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 900 miles 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.
