Is the road passable past tulum to drive south to get to Palenque? Heard not so good after hurricane?

Question

We are driving from Akumal to Palenque and want to go via the south road along the coast. However I had heard a couple of months ago that this coastal area further south from Tulum has been badly affected by the hurricane. Does anyone know if the road is still ok?

Answer 1

I can't comment about the road south of Tulum but I will say that Hurricane Dean made landfall there in August of this year so that the first answerer being there in March may not be helpful. The flooding around Villahermosa in Tabasco this November is a separate event.

Also, if his route was Palenque/Chichen Itza/Cancun/Tulum then I would guess that he didn't take the road south of Tulum either since it would be much faster to get from Palenque to Chichen Itza via Campeche/Merida than any way that would have you on the highway south of Tulum.

I was at Palenque November 24th of this year but we started in Progreso on the gulf coast so went a different route. From Merida we took the 180 to Campeche, then to Champoton, then the 261 to Escarcega. From there our routes would intersect at HY 186. I can tell you that that highway had lots of trucks on it and is for the most part two lanes (one each direction) so passing isn't always the easiest but road conditions were good. I know it's not the stretch of road you asked about but that's all I can help you with.

If you are going to Palenque, you might want to also consider the ruins at Yaxchilan, Bonampak too.  Also there are some impressive waterfalls in Chiapas as well.

Enjoy your trip. Feel free to email if you have any questions, I'll help if I can.

Answer 2

I was there in March this year. And the road was ok.

We drove from Palenque to Chichen Itza, and then to Cancun and Tulum.

Road should be ok. No hurricanes or storms.

Affected areas in south México were Villahermosa Tabasco and somewhere in Chiapas.