As a kid, I went to Cancun two years in a row with my family and loved it. The Caribbean Sea was so blue and warm, the atmosphere was lively, and the dinner places we went to were an absolute party. I remember waiters feeding shots of tequila to guests at Carlos & Charlie's, dancing with staff in sombreros at Perico's, drinking (virgin daiquiris) at the Oasis pool bar, and my grandma dancing on her chair at Señor Frog's (where they used to have a water slide in the restaurant!).
Flashback time!
My aunt starting us on a good path.
Begged for a photo sitting on top of a nurse shark and got it, at the cost of having include my brother.
I've since been nervous to return to Mexico because the news likes to hype it up as a warzone. There are still many regions I would never visit, but after looking into cheap direct flights from Cleveland to Cancun and reminding myself there's a nearby world wonder I'd always wanted to check off the list, I did some more research about safety in Mexico.
The Yucatan is extremely safe (Merida is apparently the second safest city in North America, after Quebec), and the Riviera Maya is no more dangerous than most of the US. The cartel does run things in the country, but for the most part, they're not trying to mess with tourists. I had no plans to partake in drug use and planned the whole trip in touristy areas, so I felt much better about the visit the closer it got. Plus, thousands of foreigners visit every day and return home fine.
I decided on Playa del Carmen as a base for a few reasons. Originally, I had wanted to stay in Tulum, but safety-wise I had a lot more doubts about that. I also read that Tulum was pricey, and I realized that the town and beach are not walking distance from one another. PDC was well-located, especially considering we hit two Xcaret parks in a row, and while I wouldn't say I was blown away by the area itself, it was the right location for us to stay on this trip.
Day 1
Arrive in Cancun, bus to Playa del Carmen
We landed in Cancun on a Wednesday afternoon and took the ADO bus down to Playa. It's very easy to find the ticket counter on your way out, and I wouldn't recommend buying in advance in case of flight delays or long immigration lines. Better to just get the next one coming than stick yourself in a timeslot you might not make. We only had to wait about a half hour at the bus stop, and the weather was so perfect I didn't mind. And I mean actual perfect, like 80 and breezy, not sweltering.
The ADO buses are pretty comfy, and it took an hour to get to PDC from the airport. The station is near 5th Avenue, and it wasn't a far walk to our hostel from there. I had booked us a private room at Sayab Hostel and was really happy with the choice.
We had a very clean room with a double bed and a bunk bed, lots of huge windows for natural light, and an ensuite bathroom. The common area felt more like it belonged to a boutique hotel. I was a big fan of the raised stone pool and sun loungers. There was a small bar, although I never saw anyone working it, and a little kitchen in the back where we could store/reheat leftover food. They also had free drinking water stations which was so key. It was not the most sociable atmosphere, and most people walking around through the day were either staff or customers of the dive shop on the premises, but we had a small group of our own so that was fine.
We had a chill first night. We walked to a restaurant called El Fogon I had seen recommended on Reddit, checked out the square and bought supplies for our tour the next day, took a swim at Sayab, and went across the street to the Che Playa hostel for a beer on their rooftop where they were doing karaoke night.
Day 2
Day Trip to Chichen Itza
The source of most of my anxiety leading up to the trip was renting a car to visit Chichen Itza. It seemed like the preferred way to do it since we'd be on our own timeline, but I kept laying up at night thinking about having to interact with police at the border, parking and gas scams, or anything going wrong with the car. We ended up deciding the day before we left to book a tour instead, going with Ekinox through Viator, and that relieved a lot of my nerves.
The tour was both a good and bad idea. On the bright side, we were able to just relax on the two hour bus ride, had built-in tour guides who told us history on the way, and ordered these cool individualized Mayan birth charts on traditional paper that were a great souvenir. On the negative side, we were banned from shopping at all in Chichen Itza and instead forced to spend way too much time at this "traditional village" where the prices were exorbitant - think a $3 chachki you could get at any shop marked up to $19, and most of their merch over $100. We also were rushed through the cenote and Valladolid.
Chichen Itza was so worth it though. The actual world wonder is the Temple of Kukulcán right at the front, but we bypassed that at first to start from the back and work our way up. Our English guide would spend about 10 minutes at each spot telling us about it, then give us 15 minutes or so to take photos before meeting back up and going to the next spot.
Again, I was totally bummed about having to walk past the hundreds of vendors on the pathways where I saw so many awesome items I wanted, a lot of which I didn't see again at outside shops. Docked a star on their Viator review for getting between me and my souvenirs.
