Mexico

[StonwEd]

We’re going to Mexico for ten days next Feb.
I’m pretty good with putting together trips but am looking for real life experience of places within a few hours of cancun - we want to travel a bit and get a bit away from the tourist places. We will do a bit of all inclusive in cancun either end of the trip, but have also looked at tulum, playa del carmen and puerto morelos .
There’s also holbox island but I haven’t worked out a way to get there. I don’t want to drive especially.

Id love to hear from people who’ve been 😀

Guess I should also say we love sea food and nice wine, we’re very active so up for big walks and swimming (is it cenotes?)
We’re not ones for sitting round the pool (just a day each end I think)

We avoided Cancun as we'd been before (the town is horrid and the strip is not our scene). Playa Del Carmen looked worse though when our bus went through it. Puerto Morelos is supposed to be nicer but I haven't been, I really liked Akumal when we went for the day but it's pricey to stay. We stayed in Tulum town which wasn't very exciting but convenient - the buses are brilliant and taxis aren't bad IME. I'd recommend Xcaret and Xel-ha, both very expensive but very enjoyable - get there as early as possible. There are Tulum ruins which are nice - although not a patch on Chichen Itza which is a must see if you're interested. There are also lots of amazing cenotes around which are very cool to visit, use bikes or taxis.

From Tulum we got the bus to coba for the coba ruins and to see the monkeys at a nearby reserve - both recommended. Then we went to Valladolid which was a beautiful town and had it's own cenote. From there we got a bus up and then the ferry to Holbox - just stunning. We swam in bioluminesence and with whale sharks, but were there in the summer. The island is beautiful though and definitely a world away from Cancun, Playa del carmen etc I would recommend.

Holbox is beautiful and there are lots of taxi shuttle services you can book. Fantastic food.

Now that Tulum is getting so intense a lot of people are venturing further south to Bacalar. Worth a look.

South of Tulum there's the Sian ka'an biosphere where you can do things like a canal float.

I gather Puerto Morelos is really nice too.

Agree on Valladolid. Pretty little town, and the Posada San Juan hotel is really nice.

Wow great advice here, obviously we’ve got ages to plan. I really love the holbox island idea so going to look further into that. Keep it coming!

I’d say the standout things in the area for us were

swimming with whale sharks off Cancun
swimming with turtles in Akumal
Sian Kaan biosphere is INCREDIBLE

if you don’t like wild sea creatures in captivity I’d avoid all the Xel Ha’s etc - the ones that start with X basically

Swimming with Whale Sharks is absolutely amazing but I think the season is May to September so I think you'll miss it.

Thanks again, I’m making notes on everything 😃

Go to Uxmal. I have no idea why chichen Itza is so popular. Uxmal is hauntingly beautiful. Don't miss the cenotes.

We saw hundreds of flamingos in Celestun which was unforgettable.

we are going on Saturday. Staying in puerto aventuras. Chose this area as it has a marina with shops and bars to explore. I am not great at relaxing. Wanted a hotel and area to explore. Apparently we have ruins near by.

we have booked 4 trips

chichen Itza, Vallidold and cenote
tulum and swimming with turtles
monkey sanctuary and zip wire into a centoe and jungle hike
coco bingo

so excited

I second Uxmal. I was there last week, got there before it opened (it's very hot this time of year) and there were only about a dozen of us wander img around. Wonderful detail on the stone work.

We went to Cancun in March - paradise beaches!!

Please report back on everything!! Loving reading all of these 😃😃

@StonwEd we went to chichen Itza, 2 cenotates and a traditional town yesterday. Was a long day. The ruins were amazing, cenotate was spectacular but busy. Tour was long and they packed a lot in. I would recommend doing smaller tours. But Wort it

Amazing! Who did you book your tour with?

The Xcaret parks are amazing, we went to XelHa and it was brilliant, best day our ever

Yes to Uxmal and cenotes. I don’t remember which cenotes we went to but we had them to ourselves which was amazing (but this was 20 years ago). Maybe because it wasn’t on a tour?

Merida is a traditional town with a nice atmosphere especially in the evening in the main square.

It might be possible to nip across the border and see Tikal in Guatemala- if you can, do!

Did you go on your trip @StonwEd ?
I'm looking at next year and have very similar criteria s would love to hear what was worth doing etc.

Yes we did! We had the time of our lives, it was perfect. Happy to answer any questions you have… we scaled it back to a few nights in cancun either end and 5 nights in tulum in the middle.

Excellent, which trips/tours did you do and what would you recommend of those?
And where in Tulum did you stay? Town or beach?
Thanks!

Also, I'm thinking of doing a few nights in Mexico City in the middle with cheap internal flights, so something like 3 nights in Valladolid, 3 in Mexico City and 4 in Tulum - not sure if it's worthwhile or not though...

So we did a cycle ride out to tulum ruins, definitely recommend. We went out to the grand cenote - do not recommend, really really expensive, it’s fine but there must be better. There’s no food or drink there which for the price you pay to get in it would be nice to spend longer chilling out but we were so hungry (would have taken food if we’d known)
we went on a great boat trip at the muyil ruins. We got a bus from the city centre, one of those ones you just hop on and off, you have to be fairly relaxed about getting there and back but trust the process! That was a real highlight going round the mangroves there.
our first bit in cancun we just spent the time walking around the city, getting used to the heat. when we went back at the end we did one boat trip (fairly cheap party boat type thing) to Isla Mujeres - absolutely brilliant, was worth paying the extra for the golf buggy over there as well. If you’re a drinker beware of the booze on those trips, I had such a headache the next day but it was such good fun!
In tulum we stayed near town. One day we cycled a long way down the hotel zone and used one of them to park bikes ace spend a few hours on their loungers etc.
Take me back 🫠

We spent 3.5 weeks in Mexico last summer - flew in to Mexico City, then across to Oaxaca, Palenque, Merida, Playa del Carmen, Isla Mujeres and flew home from Cancun. Ruins at Palenque and Monte Alban (from Oaxaca) are amazing and far less busy and touristy than Chichen Itza.

Thank you so much. I will take all of this into consideration in my planning.

Sounds amazing.
If you only had 10 days (14 at a push) which bits would you keep in from your trip?

Just remembered the bus is called a collectivo, they basically run up and down the city for next to nothing.
I didn’t describe the Muyil ruins in great detail earlier but that is my top tip from tulum. You can easily spend a half day or more, you speedboat to the mangroves then get out of the boat and float down the lazy river - breathtaking and so peaceful. Again take food with you 😆