Honestly, I don’t even know how to start to explain this trip. It was the most magical trip I have ever been on. Everything was amazing from beginning to end. I will give a little breakdown of everything below. Thanks for following along yall!!
WHERE WE STAYED:
We ended up booking our hotel in December as our Christmas present to each other. We found Hotel X Caret on Expedia & I was already obsessed with it just from looking at the pictures. We were a little nervous because we had never done an all inclusive before & the Hotel had just recently opened but we got a crazy good deal, so we went with it! I can honestly say it was the best hotel I have ever stayed at. The hotel feels like it is apart of nature & was there from the beginning. Everything in our room, from the bedding to the decor, to the tile in bathroom & hammock on our porch was made in Mexico. It just had a very authentic feel & we LOVED that. This is not an AD or sponsored by the hotel in any way! I’m just truly so impressed with our experience and had to share it with yall.
What is included?
Included in our stay were our gorgeous room, all food & drinks, activities at the hotel (paddle boarding, kayaking, tennis & paddle ball), all of the Xcaret eco parks & tours(transportation included), and transportation to & from the airport. Also, included in your room is a mini fridge stocked with beer, soda, water & snacks!
What we loved most…
If I could use one word to describe what we loved most it would be convenience. It was so nice to just go & not have to worry about transportation or what I should & shouldn’t order, everything is already paid for, planned & taken care of for you. It was stress-free because you know that you already paid for most everything & didn’t have to worry if getting a steak at dinner would break your bank. You can eat, drink & play as much or as little as you would like!
WHAT WE DID:
+Pool Time
Honestly could have sat by the pool(s) the entire time we were there. There were so many to choose from but our favorite one was the main pool overlooking the ocean. I mean its hard to beat that view! They also had servers that would come around & take your drink order so you didn’t have to move if you didn’t want to. Almost every pool had a swim up bar so you could drink your HAPPY MANGO (favorite drink) while swimming around. TIP THEM! They work so hard & are so kind!
+Beach Time
The color of the water was no JOKE! It was absolutely stunning & so incredibly clear. Perfect for snorkeling & playing around in the waves. The temperature of the water couldn’t have been better. We truly lucked out with the weather!!
+EAT & DRINK
Where to even begin on food & drink? I think in total there were 10 different restaurants at our hotel to choose from. We didn’t have time to try them all but the ones we did we absolutely loved. Our favorites were La Trajinera (overlooking the pool & ocean) buffet style, Las Cuevas (gorgeous restaurant inside the caves) buffet style, & our VERY favorite Las Playas (eat with your toes in the sand) fresh fish & grilled food. We also recommend making a reservation to do hibachi one night at Xin Gao! No extra cost to do this, you just need a reservation. SO much fun & delicious of course.
+Explore the Hotel
I think we got lost a few times at our own hotel but we didn’t mind because we kept finding all these amazing new spots & hidden little gems! They have an outdoor jungle gym with monkey bars over the river! You could spend an entire day just exploring the hotel & checking out everything it has to offer!!
+XCaret Parks & Tours
The fact that all of the parks were included in our stay was definitely something that sold us on this place. While we are all about some r&r, we also wanted a little adventure on our trip. I’ll break down the 3 parks we visited & what we loved & didn’t love about them. Also a side note: everyone we talked to loved Xenses, one of the parks we didn’t get a chance to check out, so I’m letting yall know to check it out!
Xcaret: Okay so this was probably our least favorite park that we visited. I don’t know if it was the time of day that we went but it felt like a madhouse. They have some really fun activities you can do but we didn’t feel like snorkeling with 100 other people in a small area. I think our favorite part of this was seeing the Tortugas because they were absolutely MASSIVE & I have never seen anything like it. Honestly, though, we only walked around for about 20 minutes & then we went back to the hotel! ha!
