Mexico · Estado de Campeche
Where to Stay in Campeche, Estado de Campeche
Campeche is a walled colonial city on the Gulf of Mexico coast of the Yucatán, the capital of Campeche state.
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Where to stay in Campeche
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Where you stay in Campeche turns on the walled town. The streets within the ramparts keep the cathedral, the bastions, and the painted houses within a walk, and staying inside the walls suits anyone here for the old city. The pastel streets glow at dusk.
Rooms sit behind the old ramparts. Out toward the seafront and the newer town, the city spreads along the Gulf. A room by the water trades the old lanes for the malecón, the breeze, and the views over the sea.
The flat coast opens past the edge. If you want the walls and the cathedral, stay inside; if you want the sea, take a room on the front. The walled quarter is never far off, whichever room you take.
About Campeche
Campeche is the old walled city of the Gulf.
What is Campeche known for?
Its colonial heart, painted in soft pastels, still stands behind stone ramparts and bastions raised long ago against the pirates of the Caribbean, and hill forts guard the sea approaches, while a baroque cathedral rises over the square. The old gates open to the sea. Walls and pastels mark the city.
What are the main landmarks in Campeche?
The old walls ring the heart of Campeche. The stone ramparts and eight bastions, raised against the pirates, still guard the colonial town, the emblem of the city, above the sea. Two hill forts watch the coast.
The forts of San Miguel and San José el Alto crown the heights, while the baroque cathedral and the pastel houses fill the walled streets.
What is the history of Campeche?
Campeche rose as a Spanish port on a Maya shore. Where a Maya town called Ah Kim Pech had stood, the Spanish founded a city in 1540, and it grew into the great port of the Yucatán, shipping logwood dye and silver out across the sea. The pirates came for its riches.
Buccaneers of the Caribbean raided the town again and again, until the Spanish ringed it with a mighty wall of stone and eight bastions, and built forts on the hills above. Behind its walls the city grew rich and calm. Merchants raised churches and fine houses painted in bright colours, and the port sent out the treasures of the peninsula.
Later the guns fell silent. The pirate wars ended, and the walls were let open, but the old gates, bastions, and forts still stand, and the painted streets keep their colonial grace. The ramparts still ring the old town.
Campeche keeps its walls and its colours on the Gulf.
Where is Campeche?
Campeche lies on the Gulf of Mexico coast of the Yucatán peninsula in southern Mexico. The city spreads along the shore where the flat limestone country meets the sea, backed by low green hills, in the warm lowlands of Campeche state. Flat scrub reaches inland.
The calm Gulf lies out to the west.
What is the climate of Campeche?
Hot, humid tropical weather governs the year in Campeche. Warm, humid air hangs over the coast all year, and heavy rains fall in a long summer season, cooled a little by the sea breeze, while the dry months turn hot. Storms blow in off the Gulf in summer.
The coast stays warm year-round.
How do you get to Campeche?
Campeche lies on the Gulf coast west of Mérida in the Yucatán. The coast highway runs north to Mérida and south along the Gulf, and an airport links the city to the capital, while the sea road follows the shore. Buses call at the small towns along the Gulf road in both directions.
Most arrive by road from Mérida.
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Updated August 2026