As a Yucatán travel expert I’m regularly asked whether I prefer Mérida or Valladolid and whether I recommend visitors to Yucatán make time for Mérida or Valladolid.

Both cities, in my opinion, are utterly gorgeous and worth exploring but if you don’t have time for both, you may have to pick just one. Let’s take a look now at whether Mérida or Valladolid makes more sense for you.

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Mérida Must Knows

Valladolid Must Knows

Let’s look now at some of the city specifics to help you figure out whether you should visit Mérida or Valladolid (or both!)

Mérida or Valladolid: Accessibility

Airports

✈️ Mérida has a busy international airport with flights to and from other Mexican locations (including Mexico City, Oaxaca, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Guadalajara, Queretaro, Puebla and Guanajuato), US and Canadian destinations.

✈️ Valladolid does not have its own airport but is handily located halfway between Mérida airport and Cancun airport (in Quintana Roo). There are regular ADO buses between Cancun and Valladolid and Mérida and Valladolid. 

Train

🚂 At the time of writing, the Maya train has just begun its services. Eventually, the plan is that the train will service both Mérida and Valladolid, as well as many other destinations on the Yucatán Peninsula and southern Mexico. 

➡️ Read more about the Maya train route and timetables

Public Transport / Bus

🚌 Both Mérida and Valladolid are  well served by the ADO buses with links between the cities on the Yucatán Peninsula (Campeche, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum) as well as further afield. 

Mérida bus station: The main bus station is on Calle 69 #554 in the historic center. There are also bus stations at the Fiesta Americana hotel (direct to/from Cancun airport here) and in the north of the city at Altabrisa (and others but these are the primary ones for visitors to Mérida)

Valladolid bus station: Calle 46 #198h in the historic center.

➡️ Check bus ticket information here in English or Spanish

⭐️ There are also collectivos that run between Mérida and Valladolid and smaller locations such as Izamal, and El Cuyo. These are more informal and go when they’re full rather than according to a strict timetable.

Local Buses in the City

🚌 Mérida, as a properly big city has a bus service connecting the city. The most modern buses run on the Va y Ven scheme, circumnavigating the city. 

Driving in Yucatán

🚗 Both Mérida and Valladolid are connected by well maintained road systems. There are toll roads and free roads through the villages that connect towns and pueblos across the Yucatán peninsula.

➡️ Check rental car options here

Mérida or Valladolid: Safety

Both Mérida and Valladolid are located in the state of Yucatán, Mexico’s safest state. Both are extremely safe for travelers, including solo female travelers. Of course, we still recommend you use your common sense and follow the regular ‘rules’ for keeping yourself safe while exploring away from home but really, neither city should give you any cause for concern when it comes to safety. 

➡️ Read more about safety in Yucatán

Mérida or Valladolid: Culture

Mérida

⭐️ Mérida is the only city that has twice been voted the American capital of culture (2000 and 2017). The city is full of museums, art galleries, free exhibitions, walking tours, and more. Every week the city hosts free events and cultural displays including live music and dance demonstrations.

Every January the ayuntamiento hosts Mérida fest, which although crowded is always a great time to visit Mérida. The Yucatán State Fair is generally held at the end of November just outside Mérida.

➡️ Read more about free events and activities in Mérida

➡️ Read more about celebrating Día de los Muertos in Mérida

➡️ Read more about carnaval in Mérida

➡️ Read more about Christmas in Mérida

➡️ Read more about museums in Mérida

Valladolid

⭐️ Valladolid is a much smaller city than Mérida and is one of seven pueblos magicos in Yucatán. A pueblo magico is a city or town considered to have that something special that visitors will love.

Until recently, visitors often rushed through Valladolid on their way to Chichén Itzá, barely stopping for an ice cream. This is beginning to change though as Valladolid ups its game. The city is becoming known as a cultural hub where boutique hotels, restaurants and shops abound. 

Valladolid has a good number of museums and cultural activities including a fabulous video mapping show on the former convent and a brand new for 2024 video mapping spectacular on the Templo de San Servacio on the main plaza.

➕ If you’re looking for colonial architecture, know that it is everywhere in both of these cities. Just don’t forget that colonial architecture means colonisation and subjugation of original cultures by a European state. 

Mérida or Valladolid: History

📌 Long before the colonial cities of Mérida or Valladolid were founded, there were bustling and busy Maya cities in their place. Before the Spanish Montejo family arrived as conquistadors to subjugate Maya people, Mérida was a thriving Maya metropolis called T’ho. It’s possible to see stones from T’ho in the San Ildelfonso Cathedral on Mérida’s Plaza Grande. That’s right, they plundered T’ho to build the colonial town of Mérida in 1542.

 Did you know that Mexico’s Mérida is named after the Spanish Mérida in Extremedura.

📌 Valladolid was founded (by a nephew of the Montejo family) in 1543. Originally, Valladolid was founded in Tizimín but after complaints about mosquitos, it was moved (in 1545) and rebuilt at the location of the Maya town of Zací. As in Mérida, buildings were dismantled to rebuild the ‘new’ colonial city. 

⭐️ If you’re interested in the history of Mérida or Valladolid, I recommend that in either city you take a free walking tour and then visit the Palacio de Gobierno and really look hard at the murals and paintings hanging there.

📚 I recommend you read about the Caste War, the massacres of local populations, the Yucatecan independence movement and the region’s colonial history. Don’t assume that the history as told by the European victors tells the whole story.

➡️ Read more about Tizimin

Historical Sites in Mérida

📍The Casa Montejo on Mérida’s Plaza Grande (the main square) is an interesting enough museum but for me the most important thing is examining the exterior of this, the oldest colonial building in Mérida. You can glean a lot about how the conquistadors saw the locals from the carvings on this 16th century building. 

