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An extraordinary little town in which over 2,000 years of time are expressed, from its ancient Mayan edifices to a fine 18th-century Spanish church.

The most complete Spanish walled city in Mexico, Campeche is full of reminders of the era when it was a trading hub of Spain’s empire and looked upon with greed by Caribbean pirates. In recent years the old city – with its churches, patios, Andalusian-style grill windows, and façades in delicate pastel colors – has been restored to refresh its distinctive charm.

A Spanish colonial walled city that retains a charming, old-world feel. The 17th-century ramparts and bastions were built to defend it against pirates. The streets within are lined with delicately colored old houses featuring patios and iron-grilled windows. A museum, housed in an old Spanish fort, contains jade funeral masks and other fine relics from the recently excavated site at Calakmul.

Mérida and Campeche began their cathedrals around the same time, but the stop-start construction at Campeche meant that while the central façade was finished in the 1600s, the tower on its left was added only in the 1750s, and that on its right as late as the 1850s.

This is the most spectacular of the easily accessible, swim-mable cenotes, and one of the great sights of the Yucatán. Entering through a cramped tunnel, you emerge into a vast, cathedral-like cavern, with towers of strangely shaped rock around an exquisite turquoise pool. In the middle, a shaft of sunlight falls dead straight onto the water from a hole in the roof. Everyone automatically swims through it, to be touched by this magical light.

The most famous and awe-inspiring of all the great ancient Mayan cities, and the one with the most spine-tingling images of war and sacrifice. The great pyramid of El Castillo, the giant Ball Court, the Sacred Cenote, and the Temple of the Warriors are all must-sees.