Mexico: Mexico City, Oaxaca, Chiapas and the Yucatán

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Mexico City

   Mexico City International Airport to your hotel in the centre

   • Environ 45 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Mexico City
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Mexico City International Airport (MEX) in time for the early-evening briefing: plan to land by about 3 pm (the exact latest arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary). A driver meets you in the arrivals hall, tracking your flight, for the 12 km drive into the centre, which takes 30 minutes to an hour depending on traffic. The city sits at about 2,240 m, so take the afternoon slowly, drink plenty of water and leave the big walks for tomorrow. If you land early, the Zócalo, the vast main square, is a short walk from central hotels. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the two weeks ahead: the two flights, the long road day in Chiapas, what to pack for highland nights and jungle heat. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner at a restaurant near the hotel.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Mexico City International Airport (MEX)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

   Activité : Mexico City is at about 2,240 m. Go easy on alcohol the first evening.

2. Jour 2 : The Anthropology Museum and the old centre

   Chapultepec Park to the Centro Histórico

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Mexico City
   Détail du jour 2

   We are at the National Museum of Anthropology in Chapultepec Park when it opens at 9 am, while the halls are quiet. Your guide picks the rooms that set up the whole trip: the Aztec Sun Stone, the Oaxaca hall with its Zapotec and Mixtec pieces, and the Maya hall, where a reconstruction of Pakal's tomb from Palenque shows what you will stand above on day 10. Late morning we cross to the Centro Histórico, listed by UNESCO in 1987, and walk to the Zócalo. Beside the Metropolitan Cathedral lie the excavated remains of the Templo Mayor, the main temple of Aztec Tenochtitlan, uncovered after 1978 under colonial streets. Lunch is a market walk with tastings at stalls your guide knows, then the afternoon is free: the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Torre Latinoamericana viewpoint, or a rest. Dinner tonight is your choice, in the centre or in Roma and Condesa.

   Compris

   • National Museum of Anthropology at opening, with your guide
   • The Zócalo and the Metropolitan Cathedral
   • The Templo Mayor site and museum
   • Market lunch walk with tastings

   Activités en option

   • Palacio de Bellas Artes (entry fee)
   • Torre Latinoamericana viewpoint (entry fee)

   Option plus facile : Skip the Templo Mayor and take the afternoon at the hotel after lunch.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 4 hours on foot, mostly on flat paving. The museum and the Templo Mayor close on Mondays, so this day never falls on one.

   

3. Jour 3 : Teotihuacan at opening

   Mexico City to Teotihuacan and back

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Mexico City
   Détail du jour 3

   We leave the hotel at about 7:45 am and drive an hour north-east to Teotihuacan, arriving for the 9 am opening, before most tour buses and the midday sun. This was one of the largest cities in the world in the middle of the first millennium AD, built centuries before the Aztecs found it in ruins and gave it its name. With a local guide we start at the Ciudadela and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, its facade studded with carved serpent heads, then walk the Avenue of the Dead past the Pyramid of the Sun to the plaza below the Pyramid of the Moon and the carved pillars of the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl. Climbing rules on the pyramids change, and your guide tells you what is open on the day. Lunch is at a restaurant near the site, and we are back in the city by mid-afternoon, with the rest of the day free.

   Compris

   • Teotihuacan at opening with a local guide: the Ciudadela, the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, the Avenue of the Dead, the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon and the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl
   • Lunch near the site

   Activités en option

   • Frida Kahlo Museum (Casa Azul) in Coyoacán in the afternoon: timed tickets sell out, so we book and price them when you book

   Option plus facile : Walk only from the Pyramid of the Sun to the Pyramid of the Moon, about 1 km, and wait in the shade of the site museum garden.

   Option plus active : Walk the full length of the Avenue of the Dead from the Ciudadela, more than 2 km, and back.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 3 hours on foot on gravel and stone with little shade. Bring a hat, sunscreen and water.

