MEXICO

Hola!! What do you think when you hear someone saying they are travelling to Mexico?

Drinking Mexican Margarita, tasting amazing burritos, Soaking up in the sun, laying on a beach?

Well thats sounds good. But there are tons of other things to do in Mexico!!! After discussing with our friends, we recently travelled to Mexico for 9 days and we focused only on two cities, Cancun and Tulum.

When we visited Mexico, we simply loved it. Mexico is incredible country with a rich history and amazing people. If you are in United States and need some time off from your busy schedule, Mexico is a great destination. To simply say, whatever amount of time you are planning to visit, it’s just not enough as there are plenty of places to see and tons of stuff to do. We are planning to visit Mexico again sometime next year and cover the rest of the top attractions we have missed in our first visit.

Based on our itinerary, we have made some list of our top things to do in Mexico. Hope this list helps you to plan your travel to Mexico especially if you are visiting Cancun and Tulum. Before we discuss that, let’s look at few things you need to know before you travel to Mexico.

Visa & Entry Requirements

Citizens of US, Canada, New Zealand, UK, Australia and most of the European Countries, do not require a visa to travel to Mexico. Being citizens of India, we require additional visa to travel to Mexico. However since we are on US Employment Visa, we did not have to apply for a separate visa to travel to Mexico.

Upon your arrival at Mexico, you will need to fill out Customs and Immigration Form which will be provided to you by the Airlines when you board the plane and this form will be collected before you exit from the Airport Security. The Immigration form will contain the date of your arrival and details about duration of your stay given to you by the Immigration officers and you need to make sure you keep that copy with you till you leave the country because you will need it when you leave Mexico.

How to get In & Around Mexico

Fly into Cancun International Airport (CUN). United Airlines, Delta, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and other major airlines carriers fly from major cities in the United States to Mexico.

• From San Francisco To Cancun is about 5 hrs 25 mins.
• From Los Angeles to Cancun is about 3 hrs and 40 mins.
• From Chicago to Cancun is about 3 hrs and 50 mins.

Alaska Airlines sometimes offers good prices to fly into Cancun from the United States.

Important: Always check for deals on Skyscanner.com, Kayak.com, and also check directly on the carrier website for any deals.

Our Top Things To See & Do In Mexico

• Swim in the Cenotes

Cenotes are the natural sinkholes resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater.

Mexico is home to thousands of Cenotes and you can snorkel or even dive in many of these. Most of the Cenotes are in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. We had great time swimming in the fresh waters and we highly to visit at least any one cenote during your visit to Mexico. We have missed many cenotes which we plan to visit to some of them in our next trip.

How to get here: Mayan Cenote of Chichen Itza is one of the popular cenotes in Mexico and the easiest way to visit this is by booking the entire Chichen-Itza Package. It is not advisable to drive here as this is in more secluded part of Mexico and by taking the Chichen-Itza tour, you can visit one of the seven wonders of the world along with this amazing Cenote and you also get a tour guide from whom you can get lot of helpful information regarding the Cenotes and Mayan Culture.

Reservations: We made reservations through TripAdvisor and we recommend taking the All-Inclusive tour package. For more information you can visit the website.

Important Note: Considering the travel time to Chichen Itza, Visiting the Cenote and for Valladolid town tour, you need an entire day for this.

• Visit one of the seven wonders of the world – Chichen Itza

Located in eastern portion of Yucatan State in Mexico, Chichen-Itza is considered as one of the seven wonders of the world and also one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico. Dated back to 550 CE, one of the most largest and most popular Mayan sites in Mexico.

How to get here: We made our reservations through Tripadvisor. Honestly we think this is the best way to see Chichen-Itza. Since its located in more secluded part of the country, driving here is not recommended. Plus you get a tour guide who explains you everything about the seven wonder of the world and Mayan culture.

We do believe that, in order to enjoy this site, you need to understand Mayan Culture and the reason behind building this amazing site. With this tour package, you will will also get all inclusive option with lunch Buffet at Mayan Cenote and also a visit to a small town called Valladolid.

