TraNatAU

I have a travel plan to see Mexico in about 2 months ( 60 day limit ) Any suggestions, good or bad is welcome to what you think

Section 1
- CDMX 3N including day of arrival , Querataro 2N , San Miguel de Allende 1N , Guanajuato 2N then back to CDMX 3N including a volcano hike
Section 2
- Puebla 3N including volcano hike , Oaxaca 5N ,Peurto Escondido 4N, Mazunte 1N and San Cristobal 4N
Section 3
- Palenque 2N , Flores 4N including Ixpanpajul park , San Ignacio 3-4N , Caye Caulker 3N
Section 4
- Bacalar 2N , Xpujil 2N , Campeche 2N , Merida 4N including Celestun & izamal ,
Section 5
- Valladolid 3N including chichen , 1N Cancun with flight out following day

baldone

I really only know sections 1 (I live in 1) & 2. The only suggestion I might make is to add 1 night in Queretaro so as to include a day trip to Bernal. It's a charming Pueblo Mágico about an hour out of town. Since hiking is on your agenda, hiking the Peña might be of interest. It's one of the largest monoliths in the world. It wouldn't be like hiking a volcano, but maybe a good warm up.
While in Queretaro, be sure to visit Cervecería Hércules if you're a beer drinker. Cool place in an old textile mill out where the aqueducto begins.

mlgb

If you are going to Palenque try to include the day trip to Yaxchilan. Might need a third night there in that case.

michaelpianko

So far my plan is to spend 5 nights in Oaxaca and 8 nights in Mexico City. I haven´t actually been to Mexico yet, and why are you planning on 3 nights in Mexico City and then later in your trip another 3 nights in Mexico City? Why not do 6 nights consecutively in CDMX? In your other 4 sections of your trip you do not list returning to the first city of that section. But why are you thinking of your trip as 5 sections? But yes it does seem logical to fly into CDMX and out of Cancún. Or you could fly into Cancún and out of CDMX.

baldone

Michael, I certainly can't speak for the OP. But a popular & very logical itinerary for CDMX is to split stays between Roma/Condesa or Polanco on one leg of a longer trip, and then the centro histórico on another leg. Especially if flying in/out of MEX on a trip that has a number of destinations. Or wanting to include Puebla /Oaxaca on a longer trip. That way a visitor gets the best of both worlds of CDMX. The historic & the hip.

michaelpianko

I see. It had not occurred to me that somebody would stay at more than one hotel or in more than one neighborhood, within CDMX, in the same trip. I didn't think CDMX was biggest enough to justify switching hotels within CDMX. And if you were flying round trip to and from CDMX, wouldn't it make most sense to, just after leaving the airport in CDMX, take ground transportation to your town you are staying in that is furthest from CDMX, and then work your way back to CDMX as your trip progresses, spending all your nights in CDMX, consecutively except for day trips, at the end of your trip?

crellston

" didn't think CDMX was biggest enough to justify switching hotels within CDMX. " Mexico City is massive and the public transportation system is less that efficient so it makes perfect sense to to split locations within the city. As Baldone so eloquently puts it "the historic and the hip"!

Plus, in terms of itinerary the OP is heading first north, then south so he will have little option but to return through the city and may as well incorporate time there rather than just waste it passing through in transit.

TravelNatAu

In terms of your itinerary, based upon m6bone and only three month trip,to Mexico visiting only some of teh places you have in mind I would make the following observations.

Section 1

Loved our time in Mexico City and Guanajuato. I would add time in The latter as I believed it warrants two full days. San Miguel was pleasant enough but too expat orientated for my taste. We only spent one night in transit in Queratero but that didn’t really impress either.

We did however love Zacatecas, Patzcuaro and Morelia and I would certainly no hesitate to return to any of those.

