DIY daytrip from Mérida to Uxmal

Most people visit Mérida to experience the city, but another key reason is to see the Mayan ruins. The most popular (and largest) ruins near Mérida are found in Chichen Itza. Most tour groups will visit, as will most tourists to the region. The other option that we read about was Uxmal (oosh-mal). Uxmal is less touristed than Chichen Itza, but also a smaller site.

Why not Chichen Itza?

We only had one day to see Mayan ruins on our vacation and both are hours apart, so we had to make a decision. Before we left for Mexico, we spent a lot of time googling “Chichen Itza vs. Uxmal” to get a sense of where we should go.

Pros of Chichen Itza

1. Biggest Mayan ruins site
2. Physically impressive

Cons of Chichen Itza

1. Tourists. Lots of them.
2. Vendors. Lots of them, since they are allowed onto the site.
3. Can’t climb the pyramid

Pros of Uxmal

1. Can’t climb on big pyramid (contrary to some earlier reviews), but can climb 3/4 of the way up a different pyramid
2. Fewer tourists
3. Closer to Mérida than Chichen Itza
4. Well-preserved Mayan ruins

Cons of Uxmal

1. Not Chichen Itza

Given the weight of the pros and cons, we decided to head to Uxmal. (We ran into a couple in the Mexico City airport who went to Chichen Itza and waited in line for hours to get in, even around 9:30am. Another person told me that everyone goes to Chichen Itza in the morning, so if you can stand the heat going later would be good!)

Getting to Uxmal

There is no direct bus out to Uxmal, so for us the options were taking a tour or creating our own DIY tour. In terms of cost, our hotel quoted prices for a tour group of 12-14 of $525 pesos (~$26 USD) per person or a private guide would have been $3500 pesos (~$175 USD) a day.

Renting a car for a day in Mérida cost us approximately $66 USD. This was a little higher than the price of the tour group, but it also meant we had the freedom to go at our own pace. Given our general dislike of most tour groups, we opted to rent a car and wing it.

It takes approximately 1.5 hours to drive out to Uxmal from Mérida, which was a fairly easy and well-marked drive. There are plenty of signs pointing out to Uxmal, so the phone GPS is helpful but not entirely necessary. There was only one slowdown in traffic, which had to do with a police stop in the middle of the highway (and apparently we did not look sketchy enough to get stopped).

Admission

Once you get to Uxmal, you’ll be directed to park. It cost us $20 pesos for the parking fee. The parking area in front of the entrance was already packed, so we turned around to leave the parking area and drove onto a grassy area nearby to park.

After we walked to the entrance, we saw lines. And people. Lots of people, especially in tour groups. In the front entrance, you will pay for your tickets.

This is very important, as you need to buy TWO tickets. One is the federal admission, which is $65 pesos and can only be paid in cash. The second is the state or local admission, which is $148 pesos and can be paid in credit card or cash. Although you pay a total of $213, you need to pay them separately in TWO different lines.

The federal admission is paid in lines 1 & 2. The state/local admission is paid in lines 3 & 4. Line 1 is the most clogged line, so if you can, try to side step it a little and go into line 2, which was much more manageable. Same with lines 3 & 4. Line 4 is actually hidden; it’s on the other side of the building to the right of line 3.

We’d recommend that you go there to purchase the tickets, as no one realizes there is a line 4. We got there around 10am and even though it was crowded, we managed to get through these lines in around 20 minutes total.

Guide or No Guide?

You can also hire a guide to take you around. Spanish-speaking guides are $600 pesos and all other languages are $700 pesos per guide. We didn’t see any guides hanging out outside, so perhaps they were all hired because it was high season. We were more interested in seeing the ruins than hearing some stories that may or may not be true, so we mostly got around by reading English signs near each of the sights, along with using Wikipedia + Google. Whether you want to hire one depends on how in-depth you want your experience to be — our key goal was to see and experience the ruins themselves.

The Sights

From parking to leaving Uxmal took approximately 2 hours. There are a few big things to see: The Pyramid of the Magician (which you can no longer climb up), the Governor’s Palace, the Nunnery Quadrangle, the Ballcourt, and the Great Pyramid (in the back, which you can climb up).

 

After Uxmal

You’ll be hungry after walking around in the hot sun for hours, but don’t go to restaurants at Uxmal. There is an amazing restaurant only 10-15 minutes away called The Pickled Onion, which we’ve reviewed on this blog.

You can also drive to see some of the smaller ruins along the Ruta de Puuc (like Kabah, which you can see from the outside and has absolutely no crowds).

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