4. Jour 4 : Fly to Oaxaca and the grill aisle

   Mexico City to Oaxaca by air, then a walk through the centre

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Oaxaca
   Détail du jour 4

   A morning flight of about an hour takes us south to Oaxaca, saving the six-and-a-half-hour road. At about 1,550 m the city is lower and warmer than the capital, and its centre of green-stone churches and painted houses was listed by UNESCO in 1987, together with Monte Albán. We drop bags at the hotel and walk to the Mercado 20 de Noviembre for lunch in the pasillo de humo, the smoke-filled grill aisle, where you choose your meat at a butcher's stall and it is grilled in front of you with tortillas, salsas and onions. In the afternoon your guide walks you up the pedestrian Macedonio Alcalá to Santo Domingo de Guzmán, whose gilded interior took most of a century to finish, and back to the arcades of the Zócalo. The evening is free: mezcal bars, a rooftop or an early night.

   Compris

   • Flight from Mexico City to Oaxaca (OAX) with transfers at both ends
   • Lunch in the grill aisle of the Mercado 20 de Noviembre
   • Walk through the centre with your guide: the Macedonio Alcalá, Santo Domingo de Guzmán and the Zócalo

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : One checked bag of up to 23 kg is included on both flights; weight limits are confirmed when we book flights.

5. Jour 5 : Monte Albán at 8 am

   Oaxaca to Monte Albán and back

   • Environ 45 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Oaxaca
   Détail du jour 5

   Twenty minutes up a winding road brings us to Monte Albán as it opens at 8 am, when the light is low across the valley and the grass of the Main Plaza is still wet. The Zapotecs levelled this mountaintop about 400 m above the valley floor and built their capital here from around 500 BC, and it stayed in use for well over a thousand years. With a local guide we climb the South Platform for the view over the whole plaza, then walk past the ball court, the carved stones known as the Danzantes and the North Platform. We are back in town for lunch together, then visit the Museum of Oaxacan Cultures in the former convent beside Santo Domingo, where the Mixtec gold and carved bone from Tomb 7, found at Monte Albán in 1932, fill a room. After that the afternoon is yours.

   Compris

   • Monte Albán at opening with a local guide
   • Lunch in Oaxaca
   • Museum of Oaxacan Cultures at Santo Domingo, with the treasure of Tomb 7

   Activités en option

   • Guided visit to the Ethnobotanical Garden behind Santo Domingo (fixed tour times; entry fee)
   • Mole cooking class (priced at booking)

   Option plus facile : Stay on the Main Plaza at Monte Albán rather than climbing the platforms, and skip the museum for a quiet afternoon.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 2 hours on foot at Monte Albán, with steep stone steps on the platforms and little shade. The Santo Domingo museum closes on Mondays.

6. Jour 6 : The Tule tree, weavers, mezcal and Mitla

   Oaxaca through the Tlacolula Valley to Santa María del Tule, Teotitlán del Valle, Santiago Matatlán and Mitla

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Oaxaca
   Détail du jour 6

   Today we head east along the Tlacolula Valley. First stop is Santa María del Tule, where a Montezuma cypress in the churchyard has a trunk about 14 m across, said to be one of the stoutest in the world. In Teotitlán del Valle a Zapotec weaving family shows how they dye wool with cochineal, indigo and plants before working it on a pedal loom, with no pressure to buy. Santiago Matatlán is the town that calls itself the world capital of mezcal: at a family palenque we see agave hearts roasted in an earth pit and crushed by a stone wheel, taste a few styles, and sit down to lunch. The last stop is Mitla, a Zapotec religious centre whose walls are covered in geometric stone fretwork, cut and fitted without mortar, unlike anything else in ancient Mexico. We are back in Oaxaca by about 4:30 pm.

   Compris

   • The Tule tree at Santa María del Tule
   • A weaving family's workshop in Teotitlán del Valle
   • Mezcal palenque visit and tasting in Santiago Matatlán, with lunch
   • Mitla archaeological site

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : Short walks only; about 1 hour on foot at Mitla. Non-drinkers can skip the tasting.