Reservations: We made our all inclusive package through Tripadvisor and for more details visit the website.

We hope you will enjoy your visit here and please do share us your experiences and thoughts and if you tried different tour packages, please let us know as well and that way we can also update this page to help others plan their travel.

• Explore Tulum Ruins

Tulum Ruins is located 130 km south of Cancun and is considered by many as the most beautiful attraction of the Mayan Ruins sites around Cancun. This site is exquisitely poised on the fifteen-meter-high cliffs above the azure waters of the Caribbean Sea. Tulum actually means “Walled City” according to Mayan and it was originally called as “Zama” which is called as “to dawn”.

How much time to spend here?

You can spend like couple of hours to a day here depending on your schedule. We spent about 2 – 3 hours here and we also took a tour guide which we strongly recommend because without understanding Mayan culture, you will not be able to enjoy this amazing site. You can get tour guides in English or Spanish depending on your language of preference.

Cost and Hours Of Operation:

Operating Hours: 8AM to 4PM everyday.

Entrance Fees: You can buy tickets through their official website or through Tripadvisor. We recommend doing it through TripAdvisor as its cheaper than the official website. Its costs about 10$ USD from TripAdvisor and 13$ USD from the official website.

• Visit XCaret Park

This was undoubtedly our favorite part of the entire Mexican Trip. Xcaret Park is an amazing experience for every tourist who visits Mexico. The park cannot be finished in one visit and our guides gave us good tips on how we can visit this park efficiently and cover it’s top attractions.

How to get to the Park: The best way to get here is by including round-trip transportation service at the time of purchasing the park tickets on the official website.

If you planning to drive on your own, Xcaret park is located in Playa del Carmen on Chetumal – Puerto Juarez Federal Highway km 282, in the state of Quintana Roo.

Travel Times from:
From Cancun: 45 miles (74 km) south of Cancun Intn’l Airport, toward Tulum. (1 hr drive).
From Playa Del Carmen: 4 miles toward Tulum. (15 mins drive)
From Tulum: 35 miles (57 km) north, toward Playa del Carmen (45 mins drive).

Reservations: You can make reservations directly on their website. There are multiple admission ticket options and we recommend Xcaret Plus Admission which includes lunch buffet along with one beer and unlimited non-alcoholic beverages and includes use of snorkeling gear (requires a refundable deposit of $10 USD), life jackets and inner tubes.

Things To Do: You have plenty of things to do in Xcaret Park. You will definitely not be able to cover all the attractions in one visit. Our guide helped us in narrowing down some of the top things to do.

We recommend doing the very first attraction the underground river, visiting Mayan archaeological vestiges, watching turtles, viewing Stingray fishes, Snorkeling, watching Flamingos, visiting the main plaza (for food, handicrafts, Mexican music, and more), watching wildlife animals (Jaguar, Mountain Lion), visiting House Of Whispers (House of Whispers has acoustics that allow you to hear any whisper originated at the other end as if you were near), visiting Chapel of the Lady of Guadalupe and much more. All these are included in your plus admission ticket.

Xcaret Plus Admission is also the best admission option because we initially took the general admission and realized that paying for lockers, jackets and buffet costs more than the plus admission ticket price.

Important Note: We recommend the Xcaret Plus Admission ticket mainly for the Lunch Buffet. The buffet options were amazing in the main restaurant of the park and by far the best Salmon dish I ever had. The Buffet had great menu options with unlimited drinks. We strongly recommend buying the plus admission ticket.

• Isla Mujeres Island

Isla Mujeres (Also called as “Island Of Women”) is one of the must visit island in Mexico. We strongly recommend going to this Island especially if you are planning to visit Cancun.

Once you are in the Island, you can rent a golf cart to get around which is exactly what we did and it was amazing fun. Its a small and beautiful island with plenty of things to do. We did souvenir shopping and visited the beautiful downtown along with renting a golf cart. We strongly recommend this and it’s best way to check out the island.

