Mexico City and the Yucatán in twelve days
The capital, then the peninsula — with the Maya Train, which changed how you get around the Yucatán, and the altitude nobody warns you about.
onesim team
Mexico City and the Yucatán are two different countries that share a flag: a two-and-a-half-thousand-metre highland capital, and a flat limestone peninsula with no rivers and several thousand cenotes.
Twelve days does both, and the flight between them is ninety minutes.
Days one to five: Mexico City
You are at 2,240 metres. That is higher than most European ski resorts, and it is the single thing people are unprepared for. Expect breathlessness on stairs for two days, drink much more water than usual, and go easy on alcohol the first night. It also means the evenings are cool all year, whatever the guidebook photo suggests.
The city divides neatly:
- Centro Histórico — the Zócalo, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Templo Mayor dug out from under the colonial city, and the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Rivera's murals in the Palacio Nacional are free.
- Roma and Condesa — tree-lined, walkable, and where you should probably stay. The best eating in the city at every price.
- Coyoacán — Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul, which must be booked online well ahead, and a genuinely lovely neighbourhood around it.
- Chapultepec — the Museo Nacional de Antropología, which is one of the great museums of the world and the right way to prepare for the Yucatán. Half a day, minimum.
Teotihuacán is an hour out and worth a full day. Go at opening; the Avenue of the Dead has no shade.
Getting around: the metro is five pesos a ride and extensive, and Uber and DiDi are cheap and the default at night.
Days six to twelve: the Yucatán
Fly to Mérida — not Cancún — and work back east. Mérida is a colonial city with a genuine life of its own, the Paseo de Montejo, and the best food on the peninsula.
| Base | Nights | For |
|---|---|---|
Mérida | 3 | The city, Uxmal, the Ruta Puuc, cenotes at Cuzamá |
Valladolid | 2 | Chichén Itzá at opening, Ek Balam, Cenote Suytun |
Tulum | 2 | The cliff ruins, the beach, Sian Ka'an, Cobá |
Chichén Itzá is the famous one and it is also the most crowded site in Mexico by ten in the morning. Stay in Valladolid, forty minutes away, and be at the gate when it opens — the difference is not marginal. Uxmal is nearly as impressive with a tenth of the people, and Ek Balam you can still climb.
Cenotes are the thing you will remember. The ones on the main road have car parks and life jackets; the ones down a dirt track outside a village have a rope ladder and nobody. Both are good. Bring a towel, and rinse off sunscreen before you get in — most require it.
The Maya Train changed the arithmetic
The Tren Maya now links Palenque, Mérida, Valladolid, Cancún Airport, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, including a station at Tulum Airport, which opened in September 2024. The Cancún Airport–Tulum corridor is the busiest stretch and the one most visitors will use.
What it means practically: you can do this route without renting a car, which was not true three years ago. Stations are often some distance outside the town centres, so budget for a taxi at each end, and check the current timetable rather than trusting a schedule in an article — the service has changed frequently since it opened.
A car is still better if you want the Ruta Puuc, the smaller cenotes, and the freedom to leave for Chichén Itzá at 7am.
Money, safety and the everyday
Cards work in cities, hotels and larger restaurants. Markets, street food, cenote entry and small towns are cash, and ATMs attached to banks are both safer and cheaper than the standalone ones in tourist strips. Tipping is 10–15% in restaurants.
Nobody drinks the tap water, including Mexicans. Restaurants use purified water for ice and washing; buy bottled or refill from the garrafón. Street food is not the risk it is made out to be — choose a stall with a queue and high turnover.
On safety: the states on this route are among the country's safest and the practical rules are the ordinary ones — use Uber at night rather than hailing, do not flash a phone in a crowd, use bank ATMs, and take the toll roads (cuota) rather than the free ones on long drives. Check your government's advice by state rather than treating Mexico as one place; it is emphatically not.
When to go
November to April is the dry season and the right answer. December to early January and Semana Santa are peak and priced accordingly. May is brutally hot on the peninsula. June to October is the rainy season — afternoon downpours rather than all-day rain — and September and October are the heart of the hurricane season on the Caribbean coast.
