My fiance and I had not seen each other in 4 months, and as a result booked flights to see each other in Mexico during the reopening phase of the coronavirus pandemic. I realize that this can be seen as irresponsible, however we took precautions, wore proper PPE and sanitized and washed our hands frequently. Through weighing the pros and cons of whether to visit each other or not we felt comfortable traveling to Mexico to be able to end the indefinite period of time it would take to see each other.
Cancun
I flew from Atlanta to Cancun on a direct Delta flight, which felt very quick, and I had a row all to myself. I got off the plane and waited for my fiance to arrive after his 17 hour journey. Getting to our hotel was definitely challenging. The hotel shuttle was $60, which was CRAZY considering an uber that distance was $6.Then we tried to get a taxi which was $45 and we negotiated that down to $35 which was still CRAZY, then we decided to try our luck with a rental car which you can read about here. We then got a taxi for $30 and called it a day. Had I done some research I would have known to take this bus for $5.
We started out and ended the trip in the Westin Resort and Spa in on Kukulcan blvd. We were greeted with a nice woman who gave us sanitizer, and took our temperature.She explained all of the things that were open, and what was closed. Though we were on a private beach, we were not allowed to go in based on Quintana Roo government guidelines, but we could walk on the beach, take pictures and go in the pool. We had lunch there, and enjoyed our upgraded two bedroom villa. Though the hotel closed most of its amenities like the spa, the second pool, and most restaurants, I was satisfied paying $100 USD / night to be able to walk on the private beach and have a two bedroom suite with a living room and a kitchen. We spent two days at the Westin and ended up getting our rent a car from EuropCar for $22 USD /day with the insurance included.
Playa Del Carmen
We then got to the air B and B in Playa Del Carmen, and to our pleasant surprise the beach was actually open, but only to tourists. The town was very much alive with restaurants and shops. PSA there are very few places with AC which can be brutal in the 90 degree July weather. You can read more about where to find AC here. Though it was a bit dirty and covered in seaweed we had a nice time walking along the beach, but because of the seaweed you have to be careful of the beach flies.
We stayed at Mimosa Residences in an Air B&B. The only complaint we have is that the shower drain produced a pretty bad smell. Other than that it was very close to the beach and restaurants, and a 25 min walk from the ferry to Cozumel. My fiance was able to get a haircut for 100 pesos, which I was happy about because his hair was a mess. That’s less than $5 USD and the barber did a great job. I also discovered Panditos, which is the cutest Mexican candy (featured in the slide show). The next day we walked along and found Ramiro Cervantes who offered us a nice snorkel package to El Cielo in Cozumel. He’s not paying us or anything to write a review, but we really enjoyed the trip. We ended up negotiating the price from 950 pesos/ person to 800 pesos/ person. We could have probably haggled a bit more, but we were fine with that price as we can’t imagine they are getting that many tourists. To get a better price though you need to pay in cash.
Cozumel
We started the day buying a ticket for the Winjet ferry. I think the ferry’s switch off every other day between Ultramar and Winjet, so be sure to ask the tour salesperson which ferry you should use. My suggestion is to buy the ticket online. You save money and you skip the 20 min line you would wait in before the ferry. I regret not doing that. The Winjet left about an hour later than it should have, but it had socially distant seating and AC. It was a nice journey if you can get a seat “next to” your travel companion(s). (I say “next to” because every other seat is blocked out). We then found our tour guide and paid an 80 peso tax. As we were waiting for everyone to pay the tax we took some pictures with the beautiful blue water. We then went on a small boat with nine people. I think legally they are only allowed to take seven on a boat, but they picked up two from a hotel dock and avoided the police in the process. I was fine with it, and the extra two people were super nice tattoo artists from Utah.
We swam in our first reef, Planacar, and the crystal clear water was a perfect temperature. We then went to a second reef called Colombia. When Ramiero was describing it to us he was speaking in Spanish and I misheard him and thought he was saying we were going to Colombia, the country, not the snorkeling reef. Our last stop was El Cielo where we saw “estrellas de mar” or starfish. They looked very funny to me. The great thing about them is they’re like plants- they don’t move- so you’re always going to get a good view. We got lucky in El Cielo because we saw a sea turtle which according to the guides is pretty rare. It was very cool to see the docile creature slowly swimming along. We then hung out on the boat while the rest of the group swam in a swimming area. Unfortunately we got super sunburnt in the process. For snacks we got some chips and salsa and a mix of beer, sodas, and water. Overall I enjoyed the experience very much, but I will hedge and say I’m not a snorkeling aficionado, just a tourist going on a tour.
Tulum
I was a bit disappointed in my Tulum experience. Before I came I thought this would be my favorite spot. Super trendy, beautiful beaches etc. However, there were a lot of sleezy tactics used by the guides you can read about here which colored my opinion of Tulum. However, we enjoyed the food for breakfast at Babel in which I had a breakfast burrito and a strawberry smoothie and my Fiance had a very good ham and cheese omelette with a tropical smoothie. Not the most price friendly cafe, but it was great food. We stayed at an Air B and B called Vanilla which was nice. I would say the only complaint I could have there was the neighbors playing loud music, but that stopped around 11:30pm. We ended up taking some pictures at the beach and in the city, but I would say Tulum was nothing to write home about. I’m sure if it was not a pandemic I wouldn’t have had such a bad impression, but alas I leave Tulum with disappointment.