How to get here? Well, since its on an island, the only way to get there is by boat/cruise. We got free reservation for a day trip to Isla Mujeres through our resort. Isla Mujeres is about 30-minute boat ride away from Cancun.

Reservations: You can make reservations directly on their website or book a package through TripAdvisor and there are plenty of package options on TripAdvisor which costs about 80$ USD on TripAdvisor and you can also check on their official website for more details.

Note: The best way to make a reservation is through local tours and travels and especially if you are in a resort, you will be able to get in touch with them directly as they are partnered directly with the resort and you can check different tour options from them for Isla Mujeres.

Important: There is also an underwater museum (MUSA) which is a very popular underwater museum and a must visit in isla Mujeres. We are not great swimmers and unfortunately we missed on this as you will need to be an expert in swimming to be able to be with your group and there is certain time allocated for this underwater adventure as part of your tour. For more details you can visit their site. You can also check just for Scuba diving options on TripAdvisor. However they are very expensive.

• Taste Margaritas

Margaritas are iconic tequila drinks of Mexico. Enjoying margaritas on a beach on a sunny day or just relaxing are one of the best things to do in Mexico. Mexico has lot to offer in terms of margarita drinks. Everywhere from the resort, to any small restaurants, you will get a chance to taste different flavors.

We enjoyed the margarita drinks in our resort and on our tours.

Quick Tip: Plan in such a way that you can book an all inclusive package in a resort. That way you don’t have to worry about breakfast, lunch and dinner and you also get plenty of drink options both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

• SferIk Tulum

SferIk Is a contemporary art museum at Azulik Hotel. Pronounced as “Spheric”, SFER IK got its name due to the curving structure of it design and the word Ik refers to a mayan word for “Wind”.

Although the art museum is popular for its architecture, we did not enjoy much here as there is not much time to spend here and you can cover the entire museum in max of about 5 mins. Most part of the museum is accessible for Azulik hotel customers and not accessible for other visitors. You hardly need 5 – 10 mins here. We personally do not recommend visiting this unless you would like to spend some time taking pictures for Instagram.

Reservations: You can either buy the tickets directly at the museum or online through eventbrite. The tickets are about 6.94$ USD per person and can be purchase here.

• Eat Mexican Tacos

Tacos (Source: Google Images)

We have always been great fans of Taco Bell!! Well in Mexico, there is plenty of taco options and especially in the resort we stayed, there were plenty of vegan and meat taco options including Chicken, Beef and Pork. Its always amazing to taste tacos and when you are in Mexico we recommend trying the different taco options.

Suggested Budget

According to our research and calculations, we have divided the daily expenses based on the Accommodation, Food, Transportation and other attractions.

Economical – If you are more into travelling in public transit, hiking or backpacking, on an average you will need about 1050 mxn pesos per day.

Mid-Economy – Travelling more frequently in cabs, spending more on the tours, you will have an average daily expenses of about 1800 mxn pesos per day.

Luxury – If you decide to stay in luxury accommodations, eat at 5 star resorts/hotels, spend on tours, then you will end up having average daily expenses of about close to 5000 mxn pesos per day.

Best time to Visit

December through April is considered as the best time to visit mexico. Although it’s the busiest season for tourism as temperatures are hot, the coastal parts of Mexico are great relaxation and also you can see plenty of tourists during this time.

June till October is considered as the wet season and you will experience heavy rainfall during this time. September till mid of October is more of hurricane season and it is not advisable to travel during this time.

We recommend that you visit during off-season to get more discounted rates and more cheaper hotel accommodations.

Our Recommendations for the Stay

When we were in Cancun and Tulum, we stayed in two resorts which were all inclusive (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner with unlimited drinks). We highly recommend you chose this option because you will not have to worry about breakfast, lunch or dinner.

While we were in Tulum, we stayed at Bahia Principe Grand Coba and we booked for all-inclusive package. Honestly this resort was much better in terms of dining, accommodation and amenities compared to the one we stayed at Seadust Cancun Family Resort in Cancun. Everyday for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner there were unlimited options with plenty of different cuisines to try and also amazing selection of desserts and drinks.

