Mexico and Belize, Maya and Reef
Three nights in Mexico City, three on the coast at Tulum and two on a small island off Placencia in Belize.
- Eight nights
- Three stays
- Mexico, Belize
- City, food, Maya sites, jungle, reef, beach
Eight nights from the capital's restaurants and the pyramids of Teotihuacán to the Maya cities and reserves of the Yucatán, ending on the Belize Barrier Reef. Each stop has a distinct setting: a Roma Norte mansion, a jungle beach and a caye.
- Length
- Eight nights
- Pace
- Three stays
- Style
- City, food, Maya sites, jungle, reef, beach
- Route
- Mexico City to Tulum to Placencia Caye, Belize
- Mexico CityThree nights
- TulumThree nights
- Placencia Caye, BelizeTwo nights
01
Days 1 to 4 · three nights
Mexico City
Three nights in Roma Norte. Book dinners at Quintonil in Polanco, whose tasting menu works with forgotten and native ingredients, and at Pujol, with its two seven-course menus and a taco counter. Walk the Zócalo, facing the cathedral and the National Palace, and spend a day at Teotihuacán, about 30 miles away, for the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon and the Avenue of the Dead.
Where you stay
El Cortés
El Cortés occupies an Art Nouveau mansion built in 1915 on Colima street in Roma Norte. Its rooms and suites open onto balconies or terraces screened by bougainvillea, the salons keep antique furniture and tapestries, and the restaurant, Lotti, pairs Mexican ingredients with Swiss cooking.
02
Days 4 to 7 · three nights
Tulum
Fly to Tulum for three nights on the coast. Explore Sian Ka'an, a UNESCO biosphere reserve of forest, reefs, lagoons and mangroves where spider monkeys, manatees and crocodiles live, and visit Chichén Itzá and its Kukulcán pyramid, El Castillo.
Where you stay
Jashita Hotel Tulum & Villas
Jashita is a family-run hotel on the white sand of Soliman Bay, Tulum, set among tropical gardens and looking onto the coral reef. It has suites, pools, the Caoba Spa and Pandano, a beachfront restaurant cooking Mexican and Italian dishes, with villas for families nearby.
03
Days 7 to 9 · two nights
Placencia Caye, Belize
Cross to Belize and a small island off Placencia for two nights. Snorkel or dive the Belize Barrier Reef, home to rays, turtles, sharks and manatees, go out to the Great Blue Hole, about 60 miles offshore, or join a guided night hike in the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, where jaguars live.
Where you stay
Prana Maya Island Resort
Prana Maya is on Placencia Caye, a small island just off Placencia Village, between mangroves and the Belize Barrier Reef. It has 10 suites with sea-view balconies and seven villas with plunge pools, a spa of 3,200 square feet, and snorkelling, paddleboarding and fly fishing from the island.
Ways to make it yours
- Dinner at Huniik in Mérida, the Yucatán capital, where chef Roberto Solís cooks
This is a sample. The hotels, the pace and the order are where we start, not where we finish: every journey is designed around the people taking it.
Made around you
Most travel is bought. This is designed.
Before anything is booked, we talk: who is travelling, how you like to spend a morning, and the hotel preferences below the obvious, from the kind of bath you like to the time you wake and how much daylight you need in a room. You see options where options matter and clean recommendations where they don't.
The same person remains your point of contact from the first reply to the trip after next. No handovers. No team.
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