Departure day, where you will fly to Mexico City with connecting flights along the way. At Mexico City airport, you will be met by a driver who will accompany you to your hotel.

Today, you’re going on an exciting guided tour of Mexico City, which is one of the world’s largest cities. Located at an altitude of 2,240 metres, it is one of the world’s highest cities, and it is surrounded by volcanoes. You’ll be visiting the colonial centre of Mexico and the central square, Zocalo, which is bordered by the National Palace and the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, the largest cathedral in the country. Templo Mayor, the ruins of the ceremonial centre of the former Aztec capital Tenochtitlan are also located here (admission not included).

You continue from here to Alameda Park, where the country’s beautiful national stage, Palacio de Bellas Artes, is located. Opera, ballet, plays, and concerts are performed here. You continue along the wide avenue, Paseo de la Reforma, which runs right through the heart of Mexico City to Chapultepec Park. The anthropological museum, Museo de Antropologia, which houses a large collection of artefacts from before the arrival of the Spanish, is situated here. It is an exciting museum that offers fascinating knowledge about the country’s many different cultures.

You are back at your hotel late afternoon and have the evening to yourself.

Today, you will be visiting the temple city of Teotihuacán, whose name translates as The place where people became gods and which is one of the largest ruin complexes in Latin America. As you walk along the 3-km-long Avenida de los Muertos (Avenue of the Dead), you see the huge temples and pyramids that date all the way back to the year 200 BC, but which were constructed over a very long period of time. They include the Quetzalcoatl temple, where the remains have been found of more than 200 prisoners of war offered up in sacrifice, Quetzalpapalotl Palace, and the famous pyramids of the Moon (60 m) and Sun (70 m), which were built in the centre of the city over a cave around 100 metres long, where it is said that mankind was created.

The tour then continues to the church called Basilica de Nuestra de Guadalupe, which can hold a congregation of 10,000 people, and which around 20 million pilgrims visit each year. The church has given its name to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the guardian angel of both Mexico and the whole of Central America.

Finally, you arrive at the last stop on today’s trip: the Plaza de las Tres Culturas (The Three Cultures’ Square), which symbolises the three periods of Mexican history. Here you can admire the remains of the pre-Columbian Aztec ruins, a Spanish church from the colonial age, and the Mexican mestizos’ modern building that houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Today, you leave Mexico City and fly to Tuxtla. Here, you will be picked up and driven to Sumidero Canyon, where you will go on a breathtaking, 2-hour speedboat trip into the canyon, the mountainsides towering on either side of you. Enjoy the nature and the exciting wildlife. If you are lucky you will see monkeys, crocodiles and different kinds of birds.

Back on dry land again, you board the coach to San Cristóbal de las Casas, which is located at an altitude of 2,100 metres and one of the most beautiful cities in Mexico. This charming place was once called just ‘San Cristóbal’ – ‘de las Casas’ was added subsequently in honour of Bartolomé de las Casas, a Spanish priest who famously fought for the rights of the indigenous Indians. The city is famous for its magnificent colonial architecture. Next to the centrally located square called Plaza 31 de Marzo stand one of the most beautiful churches in the city: Templo de Santo Domingo.

Other attractions in the city include: Templo del Carmen, with its distinctive tower, the local market that sells food and arts and crafts items, and Na Bolom, the home of the Danish adventurer and archaeologist Frans Blom, Na Bolom. The building has now been converted into a hotel including a museum that presents exhibitions of his lifelong work to study the Indian tribes.

Please note there is no English-speaking guide on this day (nor is one needed).

San Juan Chamula is home to 50,000 descendants from the Mayans, primarily Tzotzil and Tzeltals. The Mayan descendants take care to maintain their distinctive features and cultural heritage, so they speak their own language, the town has its own police force and own rules. You will also visit the distinctive church, which is located on the central square in the town. The church is a good example of how the original Mayan beliefs gradually merged with the Catholic faith. The Indians pray to the Mayan god or saint relevant to the illness or wish that forms the basis for their visit. There are no pews in the church, so visitors have to kneel and pray on the floor among the numerous lighted candles. The air is thick with incense, and the walls are lined with wooden figures of the local saints and of John the Baptist, who is the guardian angel of the town.

