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Playa Del Carmen, Mexico


Stevo985

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Wow, thanks for the help guys. blunther especially, that's a great post. I'll be forwarding that to the missus.

 

The currency is very confusing, so many people say different things. The missus works with someone who went last year and stayed in exactly the same hotel as us and she said to take all dollars. Said take enough to tip the hotel staff in Pesos, but dollars for everything else!

Everyone seems to say different things. Think we'll just take half and half and see what happens.

 

Will take all your advice on board.

Chichen Itza is a must, that was always on the radar. The tour we found sounds pretty similar to your one in terms of price and itinerary.

Coco Bongos has been mentioned to us a few times :)

 

 

All Inclusive... our thinking behind it was that we did Thailand last year. Whilst it was an amazing holiday, it wasn't that relaxing because we were always moving around or worried about the next flight or ferry or taxi or whatever. 

So this time we thought we'd go all inclusive and just be lazy for 2 weeks (although we always intended to go out and do a few activities)> Neither of us have been all inclusive anywhere before so it's worth a try.

 

Thanks for the info anyway, I'll have a good read of that post and might come back with some questions :)

 

Collectivos sound great :) I've got basic Spanish skills these days so I should be ok with taxis and buses and the like :D

 

No problem! Like I say, dollars are accepted but I think it's more the laziness from Americans not bothering to change their currency. You'll be fine with dollars, but I encountered literally nothing that you couldn't get with pesos more easily and cheaply than you can with $.

 

The collectivos are brilliant, and ridiculously cheap.

 

Funnily enbough my last major holiday before Mexico was Thailand too! Had a great time, but it was much busier, so going all-inc was for us to take it easier too. It's strange not having to pay when you get a round of drinks in, but you'll soon get used to that I'm sure.

 

Tulum and Akumal sound great.

 

The missus and I have this thing where whenever we're away we go to a Hard Rock cafe if there is one where we're going. I know that's really commercial and sad but it's a habit we have. Anyway, there's one in Puerto Aventuras which is between Playa Del Carmen and Akumal.

 

So I'm tempted to do all three of those in one day. Take a look around Tulum, stop at Akumal on the way back and then at the Hard Rock for dinner or drinks. That'll get us out of the hotel for a day at least.

 

That island sounds ace too. I'd definitely be up for exploring that! Although after Thailand the missus hate ferries, so she might take a bit of convincing!

 

That sounds a good day. Can't remebber if there's a Hard Rock in Playa or not.

 

I looked at Isla Majures.

 

It does look amazing but we'd have to get to Cancun first, which is 2 hours from our hotel for a start. And then we'd have to get a ferry to the island.

Just a bit of a long trip is all.

 

Isla Mujeres is on my list if/when I go back. We never made it there but it looks amazing. It's only about an hour from Playa to Cancun by road. Might take a bit longer if you have shared transfers though. We booked a private transfer with 'Canada Transfers' for $99 return (thinking about it, that is the only thing that was priced on dollars! Though you could pay that in pesos too. We did actually take some dollars for this as we had a bit left over from a USA trip). Was well worth £60-70 quid to not have to piss around after a long flight and the airport. You could also order beers for $1 a pop, so for $103, we got private transfers (both ways) and a couple of ice-cold Coronas each waiting for us in the van in an icebox! Certainly beats stopping at about 15 hotels on the way down the road!

 

Are the nightmares I've heard about Cancun airport true?

A lot on Trip Advisor about it taking 2 hours to get through immigration and get your bags

 

Yeah, it's crap!

 

Took us about an hour queueing to get through immigration. Then when you get your bags, there was another queue to have your bags scanned at the exit. Bit of a ballache, but can't do much about it.

 

If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to try and help!

Edited by blunther
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Are the nightmares I've heard about Cancun airport true?

A lot on Trip Advisor about it taking 2 hours to get through immigration and get your bags

Yeah it's total pandemonium, especially if you are flying to the UK via US. It's one of the most badly designed airports I've seen (well the immigration and baggage parts are, the departure lounge is very nice). 