Getting the background on the ruins in Chichen made it a lot more meaningful, so even if you drive yourself, I'd recommend getting a tour guide (or seeing if you can download an audio tour before you go - I did that in Rome). My favorite details were the snakes the Mayans put on everything. The Temple of Kukulcán was the obvious highlight, and we found out that the way it was built causes the light to hit it at certain parts of the day so the shadows form a snakelike pattern.
The only struggle on this tour was the heat. It was in the mid 90s with very little shade, and I was feeling really unwell by the time we wrapped up and got back on the bus. Bring an extra bottle of water to have when you get back, it was so needed. (They gave us a cold one when we got off the bus.)
The Ik-Kil cenote was the next stop, and a cenote has been on my bucket list for so long. We changed into our swimsuits in the bathrooms, grabbed the mandatory life jackets, then went down the stairs to the swimming hole. It was absolutely gorgeous with the bluest water and vines hanging down from the top where the sunlight streamed in.
This was slightly dampened by the hundreds of tourist bodies in the water - I felt like I was in that scene from Titanic after the ship has sunk and everyone is just aimlessly banging around in their life jackets. They had a maybe 10' ledge you could jump off into the water, although the force of impact knocked my hand away from my nose, and I inhaled a bunch of water and came up choking.
We only had an hour at the cenote (which, when you take into account changing into and out of swimsuits, is not enough), then it was off to the Kaua "Mayan arts village". We had an included lunch here that was ok, and there were some Mayan warriors doing a performance. After that though, we were taken to watch how tamales and obsidian statues are made, all a ploy for us to drop money into the obvious tip jars. Then we were sent into the gift shop where we wasted probably 30 minutes in a place no one could afford. The tour company had banners hanging up, so they didn't even try to hide it's all for kickbacks.
Our final stop was Valladolid, a very pretty little city, although we only stopped at the town square and were only given a half hour. This gave us time to essentially go photograph the church and fountain, then get in line at a marquesita stand where we didn't even make it up front to order before it was time to be back on the bus. Huge bummer. I'd have much rather paid for my own lunch in Valladolid and spent all that time we were at the arts village here.
We were pretty tired out after arriving back in Playa, but we headed out to Señor Frog's for dinner. Sadly, it is not what it used to be - and not just because this was a different location, I'm sure. Still a party vibe, but nowhere near the level of my original experiences as a kid. Oh well. Drinks and food were good, plus the shot girls hand-fed us liquor.
Day 3
Explore PDC, Xplor Fuego
We had a free day most of the following day, so we were able to sleep in and then walk all the way down La Quinta Avenida for a great breakfast at La Cueva del Chango on their cute patio. I got some green pepper chilaquiles (they had like 6 pepper sauces to choose from AND sauces on the table), a coffee, and a passionfruit cocktail. It was my favorite meal of the trip.
We walked back along the beach, and then I did some souvenir shopping while my friends went for a swim at the hostel. We went back to 5th Ave for a drink after, then got streetside marquesitas (the ones in Valladolid smelled better, damn you Ekinox Tours) before finding a cab to take us to Xplor for the night.
The seaweed (sargassum) situation in Riviera Maya has definitely worsened since my younger years.
We had bought tickets for Xplor Fuego, Xcaret's adventure park nighttime session, and it was amazing. We put on our swimsuits and helmets, storing everything else in our locker, then hit the activites.
The park is all built around the central area, El Corazon, which is a huge beating heart near the lockers. Most of the park is belowground, and the parts that aren't are lit by torches in the jungle.
First we went ziplining, where there was a course of about a dozen. The only rough part was there were a ton of stairs to get between each one, and it was all outdoors in the heat without access to water (all you can bring with you on the ziplines is a secured phone case necklace). But so worth it! You're flying over the jungle on every zipline, and if you do Fuego, the highest one (45 meters) goes through a ring of fire at the end. The final run goes through a waterfall - I landed in the water pre-waterfall and had to desperately paddle my way to the attendant to drag me the rest of the way through.
At least I didn't fuck up the fire ring!
Next we hit the cave swim, where you get a life jacket and swim underground. I was originally bummed we did the shorter route, because it was so cool, but our next activity was the underground exploration which was even cooler. This was also in the water, but you could stand for the most part (I'm 5'3" and there were a couple sections I was on my tippy toes). But the neatest part was that we had it all to ourselves. I don't know if it's because we did Fuego instead of daytime, or if it's because it was a week after spring break had ended or because we went on a Friday night, but the place was so empty. We didn't see another soul through most of the cave walk, we were just wading through the water underground in silence with real bats flying overhead. So, so cool! Highlight of my trip.
