Playa Del Carmen
Our trip to Playa del Carmen was an interesting one. We first started this journey because 20/20 was a year of curveballs, uncertainties, stress, drama, and any other thing you can think of to explain the chaos in one’s life. Usually, I travel on my own, and after several obstacles that I survived, I knew I needed a break. I needed to getaway and I had friends to join me!
Now I realize living in Hawaii on the island of Maui means I live in Paradise but when you get to see the same beaches, and the same scenery every day all the while needing a break, you want to reset and refresh your mind, mental and your emotional levers in a place that’s not the same old same. I tasked myself with the job of figuring out where I can travel during this global pandemic. And travel as an American because something (brand new to me) happened during covid that I don’t think anyone had seen before. The American passport overnight became worthless (for travel that is). Before the American passport was strong and it could get you into just about any country. Now very few places wanted Americans on their soil. Eventually, I found that I can go to Mexico, Turkey, and a handful of other places that weren’t high on my radar. So I made the decision that Mexico is close enough for me to get away for an extended weekend and just reset, and recharge myself. And I would do this over my birthday weekend.
In December I generally take 10-16 days off because in my line of work it’s very hard to take a vacation any other time of the year. So December allows me to have a good amount of time off where I can enjoy myself and take a much-needed break. More often than not I’m able to celebrate my birthday in a new country so this is always the icing on the cake for me. Shortly after making this decision my niece and cousin decided to join me. I was more than happy to have them with me because the more the merry in general and I’d have someone to celebrate my birthday with instead of finding new friends in my new country. Everyone was excited about this trip. Each of us had our reasons why 2020 was a hell of a year. We would talk several times a week, have zoom calls to discuss what activities we wanted to see, what we wanted to do, and if we were going to have a special color or outfit to wear. So when the time came to hop on the plane we were ready for an EPIC yet COVID safe(ish) trip. After all, this would be the first time we had all traveled together.
Once I stepped foot in Cancun and headed to my hotel in Playa del Carmen I must admit I was a little underwhelmed. This was not my first trip to Mexico but I was expecting more. A few years ago I took a trip to Puerto Vallarta and loved my time there. Some years before that my college girlfriends and I travel to Baja Sur to go to Cabo as well and I thoroughly enjoyed myself there. So now fast forward to 2020 and I fully expected my 3rd trip to Mexico to be just as great. But I think living in Hawaii may have spoiled me. Now as I reflect, Playa reminded me a lot of Jamaica with regards to how the resorts are in the prime location, and as soon as you stepped foot away from them into the real meat and guts of the area (where the locals live) the infrastructure and feel is totally different. I don’t know how else to describe it. I just expected more upon arrival. Once the girls arrived we did a late lunch at the Andaz Mayakoba overlooking the water with a beautiful sunset and then headed back to the Thompson Beach House. We relaxed a little before changing to head back out to enjoy a midnight bottle of champagne at a bar and ring in my birthday.
The next morning we woke up walk the neighborhood a little bit more been found a little restaurant for brunch. Then we got on the road to drive to the infamous Tulum. The drive was fairly quick maybe just a little over an hour. We stopped along the way for some fresh cut-up fruit from a street vendor and to stop and take pictures at a secluded but quiet beach along the way. Once we got to Tulum proper once again I was honestly disappointed. To me, Tulum is the Mexican version of Myrtle Beach. Probably, Myrtle Beach 15-20 years ago. All those pictures you see on the ‘gram and Facebook with people in Tulum are misleading. Technically Tulum is a two-lane dirt road that goes on for I don’t know how many miles because we didn’t even go to the very end of it. You have restaurants, little boutiques, art galleries, boutique hotels all along the road. These are things that you would expect for a high tourist destination but once again the infrastructure just wasn’t there. And maybe that’s my American mindset coming into play but once again like I said I just expected more especially based on all the things I saw posted online from other people. I don’t want to spend too much time on parking but needless to say, there is very little parking. When you’re driving along the Tulum dirt road and when you do find a place to park you can best believe you going to pay top dollar for that spot.
I knew before coming that COVID was all over Tulum but I really thought what I had read must have been an over-exaggeration. On the streets of Tulum, had nothing but hordes of people up on top of each other, not socially distancing themselves, and most did not have on masks. It was almost like the world was not experiencing a global pandemic. This is one of the reasons why we didn’t spend too much time there nor did we go too far along that dirt road.
We did stop to see the hotel that used to be Pablo Escobar’s Mansion because we wanted our good photo up there as well but the joke was on us. As I said earlier parking is a joke and parking for this particular place was across the way in what I feel was basically an empty open lot. As soon as we got out of the car, the attendant wanted us to pay right away even though we were not sure if we were in the right location. Big picture what he wanted to charge wasn’t much in US dollars but we were in Mexico and I was not going to get taken advantage of. I told the man I’d pay him on the way out because I wanted to make sure we could get in the mansion and see what we needed to see before forking over any cash. I’m so glad I did that. After walking down a little Corridor we came across the cashier/agent (who is very pleasant to us)who kindly informed us that since we were not a guest of the hotel we would not be allowed to enter unless we paid 50 US dollars each. Now some of that $50 dollars did go towards a food and beverage credit in their restaurant but this Frugal East Coast girl was not going for it. I was not about to pay that kind of money to just walk up and potentially have mediocre food and not get pictures I wanted. But because I had two people with me who wanted to see what it was all about I questioned the cashier a little bit further and sure enough she confirmed what my gut was feeling. The areas where we wanted to take photos (based on what we saw on social media) was off-limits to us because we were not a hotel guest. Not one post ever mentioned you needed to be a guest to get the access. So as I’m sure you can imagine we kindly walked our happy asses back to the car and drove away. I am so glad we did not pay for parking upfront because we would have wasted our $10.
We also stopped at Ven De la Luz art exhibit and we almost missed it. As I said Tulum was nothing but a dirt road with restaurants and shops on either side so when I saw this long behind line waiting for something in the middle of the sidewalk my curiosity piqued. We figured out what they were waiting for the Art Exhibit. Without stumbling upon that line we would have missed the exhibit and missed that photo opportunity.
We had an amazing time at Taboo. The food was delicious and the service was impeccable. I wish I could remember the name of our server but when I do I’ll come back and I’ll add it. Anyone who goes to Taboo needs to request her as a server. My cousin and I both have food allergies (my cousin’s allergies being more severe than mine) but between our server, and the runners that were helping her everyone knew exactly what we could and could not have. When each drink or dish was brought to the table it was inspected again in front of us to ensure the order was right. I have never had anyone be so attentive to my food allergies the way they were here at this restaurant and for that alone they get five stars for me.
Our trip was cut due to the sad news that my mom unfortunately passed in her sleep. So from that point on the next 24 hours were spent packing our stuff up and making arrangements to get back home to the mainland. We had intentions to drive over to Chitzen Itza, and spend some time at the spa, and beach to relax because after all, that was one of the main purposes for us going. But we did enjoy the time that we did have.
I’ve asked myself would I travel back to Tulum or Playa del Carmen and my answer is maybe. As of right now, I don’t see any real reason to go back to Tulum because I was just simply underwhelmed by it. Not to mention the COVID cesspool turning me off. So unless something great and exciting comes there soon or someone tells me something I missed Tulum ain’t on the top of my revisit list. Now I enjoyed the hotels I stayed at in Playa and I wanted to also check out the Xcaret so I’d go back to Playa for some relaxation and maybe a little Adventure by going to the amusement park and spending the day in Chitzen Itza.
What were your thoughts on this area? Did you travel here before or during COVID?
