The Maya Riviera is a popular choice for many Canadian snowbirds looking to head south to Mexico and escape the winter blues. It’s an easy 3-hour flight direct from Toronto to Cancun and you have a choice of literally hundreds of hotels and all-inclusive resorts along the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Many simply stay in Cancun but we jumped on a resort bus (provided as part of our package) and headed down towards Akumal, which is half way between Cancun and Tulum.

I think this is the last time we will stay at an all-inclusive resort. Don’t get me wrong – it’s great not having to worry about food and drink, especially as my mum came with us on this vacation and we wanted to always know we had whatever we needed nearby.

But we’re not the type to park up at the pool bar getting drunk all day or lounging on the poolside with a book. We like to get up and go. All-inclusive resorts are something new to us because in Asia the concept doesn’t really exist; in Thailand or Japan or Malaysia for example you’d stay in the guest house or hotel and have food and shopping ALL around you, and it would be easy to just walk out the door and go out and explore.

But in Mexico (from our very limited experience) it seems that tourists generally stay in the resort areas and don’t have easy access to local food and markets. As a result the resorts provide everything you could possibly need, like kids clubs, waterparks, multiple pools, nightly entertainment, beach bars with all the cheap booze you can stomach, and sometimes a dozen on-site restaurants with different cuisines to sample, and our resort even had craft markets come and set up in the evenings.

We stayed at the Grand Palladium Colonial Resort which was a massive beast of a complex with three hotels and golf buggies to take you around. But hey, I’m not going to complain because for a week all I had to do was enjoy the buffet, go to the beach, and relax. Beats shovelling snow!

A week isn’t very much time, but we did manage to do three day trip activities that are considered must-sees when in the Maya Riviera.

Tulum

Being based in the middle of the Maya Riviera meant we were an easy 30 minute drive in either direction to some of the popular attractions, including the famed archaeological ruins at Tulum. Built in the 13th century the Tulum ruins are small but picturesque, perched at the top of a rugged cliff overlooking that perfect turquoise ocean below.

The ruins are part of the Tulum National Park and they’ve got everything organized to receive tourists. The taxi dropped us off at the entrance to the park and we poked around in some souvenir shops before making the long ambling walk up the path to the main gate where cars are not allowed to go. It’s about a 10-minute walk from the car park to the main gate and all along the route there were people dressed up in traditional (maybe?) Mayan costumes and people carrying monkeys and snakes and you could take a picture with them for a few dollars.

Once you enter the ruins area you walk in a somewhat circular route to admire the site and it’s very rocky so WEAR GOOD SHOES when you visit Tulum because it’s a lot of walking. It was also beastly hot, even in January, so bring lots of cold water and wear a cap to protect yourself from the sun because there is no shade.

Honestly, the ruins at Tulum are kind of overrated and not that interesting. I know that Instagram and Pinterest have made it look like some kind of magical spot that you absolutely MUST SEE but it was honestly kind of meh. But if you must cross it off your list, it only takes about an hour. If I’m ever in the Maya Riviera again, I’ll go to Chichen Itza instead or one of the larger ones in the interior of the Yucatan Peninsula.

PLAYA DEL CARMEN

When we got tired of lounging on the beach or lining up for the buffets, we hopped in a taxi and headed to the shopping district of Playa Del Carmen to find some nice souvenirs and also to just walk around and see what the town was like. The taxi dropped us at a big sort of mall that had a lot of international brands like Zara and from there we wandered around. What surprised me was how expensive everything was; more expensive than buying something in Canada. I can’t imagine how these shops make money because the prices were not reasonable and we only bought one souvenir!

Playa Del Carmen however is quite picturesque and right on the beach with lots of restaurants all around, and it’s where you catch the ferry over to Cozumel. It is definitely an overpriced tourist trap but a walk through town is never a bad thing, if only to snap a few shots of what’s going on.

KANTUN-CHI CENOTES

Now THIS was definitely an attraction that was worth it, and for sure was the best part of the entire trip. The Maya Riviera is dotted with hundreds of cenotes – natural sinkholes either inside a cave or in the open-air made by collapsing limestone. It was hard to decide which cenote to go to but ultimately we chose Kantun-Chi Ecopark which was close to the hotel and had excellent reviews on TripAdvisor.

After arriving at Kantun-Chi you leave your belongings in the designated lockers, take a quick wash off to remove sunblock and other chemicals which pollute the fresh water pools, put on life jackets and then follow the numbered path which leads you from cenote to cenote. The grounds are so lush and the paths are easy to follow. It was truly incredible.

The first cenotes are like swimming in a cave. You walk down a few steps and descend into this crystal clear freezing cold fresh water, which is really refreshing in the Mexican midday heat. The first cave had a waterfall cascading into it and was so big you could paddle around in a kayak!

Some of the cenotes are open-air and it really feels like swimming a cool lagoon. I liked the one with the jump-off point in the middle. You can also rent snorkelling equipment to see what’s inside the cenotes which, because they are full of fresh water, have lots of fish.

But my favourite was the last one where you swim pretty deep into the cave; you might not like it if you get claustrophobic. The water in this one was freezing like an Ontario lake! There was nothing to see in this one (meaning no fish) but we took a look underwater anyways. There are lights throughout the cave which give it an eerie blue glow. It was an unforgettable experience.

Before we knew it, the trip was over and we were packing our bags again for a return to the winter wonderland, but the week long escape definitely will help us make it to March!