Skip to content

Top Navigation

Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure
  • Trip Inspiration
  • Travel Guides
  • World's Best
  • Destination of the Year
  • A-List Travel Advisors
  • Cruises
  • Travel Tips
  • News
  • Food + Drink
  • Travel Accessories
  • Check-In

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Help
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe
Pin FB

Explore Travel + Leisure

Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure
  • Explore

    Explore

    • World's Best

      The greatest islands, cities, hotels, cruise lines, airports, and more — as voted by you. Read More Next
    • The 50 Best Places to Travel in 2021

      Whether you're traveling solo or planning a family vacation, here are the 50 best places to visit in 2021. Read More Next
    • Let's Go Together Podcast

      Start listening to T+L's brand new podcast, Let's Go Together! Hosted by Kellee Edwards. Read More Next
  • Trip Inspiration

    Trip Inspiration

    • Trip Ideas
    • Weekend Getaways
    • Spring Travel
    • Summer Travel
    • Fall Travel
    • Winter Travel
    • Solo Travel
    • Romantic Getaways
    • Luxury Travel
    • Beach Vacations
    • Adventure Travel
    • Road Trips
    • Family Travel
    • National Parks
    • Holiday Travel
    • Travel Photography
    • Photo of the Day
    • Culture and Design
    • Travel Deals
    • Attractions
    • Amusement Parks
    • Festivals and Events
    • Bus and Trains
    • Flight Deals
    • Budget Travel
    • Hotels and Resorts
    • Disney Vacations
    • Airlines and Airports
    • Ground Transportation
    • BookTandL.com
  • Travel Guides
  • World's Best

    World's Best

    • Top Hotels
    • Top Cities
    • Top Islands
    • Domestic Airlines
    • International Airlines
    • Tours
    • Safaris
    • All World's Best
  • Destination of the Year
  • A-List Travel Advisors
  • Cruises

    Cruises

    • Find A Cruise
    • Caribbean Cruises
    • River Cruises
    • European Cruises
    • All-Inclusive Cruises
    • Family Cruises
    • Alaskan Cruises
    • Disney Cruises
    • See All Cruise Vacations
  • Travel Tips

    Travel Tips

    • Travel Trends
    • Packing Tips
    • Points + Miles
    • Budgeting + Currency
    • Customs + Immigration
    • Responsible Travel
    • Travel Etiquette
    • Travel Warnings
    • Weather
    • Mobile Apps
    • See All Travel Tips
  • News

    News

    • Wellness
    • Celebrity Travel
    • Animals
    • Jobs
    • Offbeat
    • See All News
  • Food + Drink

    Food + Drink

    • Restaurants
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails + Spirits
    • Bars + Clubs
    • Celebrity Chefs
    • Cooking + Entertaining
    • Food Fairs + Festivals
    • World's Best Restaurants
    • See All Food + Drink
  • Travel Accessories

    Travel Accessories

    • Travel Bags
    • Shoes
    • Travel Tech
    • Shopping
    • Style
    • Gift Guides
    • See All Travel Accessories
  • Check-In

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Help
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Trip Ideas
  3. Nature Travel
  4. 7 Mexican Cenotes in Strange Places — From a Costco Parking Lot to a Historic Airbnb

7 Mexican Cenotes in Strange Places — From a Costco Parking Lot to a Historic Airbnb

By Diana Spechler
March 20, 2019
Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.
Skip gallery slides
Save Pin
Credit: Ernesto Ortega
The Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is home to thousands of naturally formed fresh-water pools. “There are thousands of kilometers of caves in the area,” says Emiliano Monroy Ríos, a hydrogeologist at Northwestern University, “some explored, many unknown. In places, the cave ceiling is so thin, it collapses and creates an opening to the surface. Then it becomes a sinkhole, or cenote.”

The more swimmer-friendly cenotes are a godsend for locals during the famously hot Yucatan summers. The ancient Maya, who believed the cenotes were entrances to the Underworld, built their cities around them and used them as their water source. Even now, divers find jade beads and ceramics, relics of Maya life.

