Yucatan days & nights - The escapades of Ron & Kathy (et al)

[roni]

Originally Posted by Lefty

Roni,

How long is the drive from Cancun to Merida?

Thanks for the great pics!!!!

Lefty

About 4 hours.

[mfl*s queen]

Originally Posted by Sol

I have enjoyed having a rental car on this trip. We have taken some nice day trips outside of Mérida. Also, the advantage is that you can stop wherever you want at whim. For example, two days ago we drove to Izamal and stopped at a small village on the way because we had seen a beautiful little church from the highway.

The bus has its advantages because you don't have to worry about driving and paying for the toll roads.

It is not difficult to drive in Yucatan. The toll roads are wonderful and the roads that lead to little villages are very nice. The police, as long as you are driving the speed limit are not out to get you like in other regions of Mexico. There are a few roadblocks, but these are to look for drug traffickers and the police or soldiers really don't bother tourists. If you get stopped, the police or soldiers are very polite and will just check your passport and rental care documents.

If you are arriving around 12:30pm, I would plan on taking off the next day. Based on this past experience on getting through customs, it took us practically an hour to get to the customs agent to get our visas. In the future, I probably would get the rental and head to Puerto Morelos to have a nice meal, and spend the night. It takes a little over four hours to get to Mérida from the airport.

Thank you for your input. We have decided to take the bus, since this is our first trip to Merida, rather than rent a car. Although it will be a very long travel day, we want to make it to Merida on the day we arrive, as we have reservations for that night.

If I understand correctly, we will need to take the bus from the airport into Cancun, and then take the bus to Merida? There is not a bus from the airport directly to Merida, correct?

Once we ge to the bus station in Merida, will the cab driver understand enough English to get us to the Hotel?

Thanks

[roni]

Originally Posted by mfl*s queen

Thank you for your input. We have decided to take the bus, since this is our first trip to Merida, rather than rent a car. Although it will be a very long travel day, we want to make it to Merida on the day we arrive, as we have reservations for that night.

If I understand correctly, we will need to take the bus from the airport into Cancun, and then take the bus to Merida? There is not a bus from the airport directly to Merida, correct?

Once we ge to the bus station in Merida, will the cab driver understand enough English to get us to the Hotel?

Thanks

I understand you may be able to buy your bus ticket to Merida at the ADO counter at the airport, which would save line-standing at the Cancun Centro bus station.

What hotel? I would suggest you have the name and address (with cross streets), written to give to the cab driver. They may or may not speak English.

At the bus station, their is a cab kiosk out in front. You will ask for and pay for your cab there. They will give you a ticket. On our first trip we walked out of the back of the bus station instead of the front and had a dickens of a time finding a cab If you go out of the bus station and there is only a sidewalk and street, turn around and go out the other side. There will be a line of cabs in front of you and a cab kiosk to the right.

ron

[mfl*s queen]

Originally Posted by roni

I understand you may be able to buy your bus ticket to Merida at the ADO counter at the airport, which would save line-standing at the Cancun Centro bus station.

What hotel? I would suggest you have the name and address (with cross streets), written to give to the cab driver. They may or may not speak English.

At the bus station, their is a cab kiosk out in front. You will ask for and pay for your cab there. They will give you a ticket. On our first trip we walked out of the back of the bus station instead of the front and had a dickens of a time finding a cab If you go out of the bus station and there is only a sidewalk and street, turn around and go out the other side. There will be a line of cabs in front of you and a cab kiosk to the right.

ron

Thank you, that is a lot of help. We are staying, per your recommendation, at Luz en Yucatan.

[roni]

Originally Posted by mfl*s queen

Thank you, that is a lot of help. We are staying, per your recommendation, at Luz en Yucatan.

It is a small hotel, and the driver may not know of it.

It is on Calle 55, just past the Santa Lucia Park and Santa Lucia church, between Calle 60 and Calle 58. Even if the cab driver does not know the hotel, they will know the Santa Lucia (Luseeahh) church, and the hotel is just past it on Calle 55.

[mfl*s queen]

Originally Posted by roni

It is a small hotel, and the driver may not know of it.

It is on Calle 55, just past the Santa Lucia Park and Santa Lucia church, between Calle 60 and Calle 58. Even if the cab driver does not know the hotel, they will know the Santa Lucia (Luseeahh) church, and the hotel is just past it on Calle 55.

Perfect, I will print this, and take it with me.

Thank you so much.

[roni]

Originally Posted by mfl*s queen

Perfect, I will print this, and take it with me.

Thank you so much.

It is a blueish building. There is a small ceramic sign near the door . There is another hotel just past it with much more obvious signage. I do not remember the name of that one, however, but if you go past it, you've gone too far

[mfl*s queen]

Originally Posted by roni

It is a blueish building. There is a small ceramic sign near the door . There is another hotel just past it with much more obvious signage. I do not remember the name of that one, however, but if you go past it, you've gone too far

Thank you, again.

[Thor Henning]

Lovely place:

[roni]

Originally Posted by Thor Henning

Lovely place:

Yes, that was a lovely hotel entrance and courtyard. There were many other lovely ones.

[roni]

Christmas Day Kathy and I started out by taking the colectivo from Playa to Paamul (20 pesos). We started walking down the road from 307 to Paamul and a white car started driving in our direction from the beach. I pulled my sunglasses down over my eyes, telling Kathy they will never recognize me now

It was Annie and Susie, and they gave us a ride to the restaurant, where we met up with Squish

Here we all are:



And some more photos of us





Squish with her Christmas hat



More from Paamul later, mostly of palapas.

[Buggirl]

More wonderful photos, Roni!! I'm loving this report!

[roni]

Some photos to give you a notion of what some of the places at Paamul are like, but if you want to buy one, buy the one that Susie has for sale

[maestranba]

Thanks again, Roni, for sharing your trip with us! Thanks to you and many others on this forum who have traveled Yucatan State, I've decided to go forward with sponsoring a student trip in 2010. My principal gave me the go-ahead today, so now I just have to get approval from the Board of Ed. next month. I've already spoken to the ACIS rep who we use for all of our trips and she thinks combining Merida with Akumal is a great trip. I don't think bringing high school kids to Playa is such a good idea. Akumal seems a little safer if you know what I mean!

If there are things in Merida that you think are must-sees, please PM me so I can start a list. Sometimes the tour guides don't know about all of the best places!

[mfl*s queen]

Originally Posted by maestranba

If there are things in Merida that you think are must-sees, please PM me so I can start a list. Sometimes the tour guides don't know about all of the best places!

Oh, please don't PM them, post them. Some of us are interested, as well.