Heading to playa del carmen next week for the honeymoon. Staying at the all inclusive Royal.

Anyone have must dos or don't dos there? experiences?

4/30/2013 7:24:34 AM

Go to the Mayan Ruins in Tulum

4/30/2013 8:05:56 AM

DO....have a wonderful time and enjoy your time with your new wife.

4/30/2013 8:45:19 AM

That's where we stayed on our Honeymoon. We had an awesome time there. We did the ruins in Tulum, snorkeling, zip lining, and hit up this water park that's not too far away. The resort is in the middle of town and is only a couple blocks from 5th Ave. Lots of shopping and bars down there. Take American money with you. They prefer it to the peso

The only thing i would recommend is take some Benadryl or something similar. I got bit by something at Tulum i was allergic to. My hand swelled up pretty bad, but went down the next day

You'll have a blast down there. Congrats!

[Edited on April 30, 2013 at 9:25 AM. Reason : .]

4/30/2013 9:20:42 AM

Beautiful place. Brother got married there. Def to to Tulum as already suggested. And basically everything ^ said. You could take a day trip to Cozumel.

4/30/2013 9:27:08 AM

We stayed there on our honeymoon back in 2003. It was a great place and had a lot of fun just sitting on the beach. We met a few other recently married couples while there and did some of the outings as a group.

4/30/2013 10:35:15 AM

How much american money do you recommend taking? Did u tip alot with all inclusive?

5/1/2013 5:47:50 AM

Didn't they just change the law about everything having to be paid in Pesos?

5/1/2013 7:01:39 AM

^I don't know, but I could see that happening

^^I think we took down $200-300 and had plenty. All of the excursions we did, we booked through the hotel and it was just charged to the room. Basically the only thing we spent money on was a couple bottles of tequila (there is a store on 5th ave with well over 100 different kinds of tequila) and some other stuff the wife bought. There are lots of massage parlors down 5th Ave that offer couples massages for like $50-80. We were tempted to do it, but the places were a little sketchy

5/1/2013 9:13:30 AM

Avoid the all-inclusive resort if at all possible. It puts you away and limits you to standardized experiences. You will have a much more authentic, wholesome time if you stay at a nice boutique hotel that isn't all inclusive. There are plenty of nice restaurants bars and entertainment around that will be much better than the all-inclusive shit.

You can walk-up to beach clubs that standalone and offer much better service than a resort.

You save a lot of money, end up with better quality but the only disadvantage is you have to carry money and use atms which is not a bad thing. all the atms give out american dollars but you can convert them anywhere.

Go to talum for sunrise it is one of the best places on earth. swim at the beach there

Coco bongo is well worth the 50 dollar cover. Its an epic show/club/bar experience.

Mandala and all of the places around it are pretty cool if you're into electronic dancing

5/1/2013 4:16:26 PM

Chichen Itza (sp?) is a cool site thats not too far, especially if you're interested in ruins/mayan history.

In Tulum, the ruins themselves aren't that amazing - but being located pretty much on the beach makes it fun. If you go to Tulum, I'd recommend renting bikes and ride out to some of the cenotes (water pools) as well.

Merida is pretty cool, and worth the visit if you guys will be there a while. If time is an issue, I'd skip it though and enjoy Playa.

5/3/2013 2:38:55 PM

If you go to Chichen Itza (highly recommend it), try to get a tour that stops at Eco-Arqueological Park Ik Kil (a beautiful cenote). It was amazing!

5/3/2013 4:00:32 PM

Coba is another good set of ruins that's not as far away as Chichen Itza. Last time I was there (about 6 years ago), you could walk up to the top of one of the temples and see out over the jungle, which I believe is not allowed at El Castillo at CI anymore.

5/5/2013 11:14:10 PM

Agreed. CI and Tulum are more popular, but I went to Coba and really enjoyed it. It has the tallest pyramid in the area (including CI), and you can still climb it, unlike the others.

We went to some cenotes nearby, which were amazing and that's definitely on the must-do list.

I'd also recommend Akumal - we went there and swam with the sea turtles. Was awesome.

5/8/2013 9:38:39 AM

coba is such a piece of shit though.

[Edited on May 9, 2013 at 2:50 AM. Reason : thats why they dont care to preserve it by keeping people off]

5/9/2013 2:49:57 AM

Quote :

"Avoid the all-inclusive resort if at all possible. It puts you away and limits you to standardized experiences. You will have a much more authentic, wholesome time if you stay at a nice boutique hotel that isn't all inclusive. There are plenty of nice restaurants bars and entertainment around that will be much better than the all-inclusive shit. "

You're advising him to cancel his reservation at the all-inclusive and search out some boutique hotel, a week before departure?

5/9/2013 9:35:19 AM

Well it is pretty pointless to go to playa del carmen just to stay at a cancun resort. Might as well just go to cancun.

5/9/2013 11:01:26 PM

I'm noticing a pattern of you just saying things are pieces of shit.

Why don't you tell us more information which would actually start to be helpful.

