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Taste of the Yucatan: Merida Cooking Class and Market Visit

Name: Taste of the Yucatan: Merida Cooking Class and Market Visit
Brand: Adventures Mexico
SKU: 34253P3
Price: 89.00 USD
Rating: 5.0 (172 reviews)

Badge of ExcellenceMerida, Mexico

5 hours
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

Explore the distinctive flavors of Yucatec cuisine at a cooking class in a Merida home, preparing a traditional three-course meal alongside a local chef. You'll start in the vibrant Merida market, shopping for fresh fruits, vegetables, and recados, or Yucatec spice blends, then roll up your sleeves to cook an appetizer, main course, and dessert. From the marketplace to the home kitchen, this cooking class is a great way to experience Yucatec cuisine and get a glimpse of daily life in the bustling city.

Learn the flavors and ingredients of Yucatec cooking
Shop for fresh ingredients in the local market
Meet a local cook in a home kitchen
Cook and eat a delicious 3-course meal
Includes drinks, snacks, and lunch
Vegetarian meal option available
Instant Confirmation

Sample Menu

Starter

Sikil Pak & Empanadas or similar

Main

Papadzules or Pollo Pibil

Dessert

Coconut Cream

What's Included

Local guide
Beverages
Food tasting
Lunch
Bus ride to the host house
Uber ride to back to the meeting point

Items of personal nature
Tips to the guide
Pick-up

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

Parque Manuel Cepeda Peraza
C. 60 X 59, Centro, 97000 Mérida, Yuc., Mexico
Entrance of Hotel Caribe. Inner corner of Hidalgo Park, Calle 59 entre Calle 60. Centro. 10 min. wait tolerance. Your Adventures Mexico guide will call the tour as no show after this lapse time.

Start time

09:00 AM

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

What To Expect

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Near public transportation
Children under 5 years are free of charge
Please advise any specific dietary requirements at time of booking

Vegetarian and Vegan option is available, please advise at time of booking if required
A minimum of 2 Adults per booking is required
Transportation is by public bus and Uber back to downtown
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 15 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Featured review

Mimi_R

Great experience. The teens on the trip loved it, and really enjoyed the food they made. Our guides/teachers were very nice and very patient.

Reviews

5.0

172 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

We perform checks on reviews

Showing 1-10 of 172 reviews

Fantastic introduction to Merida and Yucatan cuisine!

Kari_E, Apr 2024

We booked this cooking class for the very first day we were in Merida and it was a wonderful introduction. Diego met us at the location provided and we toured the market together with another couple, trying various fruits, spices, and other novelties while he bought the goods we would need for cooking. Diego grew up in the USA so he spoke fluent english. He also was fantastic at immediately knowing how much spanish we spoke so that we could practice speaking spanish without being completely overwhelmed. We then took the bus together to the woman's house for the cooking lesson which was quite fun - we got to try a lot of foods and took home some new skills to try our hand at making Yucatan dishes at home. It was a long day, starting at 9am and ending around 3pm but we really enjoyed the entire experience and would highly recommend to anyone interested in becoming familiar with the market and getting an introduction to yucatan cuisine!

2 thumbs up

Mimi_R, Apr 2024

Great experience. The teens on the trip loved it, and really enjoyed the food they made. Our guides/teachers were very nice and very patient.

Great experience

Karen_L, Apr 2024

We had a great time doing the market tour and cooking. Our guides Giselle and Luz were very nice. Our 7th graders really enjoyed it.

Delicious!

Maria_L, Apr 2024

Gisel was our tour guide for the day and translator. She was informative on our market tour giving us tastings of the local spices, fruit, and liquor. We arrived after at Dorkas home where we cooked empanadas, chicken, a dip, sauces, and a desert. Dorkas was very friendly and her food was the best we had on this trip! Felt like grandmas home cooking. Dorkas does not speak English so Gisel helps to translate however we had many in our group that spoke some or are fluent in Spanish so it made it very easy, but even if that was not the case Gisel can translate.

