Historic Mérida, long considered the safest city in Mexico, is home to a 500-year-old cathedral. Now you can get there from the airport by train. Photo © Emicristea | Dreamstime.com

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The Yucatán peninsula has thousands of limestone sinkholes, or cenotes, to cool off in. This one, Cenote Samula, is located 10 minutes from the train station in Valladolid. Photo © Lunamarina| Dreamstime.com

A new rail line spanning the circumference of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula now offers easy access from Cancún to many of the lovely, less-visited towns of the region.

Called Tren Maya, the rail line was completed in December 2024 at a cost of $20 billion. Among its 24 stations are Cancún International Airport; Izamal, with its Mayan pyramids; and Valladolid, a Spanish colonial city where you can watch an evening light show projected onto a 1552 convent.

The train’s other stops include well-known tourist destinations like the Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá and the Caribbean resort of Tulum, as well as less-visited destinations like Mérida, which is the capital of Yucatán and the peninsula’s biggest city.

Beautiful Mérida

Historic Mérida, considered the safest city in Mexico, is the perfect place to begin exploring the peninsula, which extends into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

Known as the “White City” for the aging limestone mansions that line its central avenue, Mérida was a boomtown in the 1800s, when henequen, a plant local to the peninsula, was used to manufacture ropes for the shipping industry. With the arrival of synthetic substitutes in the 1940s, Mérida’s economy crashed, but the recent influx of tourists and expats has revived this lovely city.

Great places to stay are in henequen-raising haciendas or in the lively neighborhood near Santiago Church. Don’t miss the Santiago Market, which features Taqueria La Lupita, highlighted in Netflix’s “The Taco Chronicles,” and the English Library, where visitors can borrow a book, sip coffee or take a yoga class.

From Mérida, you can go by car or bus to Río Lagartos, a charming coastal town where small boats take tourists into a nature preserve to see its flocks of flamingos.

Low-key Playa del Carmen

For those who want to stay at a hotel on the beach but far from the glass-box-monoliths of Cancún, there’s another Tren Maya destination worth visiting: Playa del Carmen.

Here hotels aren’t taller than five or six stories, and its promenade, Quinta Avenida, is lined with stores and restaurants and open only to bikes and pedestrians.

In Playa del Carmen, a fun place to stay is the Colosio neighborhood, which has plenty of small, locally owned hotels as well as corner stores stocked with fresh avocados and pineapples. Explore the area around Parque la Ceiba, where gigantic trees shade play structures, art installations and a coffee shop.

Two colonial towns

For a Spanish colonial immersion, check out the towns of Izamal and Valladolid, both only a couple of hours from the airport via Tren Maya. The two are among the few Yucatecan towns designated by the government as Magical Towns.

Izamal is known as the “Yellow City,” as its downtown colonial buildings, including a large former convent, were all painted yellow for the 1993 visit of Pope John Paul II. (Supposedly, he liked the color.)

While the convent is eye-catching, the biggest draws are the town’s lively market, the restored monastery (across the street) and two Mayan pyramids, both of which you can scale — unlike Chichén Itzá.

One pyramid is relatively small and sprawls across a city park, but the other occupies the landmass of a city block and offers wide-ranging vistas across the largely flat Yucatán Peninsula. Often, they’re devoid of locals or tourists.

The town of Valladolid also has two impressive colonial buildings: a monastery located near its arts district and a cathedral across from its central park. There, in the evening, a laser light show is projected onto the church’s exterior, telling the story of Mexico’s history.

Those who enjoy Mexican folk art will also want to tour Casa de los Venados, the mansion of a wealthy retiree who collected crafts from all over Mexico.

Swimming in cenotes

Valladolid has another draw: cenotes. These underground freshwater ponds are one of Yucatán’s natural wonders.

Most cenotes are in privately owned caves outfitted with stairs, lighting and guides. You put on a life jacket and float under the stalactites, watching tiny fish flit about as sunlight pours in from the hole in the cave’s roof.

In Valladolid, the grandest is Cenote Zaci, a huge open-air pool located downtown by the central market. It’s open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, and admission is about $10.

Another is Cenote Suytun, about 15 minutes away (also about $10). This one features a hole in its ceiling that brings a “spotlight” of sunshine onto the cave’s waters. A two-cenote complex is nearby.

About an hour from Valladolid is the fascinating city of Tizimín. It too has a big, open-air cenote, Kikil, located a quick cab ride from the station. Admission is about $10 for adults — but watch your step on the slippery wooden staircase down to the water!

If you go

Round-trip tickets to Cancún start at $562 on Southwest. Note that the area is under a Level 2 travel advisory of “exercise increased caution.”

From Cancún’s airport, four daily trains, with one-way tickets starting at $50, go to Mérida. Tren Maya runs six trains daily to Valladolid ($25 one-way from Cancún International). Tickets can be purchased in Tren Maya stations or online. Keep in mind that most of Tren Maya’s stations were built at each city’s edge to minimize the destruction of existing buildings. That means you’ll likely need to catch a cab or Lyft to your hotel.

However, if you want to arrive in the center of any of these towns, or want to get there outside of the Tren schedule, nearly all Yucatecan cities are served by Autobuses de Oriente (ADO).

Thankfully, you don’t have to wait in line or trust your rusty Spanish to buy tickets: ADO’s smartphone app lets you buy tickets in English, then display them to the driver as you board.