Mexico family holiday?

[indiesearcher]

Hi all,

Please help me with planning a family holiday to Mexico.

DH and I would happily sit in a shack in Tulum but accepting that DC need a bit more, what we are looking at is:

10 nights, probably somewhere family oriented on the Riviera Maya(?), broken up by a couple of nights in a more rustic place near Tulum.

TUI have good value options at All Inclusives (Grand Sirenia/Bahia Principe), which I'm really not keen on as it's just not really our style.

Is there a happy medium, can anyone recommend any specific hotels? Beachside, pool(s), kid friendly, restaurant or two but not necessarily AI? We like exploring a local area and dinners on the beach/local town.

Likewise any good recommendations for a rustic/cool Tulum spot also much appreciated. Also any just do excursions?

TIA

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MNHQ update: If you’re short on time, here’s a summary of the best hotels Mumsnetters are recommending on this thread:

😎Bahia Principe Akumal

😎Occidental at Xcaret

😎Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya

For more inspo, check out our guide to the best family hotels in Mexico, featuring more recommendations from Mumsnetters.

Really interested in replies as I have the same idea of holiday. What I will add is that friends tell me that Tulum is massively overdeveloped now, and for a more rustic vibe you should head further south or to Isla Holbox.

This is a great tip - I must say I'd heard of Tulum and like the look of some of the places to stay, but Google maps shows it to be very heavily developed!

We stayed at Bahia Principe Akumal a few years ago and all adored it. Yes it's big, it's actually 4 hotels interconnected and you can use the facilities and restaurants at all of them which the DC loved.

What we all loved was the wildlife

We named all the iguanas - there are loads in the hotel grounds, plus coatis ❤️❤️

The most memorable bits however were day trips we did to Sian Kaan biosphere, swimming w turtles in the wild, and swimming w whale sharks in the wild off Cancun.

A fabulous place.

Want to go to Costa Rica now....

Bumping in case anyone has any other suggestions as we are in a similar boat (although looking at a few days on Holbox and a few on riviera maya but possibly not on the coast. The AIs look such great value but I just can’t imagine us on one!

Yes that's our problem too - I found a blog post (Mexican Dave) that had some really nice looking places around Tulum, but £££!

Have you considered Mayakoba? But places that are kid oriented/ friendly are AI for better or for worse

We went in 2019 :)
It was brilliant. We hired a car which was easy and we went to:

Playa del Carmen
Cozumel
Chitzen Itza
Merrida
Isla Mejures
Tullum

and we loved everywhere EXCEPT Tallum which we left 2 days early. It was so busy, expensive, beaches covered in seaweed, lots of drugs openly being used etc... we went to Cancun and had a great time. Ask if you have any questions

I wouldn't touch Tui for financial and moral reasons. They are heavily involved in Russia with an oligarch shareholder.

I stayed at xcaret Occidental next to the Xcaret park which the kids would love. It’s a must visit.

The hotel is AI but you don’t have to eat there every day. We rented a car while we were there and took ourselves all over. The ruins at Coba are a must visit. Better than Tulum. We visited numerous cenotes and went swimming. Also a great swim place which a local told us about. Laguna Kaan luum.

Excursions and food were a lot more expensive than I’d thought it would be. Car hire worked out better price

Tulum is quite developed it has definitely moved past genuine rustic beach shack.
We stayed at the Fairfield which was very family friendly.
We hired a car but it was the only place in Mexico (we lived there at the time) that a policeman extorted money from us, on a road block to Chitzen Itza.
Coba was our favorite destination.

Someone else has mentioned Costa Rica, that was our favorite family holiday by a long way.

I stayed at the grand sirensis recently.

It’s massive, has a great beach where you can snorkel with turtles and rays and you are pretty much guaranteed to see loads of fish on the reef. Lots of pools, quiet pool adjoining the lazy river is lovely, great wildlife everywhere, nice rooms, spa is lovely, service was great.

Food in the main buffets is very average (although breakfast was always great), noisy pool by the steakhouse was always full of big groups of very drunk adults propping up the pool bar.

The hotel has the dolphin swimming place right next to it if you want to do that (my teens refused to set foot in there).

It’s mainly Americans, Canadians, Brits and French.

Private transfers there and back make all the difference and save you hours