On Tue, 1 May 2007 22:42:04 -0700, "Technobarbarian"
wrote:
>
>"HH" wrote in message
>news:B96dnWoaGLxz76rbnZ2dnUVZ_syunZ2d@comcast.com...
>> Please help me decide on an itinerary for a visit to Yucatan. I want to
>> see Merida and the principal Mayan sites. I would appreciate it if you
>> would give me your comments on the following rough itinerary. Please also
>> recommend accommodation. I like small hotels or guest houses, older but
>> modernized, with local ambiance. Would this work:
>>
>> Day 1 Arrive Cancun in mid-afternoon, drive to Merida on the toll road,
>> arriving in the evening. Night in Merida
>>
>> Day 2 Night in Merida
>>
>> Day 3 Night at Uxmal.
>>
>> Day 4 Night at Chichen-Itza
>>
>> Day 5 Night at Tulum
>>
>> Day 6 Night in Cancun
>>
>> Day 7 Fly home
>
> This is similar to what we did a couple years ago. I've been able to
>hang out down there for longer periods, but we were only able to spare a
>week for that trip. If you turn south from the airport you come to the
>Cancun bypass very quickly. The toll road to Merida and the highway from
>Cancun to Tulum are couple of the only places in Mexico that I'll willingly
>drive after dark. By the time we got to Valladolid it had been dark for
>quite awhile. The hotel El Meson del Marques is right on the main square.
>Valladolid has quite a bit of charm in its own right. Just across the street
>from the hotel is one of best places to pick up local craft items from the
>people who made them. The Mayan ladies are mostly selling traditional
>dresses and other needlework, but you can also pick up hammocks there.
>Valladolid has a nice small traditional mercado. There's also an interesting
>cenote there that you can walk in.
>
>http://www.cancunhotel2000.com/hotels/valladolid/elmesondelmarques.htm
>
> The next day we visited the ruins at Ek Balam, Chichen Itza and the
>Balanchance cave that was used for ceremonial purposes. From there we drove
>to Merida. I consider both the INAH museum and the big traditional mercado
>there to be must sees, but there a lot of interesting stuff in that area. We
>stayed at the Hotel Caribe. It's a nice older hotel. I like it because it's
>centrally located, an easy walk from there to the mercado, and reasonably
>priced.
>
>http://www.travelyucatan.com/hotels/hotel_info.php?View=Info&asoc=travelyu&ID=707&Type=hotels&AY=2007&AM=5&AD=2&DY=2007&DM=5&DD=9
>
> After visiting Merida we drove to Santa Elena about 9 miles south of
>Uxmal. On the extreme south side of Santa Elena is a pleasant little RV park
>and campground with some rustic cabins hand built by the owners called Sacbe
>Cabins and Camping. Watch for it on the right side of the highway a little
>past Santa Elena proper. The owners live on site. They're trilingual:
>French, English and Spanish. If you sign up for them in advance you can get
>nice meals there at fixed times for very reasonable prices. The place oozes
>charm. You can see a lot of tropical birds there, including flocks of
>parrots at times.
>
> The next day we visited Uxmal and some of the other nearby
>archaeological sites. I particularly recommend Kabah, it has some very nice
>artwork. We got pleasantly lost trying to drive across from a town that
>produces handmade pottery to Mayapan. (Hey, we were in the Yucatan, how bad
>can it be, even when you're a little bit lost?) Mayapan is nice because it
>has pieces of some of the original murals and gives you a better idea of
>what the temples looked like with their painted surfaces. We ended up in
>Piste just because that's where we were at the end of the day. We stayed at
>the Thunderbird hotel for no particular reason. It's nice enough, but not
>one of the better buys of our trip.
>
> From there we drove to Valladolid and south to Coba. Coba is more
>typical of the archaelogical sites in the region than Chichen Itza. I like
>it more for the wildlife on and around the site, than the actual ruins.
>There are crocodiles in the nearby lake. This highway is thinly paved and
>usually has a lot of widely scattered potholes. It ends on the coast at
>Tulum.
>
> The archaelogical site at Tulum is fairly small. Unlike many of the
>other sites it wasn't the center of a city/state, but had been built for
>ceremonial purposes. Because it's a small site that gets a lot of visitors
>it's best to get there first thing in the morning. The town doesn't have a
>lot to recommend it. There are some nice open air restaurants on the highway
>and some pleasant looking hotels on the beach. It's a long time favorite of
>counter culture types because of it's budget accomodations. The main part of
>town, between the highway and the beach, is very poverty stricken.
>
> We drove up to Pamuul and used that as our base of operations for the
>rest of the trip. It's a bit south of Playa del Carmen. Pamuul is mostly an
>RV park with quite a few expats who have take up permanent or semi-permanent
>residence. They have some pleasant and relatively inexpensive cabanas on the
>beach as well as some more traditonal rooms. It sits on a nice little cove.
>If you like to snorkel watch for Peacock Flounder and Octopi there.
>
>http://www.paamulcabanas.com/english/index3.php
>
> In that area I'd also suggest visiting the Xel Ha ruins. It only gets a
>small fraction of the visitors that Tulum gets, but it has some interesting
>murals. There are lots of things to see and do in the area. We drove back to
>the airport without ever going into Cancun. Cancun is a fairly new city
>built on the site of a sleepy fishing village. For my taste is has too many
>tourists and too little Mexico. These days you can get all of that you want
>in the tourist section of Playa del Carmen.
>
> Since you're interested in the archaeological sites I'd suggest you
>pick up a copy of Andrew Coe's Archaeological Mexico.
>
>TB
>
Thank you for that excellent report. I'm going to be trying
something similar, but I'm limited to four nights and public
transport or taxis.
I was thinking of staying (as a single senior, I'm not a
back-packer) arrival night in Cancun and the other three in
a small town like Valladolid and doing day trips or tours
from there. Any suggestions on other towns with character
but reasonable ( = aircon and pool) hotels?
I'll be there sometime in late February or early March.
Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/
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