What's the best way to get around in Yucatan: Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen, Cancun, Merida, etc?

If you’re living in Centro Historico in any of the cities or the main towns of the Yucatan Peninsula, including Merida, Playa Del Carmen, Tulum, Majahual, etc., you can usually get around by via foot, bicycle, or public transportation.
 
There’s not a need for an automobile unless you live outside of town a distance or in the suburb, in which case, you might need a car to go do your grocery shopping or to get from one event to another. Usually, if you’re in any...

If you’re living in Centro Historico in any of the cities or the main towns of the Yucatan Peninsula, including Merida, Playa Del Carmen, Tulum, Majahual, etc., you can usually get around by via foot, bicycle, or public transportation.
 
There’s not a need for an automobile unless you live outside of town a distance or in the suburb, in which case, you might need a car to go do your grocery shopping or to get from one event to another. Usually, if you’re in any of these cities and the main center area, you don’t need an automobile at all. Walking, taxis, and bicycles are more than sufficient.  

 

(Walking around Playa del Carmen, Mexico, pictured.)

If you are arriving to Cancun, it is always good to have a car. Most of the roads here are easy to drive. The connection between Merida (the largest city in the state of Yucatan) and Cancun (the largest city in the state of Quintana Roo) is a 3-hour drive. The whole trip is around 190 miles and it’s just one straight road so it’s very easy to drive.
 
People drive everywhere here in Yucatan. They go to ports, etc. because it is too easy to drive around. However,...

If you are arriving to Cancun, it is always good to have a car. Most of the roads here are easy to drive. The connection between Merida (the largest city in the state of Yucatan) and Cancun (the largest city in the state of Quintana Roo) is a 3-hour drive. The whole trip is around 190 miles and it’s just one straight road so it’s very easy to drive.
 
People drive everywhere here in Yucatan. They go to ports, etc. because it is too easy to drive around. However, driving in Merida may be a bit difficult because there are certain rules that need to be followed. There are lots of roundabouts, which at the beginning are sometimes difficult to understand.  The public transportation systems within the city of Merida and in some towns are not that good. 
 
If you go to Progreso (the closest beach town from Merida), and if you are going to be staying as a tourist, you have options when it comes to transportation but if you are going to be living here, it’s sometimes very difficult to get a good option to move yourself around. If you ask the people who live downtown, they do not have any problem because they are working in an area that is just close by. Depending on where you live, the traffic varies. Taxis are expensive here in Yucatan. It is not as expensive as in New York but it is still expensive. Also, there are not that many taxis here. You could hire a van that loads up to ten people. 
 
If you want to be driven from Merida to Sisal and back (around 60 miles one way), it will cost around US $70. If you are traveling just within Merida, from the airport to the hotel downtown, which is just less than 5 miles, would cost you about $15 in a taxi. Taxis are expensive because there are only a few of them and they have control over the area. They have unions here and sometimes they make the markets non-competitive. We don’t have Uber yet in Mexico but there are some alternatives to Uber that are available here. I think we will have Uber soon and that is going to change the prices big time. The distances here are not very big and Merida is an old city so it is difficult to get into downtown. The city of Merida has grown and we did not foresee this growth so most of the roads in the areas that grew as not as prepared compared to the roads in developed areas in the US. They didn’t think ahead, instead they think in a reactive way.

 

(Historical neighborhood in Sisal, Yucatan, Mexico, pictured.)

One of the best things about being here in Mexico is that it is easy to get from any point A to point B. There is a lot of public transportation, there are taxis, and peseros, which are the little vans or little buses. We also have the bigger sized buses. 

 

This is true even if you want to move from one city to the next city. For example, if you are in Playa del Carmen, and you want to take a weekend trip to Merida, it’s very easy to get a bus many hours...

One of the best things about being here in Mexico is that it is easy to get from any point A to point B. There is a lot of public transportation, there are taxis, and peseros, which are the little vans or little buses. We also have the bigger sized buses. 

 

This is true even if you want to move from one city to the next city. For example, if you are in Playa del Carmen, and you want to take a weekend trip to Merida, it’s very easy to get a bus many hours of the day. Mexico still has a pretty large percentage of the population that are in the low income bracket so a large number of the population do not have their own automobiles and rely upon public transportation.

 

If you do decide to go on a bus trip, there are some bus lines (the big buses) that have reclining seats, television, Wi-Fi, plug-ins for your laptop, and some of them even have a waitress that attends to you on the trip. I don’t think there is any place I know up in the States that have something as elaborate as that. 

 

Even up in Cancun, all the way down to Tulum, you will see a lot of tourists standing along the highway and flagging down the public transportation buses. Public transportation in Mexico is pretty inexpensive. If you take a taxi from Playa del Carmen to the next point, you will pay about 30 to 50 pesos (US $1.75 to $3), with 50 pesos ($3) being from one side of town to the other side of town. 

 

Overall, here in Mexico, you’re never at a loss to getting from point A to point B compared to most suburbs in the US and Canada where if you don’t own a car, you’re stuck and it’s very difficult to maneuver. Down here in Mexico, it’s completely the opposite.

 

With that said, most of the people, especially the expats, who come down here are starting to buy their own automobiles. Around 5 to 10 years ago, Americans who came down to Mexico would bring their car down from the States but with all the licensing, it’s just a lot easier to buy a car that’s from Mexico. This is very practical for 6 months or the entire year.  They can just jump in the car and do a lot of road trips around the entire Yucatan Peninsula.

 

They are now trying to introduce a train from Progreso to Merida and then from Merida to Valladolid that’s supposed to continue all the way up to Playa del Carmen. That would be a very nice to be able to jump on a train and go to Merida, so hopefully that project continues.  

 

(Playa Express vans, Yucatan, Mexico, pictured.)