Valladolid: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Yucatecans call Valladolid the Sultana of the East, and the old town still looks the part: pastel colonial streets, a cathedral-sized church and a Franciscan convent at the end of a long cobbled road. The Spanish built it on top of a Maya town and its well, and this walk follows that one idea, from the cenote in the middle of town to the convent built over another. About two hours on flat streets, best late in the afternoon, when the light softens and the heat lets go. Carry water; churches expect covered shoulders.
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A short history of Valladolid
In 1543 the conquistador Francisco de Montejo, nephew of the conqueror of Yucatán, founded Valladolid, and two years later the town was moved to the site of the Maya city of Zací. Work on the Convent of San Bernardino de Siena began in 1552. In 1847 the Caste War, a great Maya revolt against the authorities, broke out in the region. On 4 June 1910 rebels rose up here against the rule of Porfirio Díaz, and some call the event "the first spark of the Mexican Revolution". Today the town is a base for visiting Chichén Itzá and the cenotes around it.
The ten best sights in Valladolid
1Church of San ServacioLook at which way it faces before you go in — then read why
2Convent of San Bernardino de SienaCome back after dark for the light show on the façade, most evenings
3Casa de los VenadosA private home full of Mexican folk art; tours in the morning, entry by donation
4Museo San RoqueFree and small, in an old chapel; twenty minutes of local history
5Chichén ItzáBe at the gate at opening: by eleven the buses from Cancún arrive and the heat with them
6Ek BalamHalf an hour north and far quieter than Chichén; the stucco figures are the reason
7UaymaA village church painted in red and white stars; ten minutes off the Cancún road
8Church of Santa AnaThe church of the Maya barrio, two blocks east of the square; go in the morning, when it is open
9Church of Santa LucíaOne of the oldest churches in town, from the early 1600s; ten minutes north of the square
10Ex-Telar La AuroraMexico’s first steam mill, now a theatre and the town library on the Candelaria square
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Valladolid →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Valladolid:
Free walking tours in Valladolid
The Sultana of the East
Yucatecans call Valladolid the Sultana of the East, and the old town still looks the part: pastel colonial streets, a cathedral-sized church and a Franciscan convent at the end of a long cobbled road. The Spanish built it on top of a Maya town and its well, and this walk follows that one idea, from the cenote in the middle of town to the convent built over another. About two hours on flat streets, best late in the afternoon, when the light softens and the heat lets go. Carry water; churches expect covered shoulders.
- Cenote Zací · Before the Spanish, this was the Maya town of Zací, built around the cenote. Valladolid was founded in 1543 at a lagoon to the east and moved here in 1545, onto the Maya town and its water.
- Church of San Servacio · The story goes that in 1703 two officials were dragged out of this church, where they had taken refuge, and killed. The church was declared defiled, torn down and rebuilt by 1706 facing north instead of west, the only one in the region turned that way as a penance.
- Palacio Municipal · On the first floor of the town hall hang four large paintings by the Yucatecan artist Manuel Lizama: the Maya town of Zací, the conquest and the founding, the Caste War of 1847 and the uprising of June 1910. Lizama, born in Mérida in 1931, kept painting into his eighties and died in 2021 at the age of ninety.
- Casa de los Venados · The house belongs to an American couple, John and Dorianne Venator — the name is a play on theirs — who restored a ruined colonial house and filled it with more than 3,000 pieces of Mexican folk art. It is still their home, and the tours walk through rooms they live in.
- Calzada de los Frailes · The road was laid out in the 16th century to join the Spanish centre to Sisal, which was then a separate Maya village. The Franciscans walked it from their convent to San Servacio, and that is how it got its name: the Friars’ Causeway.
- Convent of San Bernardino de Siena · Franciscan friars built it between 1552 and 1560, on top of a cenote called Sis-Ha that gave the convent its water. The friars raised the water with a wheel, and the stone well in the garden still sits over the cave.
The town that rose twice
Twice a war that shook all of Mexico started in these streets: the Caste War of 1847, the Maya uprising that lasted half a century, and the rising of June 1910 that Mexicans call the first spark of the Revolution. This walk goes through the barrios around the old centre, where the Maya, the weavers and the poor lived, and ends on the square where 1910 began. About two hours on flat streets; go early in the morning, when the barrio churches are open for mass and the streets are still cool. Covered shoulders for the churches, and water.
- Church of Santa Lucía · Santa Lucía went up at the start of the 17th century, at the northern edge of the Spanish town. In January 1848 the Maya rebels laid siege to Valladolid, and in March, after almost two months, the town fell to the forces of Cecilio Chi and its white residents fled west.
- Church of La Candelaria · On the square in front of this church stood, from 1833, the first textile mill in Mexico driven by steam engines. Its founder, Pedro Sainz de Baranda, called it the Dawn of Yucatecan Industry, and it spun thread and cotton cloth for about twelve years.
- Ex-Telar La Aurora · In January 1847, when Maya fighters and people from the barrios stormed the centre of town, the old mill was burned. For almost a century afterwards the building served as barracks, a prison and a secondary school; since 1981 it has been a theatre and a public library that carries Sainz de Baranda’s name.
- Church of Santa Ana · Santa Ana was the first church in the town built for the Maya, and apart from the mass its services were held in the Maya language. In July 1847 the authorities executed the Maya leader Manuel Antonio Ay on the square in front of it, and within days the Caste War had begun.
- Museo San Roque · On 9 June 1910 federal troops retook Valladolid from the rebels. Three of the leaders, Maximiliano Bonilla, Atilano Albertos and José Kantún, were shot on the ground beside this old chapel, and the small museum inside tells their story among the Maya finds.
