City Progreso, Yucatán Municipality of Progreso Costa Esmeralda (Yucatán)
Mérida's seaside port, with a record-long pier, a pedestrian malecón, a 19th-century lighthouse and a wide Gulf beach 35 km from the capital.
From Mérida: 35 min by car (36 km by road) How to get there ↓
Near here
Plan your visit to Progreso
Where to stay near Progreso
Compare hotels, posadas and guest houses in Progreso.
Tours to Progreso
Day trips and guided outings from Sisal often include Progreso; with a local guide you can get there without a car.
Learn Paddle Board and Explore the Mangroves of Progreso
★ 5.0 (352) · From US$80
How to get to Progreso
- From Mérida: about 35 min by road (~36 km)
- Nearest airport: Mérida (MID), 1 h 7 min by car to Sisal
Links open a partner site. We may earn a commission if you book, at no cost to you.
Popular tours to Progreso
Tours, prices and ratings from Viator, checked weekly. We may earn a commission if you book.
About Progreso
Progreso is Yucatán's main port and the closest stretch of sea to Mérida, about 35 km due north along a wide divided highway. With 41,965 people in the 2020 census it is the sixth-largest town in the state, and the municipality around it, which runs along more than 30 km of coast and includes Chicxulub Puerto, Chelem and Chuburná, has about 66,000. The town is laid out on a grid behind a long, flat beach; the shore road, Calle 19, is the malecón, and the port works, the lighthouse and the market sit a few blocks back from it.
The port exists because Mérida needed one closer than Sisal, whose access became difficult in the rainy season. In 1840 Juan Miguel Castro, with Simón Peón and Pedro Cámara Vergara, picked the nearest point on the coast to the capital; President Ignacio Comonfort authorized the settlement in 1856, and Progreso was formally founded as a pueblo on 1 July 1871, becoming a city on 4 October 1875. It took over Sisal's role as the export port for henequen fiber, and by the late 19th century it had an arched pier, a railway to Mérida, telegraph, telephone and trams. The lighthouse, a 36-meter masonry tower begun in 1891 and lit in 1893, dates from those boom years; it has been closed to visitors since 2005, but the old customs house beside it is now the Casa de la Cultura.
The sea here is so shallow that ships have to dock far offshore, and that is how Progreso ended up with its famous pier. A first concrete pier was built from 1937 and began serving the port in 1941; the Terminal Remota, 6.5 km from the shore, opened on 6 October 1989. In July 2023 Guinness World Records certified the whole structure, 8,018.98 meters long, as the longest pier in the world. Cargo ships and international cruise ships tie up at its far end, and on cruise days thousands of passengers come ashore for the beach or for trips to Mérida, Izamal, Chichén Itzá, Uxmal and Dzibilchaltún. The port is in the middle of another expansion: the access channel was dredged between 2025 and 2026 and the cruise area has been rebuilt for larger ships.
For Mérida, Progreso is above all the summer beach. In July and August thousands of families move to houses along the coast to escape the heat of the city, and the beach, the malecón and the seafood restaurants fill up. The rest of the year it is a working port town that livens up on weekends and when a ship is in. The climate is semi-arid despite the humidity, with only about 420 mm of rain a year, falling mostly between June and October, and noticeably cooler weather from December to March.
How to get to Progreso
Drive from Mérida: 35 min, 36 km
From Mérida, drive north on Calle 60, which becomes Federal Highway 261, a wide divided road; the 35 km take about 30 minutes and the highway ends in the town. Autoprogreso buses leave from their terminal on Calle 62 between 65 and 67 in central Mérida roughly every 15 minutes from about 5:15 in the morning until late evening; the ride takes 40–55 minutes and a one-way ticket was about 28 pesos in 2025. Expect long lines on summer weekends and holidays. Cruise passengers land at the end of the pier and are brought to shore.
Directions to Progreso on Google Maps
Distances are in a straight line; the road is usually longer.
Links open a partner site. We may earn a commission if you book, at no cost to you.
From the nearest cities to Progreso
- Mérida · 36 km by road, 35 min
- Valladolid · 197 km by road, 2 h 35 min
- Campeche · 205 km by road, 2 h 35 min
Drive times by road from OpenStreetMap, without traffic or stops. Times marked ~ are estimated from the straight-line distance.
What to see in Progreso 6
Sights with their own page, closest to the centre first.
