One type of destination that I haven’t talked about in this blog is all inclusive resorts. The reason is quite simple, I am simply not a fan of the concept. The idea of being stuck on a resort with the same people for 7 days is generally not appealing. There are certainly many attractive reasons why people love to go all inclusive, it’s just not my kind of travel.

However, I do enjoy the beach and getting away from our cold Canadian winters once in a while. This is why, a few years back, I ventured out to Mexico…but not at a resort. This is my alternative to the tourist trap that is the all inclusive.

PLANNING

So when you think of Mexico, one of the first places that comes to mind is Cancun. However, this mecca of resorts is not the only appealing city in the country. If you go a little bit south of Cancun, in the Quintaroo area, Playa Del Carmen is a very welcoming and smaller resort town.

We flew to Cancun, a short 4h flight that was very affordable and took the local bus to Playa Del Carmen. There are several people trying to get you in their taxi but unless you speak Spanish  I wouldn’t recommend it, as you may be taken advantage of. The bus is very cheap and takes you from the Cancun airport to downtown Playa Del Carmen. It is about an hour long ride. From there we did have to take a taxi but it was only a short ride.

ACCOMODATION

Since we decided not to go to one of the multiple resorts along the Riviera Maya, we opted to go the Airbnb route again. The advantage of Mexico is that our Canadian dollar has a decent value there. We rented a condo in a low rise building in a gated community just a short walk north from the famous 5^th Avenue. Our place was in a local neighborhood, just a bit outside of the tourist area.

The place had a pool on the rooftop and a few restaurants a block away as well as a grocery store. That grocery store was quite the experience, NOBODY spoke English and unfortunately we don’t speak Spanish (haha). Back to the accommodation situation, we had a one bedroom apartment and for 6 nights, it cost us a total of $400 CAD. Quite the steal!   

BEACH

You might think that we didn’t really have access to nice beaches since we were not at a resort? Well, let me tell you that was not the case. First of all, there was public beach about 5 minute walk down the street from our place and there was also several Beach Clubs in the area. We decided to “treat” ourselves to at least 1 day at one of them. After doing some research and looking at reviews online, we settled for Kool Beach Club.  The fun thing about that place is that you basically pay a “cover charge” based on where you want to be on the beach. The closer to the ocean, the higher the fee is. We opted for row 5, mid range, kind of between the ocean and the pool. So the great thing is that the “cover” that we paid was then transferred as a bar tab. So it cost us $50 CAD to get in but once there, we were able to use our tab to get a bucket of beers, some shooters and a pizza. We spent a few hours there, not to have to worry about our stuff and having shade whenever we wanted under the umbrellas. It was definitely a $50 well spent! I recommend it!

ACTIVITIES

In a place like Playa Del Carmen there are a lot of things to do and to see. It is close to Cancun, Cozumel, Tuluum and also not too far from the famous Mayan ruins Chichen Itza (chicken pizza!).  If you walk down on 5^th Avenue, you will encounter a lot of people trying to sell you tours and activities packages. If you are interested in sightseeing, which you probably are, just talk with them and see how you feel about the representative. They will all offer you the “best prices” but it’s all about a gut feeling and negotiation. We struck a deal with one of the reps for a one day tour of Chichen Itza, a cenote and Valadolid.

Chichen Itza

The following morning we went to an address given to us by the street rep. It was a tourism office where would start our bus tour to Chichen Itza. There was several other tourists and the bus was clean and new. It was quite interesting to see the countryside of Mexico. It was quite sad too, the level of poverty in certain areas was startling.

Once we arrived to Chichen Itza, they assigned us a tour guide. The guide was well versed in the history of the ancient site and was very informative. It was scorching hot on the day we went and there was no shade there – quite the experience. We spent roughly 2 hours there, which was plenty of time.

We hopped back on the bus to go swim in a cenote (a natural water hole formation, common in Mexico). This was pretty impressive.

After about an hour, we left that spot to start our drive back to Playa Del Carmen. We made a pit stop in the village of Valedolid where we had about 30 minutes of free time to explore a little bit.  There was a nice church there along with other old Spanish colonial architecture.

Cozumel

We also booked another day excursion to Cozumel. The island is directly across from Play Del Carmen and is about a 40min ferry ride. We managed to get scooter rentals included in the deal. So the next day, we met up with our rep who drove us to the marina where we would catch the ferry to Cozumel. We were a little bit put off at first that he would drive us in his personal car but it was fine.  If you are planning on taking the ferry to Cozumel, be aware that it is REALLY bumpy! I’ve never had any trouble on boats before but by the end I was starting to get sea sick.

Once we docked in Cozumel, we had a short snorkel boat ride to see the coral nearby. Unfortunately I got really scared as soon as the instructor told us what to do if we ever see a shark. I am terrified of sharks so all I could think about when I was in the water was the movie Open Water! We then walked over to the scooter rental to get our rides for the afternoon.

They gave us a 2 for 1 deal so we each had our own. It takes about 2h to do the full island. We were going to do it but changed our mind on the way. We decided to just do half of it. We went to a little beach club at the tip of the island for a break and then went to see a very small Mayan ruins. It was a very fun day and riding a scooter took me back to my teenage years when I used to have a 50CC.     

Some other activities in the area are the Tuulum Ruins that are south of Playa. Xcaret resort is also nearby. There are options to please everybody!

FOOD

Mexican food is always good and we never had a bad meal while we were there. Since we had an apartment and there was a grocery store nearby, we decided to go grocery shopping so we could do breakfast and also pack lunches. With the exchange rate being so favorable, there was no need to cook dinner at “home,” even though we had the option.

We went to a restaurant called Taqueria El Fongo, which was recommended by a friend of mine who used to live there, also a short walk from our place. We had the best Mexican meal of our lives, very inexpensive and we even had plenty of leftovers. We even went twice!

We also tried some street food, which was good, and a local seafood restaurant, which was decent but not amazing.

I think with the right planning, you can enjoy many of the benefits of an all inclusive without any of the drawbacks. I know how I’ll be travelling when I need some sun and sand!