Mexico – Buy me with a cookie

I just came back from Mexico and it was the best vacation I could have ever imagined. It was only me, my mom and a friend of her, but this actually allowed me to make a lot of friends and meet incredible people from many different countries.

We planned our trip without travel agencies, booked a flight online to Cancun where we spent the first 4 nights and then stayed in a resort in Playacar, Playa del Carmen for the other 8 nights.

Concerning Cancun, I recommend the hotel Beachscape Kin Ha in “zone hotelera“, which is not as big as the others, has decent prices and it’s located on the most beautiful beach in the area; also, it’s 10 minutes walking to the main attractions such as Coco Bongo, Señor Frogs and the other clubs and bars.

If you wanna do shopping, you can also take a local bus (R-1 or R-2) and get to a very nice open-air mall, La Isla, which looks very american and where you can find pretty much all american brands and various restaurants.

Cancun @ Beachscape Kin Ha Hotel

Early morning Cancun @ Beachscape Kin Ha Hotel

Cancun @ Beachscape Kin Ha Hotel

Cancun

On our second day, we decided to take a tour to Chichen Itza (i totally recommend not to buy any tour inside hotels or resorts because the prices can be even double) and they drove us also to Valladolid, a little town in the middle of the Yucatan and to the Cenote IK KIL. I honestly found all this way too tourist, too many people, shops, bars, and constructions around something that I expected to be just about nature and history.

Valladolid

The next day, being already in Cancun, we took the ferry to Isla Mujeres and spent the day there; it’s only 19$ both ways and the beach Playa Norte is absolutely worth to visit.

Isla Mujeres

The best way to go from Cancun to Playa del Carmen if you are carrying suitcases like us, is to take a cab (ask the hotel to call it for you in order to avoid any risk) and the cost is around 50$ for about an hour drive.

The resort we stayed is called Viva Wyndham Maya and I can say I had a really positive experience there. You get to have all inclusive food and alcohol 24h, rooms are modern and spacious, and the entertainment staff is friendly and a lot of fun. I joined them several nights after they took off, to go party in Playa del Carmen; I liked very much clubs such as Tribeca and Blue Parrot, this last one on the beach, while I found a little bit too trashy La Vaquita, even though it was still fun because I had never watched a wet t-shirt contest for real before lol.

Playacar

Playacar, Viva Wyndham Maya

Playacar

Playa del Carmen, 5 Avenida

La vaquita

Viva Wyndham Maya

Playacar

playacar Viva Wyndham

I think the best way to go places from Playa del Carmen is to take a collectivo, which is a big taxi that carries up to maybe 15 people; get it from Calle 2 and you can stop anywhere on the coast for something like 2$/person. In fact we decided to do everything by ourselves after having seen how excessively tourist all the organized tours were.

We went to Tulum and Akumal (the beach where you can swim with turtles) on the same day, since they are only 20 minutes away from each other, but unfortunately we had to skip Playa Paraiso because the water condition wasn’t that great.

Finally, on one of our last days, we decided it was worth to take a look at one of the best open-air cenotes of the Yucatan Peninsula, Cenote Azul, in the middle of the jungle; it actually reminded me so much of the springs in Florida, even though the water is not as cold.