For example, why do you think Coba is a piece of shit?

I thought it was a great place to visit and enjoyed my time there.

5/10/2013 11:26:23 AM

Compared to Talum, CI or any UNESCO site it literally is a piece of shit. Theres a reason its not on the list. The ruin site hasn't been restored and probably was never that impressive anyway. If you are going to go to every site then fine, its great but it not even top 10 of just the Mayan ruins sites so on a timed tripped its just not worth it.

5/10/2013 6:15:11 PM

3^ You do realize that Mexico is probably not the safest place right now to catch that "cultural experience"? As a DoN employee I'm restricted from going to a majority of Mexico, including for leisure. The Royal is a good balance. It sits in the middle of town and is on a public beach. Why not go to a place were you don't have to worry about paying for everything as you go. The point of a honeymoon is to get away from everything and relax as a newlywed

5/10/2013 7:34:09 PM

Thats like saying you rather just go to Golden Corral everynight instead of picking different restaurants. I never realized handing someone a credit card was an inconvenience. I guess I would do that as well if I thought not having to hand over a card was more important than quality of goods and services. To each his own.

Playa Del Carmen is completely safe. Anyone that tells you all of Mexico is dangerous is simply uninformed. There are parts of Mexico that are more safe than parts of the US. If your job won't let you go there then you can't go on this trip anyway. Its not really a traditional cultural spot its more just a domestic alternative to cancun.

5/10/2013 8:10:55 PM

Well, as I said, I enjoyed it much more than CI and Tulum, because it isn't completely renovated, shiny, and full of fucking tourists. I loved seeing some of the ruins in their normal condition, rather than reconstructed.

But you're right, it's not that impressive, all it has is the tallest Mayan pyramid in the Yucatan and you can also still climb it. No biggie.

Regardless, it's good advice when in the area to go to one of the ruins: CI, Tulum, Coba, Ek Balam, etc.

5/13/2013 3:49:18 PM

just got back last night.

Hotel:
Visually it was awesome. Staff spoke great english/spanish.
There was a severe stomach bug going around the hotel and a lot of us (including me and my wife) got pretty sick. Still battling it but we didn't let it damper our honeymoon.

In the middle of town we were able to go down 5th ave, etc. It's OK but could be sketch at night. As a WHITE MALE I was sticking out pretty good and constantly hassled for "BUY FROM ME GRINGO".

Excursions:

Xel-Ha was awesome. It's like a natural water park. That was like $50 bucks, all you could eat/drink there as well.

We went to tulum and got some great pics. It was pretty quick and sweet (2hrs max at that place is enough).

We did the Dolphinaris all day dolphin thing. "trainer for a day". Incredible. I really didn't care about but the wife wanted to do it and it was pretty fun. We did pretty much everything with them.

5/13/2013 7:47:12 PM

I was at Xel-Ha on Wednesday and thoroughly enjoyed it, although the biodegradable sunscreen they require you to use was worthless for snorkeling.

The manta rays in that park were huge; it was a little unnerving the first time I swam over top of one.

5/13/2013 10:00:55 PM

"all inclusive hotels are so safe"

(gets sick)

5/15/2013 9:34:09 PM

oh, now i see.

note to self: ignore E man

5/15/2013 10:06:37 PM

maybe you are unaware of how stomach bugs spread.

fecal matter from a sick person was probably in the food.

5/15/2013 10:09:06 PM

I can be a pretty big know-it-all when it comes to traveling sometimes, but the e man is a real piece of work shitting all over people's vacation ideas.

I mean, who does that?

5/15/2013 10:12:37 PM

just trying to save people from the bad things i've experienced. sure they were fun at the time, but after figuring out how to travel, i wished i could have all those all inclusive vacations i ever took back.

[Edited on May 15, 2013 at 10:35 PM. Reason : k]

Quote :

"Anyone have must dos or don't dos there?"

op asked for it and i gave my must don't do.

[Edited on May 15, 2013 at 10:36 PM. Reason : did i not have a right to my opinion in a thread where op asked for opinion.]

5/15/2013 10:34:59 PM

A big part of the problem is that you make two assumptions in your statements:

1. That your opinion is irrefutable and fact.

2. That most people like the things you do and are generally like you.

Thankfully neither of those are true.

I'm decently well traveled, and my wife and I love to occasionally go to an all-inclusive to be pampered and not have to worry about things. Call us lazy, ignorant, whatever, but the fact is that we may actually like that sort of thing.

5/16/2013 4:02:24 PM

My opnion is not fact but it is based on facts that may or may not be important to you. Surely, UNESCO has some authority on the topic of ruins.

Part of their marketing plan is to paint the picture that their resorts are exclusive in being able to pamper you and then people like you end up actually believing that if you like to be pampered, you must go to an all-inclusive resort.

I think you're just a little butthurt about the whole thing really. I like all-inclusive resorts as well and they are fun but my only point is that its a marketing scheme for a reason and the same business advantage also is a disadvantage to the consumer.

5/16/2013 4:32:46 PM