Note: Vegetarian options are very limited in Mexico.

You also have an option to dine-in at nearby resorts for dinner and in order to do that you will just have to reserve a day in advance at the resort front-desk. You can find a self booking kiosk at the frontdesk, where you can select the restaurant you want to dine-in for dinner.
Important: You can avail this option only if you stay for more than 3 nights.

Out of 9 days we stayed, we only missed lunch a couple of days. Rest all the 7 days we were able to enjoy the buffet. The important thing to remember is that the buffet is usually open till late 9.30 or 10 PM everyday and that way you don’t actually have to miss the dinner. Overall when you compare paying for food by yourself vs having unlimited buffet option, unlimited buffet option always works better.

The one major complain we had was that the resort we chose while we were in Cancun, the buffet options weren’t great and some occasions, the food tasted very salty. We do not recommend staying in Seadust Cancun Family Resort and we recommend you stay at a different resort while you are in Cancun.

Where to Eat

We usually had our breakfast and dinner at the resorts and while we are exploring the city or on tour, we took the unlimited buffet options for the lunch which was booked directly as part of the tour. For example Chichen-Itza all inclusive package, Xcaret Park plus package.

Top Recommendations:

• Bahia Principe Grand Coba (Resort we stayed) – Unlimited Buffet options for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.
• Xcaret Park Plus Package – Great lunch buffet in the park’s main restaurant which was included as part of the tour.
• Chichen-Itza-All-inclusive package which included Lunch Buffet option which can be booked directly through tripadvisor.
• Seadust Cancun Family Resort : We took the unlimited all-inclusive package, but unfortunately we did not like the buffet options here. We highly recommend to book a different resort if you are planning to stay in Cancun.

Staying Safe in Mexico

You often hear people saying “Mexico is unsafe”. Well, mexico is a big country and yes some places are safe and some aren’t.

We recommend taking public transport wherever possible and avoid renting a car. I have often seen tourists being a target as officials look for bribes and these are pretty common in tourist places like Quintana Roo.

Always be safe when you are travelling. Do not wear expensive watches or jewellery, do not carry too much cash with you and always make copies of your official documents and always let your loved ones know where you are going. Another safe tip is to drink plenty of water. It is very hot and humid in mexico during summer and you need to make sure you are hydrated and you drink plenty of water.

Important thing to note:

• Make sure you do your transaction in local currency. Every location in mexico has different currency conversion rates for USD to Mexican Pesos. If you pay in dollars, technically you end up paying more money. So it is advisable to do transaction in pesos.
• Do not trust resort/hotel lockers, keep separate padlock locks for your suitcase. We have read tons of reviews while we were researching for accommodations where people complained that their money was stolen from their room safe.
• If you take extra precaution and padlock your suitcase, you will be fine. We understand its a tedious thing to do everyday but it’s always better to stay safe especially when you are in a country like mexico where crime rates are higher.
• Another important point is make sure you buy travel insurance. Travel insurance will cover you during illness, injury, cancellations or thefts. We strongly believe it is important to have one especially when you are travelling Internationally. There are tons of travel insurance companies available and you can chose the one you feel is suitable for your travel.

Additional Helpful Resources

Some helpful tips while making your reservation: Travel light, plan well in advance, search for amenities like free breakfast options so that you can avoid spending extra money on your breakfast. Majority of the hotels offer free breakfast options. Create accounts to gain points, travel during weekdays and if possible do red eye flights. Following these tips, can save you a lot for your next trip. Also don’t forget to check our post on the websites we use to make reservations.

We hope all these information were helpful and gave you good tips to plan your next trip more efficiently. If you have made your reservations through different websites and found better rates, please do share with us as well and also don’t forget to share your travel experiences with us. We always welcome your opinions/comments and feedbacks.

Don’t forget to checkout our YouTube Video On Mexico 🙂