2025 Spain Trip Dates are LIVE! | $89 Deposit for 2025 Departures
2025 Spain Trip Dates are LIVE! | $89 Deposit for 2025 Departures
11 Days | 10 Nights
Start Location
Cancun, Mexico
End Location
Cancun, Mexico
Group Size
6-15
Physical Activity
Starting at
$2,995
Traverse Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula by rail, van, and foot on an expedition built around the Tren Maya — the modern railway connecting some of the ancient world’s most powerful cities. You’ll push yourself as you climb pyramids and paddle through the ancient world.
Start at the Caribbean coast, where you’ll kayak through ancient Maya trade canals and descend into underground cave systems. Board the train south, and the landscape shifts from turquoise lagoons to deep jungle as you enter the remote Calakmul Biosphere Reserve — the second largest jungle in the Americas & home to jaguars, howler monkeys, and pyramid metropolises.
Continue by train far to the south to Palenque, the architectural masterpiece of the Classic Maya world. With pyramids and palaces built into the jungle highlands, you’ll appreciate the romance as howler monkeys roar in the background.
This is not your typical Cancun beach vacation. It’s a true expedition through jungle, ruins, and living Maya culture — connected by one of the world’s newest railways.
Infusing trips with soul and community. Our name reflects the goal of the trips—’Meraki‘ for doing something with passion + ‘Kiva‘ an ancient Pueblan place for communal gatherings.
At the core of every Merakiva Trip is archaeology, community, and intention. By adventuring into the world, exploring the past, we craft an experience that you’ll remember for a lifetime.
This trip is built for people who want to earn their views. You’ll climb pyramids in the jungle heat, kayak for hours through mangrove channels, wade through underground rivers, and wake up at 6am to beat the crowds to a gate that opens onto 60 kilometers of wilderness road.
If you’re the kind of traveler who gets restless at a resort and excited by a site with no other tourists, this is your trip. Or, if you’re looking for a break from the monotony of everyday life and need an adventure to awaken your soul. Solo travelers, adventurous couples, and small groups of friends are all welcome — you’ll leave as one group.
You don’t need to be an archaeologist (we’ll handle that part). You do need to be comfortable being active for most of the day, in tropical heat and humidity, with some days requiring early mornings and significant walking on uneven terrain.
You need to fly into Cancún International Airport (CUN) — one of the busiest airports in Latin America with direct flights from most major cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
On arrival day, we’ll transfer you by private van to our base near the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve (~1.5 hours south of the airport).
The trip ends back in Cancún. On Day 10, we fly from Villahermosa back to Cancún in the evening and stay one night at Puerto Morelos, a quiet fishing village 20 minutes from the airport. Day 11 is departure day — you’ll want to book flights departing in the afternoon or later.
Tip: If you’d like help finding the best flights or using points & miles, we’re happy to assist!
Welcome to Mexico. We’ll whisk you south from the airport by private van, past the hotel zones and tourist strips, to a jungle eco-lodge on the edge of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve.
Settle in, breathe the air, and gather for our welcome dinner. You’ll meet your fellow travelers and hear the story of the route ahead — from Caribbean coast to deep jungle, connected by one of the world’s newest railways. Tomorrow starts early, and it starts big.
The first full day starts physically. We begin the day at Muyil, a small Maya site next to the Mayan canal network. It’s small but its location is unique. You’ll find out soon, as you recreate the Mayan journey.
Then we enter the biosphere reserve itself. By kayak and on foot, we’ll navigate the ancient Maya trade canals — waterways built over a thousand years ago that still flow through mangrove and marsh. You’ll float the channels, spot crocodiles and wading birds, and understand why the Maya built an entire infrastructure around water.
Morning takes us underground. The Yucatán sits on a massive limestone shelf full of with cave systems and cenotes — natural sinkholes the Maya considered entrances to Xibalba, the underworld. We’ll explore some of the region’s most dramatic cave cenote systems: headlamps on, wading through underground rivers past stalactites and turquoise pools.