Today is the spring equinox, when travelers from all over the world descend on the Maya city Chichen Itza to watch the late-afternoon light change on the pyramid, creating a shadow shaped like a feathered serpent: the Maya god Kukulcan. One of the peninsula’s most legendary cenotes, Cenote Sagrado, is situated in the ruins of Chichen Itza. Remains found on site indicate that the Maya performed human sacrifice there to curry favor with the rain god Chaac.

Not every cenote on the peninsula sits in the middle of one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Many are deep in the jungle, relatively untouched. But some are very much a part of modern life, in the most unlikely places.
Start Slideshow

1 of 7

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

In a Costco parking lot

Credit: Diana Spechler

In the city of Merida, the capital of Yucatan, the cenote in the Costco parking lot was discovered during the warehouse store’s construction. Buy your enormous rotisserie chicken and 30-pack of toilet paper and then check out the cenote before you hop back in the car. It’s surrounded by a maintained garden and tastefully lit at night.

1 of 7

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 7

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

In a fancy wellness resort

Credit: Courtesy of Chablé Resort & Spa

The cenote at Chablé Resort & Spa, an old hacienda-turned-vacation paradise, sits right outside its spa and makes itself quite useful: If you book The Fountains Flow, one of several treatments that incorporates the sacred water, you’ll first partake in a Maya-inspired welcome ritual on the banks of the cenote.

2 of 7

3 of 7

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

In a school

Credit: Diana Spechler

Lots of schools have a chlorinated pool for the swim team, but very few have their own cenote, as private school Instituto Bancario in Merida does. Allegedly the kids aren’t allowed down there, but someone introduced six turtles to swim among the fish.

3 of 7

Advertisement

4 of 7

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

In an Airbnb that used to be a sugar cane plantation

Credit: Shane Wynn

It even had its own rum distillery at one point, but was abandoned after the Mexican revolution. Kind of cool that you can book a crash pad with a cenote in it. OK, it’s hardly a crash pad: In addition to your private cenote, at this 19th-century estate in Espita, you’ll also have a library and a citrus orchard.

4 of 7

5 of 7

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

In a church

Credit: Diana Spechler

At the beautiful Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Xcaret Park, walk down the sloping aisle to a giant Virgin Mary image carved into a tree trunk, presiding over the pews. Beneath her tangle of roots, the altar perches on a cenote. The chapel is a popular wedding venue. And if you stay at Hotel Xcaret Mexico, you’ll get a free boat ride to the park, as well as free entry.

5 of 7

6 of 7

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

On a glamping site

Credit: Courtesy of Nativus Glamping Site

Tulum is as known for its natural beauty as it is for its chichi bohemian vibe. And what could unite the two better than glamping? Next time you’re craving a white-sand beach getaway, forego the standard hotels and stay at Nativus Jungle Glamping. Sure, you’ll sleep in a tent, but the tent is equipped with air conditioning, breakfast will be delivered straight to your door, and of course there’s a gorgeous cenote to swim in.

6 of 7

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 7

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

In a pet cemetery

Credit: Ernesto Ortega

OK, it’s not an actual pet cemetery, but this underground cenote is worthy of inclusion because it’s widely known as one of the most beautiful and its story is fascinating: They call it Pet Cemetery because the people who discovered it found it teeming with skeletons of wild animals, including a camel species that has been extinct for thousands of years. If you’re into scuba diving, strap on your tank and a headlamp and swim through the cavern among stalagmites and stalactites.

7 of 7

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Diana Spechler

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 7 In a Costco parking lot
2 of 7 In a fancy wellness resort
3 of 7 In a school
4 of 7 In an Airbnb that used to be a sugar cane plantation
5 of 7 In a church
6 of 7 On a glamping site
7 of 7 In a pet cemetery

Share options

Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message
Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
  • Sitemap
  • Travel Guide Sitemap

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletters
Other Travel + Leisure Sites
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Entertainment Weekly this link opens in a new tab
  • Food & Wine this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en Español this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
Travel + Leisure is part of the Travel + Leisure Group. Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. Travel + Leisure is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation Travel + Leisure Group All Rights Reserved, registered in the United States and other countries. Travel + Leisure may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.travelandleisure.com

View image

7 Mexican Cenotes in Strange Places — From a Costco Parking Lot to a Historic Airbnb
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.