Things to Do in Riviera Maya The Yucatan

Because Cancun is a flat coastal plain, you don’t really need to gain much elevation for a sweeping view of the town. Imagine, then, the panoramic view from atop Escenica Tower (Torre Escénica), considering the tower puts you 264 feet above the town. As part of the Xcaret network of sights, Escenica Tower offers visitors a view of the massive Xcaret complex, as well as the string of Cancun beaches all the way out to Cozumel in the distance. This is the highest point on the Riviera Maya, and because the enclosed, air-conditioned platform slowly rotates while climbing the tower, all you need to do is look out the window and take in the time-stopping view.

While the center of Merida is all Spanish Colonial in architecture and layout, Paseo de Montejo is the product of a brief period when the French controlled Mexico and built a grand boulevard lined by mansions. Several upscale hotels, nightclubs, and hot restaurants are on this stretch, retaining their original interesting façades. It’s a pleasant street for walking, with wide shady sidewalks and interesting shops and galleries here and there. It ends at a roundabout with the city’s history laid out in stone on a relief in the center. Just before that are two places showing where we’ve come: a small tourist shopping mall on one side and a Super Wal-mart on the other.

If you stay on this boulevard heading north in a car, eventually it turns into a highway that goes 40 minutes to Progreso’s beach and cruise ship dock, on the Gulf of Mexico.

It’s a long, hot walk to get here from the center, however, so most visitors see Paseo de Montejo on a horse carriage ride or take a taxi to the end and walk back via Santa Lucia and Santa Ana parks.

This minor archeological site on the Puuc Route south of Merida is worth visiting to see its Palace of the Masks, an ornate structure covered with hundreds of masks of the same figure: the rain god Chaac. This repeating motif is rare in Mayan art and perhaps illustrates the importance of water—or the lack of it some years. There are no underground cenotes in this area, so rainfall was the only source of water.

Artifacts have been found here going as far back as the third century BC, but most of what remains was built between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was abandoned soon after and was empty when the Spanish conquistadores arrived.

Some of the sculpted elements of the site have been whisked off to various museums, but several low stone buildings and pyramids remain. Since Kabah is in a region dotted with other ruins, it’s usually a quick stop as part of a multi-site tour.