Mérida

When we decided we wanted to take our first international trip with the boys, so many places made the list of where we could go. But we wanted somewhere with an easy flight, not much of a time change and Spanish speaking. We ended up going to Mérida and loved it so much!

One of our favorite parts of the trip were the days we spent visiting cenotes and pyramids. We found an incredible guide named John who knew the best place to take us with two young boys! Mérida is not far from Chichén Itzá but John’s recommendation was to visit a slightly smaller pyramid because there wouldn’t be as many people there and we would be able to climb the pyramids—and he was right! There was hardly anyone there and we had such a great time being able to explore the ruins without worrying about the boys climbing on things they shouldn’t.

From there, he took us to visit a few cenotes—these underground caves filled with water that you can swim in. They were such a unique experience! The boys were a little unsure about jumping in at first, but after they did it once, they didn’t want to stop! One of the coolest ones we visited was a set of several different cenotes that you had to ride on a cart pulled by a donkey to get to. The cenotes were so beautiful and we loved getting to explore them.

Mérida isn’t on the beach, so we decided to do a quick weekend getaway to a little beach town called Celestún. The boys loved playing in the sand and ocean. It was a little harder to get by with our tourist level Spanish in Celestún compared to Mérida. And we had a few “lost in translation” moments! The biggest one resulted in a scenic tour on a moto-taxi to view the coast when we were trying to go to a nature reserve to see flamingos—whoops!

We also spent time simply wandering around Mérida, eating way too much ice cream, and soaking up the slower pace of life there. Between colorful streets, friendly people and how kid-friendly everything felt, it was such an easy place to love!