Xel Ha:
This was probably our favorite out of the 3 we went to. Because the hotel organized these expeditions for us, this park was an ALL DAY excursion, meaning we were dropped off & then picked up at the end of the day. We couldn’t leave whenever we wanted like the other parks. So we got there at 8 in the morning & left at 6 that night. It was a LONG day in the sun but a lot of fun. So when we arrived we got a locker & picked up our snorkeling gear. They will give you a key for your locker that you need to hang onto for the entire day. Also make sure you keep track of all of your snorkeling gear because you have to return it at the end of the day & if you lose something, you have to pay. Anyways we started out snorkeling & it was absolutely gorgeous. There is SO much room to snorkel & you don’t feel like you are swimming with 1,000 other people. The rest of the day we did tubing down the river where you can stop & jump off the little cliffs, zip lining into the water & then finally checking out the cenotes. A little tip is to bring some money because they have other activities that you can pay extra for like snuba, swimming with dolphins, adrenaline boat, etc.
Xplore: With this park, you can either go during the day or go during the night. We decided to check it out at night & it was such a blast!! We went right around sunset & it was perfect because we got to experience some of the activities when it was still light out & some in the dark. When you check in you get a helmet & a locker number for any items you have with you. We started with the zip line experience (took about 30 minutes total) & we had SO MUCH FUN! After the zip line, we tried the ATV excursion, which was awesome but we got held up a little because the people in front of us were driving slow. Honestly, after that we were pretty tired from a full day in the sun, so we called it a night. Probably would have gone back to this park if we had more time!! Bring bug spray if you go at night!
+Kayak & Paddleboard:
Kayak through your own hotel? I think YES!! This was absolutely beautiful & might have been one of our favorite activities. What made this even better is that there were stops along the way with hidden slides to go down! Definitely, an experience to remember!!
+Paddle Ball & Tennis:
We took some time in the morning before it got too hot to play some paddle ball & it was such a fun time!
+SPA DAY:
Ever dreamed of being in the movie Avatar? lol Well go to this spa & find out what its like! It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. The attention to detail is pure perfection & the amenities are fabulous. They have a hydrotherapy pool, steam room, sauna, hot tubs, cold tubs, & the most relaxing lounge area of all time. Side note/tip: we ended up getting 2 free 50 minute massages because they asked us if we wanted to take a tour & do a 1 1/2-hour presentation on their membership opportunity in exchange for the massages. So we, of course, said hell yeah, & honestly thought about getting a membership, but ultimately decided it’s not the right time. But it was 100% worth the time because the spa was so relaxing & enjoyable.
+Deep Sea Fishing:
This was not apart of our hotel package but the hotel did set us up with the tour that took us deep sea fishing. On our last day, we wanted to do something adventurous so we ended up choosing deep sea fishing, mainly because Trev loves to fish. This day might have been our FAVORITE day of our trip. The weather was perfect, fish were out to play & the adrenaline of catching a BIG fish was unlike no other. Our boat ended up catching sailfish, wahoo, barracuda, grouper, amberjack & a bunch of triggerfish. The guides were awesome, professional & extremely good at what they were doing. The company we went with was called Naturama Tours Adventures. Can’t find a link anywhere but if I do I will link it soon!
TIPS + TRICKS:
- Pack Light! I packed all of these beautiful outfits & ended up wearing 3 things the entire time. ha! You will live in a swimsuit, flip-flops & coverup.
- Bring a waterproof phone case w/ something to carry it with.
- Bring BUG SPRAY if you get eaten alive like I do.
- Organize TRANSPORTATION before you arrive. Honestly wasn’t excepting it to be as chaotic as it was when we first arrived. Know where, when & who you are going with so people can direct you where to go when you land at the airport.
- Bring money for tips. I would suggest exchanging your money for pesos because you will end up spending more if you use USD.
- Don’t throw away the immigration paper they give you when you enter into Mexico. I had no idea you had to have that to leave Mexico, so I had to pay $32 (cash only) to get it replaced.
- Show up to the airport EARLY. The hotel suggested we show up 3 hours early & I’m so glad we did. The Cancun airport was super busy & there are long lines everywhere. Better safe than sorry!
Cheers,
Kenzie
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