sipace

Hi,
we're a couple looking for advice on 3 weeks intinerary in November. We're still hesitant whether to take the car or use public transport, but as it seems taking a car in Mexico through Guatemala and Belize is possible and should give us more flexibility. Here's the draft itinerary:

18.11. arrival - Cancun take RAC and escape to Merida
19.11. Merida
20.11. Merida - Uxmal - Campeche
21.11. Campeche - Palenque
22.11. Palenque - site
23.11. Palenque - San Cristobal
24.11. San Cristobal drive throug area - San Juan/Zinacantan
25.11. San Cristobal - Lagos de montebello
25.11. Lagos de Montebello - Panajchel (Guatemala)
27.11. Panajachel (kayaking trip)
28.11. Panajachel - Antigua
29.11. Antigua - volcano trek
30.11. Antigua - Coban - Semuc Champey
01.12. Semuc Champey - Tikal
2.12. TIkal
03.12. TIkal - San Ignacio - BC - Caye
04.12. Caye - diving
05.12. Caye - diving
06.12. Caye - BC - xpujil
07.12. Xpujil (Calakmul) - Tulum
08.12. Tulum
09.12. Tulum - Cancun APT

Many thanks for any suggestions/comments

Cheers,
Damir

kja

I could be mistaken, but I think it would be very difficult to make a trip this fast-paced with public transportation. IME, buses in Mexico are comfortable and convenient, but one normally must return to a base to move any distance.

With your interest in Mayan ruins, you might want to consider making time for the museums in Merida, Campeche, and Palenque. None are large, so each can be visited in just an hour or so; each has some extraordinary pieces.

If you do drive, you should be able to see the lovely waterfalls between Palenque and San Cristobal (including Misol-Ha and Agua Azul); you can visit them by tour bus from either city, but would almost certainly have to return to your starting location to get your luggage before moving on.

You're planning to visit some wonderful places - enjoy!

jamie99

Too rushed, both Uxmal and Campeche deserve a day or two. Make sure the company you rent a car from allows you to take it across borders, some do and some do not. Also take all the insurance when you rent, including zero deductibe. Glass and tire are separate and cost an extra $4-5 per day. A small sedan should run about $40 or so with full coverage. DO NOT rent from third party sites like Expedia (they will quote some ridiculous price like $5 per day which ain't gonna happen).

cybor

A couple things in your fast paced trip stand out to me.
I'm wondering why you only want to spend one day in Merida?

Campeche is a very small and quite pretty city but I'm not sure that I'd drive out of the way to get to it.

San Cristobal will offer you a bit more variety after being in Merida. Merida is a wonderful Colonial city with tons to do - Disclosure; I live there. While S Cristobal is a must see city on a mountain top. It's also surrounded by many indigenous occupied villages. The scenery, food, etc there is outstanding.


The next is (correct me if I'm wrong) but I don't believe that you'll be able to drive a car across the border into Guatemala. Last I heard, you even have to get off one bus and get onto another. Also, many Mexican rental companies don't allow you to drive into Belize. Personally, I won't even drive my own car into Belize because of the many real and manufactured laws that Belize has. ex. they wouldn't let a friend recently bring any food, soda or beer into Belize. Took it all and fined him - jail. Belize is financially hurting plus there's only one soda/beer monopoly in the country.

Also, I think that if it were me I'd hit Palenque after Belize and on the way back to Cancun. You may be zig zagging.

kja

Oh, duh, you did say "by car" in your title, didn't you?

Then one more thing to consider: Personally, I did not feel comfortable driving after dark in Mexico; YMMV. But with early sunsets (around 5:30 p.m., as I read it -- here's the info for Campeche)
http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/mexic...h=11&year=2015
you may face some additional challenges. I've been reading your itinerary as indicating where you will start each day, what you plan to visit that day, and where you plan to spend the night. If so, it might not be easy to see what you hope to see and then get where you want to go. And since you already had a very ambitious itinerary, it might be wise to consider what to cut.

