"Road trip to Chetumal" a Chetumal Travel Page by Redlats

We went on a three-day road trip to Chetumal. A group trip was being arranged by someone in our community in Progreso, and by the time we left, there were 23 people from Progreso on the bus to Chetumal.

Chetumal is in the southeast corner of the Yucatan peninsula. It is in the state of Quintana Roo (same state that Cancun is in); in fact Chetumal is the capital. The city is a coastal town of 250,000 people on the border with the neighbouring country of Belize. In fact Mexicans travel to Chetumal to visit the duty-free zone. Chetumal itself seems to have limitless retail which seems to be open til late at night.

Chetumal seems different than the other cities we have seen in the Yucatan. The people are more mixed – Caribbean, Lebanese and Asian. Even the city downtown felt different. We did not see a central plaza like normal, and there were no colonial buildings.

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Painting in the Mayan Cultural Museum

The people that arranged our bus tour had never arranged a tour before. As a result, there were a few snafus. For instance, they thought the bus would have washrooms -- but it didn't. It is a long way from Progreso -- normally a five hour drive -- it took us seven. Four potty-stops. It also means that we only had a day and a half in Chetumal. We had enough time to gamble and shop in the duty-free zone, to wander the streets of Chetumal, to visit the Mayan Culture Museum and to stop by Bacalar on the way home.

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street map of Chetumal

Unfortunately, due to our short visit, we missed out on the Mayan sites in southern Quintana Roo.