Advice Needed for a Mexico Newbie on Combining Mexico City & Beach life
 

My eyes are bigger than my stomach when it comes to planning this trip. Ideally I would like to spend 3 weeks making my way through Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca, Palenque, Chichen Itza, and the Yucatan beaches.

Alas, I only have around 10 days to explore Mexico during the Christmas/NYE holiday season. I would like to combine Mexico City, ideally Oaxaca and a beach to wind down my trip....any recommendations?

Thanks in advance for any info!

I'm no expert on the area but believe Puerto Escondido or Huatulco are the beach destinations usually paired up with Oaxaca.

Sorry- I was not clear. I was hoping to visit Mexico City and then some of the Yucatan beaches. Any suggestions on that?

Fly from Mexico City to Cancun. Then you can take a bus one hr to Playa Del Carmen or Tulum or other beaches on the Riviera Maya. Flights are relatively inexpensive inside Mexico on Mexican airlines. Check out VivaAerobus, although I am not sure they fly that route.

I think the suggestion to fly is the right one if you want to get to the Caribbean side. Because geographically the closest beach resorts cities to DF are over on the Pacific side, Acapulco or Puerto Vallarta.

We once spent Christmas in Oaxaca, and it was simply wonderful.

I might suggest a reasonable thing to do would be to spend some time in Mexico City, fly to Oaxaca for a couple of days, and then fly the shot hop to Acapulco or other west coast seaside destination for the remainder of your time. Look at a map to see how practical that would be for you.

nukesafe, your suggestion makes sense except they specifically said they want to go to "Yucatan beaches"
:-)

Hi Rachel -

One thing you might consider is flying from Mexico City to Merida, staying in Merida for a couple of days, and then renting a car and driving to Cancun with a long stop at Chichen Itza. Merida isn't Oaxaca - what is? - but it's nice and interesting and makes more sense geographically. If you go from Mexico City to Oaxaca to Cancun, your flight from Oaxaca to Cancun will almost certainly route through Mexico City, which will make for a lot of flying. Doable, though.

thanks for the responses! I'm going to do some research on Merida as well as the closer western beaches.

You could take a round trip bus from Mexico City to Oaxaca (6-7 hours), then fly from Mexico City to Cancun -- check out Volaris https://www.volaris.com.mx/Inicio.aspx or Interjet http://www.interjet.com.mx/ (VivaAerobus doesn't fly that route).

I haven't yet taken the bus (TAPO) from Mexico City to Oaxaca but know people who have that recommend it. Mexico has good tourist class buses with AC, bathrooms, plush seats, etc.

Unfortunately, you'll be spending a lot of time in transit.

Good luck!

Quite ambitious. But Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca are all very doable in one 10 day trip. Here's what I'd do: From the airport in Mexico City, you can get a bus direct to Puebla, last I checked. You book and leave right from the airport. 2 nights there, then bus to Oaxaca for 3 nights. Do Monte Alban, Mitla, etc, plus all the Oaxaca museums and great food.
From Oaxaca city, you can fly to Huatulco in about 40 minutes to get your beach fix. There are I think 7 different bays with any number of all inclusive resorts if that's your thing. Or stay in town. Do 3 nights in Huatulco, then fly direct back to Mexico City and finish your trip there as your schedule allows. Mexico City has so much to offer. We've been there 4 times, and have a 5th trip planned. I wouldn't spend a 2 weeks there, but in 2 or 3 days you can see quite a bit. I don't think you'll have time to do Yucatan, Mexico City, Oaxaca in 10 days. But Huatulco is better than Acapulco and every bit as nice as Cancun. Don't get me wrong, Cancun is great. But if you want ruins, museums, music, great food, colonial architecture, and fantastic beaches, then Mexico City, Puebla, Oaxaca, Huatulco is the way to go if you only have 10 days. 12 would be great. 2 weeks even better. Chichen Itza is highly visited, but overrated. Palenque is much more impressive but hard to get to. Monte Alban near Oaxaca is only a 10 minute cab ride from downtown Oaxaca whereas CI is an hour or 2 from Cancun. Did you know that the largest pyramid in the new world is in Cholula, just 15 minutes from Puebla?
I'd skip the Cancun/Yucatan leg. You can always go to Cancun.

You can also fly direct to Oaxaca on Continental and skip the Puebla leg and the hassles of doing the bus thing altogether.

If you want to go to the Yucatan Peninsula beaches, try Cozumel (it's in the state of Quintana Roo, which is part of the Yucatan peninsula). The cruise ships stop there, but other than that it's a lot less crowded than the other beaches, while still being gorgeous. Try staying at the Presidente Intercontinental, but don't book online. Call their central offices in Mexico City (don't call Cozumel directly) and haggle like crazy to get a good rate. They have packages where they give you a free upgrade and breakfast.