Yucatán Peninsula map

States in the region

The Yucatán Peninsula is a single slab of limestone that divides the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea. Three Mexican states share it, covering 141,736 km² with 5,107,246 people at the 2020 census — about 4 per cent of Mexico's population on 7 per cent of its land area. The political border is not the geographic one: the same limestone platform continues south into Belize and the Petén lowlands of Guatemala.

Quintana Roo is the newest state in the country, a federal territory until 1974, and the fastest-growing: its population has more than doubled since 2000, almost entirely on the strength of Caribbean tourism. Campeche is the emptiest at about 16 people per km², and its offshore fields in the Bay of Campeche still supply the bulk of Mexican crude oil. Yucatán is the oldest settled of the three, with Mérida laid out in 1542 on the Maya town of T'hó.

Geography

The peninsula is flat. Most of it lies under 30 m above sea level, and the highest ground — the Puuc hills and the Sierrita de Ticul in southern Yucatán — reaches only about 210 m. Because the rock is porous limestone, rain drains straight down instead of running off: there is not a single permanent surface river in the state of Yucatán. Fresh water sits in the water table and is reached through cenotes and flooded caves. Sac Actun, inland from Tulum, is the longest known underwater cave system in the world, with roughly 370 km of mapped passage.

The two coasts are unalike. The Gulf shore is shallow and low, fringed with mangrove, salt flats and barrier beaches; the reserves at Celestún and Ría Lagartos hold the region's Caribbean flamingo colonies, and salt has been worked at Las Coloradas since Maya times. The Caribbean shore has white carbonate sand and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second-longest reef system in the world at about 1,000 km from Isla Contoy south to the Bay Islands of Honduras. Between them, in the south of Quintana Roo, the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve protects 5,280 km² of wetland, lagoon and reef, and the Río Hondo forms the border with Belize at Chetumal.

Main cities and sights

Mérida is the largest city on the peninsula, with 995,129 people in its municipality in 2020, and the commercial centre for the whole region; its port, Progreso, sits 35 km north at the end of a pier about 6.5 km long, built that far out because the Gulf is so shallow. Cancún is the largest settlement in Quintana Roo and the entry point for most visitors. Campeche keeps the only complete circuit of Spanish colonial city walls in Mexico, built against pirates and listed by UNESCO in 1999, while Ciudad del Carmen on Isla del Carmen is the base for the offshore oil industry. Chetumal is the Quintana Roo capital on the Belize border, and Valladolid is the colonial town midway between Mérida and Cancún. The Caribbean resorts — Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres and Bacalar — are set out on the Riviera Maya page.

Chichén Itzá, 120 km east of Mérida, is the most visited archaeological site in Mexico at roughly 2.5 million admissions a year; its stepped pyramid, El Castillo, stands 24 m high and was built over an earlier temple. Uxmal and the Puuc route lie 80 km south of Mérida, Ek Balam sits north of Valladolid, Edzná is 60 km from Campeche, and Calakmul — a Classic Maya capital deep in a 7,230 km² biosphere reserve near the Guatemalan border — is the largest site by area. The archaeological sites map places them all.

When to go and getting around

The dry season runs from November to April and is the practical travel window. May is the hottest month, with Mérida regularly above 38 °C, and the rains fall between June and October. Hurricane season is 1 June to 30 November, with September and October the peak; Gilbert in 1988 and Wilma in 2005 both crossed the peninsula.

Cancún (CUN) is the second-busiest airport in Mexico and the main long-haul gateway; Mérida (MID), Cozumel (CZM), Campeche (CPE) and Chetumal (CTM) handle domestic traffic, and Tulum (TQO) opened in December 2023. By road, Highway 180D links Mérida to Cancún as a toll route of about 300 km, Highway 307 runs the Caribbean coast from Cancún to Chetumal, Highway 261 crosses from Mérida to Campeche past Uxmal, and Highway 186 cuts west from Chetumal across the base of the peninsula. The Maya Train, a 1,554 km loop opened in stages from December 2023, connects Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Valladolid, Mérida, Campeche and Palenque. See the road map and the airports map.

Questions about the Yucatán Peninsula

Which states make up the Yucatán Peninsula?

Three Mexican states: Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Campeche. The peninsula also extends south into Belize and the Petén region of Guatemala.

Where is the Yucatán Peninsula on the map of Mexico?

In the far south-east, separating the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea. Mérida is about 1,300 km east of Mexico City by road and Cancún about 1,600 km.

What is a cenote?

A sinkhole where the limestone roof has collapsed to expose the water table. More than 6,000 have been registered in the state of Yucatán alone, and a ring of them about 180 km across marks the buried rim of the Chicxulub impact crater.

When is the best time to visit the Yucatán Peninsula?

November to April, when rain is light and daytime highs sit near 30 °C. April and May are the hottest months inland, and the Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November with the highest risk in September and October.

Is the Yucatán Peninsula safe?

Yucatán state has recorded the lowest homicide rate of any Mexican state for most of the past decade, and Campeche is also among the lowest; Quintana Roo's rate is higher and concentrated away from the resort strips. Check the current US State Department advisory before travelling.