What to see, eat and do on Mexico’s new Tren Maya mega train route

Ask any local about Cancun and they’ll tell you it’s not the real Mexico. It’s a metropolis of foreign-owned, all-inclusive high-rises available on package holidays – somewhere designed as an easy fly-and-flop escape, where you linger on its white sugar beaches with a mojito in hand and don’t need to look up for a week. But this is a missed opportunity to explore the Mayan heartland on its doorstep – and now there’s a train to take you there.

From this month, Tren Maya – which spans 1,455km and five states in southeast Mexico – will enable visitors to take the road (or rather, the rails) less travelled and deep dive into the Mayan culture of past and present. It seamlessly connects Cancun, the usual point of entry for Brits, to the region’s Unesco World Heritage archaeological sites, exuberant biospheres and historic towns.

Key points of interest such as Chichén Itzá and Tulum will become quicker and easier to reach by rail and complimentary bus shuttle transfers. Lesser-known Mayan ruins, such as Uxmal, the vibrant city of San Francisco (also known as San Pancho), and Calakmul Bioreserve, Mexico’s largest forest reserve, will also be easier to access on this mega train route.

Once fully up and running, it’s hoped there will be high-speed services every two hours from most stations, as well as dining and sleeper services.

The Tren Maya route

The railroad has been three years in the making and comprises seven sections, which will open to the public in stages over the next few months, starting on 16 December with an inaugural run from San Francisco in Campeche (section two) to Cancun in Quintana Roo (section four) via Yucatán (sections three and four). This will be a non-stop round trip, but as the network opens up, passengers will be able to hop on and off and purchase tickets locally at stations as well as online.

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It was originally hoped that all of sections one to four could open on 16 December, but some hiccups with the track between San Francisco and Palenque means they won’t be operational until New Year’s Eve.

Section five, which covers 120km between Cancun and Tulum, is pencilled in for opening in January – but this date has already been pushed back twice. The landscape…