Informative and culturally immersing.

Lynne_W, Mar 2024

Learning about the ingredients in the market and the recipes. The market visit was very interesting. Our guide Luz did a great job explaining at the market and also Dorcas’ home where we prepared the meal. Dorcas had great energy and was very welcoming to her home. Dorcas also gave great insight into the preparation of our meal. All in all we had a great experience and look forward to trying to recreate the dishes at home !

Response from Host, Apr 2024

Thank you so much for your comments and recommendations! ✨ Adventures Mexico team is happy to know that you enjoyed this experience it's good to know that you felt like in home!😊. We hope to meet you again! 😃

Great experience, highly recommended!

Libor_B, Mar 2024

We really enjoyed our day with our guide Gisell and the "teacher" Dorkas who has invited us to her home. The class was both fun and informative, plus we received detailed recipes afterwards. 100% recommended!

Response from Host, Apr 2024

The host was sweet and...

Brett_L, Mar 2024

The host was sweet and helpful, the market visit had lots of samples of fruits, sauces, and spices, and the meal was a lot of fun to prepare with a small group of friendly strangers.

Response from Host, Apr 2024

Perfect day

Samantha_B, Mar 2024

Diego and everything about the day was fantastic. Felt like a day in the life of a Mérida native. I recommend not coming to the market if you are hungover.

Response from Host, Apr 2024

Highly recommend!

Sylvain_L, Mar 2024

Amazing experience with Laura Lopez who guided us through the local market, picking up fresh ingredients. Then we hopped on the city bus to head to Leo's home for a private cooking class of Yucatan dishes. We then had lunch in her dining room. Such a wonderful way to discover the food, people and general culture of Yucatan.

Response from Host, Apr 2024

Amazing person experience

Susan_H, Feb 2024

Luis and Dorcus were excellent hosts!! We enjoyed learning about the market. We got to taste things. Our questions were answered happily. The cooking was great- from scratch! And things we purchased in the market. It all tasted great! I and my two friends enjoyed the entire experience!!

Response from Host, Mar 2024

Cook with the locals in their home

Susan_R, Feb 2024

Cooking class is such a great way to interact with the locals and learn about their culture. The chef and her family were so hospitable and welcomed us into their beautiful home. We made local specialties by hand, and then savored them at lunch. A very special experience and highly recommended.

Response from Host, Mar 2024

A Fun Cooking Experience & Market tour!

Bonnie_M, Feb 2024

Great experience! Met new people, shopped the market while learning about veggies & spices & flavors unique to Mexican cooking. We cooked at a local’s house and did as instructed while sharing & cooking with new friends . Our guide & cook were fun & informative. I would do it again.

Response from Host, Mar 2024

Great experience and food

Kathryn_B, Feb 2024

Super hot day! We walked to the mercado, sampled foods--don't eat breakfast before the class--took a local bus to the casa de Dorcas. Rustic home and kitchen where amazing food is created. We made a dessert, several sauces, a chicken dish, empanadas, avocado salad. A lot of great food! This is not a cooking class in a polished commercial kitchen but in a Mexican cook's home. What a wonderful experience.

Response from Host, Mar 2024

Thank you so much for your comments and recommendations! ✨ We always try to give you a local experience! Adventures Mexico team is happy to know that you enjoyed this experience it's good to know that you felt like in home!😊. We hope to meet you again! 😃

Wonderful market tour and cooking class!

Kimberly_J, Jan 2024

My partner and I loved this experience and would highly recommend it to others. It was the highlight of our trip to Merida and exceeded our expectations. Learning about the food, tasting different items in the bustling Mercado Lucas de Galvez, and preparing our meal at a local home was a great time. Our tour guide, Laura, was super sweet, as was the Yucatecan mom (Berta) who gave the cooking lesson. 10/10!

