6 Days in the Yucatán: Valladolid, Chichén Itzá & Tulum

A day-by-day itinerary for Yucatán, Mexico: real activities, restaurants and hotels with prices and booking links. Copy it and make it yours.

Yucatán, Mexico · 6 days · 22 activities · free to copy and customize

Day 1 — Land in Cancún, leave Cancún

14:00 ADO bus Cancún airport → Valladolid (350 MXN). ≈350 MXN, 2h direct. Skipping the hotel zone entirely is the whole strategy: Valladolid puts you 45 minutes from Chichén Itzá instead of 2.5 hours.
16:30 Valladolid colonial hotel, 2 nights (2,400 MXN). ≈1,200 MXN/night around the plaza — pastel arcades, church bells, none of the resort mark-up.
18:00 Calzada de los Frailes stroll. Free. The prettiest street in the peninsula, ending at the San Bernardino convent's evening light show.
20:00 Lomitos and marquesitas on the plaza (150 MXN). ≈150 MXN. Yucatecan food is its own cuisine — start with the pork in tomato and finish with a Nutella-and-cheese marquesita, which works, improbably.

07:15 Colectivo to Chichén Itzá (50 MXN). ≈50 MXN shared van from Calle 46, 45 min. This is why you slept in Valladolid: the Cancún tour buses land at 10:30.
08:00 Chichén Itzá at opening (650 MXN). ≈650 MXN foreign entry. Two hours of near-solitude with El Castillo before the heat and the crowds arrive together. Clap at the base of the stairs — the echo chirps like the sacred quetzal, by design.
11:30 Cenote Ik Kil or Suytun (250 MXN). ≈250 MXN. Swim in a collapsed cave under hanging roots. NO SUNSCREEN in cenotes — even biodegradable; the groundwater is the peninsula's drinking supply.
14:00 Late lunch back in Valladolid (180 MXN).
16:30 Cenote Zací, in town (150 MXN). ≈150 MXN, a two-block walk. Half-open to the sky, swallows overhead at dusk.

10:00 ADO to Tulum (250 MXN). ≈250 MXN, 1h45.
12:30 Tulum pueblo hotel, 3 nights (4,500 MXN). ≈1,500 MXN/night in town. Beach-road hotels run 4–10× that for the same sand a bike ride away — the pueblo is the value play.
14:00 Taquería lunch in the pueblo (120 MXN). ≈120 MXN. Al pastor off the spit beats anything on the beach road at a fifth of the price.
16:00 Bike to Playa Paraíso (100 MXN). Bike rental ≈100 MXN/day. Public beach, real turquoise. Seasonal honesty: sargassum seaweed can blanket the sand May–October — the cenotes are the guaranteed swim.

08:00 Tulum ruins at opening (95 MXN). ≈95 MXN + park access. The only Maya city that watches the sunrise over the Caribbean; iguanas run the place with visible contempt.
11:00 Gran Cenote (500 MXN). ≈500 MXN. Snorkel past turtles between stalactites. Shower first — the no-sunscreen rule is enforced and correct.
14:00 Lunch in the pueblo (150 MXN).
17:00 Beach sunset walk. Free. The cliffs give the Riviera's best golden hour without a beach-club minimum spend.

09:00 Cenote circuit: Dos Ojos (600 MXN). ≈600 MXN. Two connected caverns on one line — the snorkelling gateway to the world's longest underwater cave system. Alternative: Cobá's jungle pyramids (≈100 MXN + bike hire) if you'd rather climb than float.
13:30 Roadside cochinita pibil (120 MXN). ≈120 MXN. Slow-roasted achiote pork, Sunday-morning food available mercifully all week.
16:00 Pueblo mural walk & last shopping. Free. Tulum's street art outclasses its souvenir shops — photograph the first, skip the second.

09:30 ADO Tulum → Cancún airport (420 MXN). ≈420 MXN, 2h direct. Book the seat a day ahead; airport runs fill first.
13:00 Airport coffee, flight out (100 MXN). Allow 3 hours — CUN security queues are their own attraction.

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