📍 Monumento a la Patria – constructed in 1945, this roundabout is one of the most iconic symbols in Mérida. The style is neo-Maya and it describes the history of Mexico from the foundation of Tenochtitlan until the mid 20th century.

➕ There are actually a number of secret Mayan ruins in Mérida that you can visit if you know how! (Guess what, I do know how and they’re shared in my Maya ruins article).

Important Museums in Mérida

📍 Gran Museo del Mundo Maya – the most famous museums in Mérida, this museum is home to excellent displays about the Maya world

📍Museo Cantón – the city’s anthropological museum 

📍 Quinta Montes Molina – this house captures a moment in early 20th century history when Yucatán was extremely rich.

📍Hacienda Sotuta de Péon – this hacienda outside Mérida is a living museum where the tour guide will teach you about henequen and how the Maya population was treated during the hacienda period

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Historical Sites in Valladolid

Valladolid, as a far smaller town than Mérida, naturally has fewer famous historical sites

📍 Convent of San Bernardino de Siena

📍 Parque Principal Francisco Cantón Rosado

📍 Iglesia de la Candelaria

📍 Nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site, Chichen Itza

Important Museums in Valladolid

📍 Casa de los Venados

📍 Museo San Roque

📍 Museo de Ropa Etnica

Mérida or Valladolid: Gastronomy

Both Mérida and Valladolid offer excellent culinary opportunities whether you’re looking for traditional Mexican dishes, local Yucatecan, street-food, or international cuisine. Both are also surprisingly great for vegetarian and vegan visitors. 

Both cities have excellent coffee shops and coffee roasters, bars, and high end restaurants. Mérida, as the bigger city, obviously has more choice but you’ll be absolutely delighted by the restaurant options in Valladolid too. 

🍽 In Mérida the restaurants are all over the city but many are concentrated in the historic center around Parque de Santa Lucia and up towards Paseo de Montejo and the new Corredor Gastonomico (along calle 47).

🍽 In Valladolid, begin your culinary adventures on Calzada de los Frailes and around Parque Sisal.

Mérida or Valladolid: Day Trip Options 

The day trip options from both Mérida and Valladolid are outstanding and are too numerous to mention here but let’s take a quick look at some of the best short trips you can take from these beautiful cities.

➕ For more information about day trips and road trips around the region, I recommend clicking on the links highlighted below.

Day Trip Options: Ruins

From Mérida consider the archaeological sites of: Mayapan, Xcambo, Dzibilchaltun, Uxmal, Ruta Puuc, Chichen Itza.

From Valladolid consider the archaeological sites of: Chichen Itza, Ek Balam, Cobá 

➡️ Read more about the ruins in Yucatán

➡️ Read more about day trip options from Mérida

Day Trip Options: Cenotes

From Mérida consider cenotes at Progreso (El Corchito), cenote + hacienda tours, and the Homun Cenote Circle

From Valladolid consider the cenotes around Chichén Itzá, Cenote Suytun, and more

➡️ Read more about cenotes near Mérida

➡️ Read more about cenotes near Chichén Itzá

➡️ Read more about cenotes around Valladolid

➡️ Read more about the best cenote tours in 2024

➡️ Read more about the best cenotes to visit with kids (or nervous swimmers)

➡️ Read more about what to take with you when visiting a cenote

Day Trip Options: Beaches

From Mérida consider the beautiful beaches of Progreso, Sisal, Celestun, San Crisanto, Las Coloradas

From Valladolid consider El Cuyo, Rio Lagartos, Las Coloradas, San Felipe

➡️ Read more about the best beaches in Yucatán

Other Adventures

⭐️ Whether you’re staying in Mérida or Valladolid, don’t forget to visit Izamal, the incredible yellow city and one of the most colorful towns on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula (the other, in my opinion, being Campeche). 

⭐️ Consider taking a road trip around Yucatán or heading more off the beaten path if you have time.

Mérida or Valladolid: With Kids

Whether you’re visiting Mérida or Valladolid with kids you’re sure to have an amazing time. Mexicans are extremely friendly, welcoming and culturally prone to loving children.

Valladolid is a smaller city so may feel easier to get around with kids but the sheer size of Mérida means it has plenty of extremely kid-focused activities available to you.

🐾 And if you’re wondering about how your fur babies will fare – we’ve got Mérida covered.

Did you know that I wrote the definitive guide book to exploring Yucatán with kids?

➡️ Read more about exploring Mérida with kids

➡️ Read more about what to pack for a trip to Mexico with kids

➡️ Considering a spring break vacation in Yucatán?

⭐️ If you are travelling to Mexico with kids did you know it’s possible to rent the equipment you might need?

Mérida or Valladolid: Day Trip from Cancun / Playa del Carmen / Tulum

​While it is possible to visit Mérida as a day trip from the Rivera Maya, it’s a much longer day than visiting Valladolid. Many years ago we visited Valladolid from Tulum as part of a day exploring and it was doable. My only recommendation is to not skip a visit to Valladolid or Mérida. You must visit at least one of them as they are just wonderful and spending time in them is really great way to learn about Mexico, Yucatán, Mayan culture and more.

A Note on Where to Stay in Mérida and Valladolid

In Valladolid and Mérida you’ll find plenty of hotel options for all price ranges and styles. From hostels and airbnbs to boutique hotels and international chains, you’re sure to find something to suit your need. My personal favourite hotel on the entire peninsula is Zentik in Valladolid.

➡️ Check out hotel options in Mérida now

➡️ Check out hotel options in Valladolid now

➡️ Check out the best pet friendly hotels in Mérida and Valladolid