During our last trip to
Cancun, Mexico, it reminded daddy the importance of speaking the local language when travelling to a foreign country. We had to rely on mommy's beginner level of Spanish when we were dealing with locals who can't speak English.
Since that trip, daddy was determined to learn Spanish.
Fast forward a few years, we crossed the border to Mexico briefly when we were at
Big Bend National Park. Daddy put his Spanish into use when conversing with a lady at a souvenir stand. Even that was just a brief conversation. It was an amazing experience for daddy.
We had another plan for Thanksigiving trip but made a last minutes change to go to Cozumel, Mexico instead. Mexico? Daddy is in!
We paid for upgraded boarding (our Southwest business performance credit card reimburse the cost) to get the A1-A15 boarding position. As this is an international flight, the boarding pass can be only redeemed from the self-service kiosk or from the airport counter. After getting our boarding pass, we went through the TSA pretty quickly. It was smooth and uneventful as usual thanks to our TSA PreCheck status (paid with a credit card that reimbursed TSA PreCheck fees).
The flight to Cozumel took only about two hours. After we landed at Cozumel Airport, that's when the fun started :)
It was a relatively small airport. Gege and didi first experience getting off the plane without a passenger boarding bridge (jet bridge) directly connected to the airport terminal. We first need to get some Mexican Pesos (MXN). There are in generally 3 options for us to exchange money for pesos.
1) Exchange USD for MXN at the currency exchange vendor
2) Exchange USD for MXN at a local bank
3) Withdraw MXN from ATM
There are multiple of these exchange and ATM at the popular tourist place.
The rate with first option varies. From the experience, the closest to the airport terminal tends to have the lowest rate. So, what we usually do is not to exchange too much in one go. The second option also varies depends on the bank. The annoying thing is some require to fill additional forms for processing. From our experience, they seem to have a much better rate than their own ATM. It is puzzling, but that's what we experience in Cozumel. And the last option could be useful if you don't have or don't like to bring too much USD with you. Be caution that there are fees for the ATM and your own bank. We use our SoFi debit card which doesn't have fees and also reimburse other bank fees whenever there is a need.
Our first destination is Playa del Carmen. The only way to get there from Cozumel is by ferry. One common way to get to the pier from the airport is by taxi. We all know how fun (or not) using a taxi service. But the problem is, there is no taxi picking up passenger at the airport. The taxi service is disallowed at the airport. There are official airport transfer FlexShuttle cab that can take you to places / hotels in Cozumel. They have a list of fixed pricing depends on your destination. At the time of our visit, it costs ~421 mxn / 26 usd (for 1-4 riders) from the airport to the city / ferry area.
We were very hungry. Instead of taking the airport cab, we walked across the street to Deigo's Taco place to get some delicious fish tacos. The fish tacos (come in 3 tacos) were actually pretty good. It costs 125 mxn. We then hailed a taxi from there to the ferry area which we negotiated to 100 mxn. Much better deal! Guess what? We did all that with Spanish!
At the pier, it was short walk to the end of the passageway to buy our ferry tickets. There are two ferry companies, Ultramar and WinJet. The timetable may change depending on the season. At the time of writing, for one way ticket,
Ultramar cost 250 mxn for adult and 200 mxn for child;
WinJet cost ~220 mxn adult and 130 mxn for child. Ultramar is slightly nicer and also have first class seat which cost more. Winjet is cheaper and not that much different in our opinion. They both takes pretty much ~35 minutes or so one way. They are quite on time. We took Ultramar as that was the next available ride.
Once we landed at Playa del Carmen pier, we walked around the famous Quinta Avenida (5th avenue). One of the tips we received from our previous taxi driver (benefit of speaking Spanish) is that it may costs less if you get a taxi after a couple of blocks away from the pier. Make perfect sense.
It started to rain, we have no choice but went into the next restaurant, Los Tapetes. While we were waiting for our food. it started pouring hard and soon after the whole street encountered blackout! The waiter put a candle at each table and somehow the chefs were able to get our food prepared. We ate with our cell phone light, what an experience! The food was super expensive, ~1000 mxn. Well, that's what you get eating at the tourist prime area. They accept credit card. Another tips is whenever possible, we use credit card as the Visa/Mastercard currency conversion rate is much higher, and also remember to use a credit card without foreign fee.