Landmarks and museums
-
Malecón de Progreso · Landmark · 1 km from the centre
Progreso's car-free seafront on Calle 19: a kilometer of beach, seafood restaurants, the Meteorite Museum and evening music by the Gulf. -
Muelle de Progreso · Landmark · 1 km from the centre
Progreso's arched concrete pier runs about 8 km out into the shallow Gulf, certified by Guinness in 2023 as the longest pier in the world. -
Museo del Meteorito · Landmark · 1 km from the centre
A museum on Progreso's malecón about the Chicxulub asteroid impact and Earth's five mass extinctions, with fossils, projections and moving dinosaurs. -
Yucalpetén · Landmark · 4 km from the centre
Progreso's sheltered harbour, opened in 1968: fishing fleets, shipyards and some 36 marinas between the port and Chelem.
Islands
-
Isla Columpios · Island · 19 km from the centre
A sandbank in the lagoon behind Chuburná Puerto with swings and hammocks over knee-deep turquoise water, reached by cooperative boats.
Nature reserves
-
El Corchito · Nature reserve · 2 km from the centre
A small mangrove reserve on the edge of Progreso, reached by a five-minute boat ride, with three clear freshwater pools to swim in and tame raccoons.
Map of Progreso
Neighbourhoods and villages of Progreso
Part of Progreso or just outside it, closest first.
-
Chicxulub Puerto · Village · 6 km from the centre
A beach village just east of Progreso that sits near the centre of the crater left by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. -
Chelem · Village · 8 km from the centre
A low-key fishing village just west of Progreso, with a free white-sand beach, seafood shacks and boat trips on the lagoon behind it. -
San Ignacio · Village · 14 km from the centre
A former henequen hacienda off the Mérida–Progreso highway, with a red neo-Gothic church, the old machine house and a main house used in the film Casta Divina. -
Chuburná Puerto · Village · 16 km from the centre
A small fishing and beach village west of Progreso, with shallow calm water, dunes and boat trips into the lagoon and mangroves to Isla Columpios.
Day trips and tours from Progreso
The closest Pueblos Mágicos and places to visit, with the drive from Progreso and tours that leave from it.
Times marked ~ are estimated from the distance. Links open a partner site. We may earn a commission if you book, at no cost to you.
Before you go: getting to and around Progreso
- The nearest airport is Mérida (MID).
- The best months to go are January, February, November, and December.
- 6 of the places on this page are more than 3 km from the centre: take a taxi, a ride-hailing app or a local bus.
- El Corchito and Isla Columpios: reached by boat or on foot, not by road (each page says from where).
- For day trips a rental car gives the most freedom; the tours above leave from Progreso.
Before you go to Progreso: hours, prices and tips
- Best season
- July and August are peak season, when Mérida families spend the summer on the coast. Carnival fills the malecón before Lent, and Día de la Marina brings a Navy band concert on the night of 31 May and a boat procession on 1 June. Wikipedia (es): Progreso de Castro · checked Oct 2026
Hours and prices change, especially around holidays. Each fact links to where we checked it.
Visiting Progreso: what to see and do
Walk the pedestrian malecón on Calle 19 at sunset and keep going along the Malecón Internacional, with its rides, sculptures and the skeleton of a whale stranded in 2006.
Look out along the record-holding pier, more than 8 km long, from the beach by the old arched pier.
See the 1893 lighthouse from the street and stop at the Casa de la Cultura in the old customs house beside it.
Visit the Museo del Meteorito on the malecón, with its dinosaur figures and rooms on the Chicxulub impact.
Eat ceviche and shrimp cocktails at the Francisco I. Madero market or at the seafood restaurants on the malecón.
Take a boat into the mangroves to swim in the cenotes of El Corchito, five minutes from the center.
Plan your trip
Places to stay in Progreso
Compare hotels, posadas, and rentals in and around Progreso.
Tours & activities
Day trips and guided outings from Sisal often include Progreso; with a local guide you can get there without a car.
Rental cars
Pick up a car at MID (Mérida): about 1 h 7 min by road to Sisal, then 40 km more to Progreso, on your own schedule.
Flights
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Mérida (MID), about 1 h 7 min by road from Sisal, the base for Progreso.
Mobile data
Signal can drop away from Sisal: download a map of the way to Progreso before you set out, or carry an eSIM with data.
Links open a partner site. We may earn a commission if you book, at no cost to you.
Photos
When to go to Progreso warm
Progreso shares the climate of Sisal, 40 km away. The best months to visit are January, February, November, and December.
See the month-by-month climate of Sisal
Weather in Progreso now and the next 7 days
Live forecast from Open-Meteo. Chance of rain is the day's highest.
The closest Pueblo Mágico: Sisal
Sisal is the Pueblo Mágico closest to Progreso, with places to stay, food, and more to see.
Also close to
Near Progreso
Drive times by road from OpenStreetMap, without traffic. Times marked ~ are estimated from the straight-line distance.
Location from OpenStreetMap. Written by Puebloteca.