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Mérida Food & drinks

Our most recommended Mérida Food & drinks

From Mérida: Chichén Itzá, Izamal, Valladolid, & Cenote Trip

1. From Mérida: Chichén Itzá, Izamal, Valladolid, & Cenote Trip

Spend a day full of culture, history, and cuisine on a multi-stop guided tour from Mérida to Izamal, Valladolid, Cenote Chichikan, and Chichén Itzá, one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Discover traditional cooking during a live demonstration. Enjoy breakfast, a buffet lunch, and entry tickets. After meeting your guide in Mérida, head to the archeological site of Chichén Itzá. Walk through the center of this thousand-year-old place and see highlights like the Temple of the Warriors. For breakfast, enjoy a packed meal. Later, transport your senses to the root of regional cuisine, one of the greatest legacies of the Mayan culture, during a demonstration of the region’s unique gastronomy. Learn about tradition and innovation in the use of plants, vegetables, and wild fauna. Enjoy a buffet lunch of local products, then let yourself be enchanted by the story and cultural richness of two magical towns of Yucatan during the next stops. Explore Valladolid, known for its natural beauty, cobbled streets, coffee shops, restaurants, and delicious food. Stop at the main plaza for some free time to wander before moving on to Izamal. Learn why the town's houses are all painted yellow and fall in love with its colonial architecture, dating back to the 16th century. Spend time at the main landmark: the Convento de San Antonio de Padua. In between the Valladolid and Izamal stops, seize the chance to take a dip in the cool waters of Chichikan Cenote. 

Mérida Cooking Class, taste of Yucatan

2. Mérida Cooking Class, taste of Yucatan

You start your activity by having a walk through Merida’s Downtown. Your guide will give a quick briefing on the most important buildings overlooking the Main Square, and then walk with you to one of the main markets of Merida, Lucas de Galvez. Your guide will talk in depth about the regional fruits and vegetables, as well as the recados, the achiote, the peppers in general and especially the chile habanero and xcatic. All of this while shopping for everything you need for your traditional family lunch. Once you have everything, take a public bus with your guide to the local hostess’s home for the cooking class. Yucatecan cuisine has one of the most varied arrays of delicious dishes amongst the 32 states of Mexico. Some of them are unique to the Yucatan and very hard to find outside of the peninsula, while others are eaten throughout the country. The influence of ancient Mayans, Spaniards, French and Lebanese are specially noted in the cuisine. While you cook, chop, fry, and get the dishes ready, your hostess and guide will explain some of the local traditions, the influence of other cultures in Yucatan and the differences between the Yucatecos and the people from other parts of Mexico. You will also learn some Spanish and Mayan words while tasting the delicious dishes prepared by yourself! You will enjoy a three course meal, including appetizers, main course and dessert. Beer and soft drinks like hibiscus flower tea, or chaya water are included. Please advise in advance if you are vegan or vegetarian, because there are many dishes you will enjoy! Your experience with Yucatecan cuisine comes to an end after a long chat with your host, and its time to say good bye to your new friends. Your guide will take you in a cab back to Downtown. 

Mérida: 3-Hour Walking Food Tour

3. Mérida: 3-Hour Walking Food Tour

Start the tour by meeting on Plaza Grande, the heart of the city of Mérida. Enjoy a small-group tour of no more than ten people with an expert local guide. Discover the traditional cuisine of the city away from the main tourism hotspots. Start by enjoying some traditional refreshing drinks with your first dish of the day, gorditas. Then, try some grilled poc chuc, a dish of grilled meats prepared in citrus marinade. Next, visit one of the main food markets in town. Taste salbutes, tamales and also try some local fruit. Finish the tour by trying some tacos al pastor and carnitas.

Merida Street Food Walking Tour

4. Merida Street Food Walking Tour

Discover the Yucatecan cuisine! Skip breakfast this morning and visit the main market of Merida as a local. Discover the original flavors of Yucatecan gastronomy. Among cumbia songs, colors and the kindness of their sellers, you will taste seasonal local fruits, spices, juices and the most popular art meals of Yucatan cuisine: panuchos, salbutes, cochinita pibil and much more. While you delight your palate, you will learn about local plants and herbs, the process of making tortillas and the importance of habanero pepper in the Yucatecan kitchen. Then, you will visit a seafood restaurant to try a ceviche, Shrimp or fish tacos and accompany them with a very cold beer. You will end your tour with a dessert at a local Gelato shop with unique flavors like sour orange, bean with pork, bitter chocolate, avocado and flan. The guide will fill you with stories about our customs, traditions, legends and local life in general.

Merida Cantinas Walking Tour

5. Merida Cantinas Walking Tour

This is the Yucatecan Happy Hour! The Cantinas in Mérida are traditional to enjoy some time with friends. In this tour you will meet three different Cantinas. You will be impressed with the amount of snacks they will offer when ordering a single beer. Each canteen has its own style to prepare snacks, using ingredients of traditional Yucatecan cuisine. In addition, you can enjoy a mezcal and delicious craft beer Produced in Mexico. In this friendly and comfortable environment, tour the canteens like a local And share stories. Get to know the daily life of a Yucatecan.

Frequently asked questions about Mérida

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Chichén Itzá

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Other Sightseeing Options in Mérida

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What people are saying about Mérida

Hermoso Lugar

One of the best guided tour experiences ever! The tour was very good organized: we got breakfast and water, the group was not big, the bus was comfortable, with air condition, our driver, Pablo, was good and professional. Our guide Hector made our day really perfect: he is very knowledgeable, polite and professional, we learned a lot about Mayan culture, colonial culture, Mexican traditions and food, he answered all of our questions and gave a lot of recommendations. All locations we’ve visited were amazing! We arrived to Chichén Itzá at the right time in the morning and it was not crowded, the lunch was delicious, cenot was beautiful and not very touristic, with a very nice chill zone. Highly recommend!

GUide from Elinor tours was excellent, though day was long. GYG gave me wrong information about pickup/drop off. They told me only one location was possible and that was some distance from my hotel. In fact, they picked up passengers about a block from my hotel and luckily I was able to be dropped off there. To get to the pickup spot, I had to take a cab. I specifically asked GYG about pickup/drop off and they gave me wrong information. They even told me they’d contacted the tour provider about the issue, but if they had, they would have learned about the alternative pickup/drop off info.

Great experience! Quite a long day but so much was packed into this tour. Our guide, Carlos, was very informative and well-organized; he made sure we stuck to our schedule and we made it back to Merida on time. Of course, people will say that not enough time was spent in Vallodolid or Izamal but those deserve separate trips of their own. However if you have limited time and are ready for a long day, then this is a wonderful tour. The cenote was also very beautiful.

This trip takes you to 4 of great places to visit in the Yucatan Ouf guide was the best - Carlos spoke on both spainish and English and was so well versed on the areas he shared with us - it was a long but so worth while day - would highly recommend this tour

Marisol was a lovely person. The food was delicious. I definitely recommend this tour.