Colonial Highlights of the Yucatan Peninsula
Primarily visited for its beautiful beaches and world-famous for its superb Mayan ruins, the Yucatan Peninsula is also home to four wonderful colonial centres.
(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-TZ8DJ49');
Primarily visited for its beautiful beaches and world-famous for its superb Mayan ruins, the Yucatan Peninsula is also home to four wonderful colonial centres.
If you're contemplating the idea of solo travel to Cuba, here are just some of the key issues to consider.
With no current, direct flights from the UK to Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador & Panama, indirect flights are a simple necessity, rather than a choice.
Having travelled to Cuba since 1995, I’ve seen an awful lot of the island and witnessed a fair degree of change. Based on all this experience, below are my 10 top tips for Cuba.
Following his much-anticipated announcement last Friday, in which Donald Trump promised to reverse his predecessor’s policies – what next for tourism in Cuba?
As the travel hub of Guatemala’s northern Peten region, deciding where to stay in Flores is an important decision for visitors to the region.
Although things are slowly opening up in Cuba, most aspects of the economy are still firmly closed to the private sector, including bus travel.
Although primarily visited for its superb beaches, the Yucatan Peninsula is a treasure trove of cultural attractions and having one’s own car is probably the best way to fit in as many as possible.
Yup, Trinidad Cuba. So, if you’ve found this article and were hoping for advice on beach holidays in Trinidad & Tobago, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place amigo.
The Ultimate Cuba Tour is a small, group escorted tour that takes in pretty much the whole island in two weeks.
Ceviche Yucatan style is my favourite variant of a dish that is hugely popular throughout Central & South America.
Melia Cuba have announced ambitious expansion plans for Cuba involving 8 new properties, and a total of 931 rooms, in Cienfuegos, Trinidad & Camaguey.
It’s the single biggest draw in the Yucatan Peninsula so deciding where to stay at Chichen Itza is a decision you’ll want to give some thought to
The very idea of golf in Cuba has long been something of a running joke, but is that all finally set to change?
While the Big Three’ – Antigua, Lake Atitlan & Tikal – are visited by pretty much everyone who travels to Guatemala on holiday, there is plenty to see and do in-between and some wonderful drives.
Virgin Atlantic have just come out with fares from London to Havana and Varadero at just under £400, the lowest fares in many a year.
As one of Guatemala’s ‘Big Three’ tourist draws, Lake Atitlan certainly isn’t short of hotel options and deciding where to stay can be a confusing process.
Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005, the city of Cienfuegos on Cuba’s south coast is certainly worth visiting, but for how long?
Pronounced ‘Shoo-Nahn-Too-Nich’, Xunantunich means Stone Woman in Mayan, referring to a ghost who was said to inhabit the site. However, this story only dates back to the late 19th century and the original name of the site remains a mystery.
A relatively small country, dominated by a single major city and distinguished by its mountainous terrain, Guatemala has just one domestic flight route, that between Guatemala City and Flores.
The Essential Cuba tour is an escorted, small group tour lasting 7 nights and taking in the key highlights of western Cuba.
Ever since Barack Obama visited Cuba in 2016, travel from the US to Cuba has become easier. Just not easy.
An archipelago comprising the main island plus over 4,000 cayes and islets, Cuba has the potential to become perhaps the world’s foremost fishing destination.
It’s not as if the Yucatan Peninsula is short of Mayan sites but many visitors to the region are still determined to include Palenque in their itinerary.
Currently the second largest hotel management company in Cuba, Iberostar Cuba seems determined to close the gap on the market leader, Melia Cuba.
Largely over-shadowed by the far more famous Tikal, few visitors to Guatemala's Peten region visit the nearby, equally fascinating, Mayan city of Yaxha.
As the largest island in the Caribbean, Cuba is packed full of things to do and see including no less than 9 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
At over 1000kms in length, anyone looking to traverse Cuba within a typical holiday window will probably need to take at least one internal flight.
Heaven knows, there is more than enough to see and do in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula to warrant looking no further. However, if like me you actively seek out holidays that, er, wander off beyond the ordinary, how about combining the Yucatan with Havana?
As one of Guatemala’s ‘Big Three’ attractions (the other two being Antigua and Tikal), pretty much every visitor to the country will visit Lake Atitlan as part of their itinerary.
Commencing 15th March this year, the Air Europa daily flight from Madrid to Havana will be operated by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Occupying the space between the colonial towns of Trinidad & Sancti Spiritus, the Valley of the Sugar Mills is another of Cuba’s UNESCO World Heritage sites.
The Dhawa Cayo Santa Maria has finally opened and is poised to provide Cuba’s established hotel operators with some much-needed competition.
There are over a thousand Mayan sites dotted across Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula so, unless you plan to move to the region permanently, chances are that you will struggle to visit even 1% of them.
If you’d never seen a howler monkey before, but heard them calling out to each other across the jungle canopy, you might easily imagine (with a degree of trepidation if you were nearby) that they were huge, gorilla-like creatures that would make short work of any pesky human that got in their way.
Marius Jovaisa is a ground-breaking travel photographer, famous for his aerial shots, all contained in 5 beautiful photography books, including Unseen Cuba
So, you're off on holiday to Guatemala but haven't got a clue what you need to do in terms of cash, credit cards etc. Read on amigos....
The Riviera Hotel in Havana is perhaps the classic 1950s Cuban hotel which, it has just been announced, will be taken over by the Iberostar group in early 2017.
It’s something of a cliché to refer to KLM as the de facto national airline of the UK, but they do offer more regional connections than any other airline.
Quick trivia question – what is the tallest building in Belize? An office block in Belize city, a government ministry in the capital Belmopan or perhaps even the air traffic control tower at the country’s international airport? Nope, in fact the answer is the main pyramid at the ancient Mayan site of Caracol which stands at some 44 metres high.
When making your travel arrangements, we understand just how important peace-of-mind is. Beyond The Ordinary hold both ATOL & ABTOT bonds so whether you book your flights through us, or independently, any money you pay us is 100% protected. More detailed information on Financial Protection can be found by clicking here.
Whichever of our featured countries you wish to visit, we've been there several times. So, if you're after something beyond the ordinary to Cuba, Guatemala or the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, we'd love to hear from you.
Plan my Extraordinary