Mexico holiday searching help please!

[sunseeker19]

We're wondering whether to do our first further afield holiday in 2023 (so excited!) for us two adults and two DC age 11 and 8. We're especially looking at Mexico Riviera Maya area for the school Easter holidays, probably leaving as early as possible in the holidays so around 1st April for 9 nights. I can't see anything that isn't around £10k though - is that just what it realistically costs or am I looking in the wrong places? Any help massively appreciated as I'm completely new to further-afield family holidays!

We went towards the end of August this year. It was very hot and humid (temps around 32 but weather app said feels like 42). It rained twice, once in the night and another day in the afternoon for about an hour. We found excursions to be very expensive so do factor that in to the cost. We really enjoyed Rio Secreto (underground river/cave tour).

This is all so so helpful - please keep any advice and tips coming, we're hoping to book in the Jan travel sales!

We went in 2019 and the trips made the holiday:

swimming with whale sharks in Cancun (coach from Akumal etc )
swimming with turtles in Akumal
day trip to Sian Kaan biosphere - saw turtles, crocodiles, dolphins in the wild and swam with puffa fish etc

we avoided all the X parks eg Xcaret, Xel Ha etc as they keep wild animals and not keen on that. All the wildlife we saw and swam with were free in the wild.

did a cenote trip which was nice but not as good as the other trips!

There are vans running up and down the main road. You can, we did, get to some cenotes on them and without paying tour prices. Buy the local bug spray, you will be bitten.

BA sale started.

This has been brilliantly helpful, thanks so much. Now to start scouring the post-Christmas holiday sales...!

We went this summer (end of July) was hot with the odd thunderstorm but mainly nice weather. We did the snorkeling with turtles and maya sites that the others have mentioned but my other tip like another has said is to fly via the states. We were in a slightly different situation as we went to the states for a week to see family first and then went down but as it is the equivalent of flying from the uk to the costa del sol there are tons of flights to choose from. We went home via Washington DC with United. Was only about an hour or longer than the direct flight. Cant remember how much things cost each but the whole trip including a week in the states, 4 flights and 3 days at Disney then a week ai in Mexico was about 8k for 4 so the flights cant have been that bad!

We went to a Riu in August. The area is lovely. You can get it for less than 8k for your dates for 10 nights though play with duration as this sometimes helps. 14 nights is usually no more expensive than 10.
We did Xcaret and it was amazing.

The seaweed isn't really an issue if you're not a fuss arse. We just walked through it it's only a couple of meters then the water is clear.
The beaches are beautiful. The flight is hard work but worth it.

We didn't have any jabs. I've been to Mexico before and a few other Caribbean places and never needed any

This has all been SO helpful, thank you everyone. Now at the point of booking, and so excited!

We went via TUI last year - 2 weeks over May half term, we paid £4K for 2 adults and 2 dc for AI but our dc are younger than yours. Catalonia playa maroma - I would recommend, but be aware of the seaweed, it’s unpredictable and can be bad, so if going for the beach then the spring/summer can be hit and miss in riveria maya. It didn’t bother us as our dc wanted to be in the pool most of the time but some people were peed off.

Excursions - go for private ones, makes a huge difference! The group/coach ones are painful in comparison, cost almost the same and spend hours going round other hotels collecting other people. In comparison the private ones work entirely around you and what you want to do, very helpful with kids in tow! Best we did was a snorkelling trip where went to several places in one day - there are Facebook groups for most of the hotels so find a few of those and you will get personal recommendations for local private excursions from people that have done them recently etc. Excursions are pricey though, we only did 2 over the 2 weeks, splitting the days up. We could also have got taxi to the port town nearby for an afternoon or taxi into main town for few hours, loads of people were and easily arranged via the hotel and more budget friendly, but our kids just wanted to play in the sun and pretend they were teenagers at the swim up bar!