Vacations rarely go as planned.
Luckily, if you're with the right person, it doesn't ever matter.
I'm crazy grateful I have a person like that. My hubby. He could be lit on fire, and not complain about his flesh melting off of him. I know that seems like a graphic way to say he never complains, but it really seemed like the only way to go.
He's annoyingly easy going. So am I. So we usually have a blast no matter what we are doing, or we get stuck in the lobby of our resort discussing what to do because we are so damn easy going that no one can make a decision, but we still have a good time just sitting around being annoyingly indecisive. We're those people.
Yeah.
Point is...there are a million "what to do in Fill in the blank" or a "Complete Guide to Fill in another stupid blank" out there on the world wide web. If you're like me, you read every single one of them you can find before you leave for a trip. I even read the incredibly irrelevant and absolutely unhelpful "What to pack" lists.
So Im going to do the unpopular thing and tell you to...FORGET ABOUT THE DAMN LISTS! In my experience, vacations never go like the guy who writes a big travel blog told me they would. I'm sure it's just me and everyone else who read the "lists" experience the exact thing that list told you, you would experience. So just ignore me, if you're that person. For anyone else out there, here's my advice and what I learned from our AMAZING trip to Tulum, Mexico!
Go with the flow and don't over stress about doing exactly what you imagined you would do on your trip. I really wanted to swim with the sea turtles, and I had read online that you could do this on your own instead of booking a tour. So when we got there we actually befriended one of the locals that worked at our resort and he took us to the "turtle" beach to snorkel with the sea turtles! We ended up spending about $30 US dollars on each snorkel set, so I suggest either bringing your own or being ok with purchasing some there and then bringing them home with you.
The first 30 mins of snorkeling I was so focused on finding sea turtles that I wasn't really soaking in the experience like I should have been. Once I realized this, I started to really appreciate all the beautiful living creatures lurking beneath me and it was an amazing experience! My husband was the only one who saw a giant sea turtle (of course I wasn't around when he saw it haha) So I didn't end up seeing any sea turtles, but I did see so many beautiful fish and the gorgeous reef that surrounded us! It was truly one of the highlights of the trip.
It seemed as if the tour boats were a bit further out in the water and I think that's probably the sweet spot for the turtles, so a tour might be the way to go, in order to swim with the turtles. Otherwise, doing your own thing, like us, was a great way to do it too! I like being adventurous and it seemed like a truly authentic way to experience Tulum, so decide which type of adventure you'd most likely enjoy and go with that!
We went during "seaweed season" (July) which honestly didn't really bug us at all, but it did get a bit annoying to continuously have to jump across a river bed of seaweed to get to and from the ocean to the other side of the beach. Even though there was tons of seaweed, we had fun looking at all the hermit crabs living in them, and the beach was gorgeous even with the seaweed!
ps. I have no idea why I look like I'm doing some weird arm dance in the ocean....
My guy.
There was a little area off to the side of the resort beach that had these gorgeous rocks popping out.
You can see the seaweed in the background of the above photo ^
Our resort was truly amazing. We stayed at the Catalonia Royal Tulum Resort and it was wonderful! The staff was incredibly attentive and sweet. The room was very clean and the air conditioning was sooo amazing after being in the heat and humidity all day. It's an all inclusive resort, so the drinks were top notch and the bartenders were hilarious. The food, not so great, but I eat anything so I didn't mind too much. Plus it kept me from eating too much and getting fat on our trip haha
We thought we would inevitably be spending about $500-$1000 on just random things after we got to Mexico, so we figured we would keep to a reasonably priced resort.
After we got home, we realized we had only spent about $300 on miscellaneous things, so in retrospect, I wish we would have just splurged a bit at the beginning and went with the Fairmont Mayakoba Resort I had been eyeballing and pleading with my husband over. Next time we come, I am definitely staying at the Mayakoba.
Below are a few photos of us at the pool and lounging around the resort we stayed at.
Stopped at one of the pretty bridges inside the resort on our way to dinner one night.
One of the coolest things about the Catalonia Resort is that they built their entire resort around existing jungle and wildlife. These little Coates where everywhere and absolutely adorable!
Another big tip....BOOK A TOUR. You basically have to if you want to go do anything you see online, besides going to the ruins. If you go to the ruins, definitely go on your own. Take a van ride (they'll pick you up right outside your resort and it's $3 US dollars to ride anywhere) and then you can explore the ruins on your own and you're not forced to be there for 2 hours in the scorching heat.
We learned the hard way that you can't just go do everything on your own though. Most activities are located inside "parks" and the only way to do the stuff you want to do is to book a tour one day in advanced. A tour that we almost booked that included Sea Turtles, ATV riding, Cenote diving, Repelling, and a whole lot more I can't remember, would have cost us $80 each if we would have booked with the nice fellow at our resort trying to convince us to book.
We figured he was full of crap and we would be smart travelers instead of falling for his tricks. We tried to go on our own and figured out the Xplor park was closed on Sunday and besides that, most the parks demanded you book a tour or you couldn't get in. The only park you can just walk around and do what you want on a Sunday was the Xel-Ha park. We paid a whopping $130 each and didn't really do any "activities". We still had a blast, but didn't end up doing anything we thought we would.
So we came out of it being naive Americans who thought they knew everything. Oops!
Because we just relaxed and had fun with it, it was an amazing time even though nothing went as we thought it would. So I figure the biggest piece of advice I can give anyone, would be, JUST RELAX! Go with the flow. Vacation should be just that, a vacation. Forget about the "to do" lists and just live in the moment with your loved ones. That is whats going to make your vacation perfect. At least, perfect for you.
The ruins.
Bicycling in the Xel-Ha park.
Thanks for reading my nonsense advice and I hope that if you do end up planning a trip to the gorgeous Tulum, Mexico, that you have one hell of an adventure!
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