Riviera Maya, Mexico (Sightseeing)

El Castillo at Chichen Itza.

We traveled to Playa del Carmen, Mexico in November 2012 for our destination wedding. Additionally, I traveled previously to Tulum, Mexico in December 2009 with friends. Over the course of my two visits, I have seen the following sights/participated in the following tours, which will be described in detail below:

• Chichen Itza
• Ek Balam
• Rio Secreto
• Cooking Class with Chaya Chef
• Ziplining with Selvatica
• Tulum Ruins
• Tulum's Beaches
• Tulum Town
• Horseback riding with Rancho Baaxal
• The Jungle Place (Spider Monkey Sanctuary)
• Sian Kian Biosphere Tour with Cesiak
• Coba Ruins
• Valladolid
• Playa del Carmen's Quinta Avenida
• Coco Bongo

Chichen Itza:
One of the most widely recognized and heavily visited archaeological sites in the world, the Mayan ruins of this World Heritage site, are famous for both their size and scope. The site includes numerous temples, alters, palaces, as well as the largest-known ball court in the Maya world. If you come to any part of the Rivera Maya and choose to do only one tour, make sure it's one that includes a visit to this amazing site.

On my first visit to Chichen Itza, I toured it on my own with my two friends. Although I found the ruins interesting, I felt at the time that it would have been even more interesting if we had a guided tour. As a result, for my next visit during the week of our destination wedding, we hired a company called Mayans' Explorers to take our group of 23 friends and family out to the ruins for a guided tour. Our tour guide, Gudelio and his assistant did an amazing job with such a huge group of people. He provided commentary and a history lesson on the Rivera Maya from our departure in Playa del Carmen along the several hour drive to Chichen Itza. Visiting the ruins with the in-depth knowledge that Gudelio provided made my second visit so much more interesting than my first one was. I would, without a doubt, recommend this tour company. In addition to taking us to Chichen Itza, they also took us to Ek Balam and a nearby cenote.

There are dozens of different ruins and things to see at Chichen Itza, which would take days to thoroughly see. I spent about three hours at the ruins during both of my visits and was able to see the main highlights including El Castillo (the famous temple), the Great Ball Court, Tzompantli (Wall of Skulls), the Platform of the Eagles and Jaguars, the Sacred Cenote, the Platform of Venus, Temple of Warriors, the Group of a Thousand Columns, the Osario (Ossuary), and the El Caracol (the Observatory). After my two rushed visits, I would recommend putting aside four to five hours if you want to see nearly everything but still allow plenty enough time for breaks and a snack. Chichen Itza is incredibly spread out and you will be doing a lot of walking on your visit.

While at Chichen Itza, you will be bombarded with literally hundreds of vendors selling different items at tables spread throughout the site. Some of these items are tacky and cheap but there are a few diamonds in the rough including vendors that sell beautiful wood carvings or silver jewelry.

Be forewarned that it's very hot at Chichen Itza. Even though it was partly overcast out on my second visit the temperature was still in the 90s. Make sure to come prepared with lots of sunscreen and fluids. Unfortunately, my dad didn't follow my advice and got heat stroke while at the ruins, essentially ruining the rest of his day.

Lower Temple of the Jaguar at the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza. 

Lower Temple of the Jaguar at the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza. 

Lower Temple of the Jaguar at the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza. 

Lower Temple of the Jaguar at the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza. 

Lower Temple of the Jaguar at the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza. 

Lower Temple of the Jaguar at the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza. 

Lower Temple of the Jaguar at the Great Ball Court with El Castillo in the background at Chichen Itza.

The Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza. 

The Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza. 

The Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza. 

Temple of the Bearded Man at the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza.

Temple of the Bearded Man at the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza.

Tulum, Mexico (Lodging)

I spent six days visiting Tulum, Mexico in December of 2009 with two friends.

I selected Tulum as our base of operations for our time on the Rivera Maya for a few reasons: I was not interested in staying at one of the mega resorts in Cancun or Playa del Carmen and wanted a more small-town authentic Mexican feel. Although Playa del Carmen has plenty of smaller boutique-type hotels in its downtown area, it is overly touristy and not what I envisioned for this vacation. Additionally, I had heard amazing things about the beaches of Tulum, so I decided it would be our best choice.

