Mexico family self drive holiday

In November '09 just as the nights started to get dark and the air cold in the UK,  myself and family (wife and kids aged 2 and 8 months) headed to the warmth of Mexico.

Myself and my wife have travelled a lot in the past, but this was the first time we would be travelling long haul with the kids, and we were a little unsure of how it would go. Having the whole trip pre-arranged through work though was a massive relief to us, we now only had the normal parental issues to think about. The aim of the holiday was to blend a little adventure travel with some proper relaxation as we'd had a very busy year.

The whole family have incredibly fond memories of the holiday, and my (now) 4 year old still remembers his bits of Spanish, and the temples of 'Chicken Pizza' as he calls it.

Arrival

We began our trip by flying into Cancun airport. Although our flight was delayed by 7 hours on the way out (due to a bad weather front over Florida) our smiling driver Jose was still there to meet us in the arrivals hall, a very welcome relief for parents after a 12 hour flight.

Jose drove us the 1 hour journey from Cancun down to Playa Del Carmen and by now it was late in the evening. The check in staff were very helpful and with little fuss our porter took our luggage to our wonderful room, a beautiful Palapas (thatched) building, and everyone was ready for an early night.

Playa Del Carmen

The next morning we were woken by the sound of tropical birds on our balcony and yes the sunshine! As it was dark when we arrived we could now see the beauty of this low key resort, which perfectly blended into the well maintained tropical gardens. We made our way to the restaurant for breakfast. A lovely open sided building, with helpful waiting staff and without a doubt the best breakfasts of the whole holiday.

After coffee, fruit, cereals, pastries and the first of a lot of freshly made eggs (you'll probably eat a lot of eggs in Mexico!) we went for a quick walk to find the beach and swimming pool.

It's just right there, beautiful white beaches and a warm turquoise sea. The hotel had a good sized swimming pool just off the beach, as well as a great beach bar/cafe on the beach which was manned by the wonderful Juan, a lovely guy and who was great with the kids. In fact the kids were a hit with the locals all holiday as Mexico is very family orientated, so the children were really welcome everywhere we went and we never felt unsafe once.

Playa Del Carmen continued

Playa del Carmen (called just Playa) is a great beach town. We found it much more low key than Cancun which is basically Las Vegas by the sea. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the village feel of Playa was much more akin to how we've travelled in the past. Fifth Avenue is the main drag for some very nice restaurants, bars and shops, it runs parallel to the sea a few blocks back from the sea. Playa has the infrastructure to make the start of your holiday nice and easy, the banks and supermarkets (great to stock up on the baby supplies) etc.

We spent the next few days in Playa, lazing on the beach, playing in the pool generally just winding down a bit before our self drive adventures.

Rio Lagartos & San Felipe

It was time to leave Playa for now so we collected our car (which came with childrens seats), loaded up and headed off to Rio Lagartos for our Flamingo tour. I would definitely recommend stopping off in Valladolid for lunch on the way, it's a beautiful colonial town with a lovely central square overlooked by the imposing San Gervasio Church.

We arrived in Rio Lagartos in time for our pre-arranged boat trip to view the lagoon and all the wildlife that thrives there. Lots of pink Flamingos and countless other exotic wildlife. We gave the mud bath a miss because of the kids but it certainly looked like fun!

We stayed in a simple but comfortable accommodation in San Felipe which is a tiny fishing village with brightly coloured wooden houses a short drive from Rio Lagartos. Jesus was our host for the night and a lovely guy.

Chichen Itza (or Chicken Pizza to the kids)

The next day we were back in the car and drove the 2 hours to Chichen Itza the most well known of the Mayan ruins in Mexico. We arrived at our Hacienda hotel just after lunch time, and what a fantastically tranquil setting and stunning accommodation it was.

We spent the afternoon playing in the outdoor swimming pool, explored the hotels gardens and then after some dinner headed to the evening light show at the Chichen Itza ruins. If your Spanish is limited like mine I would definitely recommend that you pay for the translation gadget when you enter, it makes the show much more interesting.

We drove back to the Hacienda and had an early night in preparation for our early visit to the ruins the next morning.
Driving around Yucatan was much easier than I thought it would be.

The Chichen Itza ruins

We woke early the next day and after a lovely breakfast drove back to the ruins so we were there for when they opened. It felt like we had the place to ourselves, there were only 50 or so other people there at that time and it felt very special.