We walked back to our AirBnB not too far away with our ponchos. Daddy stopped by at a Taco place (Party Taco) to get more tacos. It was delicious! In fact, we all love it so much that we came back the next day and ate 12 pastor taco! It costs 40 mxn each and they accept credit card as well.
We were elated that our AirBnB and surrounding area have electricity. The place is very closed to Quinta Avenida and is very nice. It is quiet, clean and with everything we need, as well as a very nice patio.
The next day we went and picked up our rental car. We planned to visit Tulum which is about 1 hour from Playa del Carmen. There are public transportation like buses, vans (colectivo), taxi or other private transport services from Playa del Carmen to Tulum. The ADO bus costs about 108 mxn (child half price) one way. There are couple of ADO bus station, one of them is at 10 Avenida and Avenida Benito Juarez. You can also research and purchase online at
ADO website (Spanish). The van (colectivo) station may be found around Calle 2 and between 15 Avenida and 20 Avenida, we heard the ticket maybe cheaper there. For Taxi, it really depends. Make sure you confirm the price before hopping in.
We took the rental car option as it is more convenience and save times for us as we planned to go to several places in Tulum. It is actually cheaper for us as well, ~815 mxn a day (with company code) as we don't have to take multiple taxis to different places in Tulum.
We ate breakfast at this Taco place closed to our car rental for 180 mxn. Yes, more taco!
First destination is Cenote Calavera. Cenote is a sinkhole and there are multiple popular cenote around Tulum area. Some of the popular ones like gran cenote, cenote dos ojos, cenote caswash, cenote azul, cenote cristalino and etc. We picked cenote calavera as this is famous for the epic hole jumping. We thought the kids would have ton of fun jumping into the cenote. And they sure do! The entrance costs for this cenote is 250 mxn per adult which we think is reasonable. Some other popular cenote are much more expensive after Covid.
This place require to take shower before using the cenote.
It was about 10ish in the morning and there wasn't too many people. Everyone is nice and take turns jumping in. We have tons of fun jumping in from the big hole and also the smaller ones. We hesitated at the beginning but once each of us get our first dare, it becomes easy :) Near the entrance of the cenote also have multiple small attraction for photo taking.
Next we headed to the Tulum Ruins. Before we got there, we stopped at a coconut stand for some fresh coconut drink. It costs 60 mxn for a coconut. We chat chit a little with the seller who has an interesting story and share some laugther.
He recommended us a restaurant nearby where local visits. Indeed, most patrons at the seafood restaurant (El Camero) appears to be locals. It costs us 600 mxn for our lunch. The fish dish was good.
With full stomach, we headed to the Tulum Ruins. There appears to two entrances. One is from Tulum town center which is also where most of taxi stop and also the Tulum archaeological ADO bus terminal located at. This appears to be the main entrance with plenty of shops and parking. The other entrance is on the other side where the playa Santa Fe/Parais at. Most parking here are on the road sides or hotel parking. We were there late in the afternoon so it was quite hard to find a parking on the side of the street. To save time, we paid 200 mxn for a parking spot at a 'private' area closed to the entrance.
The park entrance is 85 mxn per adult. Only pesos are accepted at the counter, but you can pay at the kiosk with a credit card. Kids under 13 is free. Get the kid complementary ticket at the counter as they need everyone to have a ticket to enter.
The Tulum Ruins beach area was closed off during our visit. The overlook was gorgeous, you can see the beautiful crystal clear blue water with pristine beach.
Due to some lost time finding the Tulum Ruins, we didn't have enough time for the other cenote as we were to return the rental car before they close. We spent the evening walking around Quinta Avenida and exploring different shops and decorations.
We spent the morning exploring the morning views of Quinta Avenidas and the playa del carmen beach views near the Parque Los Fundadores. We had our breakfast at 100% natural watching world cup while the rain quickly passed by.
This time, we took Winjet back to Cozumel as that was the next available ferry. The lower floor has air conditional and quiet. The upper desk is quite shaky and has a music band like Ultramar ferry.
We were searching for locker as we wanted to stroll around the Cozumel city center without dragging the carry-on luggage. There is none available and one of the lady at ticket center gave us a tip of using those bicycle taxi that could carry the luggage while taking you around. Too bad they were asking too much.
