Mexico - From Teotihuacán to the Caribbean

Mexico City reveals itself through its neighborhoods, and that’s exactly why four nights are necessary. In the Centro Histórico, you stand on the foundations of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán, in Roma and Condesa you sit under Jacaranda trees between Art Deco facades, and in Coyoacán, the path leads to the Casa Azul, where Frida Kahlo was born and later died. You should dedicate half a day to the Anthropological Museum in Chapultepec Park: The Aztec sun stone and the finds from Palenque explain much of what you will see again later in Yucatán. Additionally, Teotihuacán, located about 50 kilometers northeast, a city that was already a ruin when the Aztecs found it and gave it its current name.

After the hustle and bustle of the capital comes a different Mexico. San Miguel de Allende is located in the highlands of Guanajuato, has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2008, and can be completely explored on foot. The pink parish church Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel in the main square is the postcard motif, but the side streets with their galleries, workshops, and courtyards, many of them in the old textile factory La Aurora, are more exciting. Two nights are enough to sit on a rooftop terrace in the evening, taste a mezcal, and watch the facades warm up. If you like, you can take a daytime trip to Dolores Hidalgo, where the blue and white Talavera ceramics of the region are made.

Mérida calls itself the white city and is the cultural center of Yucatán, with a self-confidence that comes from the sisal era. Along Paseo de Montejo, the city palaces of the plantation owners line up, a few streets further stands the cathedral San Ildefonso, one of the oldest on the American mainland. Culinarily, the city is worth a trip in itself, as Yucatecan cuisine with Cochinita Pibil, Sopa de Lima, and Papadzules differs significantly from everything you have eaten in Mexico City. From the hotel, you can reach Uxmal, the most elegant Maya site on the peninsula with its governor's palace in Puuc style, and on the way back, one of the old haciendas or a cenote to cool off. If you long for nature, you can go to Celestún, about 95 kilometers west, to one of the largest flamingo colonies in North America.

The journey to the coast is itself a travel day. The first stop is Chichén Itzá, where the Kukulcán pyramid depicts a complete calendar in stone, and you are there early in the morning, before the buses from Cancún arrive. After that, the colonial Valladolid with the monastery San Bernardino de Siena, colorful facades, and a cenote in the middle of the town, a good place for a late lunch. In the afternoon, you will reach Mayakoba, where the hotel is built into a system of lagoons and mangrove canals, and you can take a boat or bike to the beach. Five nights are reserved for the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef right off the coast, for kayaking and snorkeling, or simply to do nothing.