The locked Shape C itinerary — private drive with Calakmul. Twenty-two days, twenty-one nights, arriving Thursday 4 November 2027 and departing Thursday 25 November 2027.
Updated 8 June 2026 · locked to Shape C · lodging stage now underwayThe trip in numbers.
Note on Mondays: the Museo Nacional de Antropología and Templo Mayor museum are closed on Mondays. The itinerary places those visits on a Friday and a Sunday respectively, with Teotihuacan (open daily) absorbing the Saturday.
Day by day, with where you'd be and what the day holds. The hotels at each base are being chosen now — see the lodging brief and the Caribbean beach brief.
Long-haul lands in the evening; private transfer to the hotel; 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.
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 a jungle lodge (Chicanná Ecovillage, Río Bec Dreams or Puerta Calakmul). Rustic-comfortable, not premium.
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). Hotel: Hacienda Puerta Campeche or Casa Don Gustavo.
Short, easy transfer of 170 km; check into the Mérida hacienda base in the afternoon. The exact hacienda is decided at the lodging stage — Chablé Yucatán is on the radar.
The masterpiece of the Puuc style — the Nunnery Quadrangle, the rounded Pyramid of the Magician, intricate stone latticework. Quieter than Chichén Itzá.
Sacred Maya cenotes — jade-green pools in pillared limestone chambers at a swimmable 24–26°C. Openings to the underworld in the Maya cosmos.
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.
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.
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 in Mexico City — deliberately, not a same-day connection onto the transatlantic.
Departure from Mexico City. Twenty-two days done.