After surfacing, the afternoon is yours for the Caribbean. A few hours on a quiet stretch of coast — swim, decompress, let the salt dry on your skin. You’ve earned it.
Then we clean up and head to the train station. Our first Tren Maya journey: three hours south through the interior to Bacalar, a postcard perfect town on the size of the beautiful Lagoon of Seven Colors.
A change of pace before the jungle. You’ll wake up in your lagoon-side hotel to the sunrise over the Lagoon of the Seven Colors. Bacalar’s freshwater lagoon shifts between seven distinct shades of blue, fed by underground cenotes along its length. We’ll explore it by kayak, stand-up paddleboard, and any other aquatic method, paddling through channels once used by Caribbean pirates and Maya traders alike.
In the afternoon, we visit Cenote Azul — one of the deepest in the region, with dramatic cliff edges for jumping and crystal-clear water. It’s active, not passive. The kind of swimming where you look down and can’t see the bottom.
The evening belongs to the lagoon. Sunset from the water, dinner lakeside. Enjoy the stillness — tomorrow we go deep.
We leave the water behind. By private van, we head west into the interior — and the landscape transforms. Flat scrubland gives way to dense tropical forest as we cross into the remote southern Campeche region.
Our first stop: Kohunlich, where massive stucco sun god masks — some of the most dramatic sculpture in the Maya world — still stare out from a jungle-wrapped pyramid. Almost no one comes here.
We continue to the Calakmul region and check into our jungle lodge. After lunch, we explore Becán — a fortified Maya city completely surrounded by a hand-dug defensive moat. You’ll walk across the ancient causeway and into a city built for war. The evening ends with a shared meal listening to the sounds of the jungle around us.
A once-in-a-lifetime hike back in time.
We leave before dawn. The 60-kilometer road into the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve is one of the great wildlife corridors in the Americas — howler monkeys, spider monkeys, toucans, ocellated turkeys, and the ever-present possibility of a jaguar crossing. We arrive at the gate when it opens at 8am.
Calakmul was a Maya superpower — a city of 50,000 in constant warfare. Today it sits in a protected jungle so vast and undeveloped that from the top of Structure II, the tallest pyramid, you see nothing but green canopy stretching past the Guatemalan border. No roads. No towns. No other people. Just you, the jungle, and a civilization that once dominated it.
We spend 4-5 hours at the site. Climb both major pyramids. Read the stelae. Eat lunch in the shade of a temple built 1,300 years ago. Then the long, wild drive back.
If yesterday was the heights of scale, today is the peak of adventure. We visit the sites that define the Río Bec architectural style — found nowhere else in the Maya world.
By just ATVs, we venture down a long dirt road to an incredibly important site for Mayan art, but nearly inaccessible. Rio Bec. Its false temple-pyramids, with stairs too steep to climb by design, are among the strangest structures the Maya ever built.
In the afternoon, we shift from ancient to living. We’ll spend time with a local Maya community for an experience that might involve traditional stingless beekeeping (Melipona bees, sacred to the ancient Maya), chicle harvesting from sapodilla trees, or a communal meal prepared with ingredients from the surrounding forest. It’s a reminder that the Maya aren’t just ancient pyramids, its the people who live in these lands today.
Our longest Tren Maya journey. Five hours through deep jungle, crossing from the state of Campeche into Chiapas. The landscape barely changes: green, green, green. It’s meditative. Read, talk, watch the landscape scroll past.
We arrive in Palenque in the early afternoon. After settling in, we visit the Palenque Site Museum in town — home to the jade death mask of K’inich Janaab Pakal, one of the most extraordinary objects in the Americas. The carved sarcophagus lid.
Dinner in Palenque town. Get some rest.
A full day at one of the greatest archaeological sites in the world. With intention.
