Say you''re Canadian

Sorry, never been to Yucatan, but a few friends of mine regularly travel south in guided tours via a travel agency, and they say it''s a great way to see the tourist hotspots.

My wife and I spent our honeymoon in Cancun (back in ''97) and one of the things we did was take a side trip to Chichen Itza. Very cool.

Like Rat said, take Pepto -- the chewable tablets are probably easier to carry. A couple of weeks before going, start eating yogurt on a regular basis; I''ve been told it assists your digestive system in dealing with more hostile bacteria down the road.

Hat. Suntan lotion. Camera with lots of film. Have fun.

First of all, if it''s in your price range, I highly recommend the Riu Palace in Playa del Carmen- the food was incredible and the service flawless. My wife and I have been down there twice and thoroughly enjoyed both trips. The first time down we went with her entire family- the second time we actually went through riu.com and never had to talk to an actual human for all the trip prep.

Chichen Itza has already been mentioned, and of course is the absolute must see. There is a park called Xel-ha that is fairly near Playa del Carmen- I don''t particularly recommend the park itself, but they have a night show about Mexico''s history and the music, costumes, and dances of its different areas that was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen. We spent a lot of time on the resort both times, simply because it was so incredibly nice (and you can trust the food a lot better there

A link to some info about the Riu Palace

I would link you straight to the official site, but riu.com pretty much prevents deep-linking for some bizarre reason.

Another thing- what we consider peak tourist season in the States is their offseason for a very good reason- the inland especially gets incredibly hot during the summer. We took both trips in June, and while the resort wasn''t too bad, the Chichen Itza trip was pretty rough. Incidentally, they will tell you that this is the last year that you will be allowed to climb the big pyramid- we heard that both times and finally got someone to confess that they tell that story to all the gringos.

Awesome info guys. There was no way in hell I''d be leaving the paradise that is the Seattle area during the summer months, so I was thinking April/October/November/December. My brother works at one of those big travel type companies, so I''m going to see if he can hook me up at the Riu using his handy travel agent credentials. I''ll start buying yogurt at the store too.

Also, whores will try to overcharge you because you are american, but argue with them and bring their price down - 50 bucks is plenty for an average-plus girl! Maybe 100 or 200 for a porn star type.

Depends on where your AAA office is located, Rant.

With your dad along?

He''ll just have to understand that sacrifices must be made when studying a culture in depth.

He''d probably just quote some saying about soldiers wearing helmets when they go to war or something.

One of the many nice things about the Riu Palace is the ready availability of a very good bottled water (Electrapura)- my wife and I usually carried 2 or 3 1.5 liter bottles with us when we left the resort. The soft drinks were pretty bad, but there was usually fruit juice available as well.

And yet we''re related... so strange. The Yukon would be an interesting trip, but I hate to think of the cold-weather gear I would have to buy if I were going to go.

I thought the light show sucked, personally- the only good thing about it was that it showed what the ""Descent of Kukulcan"" looks like (on the soltices the pattern of light and dark on the northern staircase looks somewhat like a serpent descending the pyramid). We didn''t bother staying for it on the return trip. We had horrendous weather the first time, and got to see a lot more the second time. It''s amazing just how much more of Chichen Itza there is that you can''t get to. If I am fortunate enough to live to retirement age with a decent nest egg saved up, I will definitely return to Chichen Itza to see how much more they have managed to restore.