Our 13-Day Mexico Road Trip

We just returned from our Mexican vacation. This comment seems odd since back in May of 2022, we relocated to Merida, Mexico, in the Yucatan.

But here’s how things unfolded.

 

We Missed Traveling

Technically, we have not traveled since returning from two weeks in India, as the world shut down with COVID.

We had made a little road trip from St Pete, visiting Savannah, Charleston, and St. Augustine. And we had made a few trips to explore Merida in preparation for the move – but we hadn’t really had a vacation, vacation.

But we weren’t ready to dive headfirst into a cruise, and in 2021, we canceled trips to Israel / Jordan and Machu Picchu and wanted to wait a bit on those.

 

So, Why Mexico?

We had a travel credit from covid cancellation to use. And we knew that living in Mexico, we had just one short flight to Mexico City and didn’t have to do any testing upon arrival or return home (the world was still under some testing restrictions when we booked this).

We also knew that we still needed to explore LOTS of Mexico. Like many of the Gate 1 tours we had done in the past, this trip would show us what places we wanted to return to and spend more time in.

And, lastly, we wanted to learn more about the history of our new home country!

 

13-Day Mayan and Aztec Illumination

 

We chose Gate 1 Travel’s 13-Day Mexico’s Mayan and Aztec Illuminations tour for several reasons beyond staying in Mexico. 

It is one of their Discovery Small Group Tours. This means 22 people or fewer, much like our trip to Kenya.

Because of the smaller tour group size, we were able to explore places that larger groups don’t always do. We made some fun pitstops along the way and had a little time to explore independently.

Living in the Yucatan, we wanted to know about the people who lived in this region before the Spanish arrived and see the incredible archaeological sites.

And two of our dear friends, Casey and Candi, also decided to book the tour. We met them on our Gate 1 trip to China, were supposed to travel to Israel and Jordan with them, and ended up exploring Vegas with them instead when the middle east tour was canceled.

 

But, Where’d Ya Go?

The trip began in Mexico City and was an easy two-hour flight for us. It was our first time flying Aero Mexico, and we have to say we were pleasantly surprised. 

We came in a day early, did a little exploring on our own, and visited Mark’s dear friend and fellow Master Wedding Planner, Camelu, and her husband. 

We promise we’ll have lots of blogs about each city, the hotels, the fantastic food, and the sites we explored over the course of the road trip.

After Mexico City, we traveled to Puebla City, the port city of Veracruz, on to Palenque near the border of Guatemala. From there, we entered the Yucatan peninsula and the city of Campeche. 

We then spent two days in our new home city of Merida. As weird as it sounds, it was fun! We got to play host to some new friends and explore a few places we hadn’t seen. 

From Merida, we went to Chichen Itza and ended at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun. Beyond these major cities, we explored some incredible smaller towns like Xalapa, Uxmal, and Izamal along the way!

It was an incredible journey. We made fantastic new friends and can’t wait to share our journey with you!