists.
There is one other reference to check out and that is a publication called Yucatan Today, www.yucatantoday.com. It is is English and Spanish and can give you weeks worth of ideas. When you get to Merida pick up a copy at a hotel or the Merida English Library. You can spend one whole day just admiring our old architecture and people watching in the Plaza Grande.
By the way you are coming at what we consider to be the best time for weather. Not hot at all, speaking relatively of course.

(This post was edited by yucatandreamer on Sep 25, 2006, 9:43 PM)

sfmacaws

Sep 25, 2006, 11:22 PM

Post #3 of 10 (3633 views)

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Re: [db52] seek yucatan advice

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Well, if you don't like heat you probably won't like Mérida. It may be the cool season for them but it is always humid and almost always what a northerner would consider hot. I'm just saying this because you said you don't like heat, I happen to love it.

So, if the above is true than I suggest you stay on the caribbean coast as close to the water as you can get. The breezes there will keep it very comfortable, no ac required. You can take a bus from the airport to Playa del Carmen and hang with the euro trash on the beach and in the bars. Or, you can go inland to see some mayan ruins - it will be hot and humid. It's the tropics and it is sea level, kind of hard to get away from heat unless you are right on the beach.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

db52

Sep 26, 2006, 4:46 AM

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Re: [db52] seek yucatan advice

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Thanks. Merida sounds like there is a bunch of stuff to do. I will check out those websites. I expect the heat not to be a big problem, it is just that the heat and relative isolation of the Yucatan--compared with more moderate weather and number of fairly close-together cities in other places--makes me think it unlikely I will visit the area repeatedly. So I'd like to see as much as I can in this one trip.

How about Campeche? The population of about 250,000 makes me think it must be easier to get around in than Merida. True? And it looks like it's on the water, so does it benefit from breezes?

dougakin

Sep 26, 2006, 12:26 PM

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Re: [db52] seek yucatan advice

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I was in Merida the last part of October last year and the weather was beautiful. Many of the locals were complaining about the cold weather and were wearing jackets. This was just after the hurricane hit Cancun and there were many tourists from Cancun camped at the airport or looking for hotel rooms. I visited some of the archaeological sites (don't remember their names) and was very impressed. A highlight of my stay was visiting the downtown area on a Saturday night. The streets were closed to autos and it seemed that each restaurant had a salsa band playing in the streets in front of the restaurants. If you didn't like one band you could walk to another. I spent one night in Campeche Cuidad but didn't do much sightseeing. I remember that most of the old part of town was surrounded by a wall that was used for protection in the old days. My hotel was near the ocean and the weather was also beautiful. I will be traveling to Merida again in November for ten days.

yucatandreamer

Sep 26, 2006, 3:06 PM

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Re: [dougakin] seek yucatan advice

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Campeche city is nice,clean and very charming. It has a good archeology museum in the actual walls of the city. Several parts of this originally walled city still stand and are fun to climb through. It is on the water and is lovely, no beaches to speak of however. We have been twice this past year to go to the baseball games and enjoyed the city both times. I do not get the impression that there is a lot to do there and have been ready to return to Merida after a day or so. The ruin Edzna is close to Campeche and could be worth seeing if you are interested in archaeology. It certainly might be a fun day trip from Merida but I would spend a day at Izamal or one of Yucatan State's beach towns(Celestun, Sisal, Progreso)before taking that 2 hour each way bus trip. Weather-wise, one trip down there was hotter and more humid than I have ever experienced in my life but the other times were pleasant. All of my recent trips were between March and August though.

Ed and Fran

Sep 26, 2006, 3:40 PM

Post #7 of 10 (3564 views)

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Re: [yucatandreamer] seek yucatan advice

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Our Campeche experiences were much like what has already been posted. We found it a bit warm (me more so than Fran). You can about fill a day with the city itself, between walking around the centro historico, visiting the fort/museum directly west of the zocalo by the waterfront, and checking out a couple of other defensive forts (if you're into that) just outside of town, but easily reachable by taxi. Edzna is worth a visit if you're into archeological zones. You could probably make it a 2 day 1 night round trip from Merida. Bus down one morning, Campeche city on day one, Edzna on day 2 and return to Merida.

Yeah, it's hot, did I mention that?

Regards

Ed & Fran

Bubba

Sep 26, 2006, 7:40 PM

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Re: [db52] seek yucatan advice

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The Yucatan Peninsula is one of my favorite places in Mexico. We will soon be moving fairly near there to the highlands of San Cristobal, Chiapas which, at 7,000 feet has a fresh and cool to cold climate. When we have moved to Southern Mexico and assuming our old bones remain mobile, we will doubtless spend some winter time traveling the peninsula and the Pacific beaches of Oaxaca. We consider winter on the peninsula to be January through the first part of March. Expect the weather during November and into December to be very hot and humid. Say, 90 degrees plus fahrenheit and very humid. A most unpleasant climate for most people. January and February should still be quite warm but November can be downright uncomfortable. Frankly, if it weren´t for the atrocious climate we would have already moved to Merida which is somewhat run down overall but with a magnificent historical center.

Merida is so miserable weather wise in the summer that anyone who can afford it heads for the adjacent Gulf Coast to catch the Gulf breezes.

One of the places we once thought we might like to settle in on the peninsula was Campeche.City. This small, compact and utterly boring town with some of the ugliest beaches and sea water we have ever seen anywhere, is a two hour town. That´s how long it took us to check out the town center, some of the remaining city walls, a rather hokey museum and to look for a decent cup of morning coffee which we never found. We could not wait to get out of there and make a beeline back to Merida.

The Yucatan Peninsula is, for the most part, dismal scrub forest with undernourished spindly trees growing miserably out of limestone with an ennui inducing flatness unlike the tropical forests of rolling hills and lush vegetation further south toward Bacalar, Belize and Guatemala where the forests and terrain become more interesting. Fortunately, this flat scubland is broken intermittently by magnificent historical monuments dating to both pre-columbian and colonial times and interesting towns and cities making the journey more than worthwhile. The beaches of the Gulf and Caribbean and the beautiful lake at Bacalar are also of surpassing interest and beauty. The beaches of the Caribbean coast are among the most beautiful in the world but I prefer the funky and somewhat mysterious Gulf Coast between Holbox and Celestun.

This should be an interesting trip for you wherever you decide to go in this wonderful region.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Sep 26, 2006, 7:46 PM)

db52

Sep 27, 2006, 5:01 PM

Post #9 of 10 (3509 views)

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Re: [Bubba] seek yucatan advice

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So I guess the good news about all of this is that I will have no need to bring along any sort of humidification device for my cigars...

sfmacaws

Sep 27, 2006, 10:35 PM

Post #10 of 10 (3491 views)

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Re: [db52] seek yucatan advice

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Nope, no humidor needed and you can buy excellent Cuban cigars as well.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán