The Ultimate Travel Guide To Mérida, Mexico

The Ultimate Travel Guide To Mérida, Mexico

Are you planning a trip to the ancient and  vibrant city of Merida Mexico wondering how   to navigate your way here to Merida well no  need to stress in today’s video I’m going to   break down all your travel options for getting  to Mayor to Mexico whether by plane train bus  

Or car but I won’t stop there I’ll also guide  you through the ins and outs of navigating This   Magnificent City like a local once you  arrive be sure to whip out that notepad   and pen because this video is going to save you  time money and a whole lot of research let’s get

It what is good Mexit Planners one of the most  significant hurdles of living in Merida Mexico   has been the sparse travel options available  turning my trips back to Atlanta into a 12-hour   Marathon door too this is all set to change  in March of 2024 thanks to Delta introducing  

New direct flights this is a game changer y’all  especially considering the historical scarcity   of direct flight options from the states to me  to Mexico historically the direct international   flights to meid to Mexico were from Dallas  or Miami on American Airlines from Houston  

On United Airlines or Toronto on WestJet but  on March 15th Delta Airlines will offer direct   flights from Atlanta to Mar Mexico operated by  aom Mexico prior to these new direct flights   on Delta you would have to go Atlanta to Mexico  City and then transfer Mexico City to Merida so  

This is going to save a tremendous amount of time  because typically it took me 12 hours to go door   too from Atlanta to Merida which was just a long  day now there are many many more cities that offer  

Direct flights to Cancun which is one of the most  popular tourist destinations in Mexico and only a   3 and 1 half hour car drive from Merida and many  locals will choose to fly to Cancun because of the   lowcost options mainly there are several lowcost  carriers that fly into Cancun like Spirit Frontier  

Southwest Airlines as an example from the United  States but you’ll still need to travel to mea   once you arriving in Cancun well there are three  options to get from Cancun to Merida you can drive  

Yourself in a rental car you can take it the audio  bus or you can take the new Maya train service now   all of those require some additional planning  and specifically if you’re planning to rent a  

Car I highly suggest that you don’t rely on your  credit card insurance and that you buy the full   insurance package from the rental car company the  reason being is if you’re in an accident in Mexico  

You have to solve that problem at the scene of the  accident and they’re not going to wait for you to   figure out if your credit card company is going  to cover the damages or any of those things you  

Either need to provide cash or have Mexican car  insurance and let them figure out what’s going   on and who is at fault I know the rental car  insurance can be twice as much as the rental  

Or can be as much as the rental price but it’s  worth it for the peace of mind and safety when   you get here in Mexico another option of getting  from Cancun to Merida is to take the AIO bus Which  

Is AO this is a top-of-the-line bus service so  the audio has many different types of services   there’s there’s even a first class service called  the platino service that has seven different buses   which has service starting at 737 a.m. to 6:30  p.m. and they leave every 2 hours now there’s also  

Regular bus service which is like your typical  tourist bus with reclining seats the seats are   cloth there’s a big difference between the platino  and the regular bus service but the regular bus   service is very comfortable and if you just need  to get there and do it inexpensively the regular  

Bus service is definitely the way to go with the  regular bus service they leave every day from 1:00   a.m. to 6: a.m. every hour now starting at 6:37  a.m. to 400 p.m. they leave every 30 minutes so  

From 6:00 p.m. to 10: p.m. they leave every hour  so there’s a good range of buses and the final   bus leaves at 10:30 p.m. at night and arrives  the next day because of the time change so the  

Bus takes about 4 to 4 and 1 half hours to ride  normally with all of the construction being done   on 180 which is the main toll road but the Prices  range from 483 pesos all the way to 968 payos for  

The platino but I normally schedule my tickets  with the audio app on my phone the key thing   to know is that there are several stations in  Merida um that you can leave from or arrive to  

Alesa in the north of Merida if you’re going to  one of the neighborhoods in the North like Monte   deame or san romon Norte or altoo or any of the  montis Monte Bello or any of those neighborhoods  

Monte Christo then the audio station at Altera is  probably going to be the closest station to you   now that’s there’s only probably a 5 to Seven Mile  difference between uh Altera and the Cami station  

Which is Way South in Merida so it’s not that big  a deal it’s not super far away but just know Al   is the northernmost audio station in Merida and  that’s also where the platino bus leaves and comes  

To is the audio is the alter Brea station now P  60 is in Centro closest to poo de monjo and a lot   of folks are coming here as tourists and they’re  going to be spending time near poo de monjo so poo  

60 is going to be a great station for that and at  poo 60 the platino bus also goes to poo 60 all of   the other buses all of the ones that leave every  hour every 30 minutes they go to the central Cami  

Station it’s CME so if you’re coming to Merida the  central Camy station is going to have your late   night options and early morning options to get  you back to or from from Cancun at a decent time  

So keep in mind that there are three different  stations in Merida whether it’s Altera P 60 where   the platino goes or the Cami station where all the  other buses go and leave from the the other thing  

That you really need to know if you’re leaving  from Merida going to Cancun is to watch your   things when you get to the Cancun Central Station  many people have had their belongings stolen at   the Cancun bus station when the bus arrives and  they un load the luggage underneath the bus so  

Watch your things like a hwk at the Cancun Central  Station please the last comment I’ll make about   the bus is if you’re taking the bus from Merida  to Cancun you need to transfer from the central  

Cancun bus station to the airport and that’s 120  pesos to get to the airport now it’s a separate   bus those buses leave about every 30 minutes so  that’s the Cancun Airport bus but you also need  

To pre- buy your tickets or buy your tickets when  you arrive at the station so please allow plenty   of time to make this transfer because sometimes  it could take you an hour depending on if you  

Just missed the bus or if the new bus is going so  just make arrangements make sure you allow enough   time to get from the Cancun syndro station to  the airport which is about a 20-minute ride all  

Right the third option to get from Cancun Merida  and vice versa is the Maya train now this is the   newest option and it’s still in its pre-opening  phase I took the Maya train on inauguration day  

Back on December 16th if you missed that video  check it out I’ll leave a link to it above but   let me just say that if you are planning to take  the Maya train please pre purchase your tickets  

And plan to go the day before or come in the day  after let me explain so there are two trains that   leave from Cancun to Merida each day in vice versa  the trains leave Cancun at 7 a.m. or at 9 a.m.  

That’s it those two train trains or you can get  from the Cancun Airport to the Maya train station   via a shuttle now that shuttle only runs twice a  day right before the Maya train leaves so if you  

Have tickets for the 7 a.m. Maya train and you’re  at the canun airport you need to arrive super   early in order to get from the from the terminal  to the Mya train bus station and it takes about 30  

To 45 minutes to circulate from terminal 4 all the  way over to the Maya train so make sure you allow   plenty of time I highly recommend that if you’re  taking the Maya train from Cancun to medida that  

You plan accordingly and either plan to leave  the next day uh stay at a local hotel in Cancun   and plan to catch the Maya train the next day  because the scheduling right now is 7: a.m. and  

9:00 a.m. now if you’re leaving from Merida going  to Cancun your options are to leave at 3:28 p.m.   or 5:30 p.m. that’s it those are the two options  the total duration for the trip when it’s running  

On schedule is 4 hours approximately so it takes  about 4 hours to ride the Maya train it’s three   and a half hours to drive or four and some change  to take the bus o over to Cancun so this isn’t  

The fastest option but it’s probably the most  comfortable option because you can get up and move   around they have great bathrooms if again check  out the video I did on inauguration day it is a   very very comfortable experience but it’s also  more more expensive so the tickets on the Meer  

Train are 977 pesos to go from Cancun to Merida  in tourist class or 1564 pesos in Premier class   this train is still in pre-opening but if you’re  taking the train plan accordingly to either go the   day before and make sure you pre- purchase your  tickets because more than likely you will not have  

Time to buy your tickets the same day the official  train Maya site is train t n Maya m a y a.g. Ms   MX that is the official site it has the updated  schedules the schedules are changing all the time  

The service is not reliable if you have travel  plans and you want to make a flight audio or   driving is going to be your best option right now  now that you’ve arrived at the Merit train station  

By the Maya train you still need to get into the  city of Merida because the Merida train station is   actually 7.8 m outside of the city in TAA at Henda  TAA all right so in order to get from the Merida  

Maya train station at TAA into the city of Merida  there are a couple of options one is you can take   the EA tram from the Maya train station in Merida  and two the city which goes to park lancha or poo  

60 we talked about poo 60 which is where the  audio buses also go so that is an option the   EA tram the EA tram cost 45 pesos for tourists or  14 pesos which is the general price if you already  

Have a buy transport card in order to have the buy  Vin card is 25 pesos and you can purchase at any   of the automatic cahas which they have one at the  lancha site the other option you have is to take a  

Ride share app or or taxi and just to give you an  idea a ride sharing from way out at TAA into the   city of Merida will cost you about 259 pesos when  I when I was making this video I pulled it up and  

That’s what I got I got a fee of 259 pesos so it’s  considerably more expensive to take a ride share   but if you miss a scheduled time for the EA tram  ride sharing may be your only option or ride Shar  

And or taxi may be your only option but it’s going  to be significantly more expensive than the public   transport now the tram for the my train station is  a direct route to the lancha park or to poo 60 it  

Goes to both places it goes to laan first and then  it goes to poo 60 holy guacamole you’ve now made   it into the city of Merida either by plane train  or bus once you’re in the city you still need  

To get to your hotel Airbnb now let’s switch to  getting around Merida so once you’re here either   at lancha par or poo 60 or Alto Brea or wherever  it is you may have arrived or even at the airport  

There are several options the easiest option are  taxi services the taxis are everywhere in Merida   they’re very economical and they’re Fair they’re  not like in Cancun and other places where they   just literally try to take as much money from you  as possible the one recommendation I will give you  

About taking a local taxi is ask what the price  will be to your destination before you begin your   trip so before you actually commit to the taxi and  get in the car and load all your stuff determine  

What the price is going to be beforehand the other  option is just to use popular ride sharing apps   like uber and here in Mexico we also have two  other options Diddy and another one called end   driver I don’t recommend end driver because it  doesn’t have the same security and background  

Checks that Diddy and Uber has so I routinely use  dii dii is the Chinese counterpart to Uber but   they have the same security measures you can take  ride sharing apps anywhere in Merida except from  

The airport if you fly directly into Merida you  need to take either a taxi or one of the shuttle   services at the airport or you have to take a  one M walk to catch a rod shair out outside of  

The federal airport zone I’ll either leave a link  to that video above or in the description notes   below so that you can see exactly what you have to  do to take a ride shair I do it all the time from  

The airport you just can’t do it at the terminal  you have to take that walk so it’s a 5 to six   minute walk it’s super easy it’s not a big deal  but unless you know what to do it can be a bit  

Confusing now ride Shares are permitted to drop  you off at the airport and I routinely schedule   ride shars whenever I have an early morning flight  or you know uh I’m just going to the airport I’ll  

Be gone for a long time so I don’t have to pay  for parking from you can get dropped off at the   terminal by a rod share you just can’t take a  rod share from the terminal to your destination  

Or Airbnb there’s also a viin direct bus that goes  from poo 60 to the airport so that that’s another   option for you and I’m not really sure the price  it’s probably 14 pesos but that’s another option  

From getting to and from the airport is to just  take the bin bus Which drops you off pretty much   in the middle of town all right if you’re still  with me you’re here in Merida you’re flourishing  

You’ve heard me mention the viin bus system now  there are two bus systems in Merida there’s the   old Antiquated buses that have been around forever  you can tell just by the way these buses look   they’re beat down they’re dirty um and they don’t  have air conditioning in many cases now these  

Older buses are slowly being replaced by this new  system called the viin which started about 2 years   ago it started on the perimeter circulating around  the city to to make it easier for people coming  

From the outside of the city to get to different  points around the city before you had to go all   the way into Central and then transfer back to  your points out which was just super inefficient  

Now the vi Vin system is the new bus system and  these buses are incredible they look like any   modern bus that you’ve seen in any major city  in the United States they are state-of-the-art   they’re brand new they have accessible seating  they have bike racks on the front I mean these  

Are and they all have air conditioning which  is probably the biggest plus to ride the vi   bin you need an electric card like this and you  can get these cards at automatic machines or you  

Can get the C at an Oxo which is the number one  convenience store in Mexico pretty much in every   neighborhood now the viin system doesn’t take cash  so you definitely need this card in order to ride  

The system however however the system also has  an app which shows you the closest stops and all   of the routes available to the system one of the  biggest problems with the old bus system is that  

You had to know the neighborhoods in which the  bus was traveling to and you needed to know the   streets so for instance for me to get home I would  take the bus that take casinos right it just had  

Casinos written in the window and if you didn’t  know what casinos they were talking about um or   the route the fact that those two casinos are on  the route to City Center you might not catch the  

Right bus and it took me over two years to figure  out how to ride that old system you could use the   move it app but it wasn’t super reliable so what  I recommend is that you download the vient app and  

Use that to figure out the closest stop there are  also new Metropolitan routes on the vient system   so what they’re starting to do is replace some of  those older bus routes with viin routes and those   routes are going to be you know with condition air  conditioning they’re going to have the bus that  

They’re going to be working with the app so you  know when the bus is supposed to come how close   it is how close you are to the next stop things  of that nature the vi Evin system is much improved  

And it’s growing they’re actually building out  substations and just opened the first one last   week for the vient system at the perimeter of  the city so places like Kel and uman and other   F places will be able to come in and just transfer  back out from those substations that are going to  

Be major stations for the buy event so it’s a huge  Improvement and it’s definitely the way that this   system is going now the major thing with the bin  is the EA tram and the EA tram is currently has  

Two routes the route that I told you about earlier  from the Maya train station into the City and back   to the Maya train station at parking lancha and  also P 60 there’s also the first Inter City route  

Which goes to Canine canine is a big suburb  just outside the parero of Merida I recently   took both routes to the Maya train station and to  kene just to experience what it was like to ride   this portion of the vient about so what about  last mile Transportation options in Merida well  

Several other options for transportation Merida  will be the NBC Bike Share system which if you   missed that video I did a little short video of me  taking the NBC for the first time I’ve now taken   it three times in total and it’s actually pretty  convenient one of the things that I found super  

Convenient when I was scouting this information  about the EA tram was I was able to take the the   NBC system from the lancha site over to near my  house I went to actually took it to Manifesto  

Coffee that day and then drove the train drove the  bike back over to one of the stations now with the   NBC system it’s operated by an app so it’s a bike  share system inside the city of Merida and mostly  

Along the main corridors for me the closest inbc  station is on pration monteo by Carl Jr which is   several blocks probably still another mile away  from my house but hopefully they’ll continue   to expand these stations and it’s a pretty slick  system it works via GPS and also via credit card  

So you basically sign up for the app you find an  a bike and you unlock that bike via the app and so   you have to return it to an NBC station and again  you know the stations aren’t all over but um it  

Is a pretty convenient way to just jump on a bike  and get to you know where you’re going faster than   walking now Merida is a very walkable City to give  you some idea if you’re walking from City Center  

Which is at the far north part of the perimeter  all the way down to the zoko which is the plaza   Grande or the actual literal center of the state  of Yucatan it’s only 5.6 miles I routinely run  

From my house which is about a mile and a half  from City Center uh down to Park lancha which is   near the the Grand Plaza or the zoko and it’s only  about 3 and a half miles so it’s not a very big  

City although it seems to be very big but you’re  talking you know less than seven miles from the   perimeter to the center of the city in most cases  the city is super flat and it’s very walkable  

However word of caution if you’re new to Merida  watch out for the sidewalk if you have a stroller   and you’re going to Centro it’s going to be very  difficult to push that stroller there’s like 54  

Miles of dedicated bike Lanes throughout the city  um so I prefer to run in those bike Lanes or walk   in those bike Lanes the easiest walking areas  in Merida are going to be on poo montejo over to   the gastronomic district because they’ve purposely  made those pedestrian friendly and those sidewalks  

Are basically wide and flat now on P mono be very  careful because the tiles are not exactly level   so there are areas that are going to be a little  higher than others and they raise up and things  

Of that nature I’ve seen many ladies fall on in  heels on that street at night I hope this video   has been super helpful leave me comments below  and let me know which Transportation options   you use to go to and from amida and which  Transportation options such as the Maya train  

Or the EA tram that you’re most excited about in  learning how to use until next time Mexit Plans Monte “I’m Out”

Getting to and around Merida Mexico is getting a lot easier in 2024. Today, I give you a comprehensive Merida Mexico Travel guide for traveling to Merida by plane, bus, car or train. I don’t stop there, I also tell you how to get around this amazing city of Merida Mexico like a local.

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