Chichén Itzá before the buses, then the cenotes nobody queues for

Valladolid, Chichén Itzá, Yokdzonot

1. 6:45 am1

   First colectivo of the day to PistéValladolid

   Shared vans to Pisté leave from Calle 46 a block off the plaza from about 06:00 for around 50 pesos. There is no timetable — they go when the seats fill, which before 07:00 takes a few minutes because it is mostly people going to work at the site. Ask to be let out at the ruins entrance rather than in Pisté village, or you add a hot 2 km.

2. 8 am2

   Chichén Itzá at 08:00, when the plaza is silentChichén Itzá

   The single most useful fact about this site: you pay twice, at two different windows, before one turnstile — about 105 pesos to INAH and about 592 to Cultur, roughly 700 pesos total. Bring it in cash pesos; the card terminals fail constantly and the queue behind you will not be kind. Gates open 08:00, last entry 16:00. The Cancún and Riviera Maya coaches arrive from about 10:30 and the vendors finish setting up their tables along the avenues around 09:00, so the first ninety minutes are a different site entirely. Do the Great Ball Court and the Osario early and leave the Sacred Cenote for last as the crowd builds.

3. 11 am3

   Cenote Yokdzonot instead of Ik KilYokdzonot

   Ik Kil is three kilometres from the ruins, which is exactly why every coach stops there and why the water is a soup of lifejackets by 11:00. Yokdzonot is twenty minutes west on the free road, run by a women's cooperative since 2005, and on a weekday morning you can have a 40-metre open well to yourself. Entry is around 150 pesos, cash, life jacket included and compulsory. Their restaurant does a proper sopa de lima and it is the best food in a fifteen-kilometre radius.

4. 1:15 pm4

   Colectivo back into ValladolidValladolid

   Flag it from the roadside outside the cenote gate; anything heading east is going to Valladolid. Have small notes — nobody breaks a 200.

5. 2:15 pm5

   Lomitos de Valladolid at El Amigo CasianoValladolid

   Lomitos — pork stewed down in tomato with a hard-boiled egg on top — is the town's own dish and this is the plain-tiled place that does it properly. Cash, no menu worth reading, and they close when the pot is empty, which on a good day is early afternoon.

   8 min by train or taxi · 4.5 km
6. 4 pm6

   Cenote Oxman at the quiet hourValladolid

   Three kilometres from the plaza — 60 pesos in a taxi each way, or rent a bike. The 250-peso ticket includes the hacienda pool and a food-and-drink credit you should actually use. Come after 16:00: the Cancún day trips leave around three and the queue for the rope swing goes from twenty minutes to nothing. Roots hang the full 25 metres to the water and the afternoon light comes straight down the shaft.

   8 min by train or taxi · 3.9 km
7. 6:15 pm7

   Calzada de los Frailes at duskValladolid

   The pastel street everyone photographs at noon is empty and much better at dusk. Walk it to the convent at the end; the free light-and-sound projection on its facade runs at 21:00 and takes about 25 minutes if you want to come back after dinner.

   8 min by train or taxi · 2.0 km
8. 7:45 pm8

   Dinner at IX CAT IKValladolid

   Yucatec Maya cooking done seriously rather than as a costume — recado negro, chaya, pibil out of a proper pit. Small room, so book in the afternoon. Cheaper and better than anything on the plaza.