The YUCATAN, a splendid mix of culture, discovery, and relaxation.
Written: Jun 24 '03 (Updated Apr 16 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to get around. Diverse attractions.
Cons: Hot, hot, hot
The Bottom Line: From beaches to ancient ruins this place is wonderful to explore.
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| popsrocks's Full Review: Yucatán Peninsula |
A trip with my family to the Mexican, Yucatan Peninsula was one of the most unforgettable experiences we ever had.
Update April 2007
SInce this was posted my wife and I have visited Mexicos Yucatan another two times. Though I do not detail them I do have links to newly "discovered" parts of that coast or again visited including Cozumel, Playa del Carman, Mahihual, Costa Maya and more.
End Update
RENT A CAR and HIT THE ROAD
We flew in from New Yorks JFK to Cancun's airport. Getting through all the customs and baggage pickup went very quickly. I had previously made arrangement for a minivan rental at one of the US major car rental dealers. Everything was perfect at pickup time.
I found that in all the tourist areas there were no language barriers. English was spoken. Knowing Spanish language would be a plus though.
Arriving early we set right out for our planned hotel inland right next to the Chichen-Itzaruins.
This road of Mexico to the inland was quite straight, smooth, and very easy to navigate. There wasn't much to see on the sides of the roads. The same vegetation mile after mile.
OUR FIRST DESTINATION
We stayed at a place called Hotel Mayaland. It is a hacienda that was built for well to do travelers almost 100 years ago. It is literally on the grounds of Chichen-Itza. There is excavation being done right on the grounds of the hotel. Another wonderful part of this hotel is that it has its own entrance to the ruins and you are just steps away from the huge sites it has.
CHICHEN-ITZA
Our experience in Chichen-Itza was marvelous. Getting up and at the gates at opening time was a huge plus. We were totally alone in the vast open ancient ruins. We climbed to the top of the 75' tall El Castillo. That was incredible!! Chechen-Itza is an area of ruins that has been excavated and has been rebuilt to much of its past days of grandeur. The area is clean and very open. It is also covering over four square miles of area. This means a lot of walking and discovery. I hope to have this place put into the data base of Epinions in the very near future. I do hope to review this fantastic place.
Do know that about 11.00AM the tour buses come in and the feel of the place changes from an almost sacred like and holy setting to a carnival atmosphere. I recommend staying a day or two nearby and going in early, go back to your hotel at noon and relax at the pool, and then return at night when it is cooler and most of the day trippers are gone.
They have a fantastic light and sound show at dusk. Try not to miss it. This site needs more than a day to really get it all in. Hey, if you don't have the time join the crowds on the buses. It is still a once in a life time visit.
Our stay at the Hotel Mayaland was perfect. We stayed in the hotel area where they had great Mexican dining, entertainment most nights, and some beautifully set swimming pools that were perfect relaxation. The grounds, set in the jungle are amazing!
BACK TO the COAST
After a couple of days we set for Playa del Carmen. This is on the south side of the peninsula a little less than fifty miles SW of Cancun.
Here we stayed at, The Allegro Resort, Playacar. It was an OK place. It was perfect for the kids but it lacked the higher standards my wife and I have started to expect and demand for the prices we have paid. See my review if you are interested in more details. The beach was fine and I enjoyed many lazy afternoons relaxed in a hammock reading a book. There was fun entertainment there too.
Playa del Carmen
The town of Playa del Carmen was a terrific night spot for my wife and I. At a certain part of the day, after 4pm or so, they close the main streets to cars, taxis, and trucks. It becomes a pedestrian walk and it was great!!
My wife had the time of her life haggling prices with the local merchants. That is how they do business. Have fun, check out the same goods down the street and make a deal. My wife became a shrewd dealer. Ha, we think!
We used ATMs as a way to exchange money. The rates through the machine were better than some of the local banks.
The town was lively and we felt safe on the main strip. I wouldn't feel the same on some of the dark, unpopulated back streets. Use the same caution you would in any city or town.
The people of Mexico are delightful. They are a proud people who are also very warm and friendly. I didn't have any encounters the whole trip where I felt they did not like Americans. They were very polite and respectful in all dealings. I like them a lot and treated them with the same politeness and respect they deserve.
We enjoyed walking the streets listening to all the lively music coming from the local joints and sitting in them and enjoying a beer or two. I had returned our rental car when we arrived at the resort. We grabbed taxis to and from the resort to the town. The taxis were clean, efficient, and well priced. There are taxi stands in town so it makes them easy to find.
