Mérida, Mexico: Apr 2026

After spending a couple of weeks in San Miguel de Allende, we flew to Mérida where we stayed for a month. On our way to Mérida we missed our flight connection in Mexico City and arrived late into Mérida without our luggage – which we had to go back to the airport to retrieve the next day. We had a gorgeous AirBnB in the old town (“Centro”) neighborhood, within a 10 minute walk to the historic center of town. Our dear friends, Andy and Lisa, from our old neighborhood in Denver, joined us for a few days and it was wonderful to reconnect with them. We took a guided walking tour in the historic center of Merida and an all day guided trip to the ancient Mayan city of Uxmal that included stops for swimming in two cenotes, and a superb lunch meal at a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Also rode the double Decker hop-on hop-off bus and did a walking food tour through an enormous street market. Later in the month we rented a car and took a five day road trip over to the eastern shore – the “Mexican Riviera” – and a half day trip over to the western shore. The end of our stay in Mérida marked the one-year point since we started this full time travel adventure.

The modern city of Mérida has a population of 1.3 million people and was built on the ruins of the site of the ancient Mayan city of Ichcanziho, located in the northwest part of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. It is considered one of the cities with the best quality of life in the country and one of the safest on the continent. Its historical heritage is the product of the blending of Mayan , Spanish, and African cultures during the colonial era, later influenced by French and Lebanese cultures, with some contributions from Dutch, Korean, and Italian traditions.
The Palacio Municipal de Mérida is a striking pink building located in Plaza Grande. This historic city hall, dating back to 1542, is one of Mexico’s oldest colonial buildings. The Centro district of Mérida oozes charm in its architecture and plazas. We liked that it was flat and highly walkable.
These are called “You and me” chairs, or sometimes referred to as “lovers chairs”. The chairs face each other and are separated in such a way that you cannot touch each other in any way except to hold hands. They were installed in the main plazas of Mérida about 100 years ago so that young courting couples could get to know each other in a modest and respectable manner.
The city of Mérida has enormous street markets – there are literally hundreds of stands like these full of of everything you can think of.
One of the buildings that surround the main square of Mérida is the Catedral de San Ildefonso. It was built in the 1500s with stark Renaissance architecture, and was partially constructed with stones from the Mayan ruins of the ancient Mayan city on which Mérida currently sits. The slits you see in the facade were for bow and arrow marksmen to defend the city and the cathedral.
Museo de la Gastronomía Yucateca is a restaurant that was just a few blocks from our AirBnB in the Centro neighborhood. Besides being a beautiful restaurant, you can go out back and see their outdoor traditional in-ground cooking pits. This style of cooking is called “Barbacoa” and dates back to the Mayan civilization.
The streets in the old town part of Mérida look mostly like this – low rise, pretty colors, stucco, and businesses mixed with residential.
Our Mérida AirBnB was fabulously charming, located in the back of a 1930’s art deco building with a lush courtyard and small pool. It felt like an oasis. Mérida is generally a pretty warm place but by the end of April it was too hot to spend much time outside – so we hung out in our little oasis, catching up on admin work. Susan’s floor tile fetish was very fulfilled too – that is actually tile on the floor in this picture and not a rug!
Our dear friends Andy and Lisa from Denver joined us for a few days. In this photo we are in front of the main ceremonial pyramid at Uxmal (pronounced “oosh – mall”). Uxmal is an ancient Maya city located about a 90 minute drive south of Mérida. Its construction began in about 700 CE and it was abandoned in about 1100 CE, likely due to many years of drought. The main temple and all of the other buildings are in almost pristine condition due to its inhabitants essentially burying the city before they left it 800 years ago – thinking they would come back one day. During the Spanish conquest of the 16th century, Uxmal was largely ignored because it did not contain the gold and silver that the Spanish Conquistadors craved. Uxmal was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996.
After visiting Uxmal and having a delicious lunch, we stopped at two different cenotes to go swimming. Cenotes are natural, water-filled sinkholes formed by the collapse of limestone bedrock, revealing hidden underground rivers and caverns. There are about 2,000 cenotes on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Historically they served as vital freshwater sources and sacred, ritualistic portals to the underworld for the ancient Maya civilization. The water was clear and refreshing to swim in.
In the middle of our stay in Mérida, we rented a car and took a six day road trip across both sides of the Yucatán Peninsula. It was our first experience renting a car in a foreign country and it went well. We used DiscoverCars.com
Our first stop on the road trip was the small city of Izamal, about 70 kilometres (45 mi) east of Mérida.
Izamal is known in Yucatán as the Yellow City (most of its buildings are painted yellow) and the City of Hills (that actually are the remains of ancient temple pyramids). It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Americas as well as in the World.
We had lunch in Izamal at a restaurant that was recommended to us by our AirBnB host. Restaurante Kinich Izamal has deep Mayan roots and served us a delicious and memorable meal.
We continued across the Yucatán Peninsula to Tulum, where we rented an AirBnB that had an amazing pool with an “island lounger” in the middle of it. The beaches of Tulum were covered in smelly seaweed so having a pool oasis at our AirBnB saved the day.
Since we couldn’t get a good beach day in Tulum (because of the seaweed) we took a day trip from Tulum out to the island of Cozumel, whose western shore is not affected by the seaweed. The pedestrian ferry from Playa del Carmen to and from Cozumel runs every 30 minutes. Then we went to Mr Sancho’s Beach Club on Cozumel for the afternoon. It was gorgeous and very relaxing.
In Playa del Carmen (PDC) we visited a museum dedicated to the artist Frida Kahlo (born 1907, died 1954). Her life was marked by a serious bus accident at the age of 18 that left her immobilized in bed for over a year, during which time she learned to paint, using herself as her primary subject by looking at the mirror mounted above her in bed. Her signature “unibrow” and faint mustache are hallmarks of her courageous authenticity. Her paintings have been exhibited in the major museums of the world and today she is considered a pop-icon of Mexican culture. Our AirBnB in Mérida contained two prints of her work.
After leaving Playa del Carmen we drove north up the coast to have lunch at Puerto Morelos. We ate a delicious lunch of fish tacos and then walked out onto the pier to enjoy the breeze and watch the pelicans take over this boat. The town is very low key with very limited parking and was unfortunately suffering from the same seaweed infestation as Tulum.
After having lunch in Puerto Morelos, we continued driving north to Cancun where we spontaneously stopped for the night and ended up in an all-inclusive resort with this view from our room. It was very comfortable and a great value last minute deal. NYX Hotel Cancun
After spending several days exploring the eastern side of the Yucatán Peninsula, we spent a half day over on the western side of the Peninsula, visiting the town of Celestún and the world famous Ría Celestún Biosphere Reserve that surrounds the town. During certain times of the year, there are thousands of flamingos that stop in the Reserve and eat lots of shrimp – which is why they are the color of shrimp. We were there past the peak season but we still saw several hundred flamingos. Their “squabble’ is very funny to listen to, and they are incredibly sleek when they fly.
On the boat ride out to see the flamingos we passed a snoozing crocodile – this one was about 10 feet in length. The crocodile is the flamingos’ only remaining predator in the Park. When the new Yucatan Peninsula train (“Tren Maya”) was built about two years ago, it cut off the natural jaguar population from the Park. After the boat ride through the Park, we drove back to Mérida and returned the rental car.