- Parque Francisco Cantón · On 4 June 1910 rebels took Valladolid against the regime of Porfirio Díaz, five months before the Mexican Revolution officially began. Mexicans call it the first spark of the Revolution, and the town still marks the day.
What the town eats and wears
Yucatán has its own kitchen and its own dress, both Maya first and Spanish second, and Valladolid still makes both by hand. This walk starts at the market in the morning, goes through the kitchens, the embroidery and the scents, and ends after dark at the carts on the square. About three hours with stops to eat; start before ten, because the market and the breakfast stalls are at their best before noon. Bring cash in pesos and an empty stomach.
- Mercado Municipal · Valladolid gives its name to two dishes: longaniza de Valladolid, a pork sausage smoked over wood and coloured with achiote, and lomitos de Valladolid, pork stewed in tomato. The butchers' stalls here sell the sausage by the metre.
- Bazar Municipal · The family kitchens here cook relleno negro, a Yucatecan turkey stew in a sauce made from chillies charred until they are black and ground into a paste. It is a dish of the old Maya kitchen, and the colour scares off most visitors before the taste has a chance.
- Mercado de Artesanías · Look closely at the embroidery on the white huipiles. Xokbil-chuy is a cross-stitch worked by counting threads, and xmanikté, “the eternal flower”, is the oldest technique, cut and drawn from the cloth itself and passed down from mother to daughter in the villages of Yucatán.
- Coqui Coqui Perfumería · Nicolas Malleville and the Italian designer Francesca Bonato met on a Caribbean beach in 2003 and set up their perfume house here. They spent years gathering the scents of local plants, with the idea of reviving old formulas of the friars and mixing them with Maya herbal medicine.
- Museo de Ropa Étnica de México · The museum was started by Tey Mariana Stiteler, who moved to Valladolid in 2009 after a career at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Its collection holds more than ninety complete outfits from twenty-five ethnic groups in sixteen Mexican states.
- Marquesita carts · The marquesita was invented in Mérida in the 1930s or 40s by an ice-cream seller who needed something to sell in the cooler months, and rolled his wafer cone flat around a filling. The classic filling is queso de bola, a Dutch Edam that has been shipped to Yucatán for so long that it counts as local.
Getting to Valladolid and getting around
- ADO Bus Station · First-class buses to Cancún, Mérida and Chichén Itzá; two blocks from the main square
- Tren Maya Valladolid · The new train to Cancún and Mérida stops outside town; take a taxi, it is not walkable
- Tren Maya Chichén Itzá · A stop right by the ruins — useful if part of the group comes by train
Cheap eats in Valladolid
Yucatán cooks differently from the rest of Mexico: food here is Maya first, with achiote, sour orange and slow pit cooking instead of heavy chilli. Breakfast is panuchos and salbutes — small fried tortillas topped with shredded turkey or cochinita pibil — at stalls that are often sold out by noon. In the evening the square fills with carts selling marquesitas, rolled crisp crêpes with cheese, and Valladolid adds its own smoked longaniza sausage. Prices in pesos are low; cash only at almost every stall.
- Bazar Municipal · Panuchos about 20-30 pesos each, a full plate about 100-150 pesos
- Market tortas · A torta about 50-80 pesos
- Marquesita carts · On the square after dark; a marquesita with cheese about 40-60 pesos
- Cenote Zací restaurant · Lunch on the rim after a swim; a Yucatecan plate about 120-200 pesos
- Temozón smokehouses · Smoked pork tacos by the roadside, about 25-40 pesos each
- Lonchería · A cheap family lunch counter in town; set lunch about 90-130 pesos
Museums in Valladolid
- Casa de los Venados · Morning tours only; about an hour
- Museo San Roque · Free; Maya finds and the history of the town's uprisings
- Convent of San Bernardino de Siena · The night show is free; check the hour locally
- Chichén Itzá · Climbing the pyramid is banned; hire a licensed guide at the gate
- Ek Balam · Smaller and quieter; the stucco tomb façade is the highlight
Nature and day trips near Valladolid
- Cenote Suytun · Midday for the light beam; life jackets are compulsory
- Cenote X'keken · A cave cenote with a tree's roots in the roof hole
- Cenote Ik Kil · Open to the sky, vines down to the water; deep, so jackets on
- Cenote Yokdzonot · A community-run cenote west of Chichén, rarely crowded
- Cenote Oxman · Deep cenote with a rope swing, plus a pool and loungers
Things to do in Valladolid with kids
- Cenote Zací · In town and cheap; jackets for rent
- Ek Balam bikes · Rent bikes or a tricycle taxi from the ruins to the cenote
- Cenote X'Canché · Zip line and swim; older children
- Parque Francisco Cantón · Balloons, marquesitas and space to run in the evening
- Cenote Oxman pool · A shallow pool beside the cenote for the little ones
Where to eat in Valladolid
- El Mesón del Marqués · Classic Yucatecan dishes in a colonial courtyard
- Yerbabuena del Sisal · Fresh, light Yucatecan food near the convent; good for vegetarians
- Taberna de los Frailes · Garden dinner by the convent; book in season
- El Atrio del Mayab · A courtyard restaurant on the square; easy with a group
- Conato 1910 · Bar-restaurant named for the 1910 uprising; relaxed and lively
- Naino · Modern Yucatecan cooking for a special last night
Frequently asked questions about Valladolid
What is there to see in Valladolid?
The top sights in Valladolid are Church of San Servacio, Convent of San Bernardino de Siena and Casa de los Venados. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Valladolid?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Valladolid without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Valladolid?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Valladolid, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Sultana of the East.
How do you get to Valladolid and get around?
The main ways are ADO Bus Station, Tren Maya Valladolid and Tren Maya Chichén Itzá. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Valladolid, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Valladolid that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Valladolid for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.