My wife, 1 year old and I are considering a short trip to Mexico in March, and are looking for an interesting city (and area) to explore. We are not looking for a pool/beach vacation. We are considering the Merida area as we have easy flight access as well as Starpoints to use at some of the Haciendas in the area. I think I would rather stay right in the city, but do not think any of the Starwood properties are right in Merida. Some of the city activities sound interesting, such as house tours, festivals, restaurants, interesting architecture etc...

Can anyone provide advice... if we stay at one of the Starwood Haciendas, is it easy to get into Merida? Are there enough activities outside Merida that we may not want to go in to "town" each day? We love exploring neighborhoods, food and experiencing local culture. We'll most definitely need to rent a car. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Are there other area towns that might also be interesting to explore for local culture, and great food?

We love Merida and have gone there a number of times. Would NOT consider staying out of the city. That is the fun of Merida, the city square, the market, the shops, artesanias, cafes, etc. You can go any place and stay in a resort. Merida has its own unique flavor. Everyone likes it. There are good hotels on Parque Zapeda and along 60th.

Ditto

Hotrel Dolores Alba...look it up on the web.

Thanks... it did seem like it would be more fun if we stayed right in the city. Perhaps we will do 2 nights in Merida and 2 nights at one of the Haciendas. Any recommendations on a nice hotel in Merida? Any recommendations on other interesting cities around any of the Starwood Haciendas?

It depends a lot on what you want.

I would imagine many of the haciendas have the full-monty spa and luxury treatment. If this is what you want, tne you'll enjoy it.

However, haciendas tend to be isolated and you can scoop up the "history" capsule in an hour or two.

So, assuming we stay 4 nights in Merida, can anyone make a recommendation on a nice place to stay? There will be 3 of us in a room and we are looking for something special.

We enjoyed our stay at the Casa del Balam two years ago.

http://www.hotelcasadelbalam.com/

Take a look.

Thanks for all of the recommendations. We have decided on 2 nights in Merida and 2 nights at one of the Haciendas outside of Merida. Is there much to do while staying at any of the haciendas? We like to drive and explore villages/towns etc... are there towns to see, are locals receptive? We are not interested in just hanging out at the pool and I keep reading about how "isolated" it is by the haciendas.

Which hacienda?

South of Merida is the true "Mayab," or heartland of the traditional Maya.

The area around Merida and East of it were disrupted for 2 centuries by henequen cultivation which only stopped 15 years ago. I would be interested to know how those poor folks are getting on since they were cut off fom maize and their gods for such a long time.

Ron,

We alwasy stay at the Hotel Caribe in a former 200 y.o. monastery. Great location, one block from town center. we prefer top floor, a couple of flights up--but there is no elevator if that is a problem. Another just a few steps away is the Gran Hotel. Old building but periodically refurbished. Don't take room right over the park. Both have restaurants. Two star--probably in $50US range. Again, locations are smashing.
Norm

I'm pleased to see the Casa del Balam is seemingly, from the website and the above recommendation, the same as it was when we enjoyed staying there years ago. After exploring the city and having several very good dinners, we toured both Chichen Itza and Uxmal, staying at the nearby archeological hotels, and became very interested in Mayan ruins. We've since been to Coba and Tulum several times. Hope to see Palenque one day, as well as venturing further to Guatemala and Honduras to visit sites there.

We had a good time during our stay in Merida and found much to see and do while there.

Above suggestion OK but pretty much

swamped with foreign tourists. I still

prefer Dolores Alba.

Sorry for not responding here previously, but this trip never materialized and now I am back to planning it again. A few quick questions:

1. Flying from the US, is there a significant advantage to flying direct to Merida rather than Cancun (assuming we are going to be spending all of our time in the Merida area)? I have read some people's reports of delays flying into Merida.

2. We will be spending a few days in Merdia (city), a few days at either Hacienda Temozon or Hacienda San Jose and then perhaps one other location. Any recommendatons on a must see for our remaining 2 days?

3. When staying outside the city in the hacienda, we will be renting a car and love to drive around and explore old towns and villages. Any favorites or recommendations? We are just looking for interesting cultural experiences and some good food. (One of our favorite food experiences is an old chicken smokehouse in Puerto Rico, in a small town called Yabucoa).

4. Is driving pretty easy and safe around the Yucatan? With a 2 year old in tow, we want to make sure driving around from town to town poses no concerns.

Any thoughts or tips are appreciated.

I have a beach house near Merida and have reviewed all of the hotels in that area for a travel trade publication. Temozon is definitely the nicest one to use your points for and it is an easy drive to the excellent ruins of Uxmal from there. And yes, lots of smaller ruins and little towns you could drive to. The main roads are excellent, so no worries there. The back roads are fine too really, just watch for speed bumps.

I like funky Luz en Yucatan hotel but the ones mentioned above are nice too, with lots of character. If you go to YucatanToday.com there are listings for almost everything in town. Great city--you'll love it there.

The only advantage to flying to Cancun is there are more choices and it's cheaper. But it's four hours from there to Merida.

Tim
author, Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune

I have to tell you driving from Cancun airport to Chichin itza, its an easy but very boring drive... I'd fly to Merida.

ronj,

You don't say where you are from, but in march, you can expect the day time temperature to be in the mid 90s, to 100 or slightly above.

I myself like it in late jan, to early to mid feb. just a little FYI.

Bill