DK Travel : Cancún and the Yucatán : History & Culture

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Ticul

The epitome of the slow-moving, unfussy, friendly atmosphere of a small Yucatán country town, Ticul also makes an excellent base for visiting the Puuc ruins (see The Puuc Cities). Shoes are the town’s traditional product, and it also has the Almendros Restaurant, credited with presenting Yucatán country cooking to the outside world (seeLos Almendros, Ticul).
Tizimín

The name comes from the Mayan tsimin , a kind of demon, which was also used to describe the Spaniards when they first appeared on horseback. Today it’s the capital of Yucatán’s “cattle country,” between Valladolid and Río Lagartos. The pleasant twin plazas in the center are divided by two huge monasteries, which give Tizimín a distinctly Mediterranean appearance.
Tulum

A small city from the last decades of Mayan civilization, Tulum is spectacular as the only Mayan city built above a beach.
Uxmal

With the elegant lines of the Nunnery Quadrangle and towering mass of the Pyramid of the Magician, Uxmal is not only one of the most beautiful of ancient Mayan cities but also one of the greatest sights in the Americas.
Uxmal

A hugely atmospheric city with some of the finest Mayan buildings, in the Nunnery Quadrangle and the Governor’s Palace .
Valladolid

The Spanish capital of eastern Yucatán, founded in 1545, has at its heart one of the most charming of the region’s colonial plazas – wonderful for people-watching – overlooked by the tall white cathedral. Valladolid is celebrated for embroidery, and the square is a good place to buy the white, flower-patterned huípil dresses and tablecloths. Around the town there are many more fine old Spanish churches and houses, and just four blocks from the plaza you can look down into the dramatic pit of Cenote Zací, once Valladolid’s water source.
ValladolidValladolid

Valladolid combines distinguished colonial architecture with the easygoing atmosphere of a Yucatán market town. Whitewashed arcades and 17th-century houses surround the main plaza, and among the town’s many churches is a fine Franciscan monastery (seeManí Monastery). Right in the middle of the town is a huge cenote, which once provided all Valladolid’s water, and nearby at Dzitnup are some of the Yucatán’s most spectacular cenotes for swimming.
Xcambó

A tiny site, probably an offshoot of Dzibilchaltún, with a Catholic chapel built onto one of its pyramids.
Xel-Ha

One of the oldest Mayan sites near the modern Riviera, with ancient murals of birds.
Xlapak

Smallest of the Puuc sites. Its Palacio has a frieze of elaborately carved Chac-masks.