Adventures In Riviera Maya, Mexico

Mexico was such an exciting trip to book! For adventures in Riviera Maya Mexico, we knew that we had to decide what to do so we don’t get overwhelmed. As you can imagine there is no shortness of what to do in Mexico. You have to pick the adventures that best suit your trip. The goal was a luxurious stay where we could chill and just enjoy ourselves. Most importantly, Mr E and I also did not want to think of food or drinks or transportation so what did we do?

We booked an all-inclusive trip!

Now, the thing about all-inclusive trips is that you could easily spend all your time in the resort just sleeping, eating and drinking. Nothing at all wrong with that but for this trip, as much as we wanted to relax, we also wanted to experience the culture. So we decided to draw up a plan to avoid wasting the amazing experience. As usual, I had a list of things I wanted to do and as you may have noticed by now, Mr E is quite open to my plans since he just goes with the flow.

I’m the planner and he brings the spontaneity!

Having done my research online, I noted that you could book adventures in your hotel/resort. Adventures could also be booked at the airport so there was no need to book in advance before travelling.

Related Post – Tulum: A Magical day at the Mayan Ruins

Now what are some of the most fun adventures you could have in Mexico?

Go to Chichén-Itzá

Isn’t this why we are actually here?

It is in Yucatàn and is one of the 7 new wonders of the world. Chichen Itza is also a UNESCO Heritage site, which houses some of the earliest and largest Mayan ruins. The most striking structure is without doubt, the temple of the Kukulcan that stands just as you walk into the heritage site.

Patricio, our Mayan tour guide,  explained a few things – the meaning of the hieroglyphics and that the Kukulcan was built according to the moon and planet cycle. It has a total of 365 steps which represent 365 days of the year. The pyramid has 91 steps (and 1 step on the top); each side represented a season and worked as calendar to the Mayans for the best times to sow and harvest their crops. 

Fun activity – clap in front of the Kukulcan and you can hear the building echo. 

The grounds are vast and you need time to walk around to see all the other structures. Another popular one which stood out is the Templo de los Guerreros aka Temple of the Warriors.

There are also numerous gift stands for souvenirs. 

Visit Valladolid

From Chichén-Itzá, we went to Valladolid, which is a very old town that still houses a lot of Mayan history.

The main reason for going there was to see the Church of San Servacio (Iglesia de San Servacio), which was built with stones from the Mayan temples. And just across from San Servacio is a gorgeous Parisian park, Parque Francisco Canton Rosado. 

We also had a little tequila tasting session (for free) and afterwards and were initiated into the Mayan culture. As a parting gift, we have a bottle of native tequila to remember our fantastic experience.

Mr E was pretty chuffed about his one as he collects wines (or whatever the native alcoholic beverage is) on all our trips. Valladolid was perfect!

Catamaran Sunset Cruise on the Caribbean sea

For most of our relaxed holidays, we have now made it a habit to go on a sunset boat cruise. I think we started this with our honeymoon in St Lucia and we did this in Santorini, South of France and now, Mexico! There were a lot of packages to select from but we chose the couples’ package for 10 couples, which lasted about 3 hours.

The boat company picked us up from the resort at about 5pm and drove us to the port where we were offered cocktails and boarded the boat. After sailing for about 45 minutes to the middle of the sea, we watched the gorgeous sunset in the beautiful quiet, listening to the faint waves of the sea and gentle sway of our boat.

This was the perfect way to spend our last full day in Mexico and we both agreed that the trip was one of the most rewarding experiences we have had yet!

Visit Tulum to see the Mayan Ruins and 2nd longest Coral Reef in the world

Surprise! We were reunited with our dear Patricio once again for this half-day tour and were picked up from the resort and driven to Tulum. Once we arrived in Tulum, we could already feel and see all the history littered around us. Getting to the Mayan ruins definitely tripled the feeling of awe.

Oh, one more thing. Look out for the fly dancers aka Danza de los Voladores. It is a Mesoamerican tradition where they perform a dance on a meter pole. I found it very mesmerising and beautiful to watch; we were fortunate to catch a performance just as we left the Mayan ruins, right in the center of the square.

For more on Tulum, I have written a comprehensive post — A Magical Day at Tulum Mayan Ruins

Explore the city and eat some street food

This was important to us since we were staying in a resort. We had to make the effort to go out and see the real town because as we all know, chain resorts look the same in every country lol. I was excited to try some street tacos (honestly, the tastiest tacos I’ve ever had and pretty cheap too). The most random thing we did was walk into a massive supermarket just to look around and pretend to shop haha! From there, we headed to the bank and then, to a little street market just for the fun of it.

After walking around for about an hour, I was feeling quite Mexican with myself haha joke joke but you get my point?! The highlight of my day was meeting a lovely lady who wouldn’t stop calling me Christina; she was so smiley and cute and kept speaking to me in Spanish.

Visit a Cenote

You cannot go to Mexico and not visit a cenote. They are one of the hidden treasures in Mexico and they are commonly found in the Yucatàn Peninsula area of Mexico where the ground is made of limestone. A cenote is a natural sinkhole, which exposes groundwater underneath (sort of like an underground swimming pool). But what makes it more special is the colours of the limestone and how pure the water feels; the spot where the sunshine hits the water is truly magical!!

Mr E and I were bent on going to a less touristy one and were quite lucky when Patricio took our little tour group to a privately owned cenote – Cenote Palomitas in Yalcoba. It was the most beautiful experience ever! They were only 10 of us in this massive sinkhole and I must admit I shed a tear just from being so overwhelmed by the experience.

How we booked the trips in Riviera Maya, Mexico

All of the above were booked as group packages to maximise our time there. We were also intentional about having a tour guide to break down all the history and lead us to the most important locations.

All trips were booked and paid for by us, in our resort.

• 1st Package – Visit to the Chichen Itza, a private Cenote & Tequila tasting in Valladolid – Full day tour
• 2nd Package – Visit to Tulum ruins and town – Half day tour
• 3rd Package – Couples’ catamaran sunset cruise on the carribbean sea – Evening tour

Top Tip – Avoid rushing into booking any adventures until you get to your resort/hotel. Our resort, for example, had different tour companies come in everyday so we had many choices and competitive packages to choose from.

Reminder – Always have some money with you to tip the driver, guide and any helpful locals. They don’t usually earn so much and rely on tips to live more comfortably. Also, have some pesos if you are going into the city so you don’t get overcharged for things in dollars.

Things to Note about Mexico

• Currency – Mexican Peso & US Dollar.
• Duration Needed – It depends. We went for 7 days and it was enough to relax and still have our adventures.
• When to go – We went in September which is supposed to be the wet season (May – October); however, the weather was lovely. There was some rain but it was hot all through.
• Level of Expense – Although we did not need to spend any money, the few times we wandered outside our resort, food was very cheap!
• Resort – Barcelo Maya* 
• Flights – British Airways*

* Both booked as a package deal via British Airways

So what are you saying? My post should inspire you to travel and seek some adventures in Riviera Maya, MEXICO!!

Until the next (and final) post from my Mexico series…..

Bisous, ‘Bugo x