This was a long section and took an hour or so, plus the paths between attractions underground were extremely lengthy. There was one more activity down here which was rafting through the caves on these fake bamboo rafts using little hand paddles.
Xplor includes a free dinner, so we hit up the big buffet room next. They had an insane amount of food to choose from as well as a huge drink station (there were at least 5 different flavors of water alone).
Our final activity of the night was the ATVs. I'd driven one of the bike-like 4 wheelers before with hand brakes, but never one of these jeep contraptions. I drove the first part of the track and then switched off with my friend (we both wanted a turn, and they wouldn't let us take separate vehicles). Zooming through the jungle at night was also really cool - there were bridges lit with torches, hills, and parts that went underground into caves before coming back out into the trees.
If you're an adrenaline junkie or love extreme activities, I cannot recommend Xplor enough! They'll also take photos for you automatically via a sensor on your helmet if you feel giving into exploitative money-making practices is worth not only having shitty cell phone pictures to show for your time. (We might have if they didn't try to charge Sam $120 for three people since we'd posed for group photos together.)
Day 4
Xcaret
I wasn't sure what to expect from Xcaret, as I had seen people rave about it online yet couldn't get a real feel for what the park was meant to be. My summary now is that it's essentially a huge zoo with cultural attractions. It's a very, very long day if you want to see everything (we were there over 12 hours), but would be a good place to take kids too.
There's a Mayan section that was probably my favorite, as it has a very cool traditional cemetery that includes beautiful underground shrines lit by walls of candles. Every tomb on the hill is completely unique. There's also an outdoor chapel and a village over the water.
I had seen photos of this cross on Instagram, and I was so determined to find it that I dragged my friends back to the Mayan area at the end of the day for a scavenger hunt. We were running around the hill, catching glimpses of it through the candlelit holes in the other shrines, before we finally found it hidden around the back down some stairs. The photo doesn't do it justice - fave thing I saw that day.
The aviary is also a massive highlight. There were so many types of birds, and you'll find different ones as you descend through the area as different breeds like different elevations. There are waterfalls and bridges, and the most memorable part was a pair of gigantic pelicans jumping off a wall at full wingspan and landing right in front of us. They insisted on accompanying us down the path for a bit and scaring the shit out of Sam.
There's also a butterfly sanctuary...
...aquarium, sea turtles, sharks, and dolphins...
...river swimming that we did not partake in due to lack of proper footwear (I was willing to walk back through the park barefoot, my friends were not)...
...and a beach area where we stopped for a lunch and drink break and were joined by a giant iguana friend.
We break for mango margs.
Along with all of the animals on exhibit, there were wild coati around the park too which was super cool, being an animal whose existence I was not even aware of prior.
There's another Mayan section up front that has horses, a plaza full of miniature temples and Mexican sites, and a gorgeous chapel called Capilla de Guadalupe with a very unique Virgin Mary made with branches on the wall, and an altar below that is built over water.
The famous night show, Mexico Espectacular, was really good, but it felt never-ending after the long day in the heat. I enjoyed the historical parts at the beginning which included traditional Mayan games (they played hockey with a fireball!) and reenactments of the colonists taking over, and then near the end they showcased different music and costumes from the various regions of Mexico.
I was almost too exhausted by the time we got back to go out to dinner, but I'm glad I dragged myself in my pajamas to the cheap 24 hour restaurant a block over for some quality cheese empanadas.
Day 5
Cancun
I had breakfast at a cute spot called SweetSoul Gourmet on my last morning in PDC where I sat on their swings and had an eggs benedict crepe.
We had bought our ADO tickets back to Cancun in advance, which I would recommend because our bus was totally full going back up. From there, we crossed the street and hopped on the local bus to get to the hotel zone. It was only $1 each and stopped right in front of our hostel door.
I booked us at the Mayan Monkey Cancun which was the BEST choice. To start, we were staying in the top floor suite which was incredible with floor to ceiling window views over the water, two double beds, and a large private patio.
Downstairs, the common areas were such a party, even on a Sunday night. There was a pool, ping pong and foosball tables, beer pong, giant Jenga, and more, all on a deck on the sea.
They had plenty of reasonably priced cocktails, beers, and food. I spent my whole last day just drinking and chilling, taking a break to go watch the sunset alone up on my balcony, then coming back to catch part of the karaoke night.
It was a busy, fun, and totally safe trip. If you're hesitant to go to Mexico, choose the Yucatan or Riviera Maya. Book a cheap flight, relax (or zipline through rings of fire), and enjoy the heat! (Of the rings of fire. Seriously go to Xplor.)
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