Finally got around wrapping up our Mexico trip! I’ll be sharing about where we stayed, activities we explored, my recommendations, and the one thing that no one seems to be talking about- the seaweed situation there. Hope you find this helpful and please don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments, on Instagram, or email info@jeannemarie.com if you have any questions.
So this trip happened sometime in June 20ish and around that time (after we booked everything of course), news started to come out about Covid cases rising in Mexico and how it’s making crime rates spike. At this point, it felt very disappointing because this would be our first real trip out of the country since 2019 since our 2020 Europe itinerary was clearly cancelled due to the pandemic.
This felt like a much needed trip after waiting a year and feeling that things were finally opening up again, we were all so excited. But no, the media had to ruin our moment and we were literally on the verge of canceling everything. Luckily, a good friend was currently vacationing in Mexico (very close to where we were headed which was Playa Del Carmen) and she said things were fine. She gave us a good picture of the situation there and it made me realize that this is all just the media exaggerating things. If flights are running and places are open there, then it should be fine. We always practice our own safety precautions like wearing our masks, sanitizing, etc. so we’re not going to let this pandemic stop us any longer. So we went for it and I’m so glad we did!
We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Playa Del Carmen Resort which was the perfect location to explore the town since everything was walking distance. I would absolutely recommend staying here or any of the hotels nearby. I also liked that they had a lot of pool options for the kids and it was never too crowded. The pool was critical because of the seaweed situation there right now. It’s really bad. Apparently it’s been going on since 2019 and it goes back and forth but no one can really tell you the exact timing on when there’s not a lot of seaweed so it’s definitely a risk.
Grand Hyatt’s pools were pretty but here’s the thing. On our last day, we discovered that the main pool (the biggest one in the center) was actually pretty gross- okay it was really gross. Hahaha. I’m happy we discovered this on our last day because then I would not have let the boys swim there all day for one week and they wouldn’t have had as much fun as they did. We realized this when I finally went in the water and used the boys’ goggles and yeah. It was not very clean (at all). Okay enough about that since it’s grossing me out. The other smaller pools seemed fine though. But yeah.
We had zero idea about the seaweed issue until we got there. At first we thought okay maybe this is just our hotel’s beach, but then apparently it’s the entire coast of Mexico. There is one island called Isla Mujeres that does not have any seaweed on one side because of how it’s positioned. It’s really hard to explain here but basically one side of the island is facing the opposite of where all the seaweed is coming from so that spot was perfectly seaweed free. Which is why I recommend adding this to your itinerary (I’ll talk more about this below).
Activities we explored
Chichen Itza Pyramid
This one I think is a must just because it’s one of the seven wonders of the world. I mean since you’re there, might as well check one off the list right? Since I’ve never been to Mexico before this trip (ikr), I had no idea how to even book tours, cars, activities, etc. so I relied fully on our hotel. Since the hotel had their in-house agency that booked activities for guests, I just went that route. But having been there now, I don’t recommend this. I recommend not booking anything ahead and just check out the many options you have when you’re walkging around in the Playa Del Carmen downtown area. You’ll see a lot of tour/activity agencies around. They are all basically the same and some are probably even better than what our hotel offered but definitely cheaper. For a group of 10 people we paid around $150 each to do the Pyramid and the Cenotes. It’s almost double the rates they had outside the hotel and the vans/locations you go to are basically the same thing. I’m also not really interested on the deep history and background of the pyramid so if you’re like me, skip the tour guide and just rent a van to take you there. Take pictures and you’re done. Believe me, with the Mexico heat and 3 little boys tagging along, you wouldn’t want to hear about the entire history of the mayans either. Lol.
Cenotes
“A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater. “
The tour we picked was for a one day trip to both the Chichen Itza pyramid and one cenote. Apparently there are about 6000 cenotes in Mexico and they’re all over the place. We had a lot of hiccups in getting to one so that’s also one of the frustrations we had with this $150/person tour. The driver and tour guide were not sure which one to go to and we ended up going to one place but had to leave because it was actually closed for the day. So we went to another one which didn’t even look close to any of the photos they showed us and it was very dark and slippery inside which made it hard to navigate with 3 little boys. It just wasn’t like the nice ones they showed us in the photos so we were a little disappointed. These photos were the “best” we could capture because it just wasn’t even Instagram worthy sad to say. If you google cenote and look at the photos that pop up, you’ll know what I mean. Overall it was still a good experience to be able to see one but I’m hoping to do more research and have better arrangements for next time. I still think it’s a must to visit a cenote. Just make sure to find a really nice one.
Boating to Isla Mujeres
This one made up for all the disappointments from the seaweed and the cenote fail. I recommend this 100% for anyone going to Mexico!
This was still booked through our hotel because again, I booked everything in advance given I really didn’t know any other option prior to this trip. But as I said above, you don’t need to book this through your hotel or even in advance. There are a lot of the agency stall/stands around Playa Del Carmen’s downtown area that have the boating (catamaran) option and they will most likely be cheaper too. You can also look up other companies online just search “catamaran rentals in Playa Del Carmen or Cancun”.
Because ours was a “tour” we had an itinerary which was basically snorkeling at this one part of the ocean with underwater statues (not that interesting really but sure), then they stopped at another part of the ocean where we hung out for a while- this for me was the best part. The ocean was turqoius, it was just so beautiful and everyone including the kids got to swim and jump off the catamaran diving into the ocean multiple times. Then we headed to Isla Mujeres where you again have a bunch of options/activities you can do. We ended up going to the Secret Beach which was this pretty little beach with no seaweed but it was very shallow no matter how far you went (maybe the tide was just really low idk). Overall, I would do the boating again but next time around I jsut want to rent out a catamaran and hang out in the middle of the ocean. I think that was the best part since the beach wasn’t really that great in my opinion. It was a little too crowded and didn’t have the relaxing vibe I was hoping for.
On COVID
This trip was last June but I can’t imagine things changing drastically since then. All restaurants were basically open and most (but definitely not all) people wore masks and some stores would even ask you to sanitize your hands. Most if not all of the places we ate at or visited were outdoors so I don’t remember ever feeling uncomfortable or unsafe. Mexico didn’t have any requirement to get into their country but the US does require a rapid test taken within 72 hrs of your flight back. Although Mexico didn’t require it, we took a rapid test anyway just to make sure we weren’t leaving the US positive. Imagine if we left the US positive and assymptomatic, we would 1) spread the virus to multiple people probably and 2) can’t get back to the US because then we wouldn’t pass the rapid test for our return. That’s why I would always recommend doing a pcr or rapid test before any flight out whether or not your country of destination requires it. The hotel we stayed at had their in-house rapid testing center so that was convenient. They gave us 2 free tests as guests of the hotel and we had to pay $35 each for the boys. There are a lot of other testing centers right outside our hotel around Playa’s downtown area so you don’t have to worry about finding one.
Overall, we loved Mexico and will definitely be back. We will probably split our days next time and do half in Cancun (closer to Isla Mujeres) so we don’t have to drive there to do the boating, and half in Playa since we love being able to just explore and walk around their downtown area. We will also probably do one day for theme parks like Xcaret or Xel-Ha for the kids. They are basically waterparks with a bunch of activities like snorkeling, water slides, etc.
I think there’s so much more to do in Mexico and it’s a perfect quick little getaway if you live in the US. We are planning to go back next year maybe January or February and already so excited!
I hope this post was helpful and if you have any follow up questions, I’d love to be a resource. Please don’t hesitate to DM me on Instagram and I’ll try my best to help.
jeannemari3 
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