We are scheduled to depart Merida tomorrow – heading to the island of Madeira, Portugal.

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14 Comments

  1. Beautiful pics, Susan! The flamingos are awesome. Did u take videos or pics of them in flight? Would love to see them. Take care and safe travels!

    • Thank-you Christy! Mexico is such a colorful place! The flamingos were quite fast when they fly so my pictures and videos of them in flight do not do them justice. Thanks for following along.

  2. Beautiful fotos and terrific comments. So glad you enjoyed Merida. Especially glad that I was able to meet you and chat for a while. It will be fun to follow your travels.

    • It was so nice to meet you Ana Maria and we really enjoyed our chat with you. Thanks for following our blog and all the best to you.

  3. Susan, you have done a first rate job describing the Yucatán and time in the Merida that we love – as well as so many of the fascinating sites in the area. It was a pleasure to host you and Adam. Come back anytime.!!

    • I am so pleased that you like the post Robin. You were such a big part of us appreciating Merida and the Yucatán. We will stay in touch. All the best to you and Steven.

  4. Lisa and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with you in Merida. Thank you for showing us parts of the beautiful city with its fascinating history, culture and charm. And the food . . . cochinita pibil tacos were amazing! Most of all, we enjoyed catching up and having that experience with the two of you! Cant wait to hear about Madeira and look forward to the next time we can connect somewhere in the world!

    • Thanks Andy. We can’t wait to see where we are going to meet up with you guys next. Take care.

  5. What an adventure! You are an excellent narrator of your expedition! This could be made into a wonderful guide book for others to explore the world! Thank you for sharing your travels with all of us!

    • Great to hear from you Kristen. We had started this website as a way to share our adventures and to encourage friends and family to join us, but it has ended up becoming somewhat of a journal. Most importantly it forces me to cull out my photos more frequently – LOL. Thanks for following.

  7. So wonderful to follow your travels and live vicariously through your journey. I love seeing the wonderful mosaics and colorful small communities you visit. So glad your driving experience was good! Please, more door photos!😊🥰

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