We decided to hire a private guide to show us around and explain the site to us. There are plenty of them waiting around the main entrance and were good value (I think we paid around £20). I would definitely recommend doing this as Juan our guide was great fun and we left the site full of knowledge and secrets that otherwise would have passed us by.

There is more to Chitchen Itza than the main temple (pictured), it's a whole complex of pyramids, temples, sacrificial cenotes and Ball Courts (ancient basketball type game with sacrifices at the end!).

If we hadn't been with the kids I'd have spent longer than the 3 hours we did as there is so much to see. However it gets very hot towards midday, plus the large buses from Cancun that create the kind of tourist hoards we were desperately trying to avoid were just starting to roll in!

Izamal

After a wonderful morning spent admiring one of the New Severn Wonders of the World we drove the short distance on to Izamal, a small pretty colonial town well off the main drag.

Izamal is known as the Yellow Town due to the universal colour of the paint used on nearly every building in the town, and the old colonial style streets felt straight out of an old wild west film.

The hotel we offer was beautiful and set in lovely tropical gardens, it even had a small swimming pool formed out of natural rock in the gardens. Included in our trip was a horse drawn carriage ride around the town, the kids loved it so we were happy and it was helpful to get our bearings. Izamal itself is a fairly small town and the highlights including an old monastery are easily seen in a day, but it's also a good base for day trips to the larger regional capital city of Merida.

After a breakfast of pancakes (and eggs!) we headed back towards Valladolid where we stayed a night on our way back to the coast.

Valladolid

We arrived in Valladolid just after lunch time and checked into our hotel which is right on the lovely main square along with the imposing San Gervasio Church. Like a lot of authentic hotels in Mexico they don't look much from the outside, but once you go through the small rickety wooden door a beautiful old colonial style hotel unfolds in front of you. Inside there is a lush courtyard full of exotic plants around which the main restaurant is located, the best in town apparently.

After a morning of driving we dumped out bags and jumped straight in the swimming pool, enjoying a drink and some lunch from the pool side bar. In the early evening we had a wonder around the main square as the bars and restaurants came to life with music and Mariachi bands.

The next morning we explored some more of Valladolid, including it's amazing Cenote (underground fresh water hole) which is only 2 or 3 blocks from the centre of town. There were lots of shops selling what seemed to be a local fashion of hand embodied white dresses, we brought one for our 8 month old girl, it looked very sweet on her, although it didn't stay white for very long!

Tulum

The next leg of the trip was an easy drive to Tulum a town with impressive coastal based ruins and some of the best beaches I've ever seen. White sand, warm sea and turquoise water it really was the classic postcard.

The hotel we stayed in couldn't have been any more perfect. It was a subtle low rise place with only 8-10 rooms right on the beach, out of our window we could see the sun rise every morning, and travelling with kids that happened most days!

There is plenty to see and do around Tulum and to be honest I could have stayed there longer than the 4 nights. Being located on the cliff top the Tulum ruins are very different to the other ones we saw during our trip and well worth a visit, but go early.
After a few lazy days of making sand castles for the kids and Dad enjoying the odd ice cold Corona, we used to the car to zip around the area to view a few of the many day trips possible from Tulum.

We had a morning at the Grand Cenote which is a fresh water pool where you can swim around various caves, or go diving through them if you've got your PADI.

Tulum town itself is about a mile from the beach and has everything you need. Banks, restaurants, souvenir shops and a few bars if you're able to stay up partying later than I am these days.

None of us wanted to leave our beach paradise but after 4 nights it was time to pack up and drive the 1.5 hours back to Playa for 1 night before our flight home the next day.

Hasta luego Mexico...

This was our first soft adventure holiday with the kids and we were a little nervous about it. Having everything planned out for us in advance was a major weight off our mind. The quality and character of the accommodation we stayed in really made our trip, it was a great mix of simple, very comfortable and in Chitchen Itza amazing.

The idea of driving in Mexico (or Latin America in general) had never crossed my mind as possible, also having been to Mexico City and seen how crazy it is there. However the Yucatan peninsula area of Mexico is completely different and if you've ever driven in America it's very similar. Wide well paved with little traffic (apart from in the towns of course), it's easy driving and with a family gave us the freedom to move when we wanted to (when the kids needed a nap!).

All in all it was a great trip that we all enjoyed for different reasons. My son still talks about his Mexico family holiday all the time and remembers the Spanish he learnt from the maids in Tulum who were great with the kids.

We will definitely be back soon.