We found a better option later. We ate our lunch at Casa Cozumel. The chicken fajita was quite good. They were also nice enough to let us leave our carry-on there for few hours.
With full stomach, we strolled around the Cozumel city center.
We then took a taxi to our hotel at Sunscrape Sabor Cozumel at the hotel zone. Initially we were thinking to visit Playa San Franciso that was suggested by one of the tour guide on the ferry. After chit-chatting with the taxi driver, it appears that the beach is pretty much the same since it is very close to our hotel. The taxi fare was about 200 mxn (to the Playa) or 170 mxn if directly to the hotel.
We arrived at the Sunscape Sabor Cozumel Resort which we booked with 12k Hyatt points per night. This hotel is an all inclusive hotel and also kid friendly.
The receptionist was very nice to upgrade us to ocean front view room which is also closed to the activity area. View from our room.
Beware when making hotel reservation in these inclusive resorts in Cozumel / Playa del Carmen as some of them is limited to adult only. This Sunscape hotel is located at the beach almost next to the popular Playa San Francisco. We have been recommended by some local and tour guide to check out this beach. As mentioned earlier, our friendly taxi driver was very nice to tell us it is very similar to our hotel private beach so we saved a trip and entrance fees there. This hotel has a pool and 2 restaurants, drink bars, snack counters. Adults can also make a reservation at a restaurant that is part of Secret Aura resort (adult only) next door.
The resort has fools ball table, ping pong, pool with slides, and also activities throughout the day. Their nightly events includes dance shows, fire shows, karaoke, and etc. Our kids play with other kids while enjoying their ice cream treats. It is like heaven for them :).
Although the food at the hotel is so-so, but it is convenient and you can eat and drink as much as you want.
The kids have fun in the pool with slides and also playing at the beach. The hotel provides 2 hours of free snorkeling gears, kayaks and etc.
Since it is a private hotel, it is not crowdy and the crystal clear turquoise water is so beautiful. We found a beach section right in front of the Sunscape resort with tons of fishes around the rocks and reefs. It is not deep and closed to the beach so a perfect area to snorkel with kids. We love it very much. Daddy spent lot of times enjoying the scenery, fishes, and light reflection underwater.
Cozumel is famous for his torquise clear water and a fantastic place for snorkeling. There are many vendors selling snorkeling tour to few areas such as Palancar, Colombia and the famous El Cielo (the heaven) for 4-4.5 hours. Those trip usually leave from the pier. At Sunscape Sabor resort, the hotel guest can also inquire and make tour reservation. They offer snorkel trip, parasailing and deep fishing tours. The guest would be picked up / dropped off at the dock in front of the Secret Aura resort next door. Since the hotel dock (muelle) is closer to the destination, the 2 or 3 hours tours offered at the hotel may be better or good enough for younger kids in our opinion. We didn't get to take these snorkeling tour as we already have plan for the allocated time.
The next day we took a taxi to Chankanaab Adventure Beach Park.
We have purchased a dolphin swim adventure package and plan to spend the whole day here. This package includes 30 minutes with dolphin including hug, hand target, handshake, boogie push, belly ride. It also includes access to amenities like locker, sea lion show, buffet lunch, Chankannab national park entrance and its garden. It costs about $215 for daddy and two kids, while mommy paid $49 to enter the park and dolphin discovery area with buffet and without the dolphin encounter. They also throw in a free bonus of 15 minutes Manatees encounter. A note on reservation online, you can only book a child ticket with an adult ticket. In our case, since we have two kids with one adult, we have to call them for our reservation. Reservation through phone is very smooth and they do include the discounts and bonus found online.
It was during the peak season, and with all the cruises, the place get crowded. The buffet food is below average.
We walked around the Chankanaab garden and see lots of iguana.
The beach is beautiful with clear water. There are plenty of beach chairs, hammocks, mayan huts, playground for kids and etc.
The place also offer massage service of $30 (or $50 for two people) for 20 minutes massage. Mommy took advantage of that while kids playing with the sand.
We have tons of fun, and time to go home. We hailed a taxi and stopped at Diego taco again to get some fish taco. Passed through security and relaxed at the caral lounge with our priority pass from Capital One Venture X credit card. Eat some more.
Saw Harris County Judge Hildago and said hi. What a cool surprise to end our fun trip.
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