Don't make the mistake we made of making phone calls from public phones to the states. We did that a couple of times when in town. The bills were sky high.
My wife and I took a walk one day in town to the Blue Parrot Inn. We decided to check out their world famous bar that has swings for seats. I suppose you really have to watch how much you are drinking to stay on them. It was a fun place. We had a drink and bite to eat there.
We went to Mass as a family on a Sunday morning in a charming little church. The people were very devout, yet, lively in their singing. It was a good way to start the day and give thanks for all the wonders we were experiencing.
SIDE TRIP, XCARET
From the resort we did a few side trips. A problem we had was that we were a large group. Taxis would only take up to four passengers. We had to split up at times. The guys in the taxis were great. They waited for each other and we arrived at our destinations at the same time.
Just six miles south of Playa is a park like resort by the name of Xcaret. For anyone who, like me, was a bit ignorant of the pronunciation of this it's Ish-ca-ret. It seems the X's have a sh sound. There is another such place further down the coast called Xel-Ha, pronounced Shell-Ha.
Xcaret was unbelievable!! It is the nature park/ archaeological Disneyland of Mexico. Yes, it is very commercial. Yes, it is very expensive. Yes it can get very crowded, Yes, it is very, very beautiful and full of fun things to do. Yes it is worth every bit we paid for it. The underwater tunnels are a must visit. They give you the gear and you plunge into an "underground river" that slowly takes you through these dimly lighted caves. It was very relaxing and fun to do.
My wife spent hours snorkeling the grounds. It was fantastic. They also have places where you can touch sea life. The pools with huge turtles swimming in them are amazing.
Xcaret also had a Swimming with the Dolphin's area that my wife and one of my children experienced. Cash only!! No credit cards. Admission to Xcaret was fine with a credit card, just the Dolphins looking for cash. You see, they are very much like humans.
The beaches there are beautifully landscaped and offer big tubes to float around in. They are hard to get as the place fills up with people.
There were cultural shows throughout the day culminating in the most interesting and entertaining show I have ever witnessed. I really mean that! At night they pack you into an outside arena and the show begins. It just kept going on with demonstrations of ancient peoples dance and culture mixed with the Mexican culture of today. Again, it was worth the money we spent to get into this place. It went for just under $40.00 dollars per person not quite three years ago. I'm sure it's a bit more now.
This is another place I hope to properly review in the very near future.
MORE EXPLORATION, COBA
I have always had a yearning to learn more about the ancient cultures of Mexico. One day, we again, rented a car and went exploring. We traveled south along the coast and at the Tulum interchange to Coba we headed north-west and inland to the ancient ruins of Coba. This city as grand as Chechen-Itza or perhaps even more grand is mostly still buried under hundreds of years of vegetation. This is your Indiana Jones looking site..
The roads, once again, were easy to get around on. The maps were easy to follow. The fact is we had to make just two turns to get to Coba. One off the main drag of Highway 307, and again once you go through the town of Coba and get to the lake. Go to the left and you are there. Do know, however, that easy to follow and easy to drive on are two different things when on the road to Coba. It is a dirt road of about forty miles you will be traveling on. Plumes of dust may follow you in the rear view mirror on most of this drive. This road also set us up for the kind of site Coba is.
It was a little more than an hour and a half drive to there from Playa del Carmen.
On the way be prepared for young children coming to the cars begging for anything. There are some road bumps in some of the very, very, small towns. When slowing down at one of these a little girl actually jumped on our car holding onto the side mirror and looked into our faces with sad eyes and her hand out.
We had already read about how poor these people were in this area. Though living between the tourist attractions of two major ancient ruins, Coba and Tulum, they don't get any monetary gains from them. My wife an art educator brought crayons and coloring books to give to some of the local children. Ha, a suitcase full of them.
I loved the feel of Coba. Driving into the parking lot, which is just a cleared out area in front of the entrance sets the tone. There are a few very simple restaurants here. The visitors center was a very small building with some post cards set outside in a rack.
We did the ruins on our own with a map and guide. There are miles of paths to hike through in rain forests. Have good hiking shoes, water, bug spray, and some light snacks.
There are very rustic toilets by the "visitors center" for you convenience. Use them. Not very pretty.