Morning is free for a jungle walk in the national park behind the ruins (waterfalls, howler monkeys, trails through primary forest) or a return to the museum for anyone who wants a second look. We’ll have an early lunch, then enter the site mid-day.
Palenque not only has some of the best architecture and art you’ll see on this trip, but it is a magical place. Not the magic of the Mayans, but the magic of its location — jungle covered mountains creeping up the back of pyramids and palaces.
The Temple of Inscriptions — Pakal’s burial pyramid. The Palace with its distinctive tower. The Cross Group, perched on the hillside above the jungle canopy. The aqueducts that channeled water beneath the city.
As the afternoon wears on, the tour groups leave. The light turns golden. The jungle sounds rise. Palenque in late afternoon, nearly empty, is one of the most transcendent experiences in archaeology. We stay until they close the gates.
An early start by van toward the Gulf Coast. Our destination: Comalcalco, the westernmost Maya city and the only one built entirely from fired clay bricks and oyster-shell mortar. No limestone existed this far west, so the Maya adapted — and left behind a site unlike anything else in their world. Comalcalco was a colony of Palenque, so you’re tracing the same political network that built yesterday’s masterpiece.
After the ruins, we visit a nearby cacao plantation for a hands-on chocolate workshop. Cacao was currency, medicine, and ritual drink to the ancient Maya — and this region is still one of Mexico’s great cacao-growing areas. You’ll see trees, roast beans, and drink chocolate the way it was made a thousand years ago.
Lunch features Tabasco regional cuisine you won’t find anywhere else on the trip — pejelagarto (a prehistoric-looking garfish), tamales de chipilín, local salsas. Then we drive to Villahermosa airport for our evening flight back to Cancún.
We arrive at night and transfer to Puerto Morelos — a small fishing village on the Caribbean, 20 minutes from the airport and a world away from the hotel zone. Farewell dinner with mezcal on the seaisde. Clink glasses. You just crossed the entire Yucatán Peninsula — over 1000 miles round-trip.
The end of our journey marks the beginning of your trip home. Depending on your flight, you may have time to dip into the beach or have a final meal in town.
For those with later flights, the village of Puerto Morelos itself is worth a morning wander — a reef just offshore, a leaning lighthouse, and some of the best ceviche on the coast.
We provide transfers to Cancún Airport (~20 min). Please share your departure details so we can coordinate.
2026 Dates
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September 20-28, 2025
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starting at
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Hotels here are shown for illustrative purposes only. Actual hotels may vary and Merakiva Travel reserves the right to change lodging options.
I understand — a tour is a big purchase! There are always lots of questions before feeling comfortable. If you’d like to meet with Marshall, the founder of Merakiva Travel, I’d love to talk. There are a limited number of slots available across weekdays and weekends.
Common questions and answers about traveling to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.
Cancún International Airport (CUN) is one of the busiest airports in the Americas, with direct flights from most major cities in the U.S. and Canada, as well as many European hubs.
From the East Coast, expect to pay $250–500 for a round-trip flight from a major city. From the West Coast, $350–600 round-trip. Midwest cities fall in between, with occasional deals below $300.
Cancún is also one of the easiest destinations for using frequent flyer miles. We’re happy to help you find the best flight option or maximize your points & miles!
Our trips are designed to be intimate and avoid the giant coach buses that many people think of when they think of “guided tours.”
Trips have 6 people at a minimum, with group sizes maxing out at around 12-15 depending on the trip.
The official range is 21–50, but that’s a guideline. Merakiva Trips are about doing and if you think you can do, you’re the right age. More than the number, this trip is designed for active travelers who are comfortable with early mornings, jungle heat, and full days on their feet.
This trip is adults-only. Families are welcome, but children are not permitted.
This is our most physically active trip. Here’s what that means:
You’ll kayak for several hours through mangrove channels. You’ll wade through underground cave systems. You’ll climb steep Maya pyramids in tropical heat. You’ll hike jungle trails on uneven terrain. Some days start at 6am and don’t slow down until evening.
