Planning the trip to Mexico
Last winter 2021-2022 we did an adventure trip in Mexico. Because of the covid-19 it was difficult to travel to most of the countries we decided to fly to Cancun Mexico. Mexico was one of the few countries that didn´t have any covid-19 rules for entering the country. I also found direct flights from Helsinki which was a nice bonus.
During our holidays we like to visit as many places as possible, so we decided to rent a car. I booked a car in advance online, but because our trip was during Christmas and New Year it was difficult to find a reasonable priced rental car. Later in Cancun we also got scammed by the car rental company. We ended up paying a double price on the car for what I made the booking so be very careful when dealing with the car rental companies in Mexico. We have rented cars in many countries, and this was the first time we got scammed like this. They also gave us the car with an empty gas tank, even the contract said full so remember to check that as well.
Because of the high season I reserved all of the accommodations in advance. I planned the route carefully and calculated how many days each location would require. I love old ruins so I wanted to include some maya ruins on our trip. I don´t like too much crowds so we decided to skip the chichen itza, which I guessed to be very touristic. I did include two different all inclusive resorts for the trip to amuse the kids.
I used a lot of YouTube to help me to plan the route. My favorite videos were from Sin Postal, I would highly recommend checking their videos if you are planning a trip to Mexico. Please note that their videos are in Spanish.
Accommodations in Mexico
We went to Mexico during the high season so the hotels were a bit on the higher price range. I booked all the hotels in advance to save me from the stress during our holiday. We had the following accommodations on our two weeks trip:
- 25.12.-27.12. Adhara Hacienda Cancun Hotel (situated in the Cancun downtown). The price for 2 nights was 168,38€ which included a very delicious breakfast. The room itself was quite dated but the pool outside was nice. I did the booking from Agoda.
- 27.12-30.12. All Ritmo Cancun. I booked a garden view room bet we upgraded it in the hotel for a sea view room. The room with all-inclusive was $729.63 for three nights. The All Ritmo hotel had a waterpark which the kids enjoyed, and the sea view was also nice from the hotel. The food and the drinks in the hotel were quite basic. I did the booking directly from the hotel.
- 30.12.-2.1. Airbnb in Bacalar. The price was $109.51 for 3 nights. We had a small house with a garden. It was situated a little bit outside of the city center.
- 2.1.-4.1. Airbnb in Becan, Calakmul. The price was $127.83 including breakfast. We went here to visit the maya ruins of Becan and Calakmul.
- 4.1.-5.1. Mimosa Tulum. The one-night cost 145.08€. This small boutique hotel had a small swimming pool and a bar with some delicious cocktails.
- 5.1.-8.1. Sandos Caracol Eco Resort. The tree night stay in a eco family superior room with all-inclusive cost us in total $1100.95. The hotel was a huge complex with several pools, restaurants and activities. First, I thought that three nights wouldn´t be enough in this complex, but in the end, we started to get already bored there. The hotel offered us a relaxing end of our trip anyway. I did the booking directly from the hotel.
In total we spend approximately 2300€ for the hotels (some prices I have in € and some in $). We stayed in Mexico for 14 nights so an average price per night is 164€. The price is high because of the two all inclusive resorts we stayed in, but I was a bit surprised that the hotels in Mexico weren´t particularly cheap. We are two adults and two kids (age 4 and 7 during the trip).
Our Mexico road trip route
Cancun
Our flight from Helsinki Finland was to Cancun so we stayed there in the beginning. I didn’t really like Cancun because I felt like there wasn´t many things for us to see. We stayed first two nights in the Cancun downtown and we just explored the city on our first day. We did some souvenir shopping at the Mercado 28. After the shopping in the town, we went for a ride on our rental car. Driving through the hotel district wasn´t really interesting because the sea view was totally blocked by the huge hotel complexes.
Another tree nights in Cancun we spend in an all-inclusive resort All Ritmo.
Isla Mujeres
One of the days during our stay in Cancun we did a day cruise to the Isla Mujeres. The seller said that the cruise is suitable for families, but we were the only family on the boat. The rest of the people were young people partying so I would recommend checking in advance before booking what kind of trip you are booking. We had four hours’ time ashore in the island. We had a buffet lunch in a restaurant which was included for the cruise price and after that we went to swimming to the beach.
Bacalar
Our next destination after Cancun was Bacalar. To Bacalar from Cancun it is about four hours car ride and approximately 330km. Our reason to go to Bacalar was the beautiful seven color lake which I was really excited to see. It is also much quieter and more tranquil place than Cancun. The New Year also happened to be during our stay, and we celebrated it by doing a BBQ on our Airbnb house. We also bought pinatas for the kids and stuffed them full of candies.
In Bacalar we did a private boat trip around the lake which was a fun way to spend the day. On the other day in Bacalar we went to spend the day at the beach. The beach day was nice, and we swam a lot in the lake. Because it was the first of January the beach was quite full of local families. Good thing is we were early and got ourselves a good spot. We really enjoyed our stay in Bacalar, and I would recommend it if you were going on a family road trip to Mexico.
Kohunlich, Becan and Calakmul
For me the highlights of the whole Mexico trip were visiting these three maya ruin sites Kohunlich, Becan and Calakmul. Also, our kids enjoyed the jungle adventure and climbing to the huge maya pyramids. It was allowed to climb all of the ruins in these sites and the views were spectacular over the jungle from the highest pyramids. Even these sites are quite far away from all of the touristic towns, I was surprised how much people was visiting them. Especially Calakmul had quite a lot of visitors.
I will be doing a separate post about the maya ruins, so I won´t share more details about them on this post.
Tulum
We stayed only one night in Tulum because it seemed more like a party town for young people than a place for a family with kids. We anyway had enough time to visit the Tulum maya ruins and we decided to do a boat trip and see the ruins from the sea instead of going to the actual site.
Playa del Carmen
We didn´t actually go to the Playa de Carmen but stayed in a resort Sandos Caracol situated nearby. The last few days were dedicated just for relaxation after visiting the maya sites.
I been only once in my life before in an all-inclusive resort before and I must say I don´t really like them. I feel like I´m stuck in the resort because everything is already paid for in advance, the food is quite average, and the days feel quite the same. The kids did enjoy the resorts we went but I felt like they enjoyed the other places as much, so I don´t see much point in going to all-inclusive resorts again. But that is of course just my opinion, I don´t judge people who like the all-inclusive resorts.
Conclusion
This was the second time for me in Mexico. On my previous trip I was visiting Oaxaca, Mazunte and Puerto Escondido about 10 years ago. In general, I did like the Yucatan Peninsula, but I did like the Oaxaca region more because it was quieter and less touristic. On the other hand, is already long time for my previous trip so I don´t know how the area there has developed.
I recommend going to Mexico if you enjoy great food, nature and colorful culture. We travelled in Mexico during December and January and the climate was just perfect for those months. I felt totally safe to travel there with my family and I think that Mexico makes a great family destination!
I will be writing another blog post about the maya ruins we visited so stay tuned… Until the next one!