7. Jour 7 : Fly to Chiapas, the Sumidero Canyon

   Oaxaca to Tuxtla Gutiérrez by air, by boat through the Sumidero Canyon from Chiapa de Corzo, then up to San Cristóbal de las Casas

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : San Cristóbal de las Casas
   Détail du jour 7

   A short flight east to Tuxtla Gutiérrez (TGZ) replaces the two-day road through the Isthmus that other trips drive. We aim to land around midday; the flight timing is confirmed with your dates. Our vehicle meets us for the short drive to Chiapa de Corzo, a colonial river town whose 16th-century brick fountain, La Pila, stands in the main square. From the landing here a fast launch runs up the Grijalva River into the Sumidero Canyon, a national park where the walls rise up to about 1,000 m above the water. The boat trip takes about two hours, with stops for crocodiles on the banks, cormorants, herons and, with luck, spider monkeys in the trees. Back in Chiapa de Corzo we have a late lunch by the river, then climb an hour up to San Cristóbal de las Casas at about 2,200 m, where the evening air is cool.

   Compris

   • Flight from Oaxaca to Tuxtla Gutiérrez (TGZ) with transfers
   • Sumidero Canyon boat trip from Chiapa de Corzo, with park entry
   • Late lunch in Chiapa de Corzo

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : The boat is open and fast: bring a hat, sunscreen and a light jacket for the spray. San Cristóbal nights are cold from December to February.

8. Jour 8 : Chamula and Zinacantán

   San Cristóbal to San Juan Chamula and Zinacantán, then back

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : San Cristóbal de las Casas
   Détail du jour 8

   This morning a local Tzotzil Maya guide joins us for the two highland villages most visitors only pass through. In San Juan Chamula the white church on the square has no pews: the floor is strewn with pine needles, families kneel among hundreds of candles, and healers pray in Tzotzil. Photography inside is strictly forbidden, and your guide explains what you are seeing and how to behave. A few kilometres away, Zinacantán grows flowers in greenhouses across the valley, and the same flowers are embroidered on the blue and purple shawls people wear. We visit a weaving family at their backstrap looms and share handmade tortillas at their kitchen fire. We are back in San Cristóbal by lunchtime, and the rest of the day is free: the Santo Domingo craft market, the Na Bolom house museum, a coffee in the pedestrian streets, or the steps up to the hilltop church.

   Compris

   • San Juan Chamula and its church, with a local Tzotzil guide (entry fee included)
   • Zinacantán and a weaving family's home

   Activités en option

   • Na Bolom house museum (entry fee)
   • Amber Museum (entry fee)

   Option plus active : Climb the long stairway to the Cerro de San Cristóbal church for the view over the red roofs of the town.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : Ask before photographing people in both villages, and never inside the Chamula church.

   

9. Jour 9 : Down to the jungle: Toniná and Misol-Ha

   San Cristóbal to Toniná near Ocosingo, then Misol-Ha and Palenque

   • Environ 5.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Palenque
   Détail du jour 9

   This is the trip's long road day, about 215 km and five and a half hours of driving on a mountain road with many speed bumps, dropping from pine forest at 2,200 m to tropical lowland. No flight or train links San Cristóbal and Palenque, and the other road, through Villahermosa, is longer, so we break it into three legs of two to two and a half hours. We leave at 8 am and reach Toniná, outside Ocosingo, mid-morning: a Maya city built up a hillside in stepped terraces, with an acropolis rising about 70 m, and usually very few visitors. Lunch is in Ocosingo. In the afternoon we stop at Misol-Ha, a waterfall of about 35 m dropping into a round pool, where a path runs behind the curtain of water and you can swim when conditions allow. It is twenty minutes on to Palenque, arriving about 5:30 pm.

   Compris

   • Toniná archaeological site with your guide
   • Lunch in Ocosingo
   • Misol-Ha waterfall, with time to swim

   Option plus facile : Stay at the foot of the Toniná terraces and skip the climb.

   Option plus active : Climb the Toniná acropolis terraces to the top for the view across the Ocosingo valley.

   Activité : The one day well over our 4-hour driving cap, stated here so it is not a surprise. Bring motion-sickness tablets if you need them on mountain roads. Chiapas roads can be closed by blockades; we follow current advisories and change the timing or route if needed.

10. Jour 10 : Palenque at opening, on to Campeche

    Palenque archaeological site, then by road through Escárcega to Campeche

    • Environ 4.5 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
    • Nuit : Campeche
    Détail du jour 10

    We are at Palenque when it opens at 8 am, with mist on the forest and howler monkeys roaring from the trees. The city peaked in the 7th century under King Pakal, whose tomb was found in 1952 deep inside the Temple of the Inscriptions by the archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier. With a local guide we walk the Palace and its four-storey tower, the temples of the Cross Group, and down the forest trail beside the Otolum stream's small waterfalls to the site museum, named after Ruz, with carved panels and the replica lid of Pakal's sarcophagus. After lunch in Palenque we drive about four and a half hours to Campeche, over our cap because no shorter road crosses into the Yucatán; one break halfway. We arrive around 6 pm, in time to walk the lit streets inside the old walls and the sea front at dusk.

