Yucatán and Campeche States
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Yucatán and Campeche States - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in Yucatán and Campeche States - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Once you return home, traditional huaraches, guayaberas, and straw hats might not look as appropriate as they did when you were on vacation. The items from Mexican designers at men's store Amerindio, however, have a cool factor that will be stylish even back at home.
This government-run bazaar offers a wide range of local crafts, including some that are hard to come by—like bull horns carved into necklaces and earrings using an old technique that only a small number of families in Campeche State still know about. All prices are fixed, so there's no need to bargain.
As its name implies, "popular art," or handicrafts, are sold at the Parque Santa Lucía beginning at 9 am on Sunday.
Mérida's biggest English-language bookstore is relatively small, but it still offers a nicely curated selection of recent popular titles as well as a number that are focused on Mexican culture, cuisine, and history. The store also has bookish gifts including journals, handmade bookmarks, and more. Several stores in the Carmesí complex where the bookstore is located are worth a stop too; they mostly sell local, high-quality handicrafts. There's also Volta Café for a snack and drink.
This small shop sells signed collectible indigenous beeswax figurines.
Visit the government-run Casa de las Artesanías Ki-Huic for folk art from throughout Yucatán. There's a showcase of hard-to-find traditional filigree jewelry in silver, gold, and gold-dipped versions.
For a multitude of hammocks, head to El Mayab.
Mérida has several shopping malls, but the largest and nicest, Gran Plaza, has more than 200 shops and a multiplex theater. It's just outside town, on the highway to Progreso (called Carretera a Progreso beyond the Mérida city limits).
A great place to purchase hammocks is Hamacas El Aguacate, a family-run outfit with many sizes and designs.
Just off the main square, Hecho a Mano (at the San Miguel Hotel) is the only place in town to buy folk art from all over Mexico. You'll find something to suit any budget, including a growing collection of textiles.
Shop for malachite, turquoise, and other semiprecious stones set in silver at Joyería Colonial.
This government-run craft store offers all kinds of items, both from the state of Yucatán but also other parts of Mexico, at fair prices. There's a smaller branch in front of the Palacio Cantón on the Paseo de Montejo, but this main branch offers the best selection.
La Isla inches ahead of The Harbor when it comes to store selection, but either could qualify as the newest and nicest mall in town. The department store Liverpool is the anchor, but Zara and H&M are also big draws. The back of the mall has a row of restaurants overlooking a man-made lake. As with any of Mérida's malls, it may not be on your sightseeing shortlist, but if you have a longer stay in the city, air-conditioned window shopping may be appealing on warm days.
The Mérida-based bookstore chain Dante, with a location on Plaza Grande as well as eight others around the city, has the best selection of Spanish-language books about the peninsula's history, culture, cuisine, and more. It is especially strong on books for kids and works dealing with Yucatecan flora and fauna.
This boutique right in the center of town has an excellent selection of beach-chic essentials including wraps, swimsuits, beach bags, and flip-flops. Lolita also has jewelry and some home goods. Their men's offerings are not as extensive as their women's, but they do carry some trunks and shirts.
Although many deal in the same wares, the shops and stalls of the García Rejón Crafts Market sell some quality items, and the shopping experience here can be less of a hassle than at the nearby municipal market. You'll find reasonable prices on palm-fiber hats, hammocks, leather sandals, jewelry, handmade guitars, and locally made liqueurs. Persistent but polite bargaining may get you even better deals.
Sellers of chiles, herbs, seafood, and produce fill this pungent and labyrinthine municipal market. In the early morning the first floor is jammed with housewives and restaurateurs shopping for the freshest fish and produce. The stairs at Calles 56 and 57 lead to the second-floor Bazar de Artesanías Municipales, where you'll find local pottery, embroidered clothes, guayabera shirts, hammocks, straw bags, sturdy leather huaraches, and piñatas. Note that most initial prices are inflated as vendors expect you'll bargain—one way to begin is to politely request a discount.
The city's commercial heart is its main market, where locals shop for seafood, produce, and housewares in a newly refurbished setting. You'll find little of tourist interest here, but the clothing section has some nice, inexpensive embroidered and beaded pieces among the jeans and T-shirts. Adventurous eaters can also find a bargain meal of local dishes like salbutes. Next to the market is a small yellow bridge aptly named Puente de los Perros—four white plaster dogs guard the area.
A delightful and diverse assortment of crafts is sold here, but the store specializes in miniatures made of ceramics, tin, and other materials.
This pleasant mall houses more than 114 stores and eateries (including Sears and McDonalds) plus the Cinépolis movie theater complex.
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