Carnival weekend in Merida, mexico
 

I've been planning a 12 day trip to Mexico to start on January 23, 2008. Our program has us in Merida on the weekend of February 1 (arrive on Feb 1, and depart on Feb 5 AM). I have now noticed that February 5 is Shrove Tuesday. I checked and have read that Merida has a well known festival leading up to Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.

This has led me to have a few questions: Should I factor the festival into my plans? What are the festivities like? Should I make hotel reservations earlier than normal? Should I try to stay through February 5 to take part in the festivities?

Any advice will be welcome.

Steve

Has no-one been to merida on carnaval weekend??

Any Merida residents out there?

We were in Merida for a few days during carnival several years ago. Carnival was great! The city was very lively - there were a number of parades (we had already moved on by the time of the big parade), but it was a great time to visit the city. I would expect that hotels do get booked up. As I said, it was several years ago for us, and we were in a low budget hotel.

sssteve:

Sorry I'm not able to answer your questions. However, I'd like to ask if you'd post a brief recap of your travel plans for the Yucatan. We will be in the area in December and am wondering if you'd share what you put together so far.

XXX:

If you do a search on my name, you'll find a thread (at this moment #13 on the list) where I discussed my itinerary and you'll find lots of information there.

In short the itinerary is now as follows:

6 nights in Mexico City (including one day trip to Puebla)
Fly to Merida, rent car
2 nights in Uxmal
1 night in Chichen Itza
Drive to Merida, return car
4 nights in Merida (Carnaval!)