You can get a guide at the visitors center. There are posted signs for their fees, however, it seemed to me that people were negotiating the prices. Another quick note is that you can negotiate this trip from your hotel with a driver too. They get about ten to fifteen an hour but you can deal a day rate. This is good if you do not want to rent and drive yourself. There are also buses that make this trip three times a day from Tulum. There are buses right from Playa del Carmen too.
As stated these ruins are very primitive in their looks. Not the structures, but the way many are still buried under the dirt and vegetation. The smaller paths were not all that well marked. You could get lost. The main trail that led to the further group of structures which includes El Castillo, is quite wide and fairly well marked, though simply. The sign to El Castillo was a small wooden hand painted arrow that had the picture of a Pyramid.
I know I mentioned the name El Castillo earlier when talking of Chichen-Itza. This one here has the same name. It is also even taller than its namesake. You must make the climb. What a view!!
Walking on the way back to our car on the path a few kids suddenly were on the walk with us begging for anything. All we had at the time was some chewing gum. They loved it!
Again, I hope to review this site and all it offers in the near future.
BACK TO the HOTEL by way of TULUM
We started our day at about 7;30AM from our hotel, got to Coba, spent about three hours and then headed back to our hotel. The great thing is that Tulum is on the way. For reference Tulum is about eighty miles south of Cancun.
This site is again very different from Chichen-Itza and Coba. Two things struck me right away. First was this one is overlooking the Caribbean Sea and the other is that it has a wall surrounding the whole site.
Though these ruins are much smaller in scale that the other two we visited it held its own fascination to me. The Castillo is the largest of the buildings on the site. Yes, we have that name again. It simply means castle.
I loved walking around and trying to get that perfect picture. This is another place I hope to review soon.
Another special place to visit while here is the beach down at the base of the temple walls. It was wonderful to get into the water after a pretty busy day of hiking. Remember it is also very hot so a dip was quite refreshing. We then had one of those fifteen minute thunderstorms that are a daily happening on the coast of the Yucatan. That chased everybody out of the water, cooled the air, and made for some great photo shots.
This as in all the historic sites have a fee to get in. They all differ, this one was about two dollars per person and a parking fee of about $1.00 US. Actually Coba was about the same. Chichen-Itza took an extra dollar. This was not quite three summers ago. Prices can be a bit more now.
ON OUR OWN
One day my wife and I took our rented car and went looking for a good snorkeling area. Sorry to say driving up and down the coast between Tulum and Playa del Carmen we didn't discover that perfect spot. We did find a couple of nice little romantic looking places to stay. The coast is dotted with these. I would consider renting a car and just driving the coast staying in a different little place every couple of nights and going out to eat for local fare.
We did eat mostly in the resort, but, my wife and I did eat out a couple of times in local places. No, Moctezuma's Revenge for us. We were fine. We did not drink any tap water while in Mexico. Bottled water only. The resorts supposedly have their own filtering systems, so the ice etc should be fine.
GOING HOME
We eventually had to say good bye to our new found home of Mexico. All went well. Do be sure to have proper ID for any children. It's easy for them to get into Mexico. It's much harder getting them out. My kids were also asked questions upon leaving. This was a way of screening to be sure we weren't smuggling them into the US. Ha, there are some days I would like to leave my kids there.
This vacation with my family on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico was wonderful and full of wonders. Try it!!
A bit more in Mexico
Discovering the Yucatan Peninsula Ancient Ruins, Culture, and Relaxation
CHICHEN-ITZA, the Grand Ancient Site of the Yucatan
Coba, the ancient city A site that is just being excavated.
Tulum, Mayan Temples on the Sea
Xcaret, an Amazing Park dedicated to Nature and Culture
Hotel MayaLand A wonderful, highly recommended, place to stay near Chichen-Itza
Allegro Resort, Playacar A halfway decent all-inclusive in Playa del Carmen. Just six miles from Xcaret.
Playa del Carmen A definite place to visit on the Mayan Riviera
The Viva Wyndham Maya A good choice!
Cozumel
Chankanaab Park
Costa Maya
Other warm weather destination reviews by popsrocks
Barcelo Bavero, Dominican Republic Ya gotta love this place.
Sandals Negril A good romantic place for couples
Renaissance Jamaica Grand Perfect for the family.
Jamaica, one man's view Jamaica me laugh, Jamaica me cry
St. John, US Virgin Island Now this is paradise!!
Westin Resort, St. John, Virgin Islands The price was right.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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