Response from Host, Jan 2024

Thank you so much for your comments and recommendations! ✨ Adventures Mexico team is happy to know that you enjoyed this experience it's goof to know that you felt like in home!😊. We hope to meet you again! 😃 Best Regards 🙌

Likely the worst vacation tour experience ever

Adam_B, Jan 2024

To be abundantly clear, this experience was ruined by other guests, not the tour guide. One other guest in particular was so unsanitary, it made it impossible to eat the food. Not to be to graphic, but he had such a massive bowl movement he left some on the seat and didn't flush for the next user... didn't wash his hands (there was no soap), and moments later was elbow deep mixing masa with those unwashed hands! Disgusting! While it was the other participant who ruined this experience, it would have been so-so even if he wasn't there. The host didn't speak any English, despite this being an English language tour. She greeted us at her home simply by saying (in Spanish) "You're 40 minutes late!" to the tour guide. There wasn't nearly enough for people to do, so we spent most of our time just sitting around waiting. It was horribly boring as things cooked. The hosts family was eating in the next room, TV blaring (host had to make them turn it down so we could hear herL while we sat and waited. And of the 7 people in our party, only one ate his main dish entirely (Mr. Poppy Hands), everyone else pushed it away saying it wasn't their favorite, the pollo pibil was bland (again, I couldn't stomach eating the food knowing of the contamination!) The whole experience ran over by 1.5 hours. The market shopping was interesting, but I'm a group of 8, we couldn't often hear our tour guide Diego. So it felt a bit like kids shopping with mom and just waiting for him to talk with vendors in Spanish and pass us small pieces of fruit. This tour has potential, but only with a small group, and only with a host more prepared to have guests in her home all afternoon.

Response from Host, Mar 2024

At Adventures Mexico hygiene/cleaning is our number one priority and we take it very seriously. When a situation arises we take immediate action considering that we timely learn about a passenger´s concern. Unfortunately, we knew about this issue after the table was cleared and was communicated by the main office when received the platform report. Untimely stating We considered this comment is offensive to a fellow passenger with lots of assumptions impossible to corroborate, including that the guide knew about this issue in real time, which was not the case. Additionally, it is worth noting that our hosts/cooks are hired for their cooking skills and sometimes they are not well versed in foreign language skills thus one of the things we provide is a guide fully fluent in English that provides an accurate translation of the instructions to avoid misunderstandings or to answer any questions or concerns in the English language. Finally, although our cooking tours have an approximate 5-hour duration they may run longer or shorter depending on several factors that may be out of our control. However, activities are very much divided amongst all participants and some finish sooner than others but we try to make everyone feels included in our activities.

Excellent Food Tour

Andrew_M, Jan 2024

The tour with Gisell was excellent; we visited the local market to gather supplies and made empanadas, pollo pibil, and coconut cream. The food was excellent!!

Response from Host, Jan 2024

The market tour was very...

Michael_C, Jan 2024

The market tour was very informative and Gisell was great at explaining about the various foods we tasted. The cooking session was interesting and paced well, allowing time to ask questions and chat with others. Would recommend

Response from Host, Jan 2024

Authentic cooking class touched my heart

Ian_A, Jan 2024

Laura our guide was AMAZING along with our house host. The tour was perfect, we tasted so many amazing foods and had the best conversations.

Response from Host, Jan 2024

Must do !!!

Denise_A, Dec 2023

Tour started with the market to buy ingredients, there we did taste testing on local spices and candies, we were then transported to the home of our host, everyone got to participate in cooking every dish. It was such a great experience. And the food tasted delicious. I highly recommend doing this tour. Thanks to our guide Gisell you were great!!!!

Response from Host, Jan 2024

We loved it! Planned this...

Cynthia_L, Dec 2023

We loved it! Planned this tour on our first day here so we could experience the market and how to buy food. Vera was amazing and so kind to have us in her house. Now today we are going back to the markets together to buy groceries for the week. Also, a dish we had at the first restaurant we went to near el cuyo happened to be the appetizer we made in the class!! That dish was on our minds the last few days so it was very nice to learn how to make it. We definitely plan on cooking it in America

Response from Host, Jan 2024