Both San Juan Chamula and Zinacantán are well-known for their weaving techniques, and each village has its own special costumes featuring carefully composed patterns and colours. At the markets, Indian traders in colourful clothes sell ceramic items and clothing made of wool and cotton.

Today, you begin the drive from San Cristóbal de las Casas to Palenque in the early hours of the morning. On the way, you will stop off at the delightful Agua Azul Falls, which are set in an area of tropical rainforest (this day is in transit and therefore unguided). With the turquoise water, intense colours, the constant breeze and the rumbling water, this is one of the most beautiful and memorable natural attractions in Mexico. There are more than 500 large and small waterfalls here, ranging in height from 3 to 30 metres. You will then go to see the 35-metre-high Misol-Há waterfall, which is famous far and wide for its beauty. This beautiful landscape is surrounded by tropical vegetation, and dotted with mahogany and sapote trees. You arrive at the town of Palenque towards the end of the afternoon.

Please note there is no English-speaking guide on this day (nor is one needed).

*Currently, gov.uk has a travel advisory on the road from San Cristóbal to Palenque via Agua Azul and Misol Ha waterfalls (Route 199) because it is often affected by demonstrations and roadblocks. As long as gov.uk advises against this route, we will change your program for this day and take you to Palenque by a different route via the town of Villahermosa. Unfortunately, you will not be able to visit the two waterfalls with this route change.

Palenque is set in an area of tropical rainforest and known for its beauty and magnificent location overlooking the flat Yucatán countryside. Palenque was one of the biggest cities in the Mayan kingdom, and gives its name to the nearby Mayan ruins, which feature on the UNESCO World Heritage List. These fascinating ruins are hidden deep in the almost impenetrable rainforest in the Chiapas province of Mexico. Here, you will take a closer look at the Inscription Temple, a burial monument to King Pacal the Great.

Today, you have a long day of travelling ahead of you, but as you are on board a first-class bus to Mérida, you can just sit back in the soft seats and enjoy the landscape rushing by. You can either walk from the hotel to the bus station in Palenque or take a taxi (at your own expense). On your arrival in Mérida, a taxi is waiting to drive you to your hotel.

The drive takes about 8 hours.

There are no excursions planned for the day, so you can explore the city for yourselves.

This delightful city was founded in 1542 on the remains of the former Mayan town of Tihó. Mérida is known as ‘The White City’ on account of the many white-painted houses it contains. The locals also refer to it as ‘the Paris of Mexico’ as it is the most European city on the Yucatán peninsula. You could also choose to go on an excursion out of the city, either to see the flamingo colony in Celestun, the beautiful cenotes, or to visit the impressive Mayan ruins at Uxmal.

Today, you are going to the beach at Playa del Carmen, but before that you will be stopping at the ruins of Chichen Itza, an ancient city that features on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and which has been named one of the seven wonders of the modern world. The ruins actually feature traces of two different cultural periods: one Mayan and one Itzá. You will see the famous El Castillo pyramid, whose stepped sides climb to a height of 25 metres.

Our trip then continues to the beautiful Playa del Carmen, which has a kilometre-long stretch of white sand and palm trees next to crystal clear water. The central square in Playa del Carmen is the Plaza Mayor, situated next to the beach and close to the ferry that sails to Isla Cozumel – a true paradise for divers. Plaza Mayor marks the start of the main street in the town, Avenida 5, which is lined with shops, restaurants and bars. In the evening, the beach comes to life in the form of bars that generally present live reggae or calypso music. It is hard to imagine a better way to start the evening than sitting down with a cool Corona beer, listening to sweet music and admiring the view out over the Caribbean Sea.

The days are yours to do with as you wish: explore Playa del Carmen on your own and relax on the fine white sandy beach, for example. You can also try some of the different water sports, such as windsurfing or jet-skiing, or go snorkelling or diving by Cozumel island – a world-famous paradise for divers with its fascinating grottoes and beautiful reefs. The ferry to the island to sail to the island from Playa del Carmen takes around 45 minutes, and there are several departures every day.

The time has now come to bid farewell to Mexico. You will be collected and driven to Cancún airport to start your journey home.
You will fly to the UK with connecting flights along the way.

You arrive in the UK after a wonderful tour.