Section 2

Puebla was very enjoyable and could even be viewed as an alternative to your second visit to CDMX if needed.
Oaxaca drew with Morelia as my fav city in Mexico. San Cristobal I was really looking forward to but was disappointed as I found it way too touristy. We had planned to go to Palenque but, if I recall correctly, there was some sort of problem which prevented us from heading that way ( strikes or something). We also had a vague intention of heading on south into Guatemala but we got sidetracked to my eternal regret!

One general observation is that you do have a number of two night stays planned. This effectively only allows on full day of actually seeing stuff. Every time you change location you will lose at least half a day which can work out expensive in terms of of both time and money. I think I would consider dropping a few destinations in favour of spending longer in fewer places and really getting into those places. Just my necessarily subjective opinion.

michaelpianko

[QUOTE=crellston;17403854]"Plus, in terms of itinerary the OP is heading first north, then south so he will have little option but to return through the city and may as well incorporate time there rather than just waste it passing through in transit."

So far my tentative plan is to stay in one hotel in one neighborhood in CDMX for 8 days. Or would this be too many days in one place?

As for our original poster, I guess seeing Mexico city for 3 nights and going north and seeing CDMX for 3 nights and then going south would logistically work but it just seems weird. For comparison, when I went to Greece in 2018, I flew into Athens, went south, transited through Athens on my way north of Athens without staying there, and then returned to Athens and spent my last 5 nights in Athens, I didn't see Athens twice, once early in my trip and then later in my trip.

crellston

Athens and Mexico City are very different places. I don’t see the point of comparing them. You should do whatever suits you and your style of travel.

Most of our trips have been for six months plus. Typically we would finish up a trip with several weeks in the city of our departure, usually renting an apartment if the stay is for more than a week. Mexico for us was a short trip so we kicked off with 5 days in Roma Norte and ended with 4 near the Zocalo. It worked for us, it may not work for you. In planning we identified which places we wanted to visit and when. In reality we ended up not seeing all we had planned to and not necessarily in the order we planned. Planning is great, it’s fun and provides an excellent starting point but should never be followed slavishly.

it is great to have a plan in place but be prepared to go off piste and see where life takes you.IME some of my best travel moments have been encounters or places that we never planned.

TraNatAU

As I am transitioning through there again anyway , It felt right to add additional days there. If not I travel directly to Puebla from Guanajuato if I combined all my days together in Mexico City.

mlgb

It appears that the OP has actually looked at a map!

If I was going to split stays in CDMX I might do the Coyoacan neighborhood. I thought Roma Norte was close enough to the Zocalo to cover Centro.

I don't know the status of overland routes directly to Palenque. An alternative would be to fly into Villahermosa from CDMX.

TraNatAU

some of the 2 night destinations such as SMA and Guanajuato are close proximity of each other and felt it was sufficient time to get a taste of the city with the option to throw in Bernal if time permitted. There a specific tour from SAN Crist to Palenque I have confidence in that I had in mind that included the ruins. The extra would be to Yax & Bon. 1 night in cancan to prepare for departure with no interest in this coastline.

LuckyDreamerLodge

We recommend spending a little more time in San Ignacio - there's so much do there - other than ATM Cave, Cave Tubing, Caracol, Cahal Pech & Xunantunich......

Raptor Center, Iguana Conservation Project, Maya Cooking demonstrations (+ hands-on), Ziplining, Canoeing in a Cave, ATV ride in Cristo Rey to Sopadilla Falls, Mountain Pine Ridge (including Big Rock Falls, Rio on Pools, Rio Frio Cave), Maya Coffee Producer in San Antonio, Float boat tour of 5 different waterfalls on the Macal River reservoir, Chocolate demonstration (+ a farm tour is also available). And a LOT more.

Cheryl

TraNatAU

birding watching , cave tubing/ziplining , Xunantunich & mountain pine ridge is on my list of things to do. Don’t have any plans to do ATM cave or caracol.

i Could instead do barton creek canoeing / zipling and cave tubing / Belize zoo on another