    Compris

    • Palenque at opening with a local guide: the Temple of the Inscriptions, the Palace, the Cross Group and the forest trail
    • Palenque site museum
    • Lunch in Palenque
    • Evening walk in Campeche's walled centre

    Option plus facile : Stay on the main plaza at Palenque and take the vehicle round to the museum instead of the forest trail.

    Activité : About 3 hours on foot at Palenque in heat and humidity, with steep steps and a slippery forest trail. The site museum closes on Mondays. Where the Tren Maya timetable fits your dates, we may take the train from Palenque to Campeche instead of the road; we confirm this when we confirm your dates.

    

11. Jour 11 : Uxmal on the way to Mérida

    Campeche to Uxmal, then Mérida

    • Environ 3.5 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
    • Nuit : Mérida
    Détail du jour 11

    Campeche is quiet early, so take a walk on the walls before breakfast if you like: the city was walled at the end of the 17th century after repeated pirate raids, and its fortified centre was listed by UNESCO in 1999. We leave at 8 am and drive about two and a quarter hours north-east to Uxmal, arriving in the late morning. Uxmal draws far fewer visitors than Chichén Itzá. With a local guide we see the oval Pyramid of the Magician, the Nunnery Quadrangle, and the long Governor's Palace, whose upper facade is a stone mosaic of thousands of cut pieces, with rows of hook-nosed masks of the rain god Chaac on the corners. We have lunch near the site, then it is an hour and a quarter on to Mérida, arriving mid-afternoon with time to settle in.

    Compris

    • Uxmal with a local guide: the Pyramid of the Magician, the Nunnery Quadrangle and the Governor's Palace
    • Lunch near Uxmal

    Option plus facile : Stay in the shade of the Nunnery Quadrangle while the group climbs the terrace of the Governor's Palace.

    Option plus active : Before breakfast, walk the restored stretch of Campeche's walls between the bastions.

    Temps libre : Evening free in Mérida

    Activité : About 2 hours on foot at Uxmal, much of it in full sun.

12. Jour 12 : Mérida on foot

    A morning walk in Mérida's centre

    • Petit-déjeuner
    • Nuit : Mérida
    Détail du jour 12

    Mérida was founded by the Spanish in 1542 on top of the Maya city of T'ho, and its stones were reused to build the colonial centre. With your guide we start at the Plaza Grande, shaded by laurel trees, with the Cathedral of San Ildefonso, finished in 1598 and one of the oldest cathedrals in mainland America. Across the square, the facade of the Casa de Montejo shows Spanish conquistadors standing on the heads of the conquered. The Palacio de Gobierno holds a cycle of large murals by the Yucatecan painter Fernando Castro Pacheco on the history of the peninsula. We finish on the Paseo de Montejo, lined with mansions built in the henequen boom around 1900, when sisal rope made the city rich. The guided part ends before the midday heat, and the rest of the day is free: a long lunch of cochinita pibil, a siesta, or a swim at the hotel.

    Compris

    • Walk through Mérida's centre with your guide: the Plaza Grande, the Cathedral of San Ildefonso, the Casa de Montejo, the Palacio de Gobierno murals and the Paseo de Montejo

    Activités en option

    • Celestún flamingo boat trip (full day, priced at booking)
    • Cenotes of Cuzamá (half day, priced at booking)
    • Gran Museo del Mundo Maya (entry fee; closed on Tuesdays)

    Option plus facile : Take the walk in two halves with a café stop on the Plaza Grande.

    Option plus active : Spend the afternoon swimming in the Cuzamá cenotes, reached by horse-drawn rail cart.

    Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

    Activité : About 2.5 hours on foot on flat pavements, finished before the midday heat.