The good news: I've been to all the places you mention that are in Mexico except Lagos de Montebello and can assure you that I enjoyed longer stops than you are planning -- lots to see and enjoy!

baldone

I would be shocked if any Mexican car rental agency will let you take a car into both Belize and Guatemala. Nor can I imagine the challenge of taking said rental through 4 border crossings.
As well, your itinerary is too ambitious. By chance is this your first trip to the region? Travel times are ALWAYS considerably longer than what one thinks.

hopefulist

When I'm planning my trips I take a good, hard look at what my travel priorities are. What do I want to be doing with most of my time? Generally the last thing on my list would be 'sitting on my backside looking through grimy car or bus windows. If you're averaging less than 3 nights per spot, that's what you'll be doing for ~half of the days of your trip. It looks like you're planning 12 places to sleep in 21 nights, an average of just 1.75 nights per stop. In other words, you'll be transitioning to a new place more than all your other travel interests combined. That is bad trip math in my opinion, especially since the transition days can be surprisingly long and tiring in that part of the world.

Lots of folks feel like they want to cram in as much as possible in the time they have. By trying to see too many places and moving on every few days, or by choosing places that are geographically distant and require long bus times, you'd actually be diluting your time to explore and enjoy. If you really want to pack nearly every day full of cool adventures, in my opinion you need pick a smaller geographic area and/or fewer stops.

RAC

Cut half these places out of your itinerary and you're in good shape.

Not joking, half.

You'll spend your entire trip in bus stations and buses.

Stewbear

More like a 3 month trip IMO or at least that's how I would do it. Way too ambitious reminding me of the movie "If it's Tuesday this must be Belgium" of yesteryear.

baldone

Ironically, even if you could rent a car for your above described itinerary, you wouldn't have the flexibility you desire because you wouldn't have the free time to be flexible.
If you're inclined to rent a car, which by the way is a great way to do some real exploring, then I'd spend the entire 3 weeks in Mexico. Go diving in a cenote, spend a night or 2 in an old hacienda, stuff like that.
OTOH, if you're bent on diving and Tikal, you can always fly if your pockets are deep enough. Take a day to decompress in Cancun, (despite it's touristyness, the beaches are world-class), then fly on to Caye: http://www.tropicair.com/en/
Fly back to CUN, get your car, then move on.

suze

I think a MUCH more realistic trip would be to stick to Mexico only. Don't try to cover so much distance, don't do border crossings.

Even this is still fairly fast-paced and covers a lot of ground in 3 weeks time:

Cancun to Merida
Merida - Uxmal - Campeche
Campeche - Palenque
Palenque - San Cristobal
San Cristobal - San Juan/Zinacantan
San Cristobal - Lagos de montebello
Tulum - Cancun APT

kja

Actually, my trip to the Yucatan and Chiapas some years ago was nearly as fast-paced (not quite!), and I thought it extremely enjoyable -- but I PREFER a fast pace, and obviously, not everyone does. But as noted upthread, given the time of year, I agree that the posted plan is overly ambitious.

hopefulist

But kja, if you stuck with Yucatan and Chiapas you probably weren't covering near as much ground as sipace is suggesting. Out of 6 or 7 days in Guatemala I can see at least 3 that are full days of road - really bad trip math.

kja

Agreed, hopefulist! And I saw a LOT more in the areas I did visit than this plan includes -- and, as said above, I think the OP would find a great deal that is worth seeing even if s/he makes some substantial cuts to the current plan. I'm used to having well-intentioned Fodorites tell me that my plans aren't doable, so I'm very aware that some people (understandably) urge a FAR slower pace than I would want. I'm just trying to provide my perspective. And isn't there potential value to the OP in knowing that even a very fast-paced traveller thought his / her plan overly ambitious?

hopefulist

You bet!