Just got back from Cancun 8/7-8/14
Hello, this is a long post and hopefully it helps someone! I spent a lot of time in this sub before my vacation and it helped me a lot. We travelled with another couple so it was a total of 4 adults, all in our early 30s. Two of us (including me) speak spanish, the other two can speak/understand it a little.
We had a driver named Luis from The wonderful vacations rm, he was awesome. Had great food recommendations, was so nice and always arrived early! They have an IG & FB account, I also have his whatsapp number if anyone would like it.
In playa del carmen we stayed at Ipana condos, two blocks away from la quinta ave.
In Cancun we stayed at the Westin Lagunamar
Day 1: We arrived in Cancun around 4:30 pm and got picked up by Luis, he drove us to playa del carmen. Once checked in we walked to taqueria el fogon del may (recommended by Luis), food and drinks were great! Definitely recommend. Went back to airbnb and enjoyed to rooftop pool.
Day 2: Selva maya eco adventure tours (9 am- 1pm) we opted for this place instead of an xcaret park because we didn’t want to spend all day at a park so this was a nice option since it was only 4 hours long. The price was $80 usd per person (booked online) once we got there, they gave us the option to rent a double ATV for $40 usd (single was $30). Honestly this part of the vacation was so fun, riding the ATV, 5 zipline’s, hanging bridges, rock climbing, rappelling, two cenotes and they gave us lunch at the end, food was great. They take pictures throughout the adventure and at the end you can buy them for $40 usd. The guys helping us were Roberto, Alex and Isaiah, they were all great, very nice and funny!
For dinner we went to El Pirata (seafood, recommended by Luis) all the food there was amazing!! After dinner we walked to la quinta alegria mall and then explored la quinta ave for a few minutes.
Day 3: we didn’t have anything big planned for this day. We went to the gym and pool in the morning and after walked to a panaderia called Panificacion Castillo. The pan dulce was very good and fresh, iced coffee was not great and needed more flavor but the frappe’s were better. At night we had a nice dinner at Trattoria del Centro and after went to Aldo’s for some ice cream (the best). While walking on la quinta a random guy said to us “oh hey guys you don’t remember me? I was your waiter at the hotel” I told him oh that’s weird we’re not staying at a hotel, he then said “oh you don’t remember me from ipana condos? I was the guy at the front desk”. I knew this was bs from what I’ve read in this sub, I was weirded out when he said the name of the condo but then I remembered I was wearing a bracelet with the name of the condo (we had to wear it for our stay)
Day 4: Chichen Itza day! Luis picked us up around 7:10 am and we arrived around 8:30 am to chichen itza (yucatan is an hour behind) we did not book this through a big company since we wanted to do this at our own pace. Entrance to the park was $697 mxn per person, we hired an English guide there for $1300 mxn, Salvador was our guide, he was great and very knowledgeable, he even let us borrow his umbrella because even at 8:30 am the sun was so strong. We left around 11:30 am and Luis drove us to cenote Saamal, it is in the Hacienda selva maya in Valladolid. I think we paid $450 mxn per person and it included a locker, life jacket and buffet. The cenote was nice and refreshing, there were a lot of people there, it was busier by the time we left because a big tour bus had arrived. The food was amazing too! We got back at around 4:45-5 pm. At night we walked around la quinta ave again and went to Aldo’s.
Day 5: We checked out of the airbnb and drove to hotel zone in Cancun. We arrived around 1 pm at Westin Lagunamar. When we booked this hotel we asked for early check in but when we arrived only our friends room was ready, they told us they were already cleaning our room and put a rush to it so it would be ready asap, they said they would call us when it was ready, the guy at the front desk gave us all the information we needed, room number, floor and activities happening in the next few days, etc. We left our bags with the front desk and walked across the street to La isla mall. We got tacos at Chachalacos, they were great but beware when they ask you if you want all the toppings because they charge 20 extra pesos per topping, they don’t tell you that (happened to my friends but I asked before saying yes to everything).
Once we got back to the hotel it was 3:40pm and we were still waiting for a phone call so we stopped at the front desk to ask, they said our room was not ready and they needed 20 more minutes. I was confused because 2 hrs and 40 mins had passed and our room was still not ready even though we asked for early check in and even after they put a rush to our room. The lady at the front desk said they could move us to another room in building 2 with no ocean view, we said no since we paid for a room with ocean view. I let her know we would wait the 20 minutes for our room, the lady at the front desk said that there was no guarantee that our room would be ready by that time. I was very confused since earlier she said we just needed to wait 20 more minutes and now she’s saying we might have to wait more than that. I told her we’ll be back in 20 since 4 pm is check in time. Thankfully our room was ready by 4 pm but they still gave us a different room, when we checked in we were told we were in building 10 but they moved us to building 8. We didn’t mind; we just wanted to get our room and relax. I don’t know if it was a coincidence or the lady at the front desk didn’t like us but our room had the loudest AC, at some point I thought maybe the washer was on too, it was louder at night. Our front door was so hard to close we literally had to slam it like 3-5 times before it closed. They also said housekeeping is everyday, they never went to our room, we were only here for like 3 days so we didn’t care much about housekeeping. Housekeeping went to our friend’s room every day.
Later in the day we went to the pool for an hour, they ended up closing the pool at 8 pm because there was a lot of lightning.
Day 6: went to the gym, pool then beach in the morning. We walked to La isla and had lunch at Johnny Rockets. For dinner we went to Porfirio’s, its a 30 min walk or 15 min car ride. Since we didn’t want to walk in the heat we took the ADO bus and it was very easy, they charge $12 mxn per person.
Food and drinks there was really good. For 4 adults we paid around $210 usd (you can pay in mxn or usd, they give you both totals). They also have a nice view and a swing by the water, you can go down there and take pictures
Day 7: this was a slow day since it was our last full day! We had lunch at Viento bar & grill (hotel restaurant) and had some fish tacos that were amazing! For dinner we walked to Fish fritanga, we had shrimp tacos there and they were 10/10, the view was very nice too since you’re next to the water, the drinks were also very good! Since we were celebrating our anniversaries, they gave us a free slice of cake to share with a sparkler!
Day 8: back to reality :( we had a layover in Denver and there a lot of flights were delayed and cancelled because of the weather, so it was a pain in the ass to get back home, we had to spend the night in Denver but made it home the next day.
I do recommend you pay in pesos, in a lot of places their dollar is very low like $15 pesos, in a bank the peso is between $16.55-$17. We brought dollars and went to a money exchange place, also went to an ATM, my bank charges me $5 usd per transaction so it wasn’t terrible.
Hope this helps someone 😊