13. Jour 13 : Chichén Itzá at 8 am, Valladolid, then Tulum

    Mérida to Chichén Itzá, Valladolid and Tulum

    • Environ 4 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
    • Nuit : Tulum
    Détail du jour 13

    Today is the trip's one start before 8 am, and it is worth it. We leave Mérida at about 6:15 am and are at Chichén Itzá when the gates open at 8, before most of the day-trip coaches from Cancún and before the heat builds. With a local guide we walk to El Castillo, the Temple of Kukulcán, whose stairways cast a serpent of light and shadow at the equinoxes (climbing it has not been allowed since 2006), then the Great Ball Court, the largest in Mesoamerica, the Temple of the Warriors and the Sacred Cenote. Forty-five minutes east, we have lunch in Valladolid, a colonial town of painted houses, and swim in Cenote Zací, a cave pool in the middle of town. After about an hour and a half on to Tulum we arrive around 5 pm, with the evening free.

    Compris

    • Chichén Itzá at opening with a local guide, with both the federal and Yucatán state tickets
    • Lunch in Valladolid
    • Cenote Zací swim in Valladolid

    Option plus facile : Skip the swim and walk Valladolid's Calzada de los Frailes to the Convent of San Bernardino instead.

    Temps libre : Evening free in Tulum

    Activité : About 2.5 hours on foot at Chichén Itzá on flat, unshaded paths. Bring a swimsuit and a small towel.

    

14. Jour 14 : Tulum's ruins by the sea

    Tulum archaeological site, a cenote, then a free afternoon

    • Environ 30 min de route
    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
    • Nuit : Tulum
    Détail du jour 14

    We walk into the Tulum ruins as they open at 8 am, through the narrow gate in the wall that encloses three sides of the city; the fourth is a limestone cliff above the Caribbean. Tulum was a late Maya port, still busy when the first Spanish ships sailed past in 1518. With your guide you see the Temple of the Frescoes, with traces of painted figures inside, the Temple of the Descending God and El Castillo standing at the cliff edge above the turquoise water, before the heat and the crowds from the coast hotels. Afterwards we drive a few minutes inland for a swim in a cenote, in water that stays cool and clear all year. The afternoon is free for the beach or a rest. In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner together.

    Compris

    • Tulum archaeological site at opening with your guide, including the national park fee
    • Cenote swim near Tulum, with snorkel gear
    • Farewell dinner

    Activités en option

    • Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve boat trip (full day, priced at booking)

    Option plus facile : Skip the cenote and go straight to the beach or the hotel.

    Option plus active : Cycle the flat path from Tulum town to the ruins and the beach instead of riding in the vehicle.

    Temps libre : Afternoon free

    Activité : About 1.5 hours on foot at the ruins, in full sun. Use reef-safe sunscreen, or none, before swimming in a cenote.

15. Jour 15 : Tulum to Cancún and home

    Tulum to Cancún International Airport

    • Environ 2 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner
    Détail du jour 15

    The last morning is free for a swim in the sea or one more walk through town, and checkout is late morning. Our vehicle then takes you north along the coast highway past Playa del Carmen to Cancún International Airport (CUN), about 120 km and an hour and three quarters, the airport with by far the most flights home to Canada and the US. Your guide rides with you, sees you to check-in and makes sure your flight is on time before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving Cancún after about 2 pm so the morning is not rushed. If you prefer the newer Tulum airport (TQO), about half an hour from town, tell us and we drop you there instead. If you want to stay on at the beach, we can book extra nights in Tulum or Playa del Carmen and move your airport transfer to the day you leave.

    Compris

    • Drop-off at Cancún International Airport (CUN) or Tulum airport (TQO)

    Activités en option

    • Extra nights in Tulum or Playa del Carmen (priced at booking)

    Temps libre : Morning free

    Activité : Book a flight leaving Cancún after about 2 pm.

Faune et météo : November to April is the dry season and the best time for this route. From June to October afternoon storms are heavy in Chiapas and the Atlantic hurricane season reaches the Yucatán coast; April and May are the hottest months in the Yucatán. Howler monkeys are heard at Palenque in any season.

• Mexico City3 nuits
• Oaxaca3 nuits
• San Cristóbal de las Casas2 nuits
• Palenque1 nuit
• Campeche1 nuit
• Mérida2 nuits
• Tulum2 nuits