In March we are travelling to Mexico to the Yucatan area from New Jersey and we are people who don't mind roughing it when travelling Here are my questions:
1)Should we fly to say Cancun and return home from another airport? If so which city? Mexico City?
2) What would you suggest for itinarary? We love history/culture and will have 14 days.
Many thanks for your suggestions

Not sure about NJ but from the West Coast it's much cheaper to fly into and out of Cancun. No place else in the Yucatan has as many flights.

If you do a search on this board for Yucatan, you will find many recommendations and trip reports to help you in your research.

Just a comment from our experiences over four Yucatan trips. You will find it much less crowded with tourists in April or early May than in March and the lodging and car rentals will be cheaper. This can vary from year to year depending on when Easter is. It's always best to go after Easter.

We have just returned from a month in the Yucatan. It's meant to be high season, but it was very,very quiet. Even the large sites like Chichen Itza and Palenque had very few tourists and all the hotels were almost desrted.

Can't help you with flights..we flew back to Miami from Merida..a beautiful little airport.

Well, you have to decide whether you want to stick to the Yucatan or venture further into Mexico. If you want to stay in the Yucatan, it's true that flying in and out of Cancun will probably be cheapest.

My Yucatan favorites include Isla Mujeres (if you're looking for any beach time) and the wonderful colonial city of Merida. Try to be in Merida on a Sunday, when the streets come alive with music and dancing. Chichen Itza is a terrific Mayan architectural site that has recently been named one of the seven wonders of the new world.

I haven't been, but Valladolid and Uxmal are other Yucatan options.

If you want to head out of the Yucatan, a recent trip I did (but in the opposite direction) included Isla Mujeres, Merida, Palenque, and San Cristobal de las Casas. The airport closest to San Cristobal is Tuxtla-Gutierrez. I did that trip in 10 days, so it's certainly doable in 14.

It's no accident that the Yucatan was the last Mexican territory to become a State - Yucatan is actually somewhat isolated from the "main" part of the country in terms of highways and stopping-off points. I wouldn't recommend including Mexico City in an itinerary of two weeks, in other words - you would spend a lit of time on the highway or money on interconnecting flights.

Probably best to concentrate on Cancun / Playa del Carmen, perhaps Valadolid / Merida, and maybe Campeche.

You can do a mix of Sun, Sand, Mayan ruins, and Colonial Mexico in any one of those areas, Cancun / Playa being the most "touristed", Valadolid / Merida the most "archiological" and Campeche the most Colonial, with not much "gringolandia" feel.

No matter what, unless you have a lot of extra $$ for plane fair, I'd suggest your departing and arriving flights be from Cancun or perhaps Cozumel, which have the most reasonable priced connections direct to the US. You can get all the way from Yucatan's east to west coast by bus or car in one (admittedly long) daylight travel day.

We were in Mexico for only a week but we based ourselves in Playa del Carmen and did two "road trips" -- one down Quintana Roo (Xel-Ha, Tulum, Sian Ka'an) and one to Merida. On the way to/from Merida, we stopped at Chichen Itza as well as every cenote we saw a sign for (I thought they were really fascinating!) We loved Merida.

With two weeks, I'd probably do a similar route but take our time, especially to explore the ruins and haciendas around/south of Merida. I would also consider going past Merida to Rio Celustun on the Gulf of Mexico.

We flew in and out of Cancun; it was very easy and efficient. We rented our car from one of the big companies (National, I think.) We thought the driving was very easy. The road from Cancun to Playa to Merida is in great shape and well marked.

I think you'll have a great two weeks -- it's a fantastic area that allows you to combine culture, nature and beach. Can't beat that!

Check out our suggested itinerary for a 7 day stay in Merida at http://www.yucatantoday.com/culture/...todomerida.htm
It's a great combination of Mayan ruins, colonial activities, and free music and arts events!