Naturally, most backpacking trips through Central America, like mine, start in the south of Mexico in Cancun. Cancun has a huge international airport with many long-haul pathways to Europe, and so it is a very easy and cheap airport to fly to and from. However, while this is where I landed, I only spent one night here and moved on pretty early the next day. Cancun is simply not a backpacker destinationin termss of budget friendliness or quality hostel availability. However, it does provide a good base to recover after the long flight and jet lag, as well as get some basics set up when landing in a new country, i.e., an abundance of ATMs, SIM card shops, etc.
Valladolid
From here, I moved on to Valladolid as my first proper stop on this trip, and while this again isn’t really a huge backpacker destination, there was no way I could skip it. This, of course, is because it is the closest town to one of the 7 wonders of the world, Chichen Itza. This was my 4th of the 7 wonders of the world, and to be honest, it comes in last place so far. While it is a hugely impressive structure and comes from a hugely interesting place and time in history is simply not as impressive as some of the others. However, it is probably one of the easiest and cheapest to visit. From Valladolid, you can take a collectivo – a kind of shared taxi – for a 50 pesos (~£2) return, and you don’t have to buy tickets for a specific time slot or even in advance at all. Tickets cost 676 pesos (~£28), split into two payments: for the state and for the site. If you get the first collective here at around 7 am, you will arrive at 8 am just in time for opening, and there will be hardly any queue. I would recommend doing this as it didn’t take long for the site to fill up as the tour buses from Cancun and Tulum arrived throughout the day. Having the site to yourself makes the site much more enjoyable and makes it far easier to get photos and videos, as well as get close enough to read the information boards. If you don’t want to arrive so early, another option is to hire one of the local tour guides who wait at the entrance and allow you to skip the queue.e However, I’m not a huge history person and on a backpacker budget, so I chose to listen to a podcast about chicken itoa instead, which had a similar effect.
When planning my trip, this was in the ‘must see’ category, but having now visited other sites such as Tikal and Xunantunich, I’d say you can probably give this a miss. The other sites are larger, less crowded and much cheaper. They are also located in places that you would be headed to anyway and so there is no need to add an extra destination as I did for Chichen Itza.
Another activity you can pair with Chichen Itza is Cenote Ik Kul. This costs 220 pesos to enter, and the collective charges you an extra few pesos for the added stop. I personally wouldn’t recommend this as it is one of the more expensive centotes with no real reason, as it is very similar to the others in the area; instead, walking down Centote Zací, which is right in the town centre, is cheaper and offers the same experience. Once you have visited Chichen Itza and a cenote, you have basically completed Valladolid, as there really isn’t much else to do here, and the hostels aren’t good or social enough to warrant staying any longer than a night or two; it only really depends on how well you’ve coped with the jet lag.
I stayed in hostel 48, which did the job perfectly and was pretty reasonable in price. The only issue is that there just isnt the right crowd here to make a great hostel experience. For food, stop off at both Yakunaj Concina and Conato. Both restaurants have incredible food. They are both a little on the pricey side, but this is pretty normal for Valladolid, as it is mainly a tourist destination.
Bacalar
Bacalar is where this trip really started for me. The town is far more untouched by mainstream tourism, but it brings in a lot of backpackers as it is a common stop between Mexico and Belize. It is a little town situated right on the Laguna de 7 Colores, or the lagoon of 7 colours. Named because of its distinct areas of different colours caused by its varying depths and limestone bottom. The difference between 1 meter deep and 60 meters means the water appears in varying shades of blue, green and even black.
I stayed in the Che hostel, which is like walking into the Love Island Villa. It is a huge hostel with a pool, bar and several other social and coworking areas. It has a great social atmosphere and runs several events and activities every day. This ranged from cocktail-making classes to guacamole-making competitions and even group tours to a couple of the local attractions.
The two things to do here are to explore the lagoon by boat and to go to Los Rapidos.
Instead of a normal boat tour, I decided to join the hostel boat party, which wasn’t what I expected at all but turned out to still be great fun. This wasn’t one big party boat but instead several small ones; each completing a tour of the lake and the several cenotes which it comprises and then stopping all boats together in the shallow several times to dance, play games and drink. This was great fun and actually turned out cheaper than a normal boat tour if you book through the hostels; however, we later found out that you can do essentially the same tour for far cheaper if you haggle with one of the local businesses. We ended up getting a boat tour for 1500 pesos between 6 of us, whereas the boat party was 600 per person. Going with the hostel is better for meeting new people, but if you already have a group establishe,d this is a great way to save some money.
The other main activity is to go to Los Rapidos, a natural lazy river at one end of the lagoon with a bar and kayak rental on the side. The name Los Rapidos is a small exaggeration; the water flows very slowly, so you can easily kayak or swim against the current. This is a great place to chill out for the day and enjoy the sun.
On other days, some people usually just wander down to the docks. There are some free public docks, but also a couple which are 100 pesos or so to enter. The paid docks have hammocks, swings and water slides. These are great places to chill out, sunbathe, swim and eat by the lagoon.
When it comes to food, there are some great options here. The most well-known, because of TikTok, is Mr tacos which has a great atmosphere and is hugely popular with backpackers. However, when it comes to authentic Mexican food, this isn’t the best or the cheapest. One local who worked at our hostel suggested Mi burrito, which was fantastic and very reasonable. At both places, the shrimp burrito is my personal favourite as they are so fresh, often caught that morning from the lagoon or nearby.
My other top pick here is mega mix birria, which is a very small local food stand just outside of the centre and is so so good and so so cheap; run by a husband and wife that take so much pride in their work. For the best sandwiches in Bacalar, try out Arugula; they are right around the corner from Che hostel and make great sandwiches for pretty reasonable prices; perfect to take away for your next bus journey.
The Border crossing
The Mexican border was a very disappointing way to end a fantastic week. If you are heading into Belize afterwards, specifically to Caye Caulker, as this is the most common route, you have two options. Either cross the land border on a bus to Belize City and then take a shorter ferry, or take the ferry across from Chetumal in Mexico straight to Caye Caulker.
I crossed the land boarder and here the border guards scam every tourist that comes through by forcing you to pay an exit fee. While there is an official exit fee of 283 pesos for the region of Quintana Roo (the Cancun region), this is included in all air travel if you fly into Mexico. The fee they charged everyone on the day I passed through was 980 pesos, cash only and with no receipt. While I have heard of a small minority of people who managed to convince them to stamp their passports correctly without paying, I have heard of just as many who tried not to pay, only for their passports to be incorrectly stamped; either they didn’t stamp it at all or with the date missing. This means Belize won’t let you into the country, and so many people are sent back to the Mexican immigration and by the time they have paid for the correct stamp,p their shuttle has left on the other side.
The good news is that there is a simple way to avoid all of this if you know about it in advance; just take the ferry. Everyone I spoke to who took this route had no issues whatsoever, and there aren’t any horror stories online that I can find, unlike the land border. This is slightly more expensive, but cheaper as you save on the ‘exit fees’, and after that, the shuttle route. They don’t run everyday though, so check the available ferries in advance when planning your departure from Mexico.
Additional stops
This is by no means a complete guide to the region. Everyone I met who had gone to Holbox, an island just off the coast close to Cancun, raved about how good it is – serious fomo for me. And of course, there is Cancun, Tulum and Playa del Carmen. However, these stops didn’t have a place within my timeframe nor budget, as they are closer in culture and price to Miami than Mexico.
In the other regions of Mexico, there are countless places to visit, as the country is huge, requiring months to visit properly, which I didn’t have time for in this trip. I will be back, though, for sure.