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I've heard once you get through the baggage bit there's a mass of time share sellers and con artists trying to get you to use their taxis.

 

Is it easy enough to find where you're going? Our transfers are all included with the holiday so I'll be seeking out the Thomson reps.

 

I'm told all the official reps will be outside of the airport as opposed to the chancers inside. Sound accurate?

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I've heard once you get through the baggage bit there's a mass of time share sellers and con artists trying to get you to use their taxis.

 

Is it easy enough to find where you're going? Our transfers are all included with the holiday so I'll be seeking out the Thomson reps.

 

I'm told all the official reps will be outside of the airport as opposed to the chancers inside. Sound accurate?

 

Yep spot on.  Just walk straight past and outside and you'll see all the reps and official transfers. Inside is all touts and people wanting to roll your bags 20 yards for a tip. It's not as pushy as I thought it would be from reading about it. Just head straight outside, which you'd want to do anyway after 15 hours messing about in airports and planes!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

5 weeks tomorrow. COME AT ME MEHEECOOOO

 

 

Very excited now. Ordering our money next week (going for half pesos and half dollars as there's so much conflicting info about what money to take!)

Gonna book a couple of our outings over the next couple of weeks too. XCaret probably and maybe Chichen Itza. Probably leave the rest until we get there.

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Do people ( other than those over the age of 60 ) still order money ?

I just assumed everyone used ATM's on arrival

Half the fun in travelling is arriving half way around the world with no local currency in your pocket :)

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Sorry I'm not as seasoned a traveller as you Tony!

 

But yes I still order money. Although it depends on where I'm going.

If I was going to Ireland or Spain or somewhere I'd just use cash machines.

Edited by Stevo985
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  • 3 weeks later...

Went to secrets maroma beach last summer for my honeymoon and still cry nearly every day that i'm not back there.  You will have an awesome time and all inclusive just adds to it.  Very jealous.   A group of my friends went to coco bongos, they spoke highly of it but it sounded more the sort of place for a lads night out.  

 

You will get hassled in the airport, I stupidly was the nice british guy who didn't ignore him when he made eye contact and the bloke was the friendliest man i'd ever met, then 10 minutes later when he finally got to his real point and i said i wasn't interested he turned into a right miserable word removed.  I would just blast straight through and get outside as quickly as you can.

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Cheers for the advice.

 

My only worry at the moment is the **** weather.

Sunny this week. Sunny the week after we come back.

 

But forecast for when we're there looks like this:

 

Weather_zpsd8zxbsr8.jpg

 

**** typical.

 

Forecast seems to change every day though so fingers crossed it looks better next week!

Edited by Stevo985
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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm back!

 

The weather was fantastic in the end. We did have 2 days of torrential rain right in the middle, but luckily one of those was our Chichen Itza trip (and the (literally) only hour of the day when it didn't rain was the hour we were walking round Chichen Itza) and the other day we just treated as a holiday from the holiday. Plus the hotel were really good and did some indoor activities that kept it interesting.

 

 

Anyway, holiday was excellent. Didn't do quite as much as I thought we would. We did a lot of chilling out at the beach and pool. But we did manage Chichen Itza, Coco Bongo, a Pirate Ship tour/meal in Cancun and Xcaret. As well as a couple of ventures into Playa Del Carmen for lunch/dinner and some shopping for tat.

 

Biggest regret is we never made it to Tulum. We were planning on it. But we went for a week of chilling when we got there and do the last 7 days or so with activities. Then the 2 days of rain set us back a bit with those plans. So we ended up running out of time.

 

Had an amazing time though. It's a beautiful place, if a bit too touristy. But when you're going on an all inclusive you can't really complain at that I suppose.

 

Loved it. Now to plan next year's!

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 A group of my friends went to coco bongos, they spoke highly of it but it sounded more the sort of place for a lads night out.  

Just on this point, it's not a lads place at all to be honest.

 

In fact I think it would be quite a crap place for a lads night :)

 

However, I went with just the missus and thought it was absolutely brilliant. If I went back to Playa I'd have no issue paying to go to Coco Bongo again. Fantastic.

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