You don’t need to be an athlete, but you should be someone who exercises regularly and is comfortable being active in heat and humidity for most of the day. If you can hike for 3-4 hours in warm weather and climb several flights of stairs without difficulty, you’ll be fine.
If you have physical limitations, please contact us to discuss — we want to make sure this is the right fit.
The Tren Maya is Mexico’s new passenger railway connecting cities and archaeological sites across the Yucatán Peninsula. It opened in stages beginning in 2023. The trains are modern, air-conditioned, and comfortable — comparable to European regional rail. Our two legs are approximately 3 hours (Tulum→Bacalar) and 5 hours (Xpujil→Palenque).
The train is both transportation and a highlight of the trip — watching the landscape shift from coast to interior to deep jungle is part of the experience.
The Yucatán Peninsula is one of the safest regions in Mexico and is home to millions of international tourists each year. The areas we visit — from the Caribbean coast to the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve to Palenque — are well-traveled tourist corridors.
That said, we take safety seriously. You’ll be traveling with an experienced Trip Leader, in private transportation, and staying in vetted accommodations. We also require travel insurance for all guests.
Hot and humid — this is tropical Mexico. Expect daytime temperatures of 85–95°F (30–35°C) with high humidity, especially in the jungle interior. Brief afternoon rain showers are common.
Pack light, breathable clothing, sturdy walking shoes or hiking sandals, sunscreen, insect repellent, and a hat. We’ll provide a detailed packing list before the trip.
Not at all. Your Trip Leader and local guides will handle all logistics and translation. That said, a few basic phrases always go a long way and are appreciated by the communities we visit.
Booking a trip typically requires just a $500 deposit, but we may run sales or specials. We require 50% of the remaining cost to be paid 60 days before departure and 100% to be paid 30 days before departure.
Our booking software will prompt you to pay before each of those deadlines. At the time we don’t offer monthly installments, but you can pay each of those payments before the due date in order to spread out the cost more.
Booking a trip requires a $500 deposit.
For cancellations up to 61 days before the trip departure, that deposit is non-refundable but can be issued a Trip credit for a future trip. Any additional money paid in addition to your deposit at that point is refundable.
For cancellations 60-31 days before trip departure, 50% of trip cost is non-refundable, with the remainder refundable or transferrable to another trip.
Cancellations within 30 days are non-refundable.
Merakiva Travel is fully insured by Berkshire Hathaway Speciality Insurance. We are a member of the Arival Travel organization. We operate as a California Seller of Travel (No. 2090937-40) and Florida Seller of Travel (No. ST15578).
On the trip, you’ll be led by Marshall, the Founder of Merakiva Travel. He’s led other Merakiva Trips to Spain and scouted the entire trip through an intense travel of the entire Tren Maya system.
Travel insurance is a great addition to any trip (with Merakiva Travel or not!). We require travel insurance on all of our trips to make sure you can have as much protection as possible.
Unfortunately, things can and do go wrong when you travel. World Nomads
offers coverage for more than 150 activities as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation and more.
We receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.
For only:
$2,899
Celebrate our inaugural launch to Spain with special pricing and an exclusive bundle of extras – limited spots are remaining!
Savings of $2000+ off regular trip Dates
8 Nights. 10 Meals. All-Inclusive Transportation & Activities
Value: $3,599
Remember moments and put your phone away. A professional will be joining us to photograph and film the group. (You’ll also receive your own copy!)
Value: $500
Get hands-on assistance in researching and finding the best flight option.
Value: $250
Your Trip Leader will be Dr. Marshall Schurtz, Founder of Merakiva Travel and an expert Archaeologist. He’s traveled around the world and devoted hundreds of hours researching & planning this one-of-a-kind trip.
Value: $750
Extra Bonuses Value: $1500
The TOTAL VALUE of the Launch Edition Elite Package equals:
$5,099
But, get it for only
$2,899