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Mayapan is one of my favourite archaeological sites in the whole of Mexico. Not only is it close to Merida, which makes it a perfect easy day trip, but it’s also far less visited than many of the other sites in the Yucatan, which means you’ll have it more or less to yourself.

If you have kids along for the ride then Mayapan is also perfect as you can climb the structures and there are plenty of great places to hide and play.

History Of Mayapan

Mayapan’s heyday was between 1220s-1440s, just before the arrival of the Spanish, when it was the political and cultural capital of the Maya people. It was abandoned at some point in the 15th century, probably following a violent struggle. The main structure is the Pyramid of Kukulcan, which is similar to the pyramid at Chichén Itzá, just smaller (and less well reconstructed).

Directions for visting Mayapan

🚘 If you’re driving, ensure you put ‘mayapan ruins’ into google maps, not ‘mayapan’ as the village of Mayapan is a good forty minutes further away from Mérida. You really don’t want to get that wrong!

Mayapan is just off the 184 (direction Chetumal) shortly after you see signs to Telchaquillo (where there are some cool cenotes to visit).

🚍 You can grab a bus from the corner of 50 and 67 in centro or a combi bus from 65 x48y50. On the way back you will need to walk from the ruins to the main road and just flag down the bus as it drives past.

🚰 Do ensure you take enough water as it can be extremely hot on this site.

Add a cenote to your Mayapan day trip

Once you’ve explored Mayapan you may well want to add a cenote to your day trip, however, in order to do this, you will need a car at your disposal. If you don’t have a car then my list of recommended cenote tours from Mérida will come in very handy.

→ Check your car rental options

→ Read the MexicoCassie guide to renting a car and driving in Yucatán 

Telchaquillo has a small and shallow cenote could be a perfect first cenote for kids. Head into Telchaquillo. Park by the church and head onto the plaza. Someone will come and ask you if you’d like to visit the cenote. If they don’t, either hang around by the entrance (it’s obvious) or head into one of the small stores and ask.

Pixya, a more remote village some 5km from Telchaquillo is where you’ll need to head to find the cenote of Noh-Mozon. From Telchaquillo, head through the village, turn right after the church and head straight until you enter Pixya. As soon as you reach this village you’ll be stopped by guys (and kids) asking if you want a guide. Honestly, you do.

We kept saying no to the guides. I mean, we speak Spanish and we knew we were heading to a cenote. What more could we need, right? Wrong. You don’t need to pick up your guide right at the top of the village but I really do recommend you agree with someone to take you

After about 20 minutes on a dirt path through the jungle, just when you really start to wonder if you’re mad for following total strangers through the jungle, you come to a group of people who will take your entrance fee of $30 pesos each (including children, whether you’re swimming in the cenote or not). You can rent life jackets from these guys too. We always take our own life jacket for our kids as we want to be certain they are of a high enough quality (and that we can guarantee small enough jackets).

If you do plan on visiting with your kids, you need to know that this is probably not a starter cenote for small children given the steps down to the water and the depth of the water itself. My kids were four and six when we first visited here but they’d already swum in numerous cenotes and aren’t afraid of water.

You then drive five minutes further down the road until you reach the ‘carpark’ of cenote Noh-Mozon.

Note that this is a very isolated cenote and while I do think it’s safe, I wouldn’t want to be leaving the site after dark given that the route back is on rough tracks through the jungle. Do leave yourself time to get back on to the main road before dark.