Lunch between Merida and Dzib.

[LostFan#1]

From all the helpful posts, my family has decided to get a cab and go to Dzibilchaltun and the over to Merida. For any of you who have done this, where did you stop for lunch? Did the cab driver recommend a place? Did you eat at Dzib. before going on to Merida? Or eat in Merida and, if so, do you have recommendations?

 

Thanks,

Debbie

[hdawson]

Excellent courtyard restaurant in Merida is Portico El Peregrino on Calle 57 or 59 between Calle 60 and 62. Lots of atmosphere and very good food. A friend that visited Merida after me highly recommends the Sopa de Lima and found the Yucatecan Chicken was to die for. Very reasonable and easy to find. I just checked. It's on Calle 57. Very easy short walk from the Cathedral.

[LostFan#1]

Thanks for the two suggestions.

 

Debbie

[terryde]

will they take US money at the restaurants and shops in Merida?

[hdawson]

US dollars are warmly accepted. Carry small denominations since most businesses will have limited amounts of US currency for change, if any.

The bank in the Montejo mansion has an ATM but only disburses pesos like the rest of the ATMs. Exchange rate is about 10:1.

[terryde]

Thanks, hdawson - you are from right down the street from us - we live in Raleigh. I had a few other questions about Merida - we plan to get a cab at the pier in Progreso and go right to Merida to shop, walk around, admire buildings/architecture, eat, then the same cab to the ruins at Dzibilchaltun, then back to Progreso to spend some time on the beach. What type of transportation did you use to Merida? Do you know rates for what we plan to do? Thanks again,

[hdawson]

Terry. DRop me a line at hdawson228@aol.com and I will give you some information and pics. You'll love Merida.

[mcgraiha]

we just got back from the carnival elation last nite and were in progreso/merida last tuesday. my family (husband and parents) loved it!! we took a cab from the cruise pier to dzibilchaltun and merida for $90 for the day. they tell you it's 4 hours but our driver didn't care that we wanted more time. it's recommended to do the ruins first because it gets hotter as the days go on and the ruins is very open space. we did not have an english speaking cab driver but my spanish is okay so we got along well. he provided so much information about the area. we had lunch at "los almendros" in merida and i highly recommend it. our cab driver recommended it and we invited him to eat with us which was wonderful because we learned so much. the food was fantastic and i paid with my credit card. it only ended up being $63 for the 5 of us and that included about 6 beers and a $10 tip. we also asked our cab driver to accompany us as we walked around merida so it was like having our own personal tour guide! i loved being able to practice my spanish and learn so much about the area and the culture. it was very beautiful and i enjoyed this port much more than cozumel which was so touristy.

[baylorbear87]

mcgraiha-

My family and I are going on the Elation June 12th. Any other highlights from your trip you could share. We are taking our two boys 13 and 10 and will be doing the dolphin swim in Cozumel and are thinking about going to Ambergris Cay in Belize to snorkel. Any infor you could share would help tremendously in that I am still in the planning stage. thanks for the info regarding Progresso.

Thanks,

shari

[mcgraiha]

i think your family will love the dolphin swim. my husband and i did it in tortola with the same company and it was a blast!! my advice is to book it on your own thru www.dolphindiscovery.com if you weren't planning to already. you save a lot of money that way. on our honeymoon in october, my husband and i booked everything thru the ship and this time i did my research all beforehand and didn't do any ship tours and we saved hundreds of dollars and had much more personal attention! it's best to do research on progreso especially as it does not seem there are many large independent tour operators so you really have to know what you want to see. here are a few helpful sites to get started:

 

http://www.bootsnall.com/north-america/mexico/merida/

http://www.yucatantoday.com/

 

also, we found we learned the most by talking as much as possible to the locals, particularly in progreso and belize. they were so proud and eager to share their culture and it was fascinating. if anyone in your family speaks even a little spanish, this is a good time to try it out. the locals appreciate the effort and it makes it more fun. our taxi driver in progreso even drove us by his house where we met his wife and daughter! on the ship, we got involved in a lot more activities than our last cruise and i was surprised how much fun we had doing even simple things like trivia games and such. i hope you have a great time!!

[LostFan#1]

McGraiha,

 

Thanks for your interesting post. How great that you could use your Spanish (we won't be so lucky). And how wonderful your guide accompanied you in Merida. I have some questions about add't costs.

 

1. Was the $90 cab fare for everyone total in the cab or per person? We will have at least 4 people in our group and maybe more. Were there larger taxis?

2. On top of the cab fare, did you have to pay admission to the ruins? How much?

3. Also, did you pay for a guide at the ruins?

4. Did you tip your guide at the end of the day, and if so, how much?

 

Thanks,

Debbie

[mcgraiha]

debbie,

 

i'm glad to be able to answer your questions. here they are:

 

1. the $90 cab fare was total for the 4 of us. 4 is the most they take in a regular size cab (it was a little squished). they do have larger cabs and they are a bit more (i think $120) but it works out to be about the same amount if you divide it per person.

2. we did pay admission to the ruins...it was $6 per person.

3. we also paid $25 altogether for a guide at the ruins (it's the same price regardless of the number of people in your group.) i have read on the boards that some people have bargained the price of the guide lower but we didn't feel any need to do that. you do not have to get a guide but it was well worth it in my opinion. i don't think the ruins would have meant much without the guide.

4. we didn't tip our guide at the ruins but we did tip our taxi driver at the end of the trip. we bought him lunch and tipped him $25 because he really went out of his way for us. i don't know if tipping is expected or not...i didn't see any posting about it in the taxi or at the cab stand nor did our driver ever act like it was expected.

 

hope this info is helpful!!

[LostFan#1]

THANKS!

 

Debbie