Destination Yucatan

As a travel destination, Yucatan has it all. A range of hotels to fit every need (from luxury to budget, large scale to small scale); a range of activities (beach, cenotes, caves, jungle, Mayan ruins) and a lot of good food. Here's my recommendations for Yucatan.

Accommodation

Luxury All-Inclusive

If you have young kids and want to take advantage of the kids clubs, you can choose to  stay in an all-inclusive. For all-inclusives, the general rule of thumb applies - you pay for what you get. $600-1000 gets you a room at Finest Playa Mujeres, a luxury resort North of Cancun. It's newly built in 2015 and the furnishings are all good quality. (Hansgrohe taps, rain shower, jacuzzi bath in your balcony, etc) This was the view from our room. The resort was big enough to occupy you for at least a week. Added to that, everything from the landscaping to the  service was wonderful. They had 12 restaurants with decent food. We tried the Spanish Tapas and French restaurant and were not disappointed.  

More Affordable all-inclusives

There are more affordable all-inclusives. I took note of Secrets, a new all-inclusive resort located on beautiful Akumal Beach (Turtle Beach) We stayed at Sirens Riviera Maya, which had slightly dated rooms and facilities plus mass-market appeal. However, if you can overlook that, there are some nice things like their beach, their rooftop bar, where you can watch the sunset over the mangroves and the lazy 'river' where kids can sit on tubes and float around. I would not be going back to Sirens Riviera, mainly because the large-scale mass market hotels don't quite suit me. 

Boutique Hotels

Head down to Tulum for a more intimate experience. Boutique hotels dot the coastline of Tulum. Hotels like El Pez, Zebra Club, Mezzanine, Alaya are smack on the beach and have nice atmosphere. 

Beaches and Cenotes

Warm tropical azure blue waters, teeming with life. This is one of the reasons we chose have our vacation in Yucatan. The beach off Sirens Maya Riviera was great. They had a beautiful cove where fish would be swept in by the waves. You can stand a few meters from the shore and see schools of fish swimming around you. 

Tourists flock to Akumal Beach to swim amongst giant loggerhead and green turtles. I saw at least 10 giant turtles grazing on seagrass and I could almost touch them. There's hardly any waves on this stretch of beach so it's great for the kids. One downside is that it is super crowded so watch your valuables! 

Akumal Beach

My favorite beach hands down is Paradise Beach in Tulum. The sand was powder fine, the water was a beautiful blue and not too crowded! Extra bonus: lifeguards! 

Paradise Beach

When you're tired of the beaches, you can head to one of the many cenotes (underground sinkhole watering holes) Cenotes were considered by the Mayans to be sacred wells. These caves and underground rivers were created thousands of years ago. Gran cenote has something for everyone. For kids and snorkelers, they can explore the freshwater pools outside the caves and see fish and turtles. Serious divers can explore the surreal subterranean caves and admire the stalactites and stalagmites. Another cenote worth exploring is Yal Ku, a lagoon off Akumal (where fresh water meets salt water) and it's a great environment for kids to snorkel without waves. 

Entering Gran Cenote

Restaurants

There was no shortage of good eating places. There are many affordable seafood options in Akumal. 

We ate lunch at Lol Ha, a beachside restaurant with a big seafood menu. The deep fried grouper was fresh and crunchy, soft on the inside. Also at Akumal, Cueva Pescador is a great place to go local and enjoy Mexican food and seafood! We enjoyed a generous plate of ceviche for USD7.  

Mezzanine dishes up delicious Mexican breakfasts. The Chichen Itza breakfast consists of runny eggs on beans, roast potatoes and sausage crumble. You may not be a bean fan but this dish will win you over. For lunches and dinners. Mezzanine serves Thai dishes.

One of the upside of staying in small hotels is that you are more likely to explore local digs. We loved this small grocery filled with festive pinatas for the christmas celebration.

Downtown Tulum has a number of good restaurants too. La Estancia Jujena serves Argentinian meat and has a nice courtyard atmosphere.  

If you can your act together and reserve a table at Hartwood a month in advance, Tulum's farm to table restaurant, you certainly won't regret it. The restaurant recommends that you email them for reservations. An open-air restaurant helmed by New York expats, Hartwood specializes in seafood and food cooked over a woodfire. 

Unfortunately, we were not as organized this trip (the waiting list was 3 months in the Christmas season) So we opted for Kitchen Table and we had no regrets. As the name suggests, the 'Kitchen Table' is the center of activity in this small and excellent restaurant. The whole restaurant has a rustic 'open air' appeal to it. With a menu of 5 or 6 mains, your choice might be limited but be assured that all the dishes are excellent. We had the roasted octopus which was cooked to perfection, with slurpy gravy. And the pork ribs were delicious to the bone.