The locked Shape C itinerary — private drive with Calakmul. Twenty-two days, twenty-one nights, arriving Wednesday 3 November 2027 and departing Wednesday 24 November 2027.
Updated 28 Aug 2026 · Shape C · dates target a Wednesday arrival, pending award flightsThe trip in numbers.
Note on opening days: the Museo Nacional de Antropología and the Templo Mayor museum are both closed on Mondays, and entry to museums and archaeological sites is free for Mexican nationals on Sundays, the busiest day everywhere. This calendar places the museum on Thursday and the Templo Mayor on Saturday, with Teotihuacan (open daily) on the Friday — and the Sunday falls on the travel day to Palenque, costing nothing.
Day by day, with where you'd be and what the day holds. Hotels are settled at every base except the Caribbean beach, which is provisional — see the lodging brief and the Caribbean beach brief.
Long-haul lands in the evening; the Four Seasons' airport transfer to the hotel on Paseo de la Reforma; settle in.
The finest pre-Columbian museum — indoor, climate-controlled, self-paced, and kind on a jet-lagged first full day.
~1 hour out, early start with private guide. The Avenue of the Dead and the pyramids at ground level.
The Aztec temple at the city's centre, with its museum; the Zócalo, lunch in the historic centre.
Morning flight; private transfer ~2–2½ hours through the jungle. Check in at Quinta Chanabnal, the eight-suite Maya-palace boutique 3 km from the ruins.
Maya architecture at its most refined — the Temple of the Inscriptions, the Palace, exquisite stucco work. Humid jungle heat, mostly shaded walking.
Private SUV east along Federal 186, then south at Xpujil into the biosphere reserve. Check into Río Bec Dreams — rustic-comfortable, not premium, and deliberately so.
The Maya superpower city — the great rival of Tikal — deep in the largest tropical forest reserve in Mexico. Temples rising out of the canopy; howler monkeys, toucans. Climbing the great temples for the view is permitted here. Visually the Mexican counterpart of Star Wars' Yavin 4.
~5 hours back via Escárcega, with a one-hour Edzná stop (the “Building of Five Levels”) en route; lunch and overnight in Campeche city (sleep only, not a touring stop) at Casa Don Gustavo, a 10-suite mansion-hotel in the walled city. (Hacienda Puerta Campeche, the original choice, is closed for a long refurbishment.)
Short, easy transfer of 170 km; check into Chablé Yucatán at Chocholá (~45 min south-west of Mérida) in the afternoon — the design resort built around its own cenote, and the trip's restorative pause.
The masterpiece of the Puuc style — the Nunnery Quadrangle, the rounded Pyramid of the Magician, intricate stone latticework. Quieter than Chichén Itzá.
West-coast lagoon with thousands of pink flamingos seen by small boat; November is good season. A relaxed half-day with lunch by the coast. Placed on the Sunday deliberately — the Homún cenotes fill with local families on Sundays, and entry to INAH sites is free for nationals that day.
Sacred Maya cenotes — jade-green pools in pillared limestone chambers at a swimmable 24–26°C. Openings to the underworld in the Maya cosmos. From Chablé this is the longest run (~1½ h each way); a nearer cenote, or a day at the hotel's own, is a fair alternative.
Private transfer east. Early Chichén Itzá visit with a private guide before the day-trip buses arrive; onward to the Riviera Maya resort by evening.
The pace changes. Pure relaxation begins. Hotel provisionally Hotel Esencia at Xpu-Ha — the one lodging choice not yet firm.
The cliff-top Maya ruins of Tulum above the turquoise Caribbean, or simply beach.
Sea, sand, sun. Pool. Spa.
Cobá, a jungle Maya site with raised stone causeways through the rainforest. Optional.
Snorkelling on the reef; or simply more beach.
November on this coast is exactly what you came for.
A last beach morning; afternoon flight; overnight back at the Four Seasons — deliberately, not a same-day connection onto the transatlantic.
Hotel transfer to the airport; departure from Mexico City. Twenty-two days done.