Tulum, located about 90 minutes south of Cancun, has a much smaller choice of accommodations when compared to Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Ideally, I would have preferred to have stayed in a small hotel directly on the beach but those were out of our price range. As a result, I decided to look at places within the town of Tulum. The best value for our money appeared to be Posada Luna del Sur, which also happened to be the highest rated place to stay in Tulum on Trip Advisor.

This small and intimate hotel is located in downtown Tulum close to many restaurants. The hotel includes breakfast each morning atop its beautiful rooftop lounge.

The rooms were clean, simple, and comfortable and the staff were kind, friendly, patient, and very informative. Really, what's not to like? This is definitely one of the most favorite places I've stayed at while traveling. Unless you are dead-set on having luxurious accommodations on a beachfront view while in Tulum, this is the place you should stay at!

Posada Luna del Sur in Tulum, Mexico

The sitting area of my room at Posada Luna del Sur in Tulum, Mexico.

Rooftop lounge at Posada Luna del Sur in Tulum, Mexico.

Rooftop lounge at Posada Luna del Sur in Tulum, Mexico.

Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Lodging)

The beach at Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

We traveled to Playa del Carmen, Mexico for ten days in November 2012 for our destination wedding. We were fortunate enough to have 40 of our closest friends and family members join us on our special day. I will have a separate blog entry that will discuss our wedding and will also have another entry that will highlight all of the sights we visited and tours we participated in while in the Riviera Maya.

There are numerous types of lodging accommodations for visitors to pick from in and around Playa del Carmen. This includes dozens of all-inclusive resorts, hotels, motels, home and condo rentals, and small boutique hotels, just to name a few. While I tend to prefer to stay in vacation rentals or small hotels, since we were traveling with such a large group for our wedding we had to find a place that was big enough to accommodate everyone. Additionally, we knew many of our guests would appreciate the amenities that an all-inclusive resort would offer (all food and alcoholic beverages included, room service, pool, beach, non-motorized water sports, etc). We wanted to find the best overall value and quality that money could get for our guests in Playa del Carmen. We had a budget in our mindset of $2500-$3000 for a week long-stay per couple, hotel and airfare combined from Seattle. We ended up selecting Riu Palace Riviera Maya for a variety of reasons:

• Shyawn had stayed at a Riu resort several years prior and was familiar and comfortable with the brand
• The beach was incredibly gorgeous with numerous palm trees lining the beach
• The pool area and grounds were beautiful
• It was the nicest of all of the five Riu properties in Playa del Carmen
• It had a picturesque set-up for wedding ceremonies (gazebo overlooking the beach)
• It fit within our budget set above
• And finally, it had very good reviews on Trip Advisor (over 2000 reviews averaging 4.5 stars)

Based on all of this information, we felt it was the best fit and best overall pick for our large group. The hotel has 400 guests rooms and is located in the Playacar neighborhood of Playa del Carmen, which is a 15-20 minute walking distance (or a five minute cab ride) to Playa del Carmen's famous Fifth Avenue. Our guests appreciated this location and nearly everyone ended up visiting Fifth Avenue since it was so close and convenient. 

I will divide the rest of this review into the following sections:

• Check-in process/front desk 
• The beach
• The grounds and pool
• The interior 
• Hotel room
• Restaurants

Check-in process/front desk:

Shyawn and I were the first ones to arrive at the resort of our group. Upon arrival, I was slightly disappointed with the hotel's exterior appearance from the entrance, especially when compared to the massive and extravagant hotels and resorts we had seen along our drive from the airport in Cancun down to Playa del Carmen. However, I am pretty picky about these sort of things so I let it go in stride.

The check-in process went fairly smooth. We arrived around noon, feeling very tired after our overnight flight. Unfortunately the room wasn't ready and when we inquired about an upgrade to a nicer room (our wedding package included an upgraded room, if one was available) we were told there was none available. We hoped that we would at least have a room facing the courtyard, which was more preferred from what I had read on Trip Advisor. Once we actually got to check into our room we discovered that we did not have a room facing the courtyard. Instead, it faced a garden and another hotel which actually ended up being okay for us. Unfortunately, the room had two double beds pushed together which was disappointing. Of course, I would have preferred one king bed but I didn't want to make a fuss. Later throughout the trip, I learned that several of our friends and family members got rooms overlooking the courtyard and/or rooms with a king bed. I suppose if I had complained to the front desk they would have changed our room but I didn't want to deal with the hassle of moving all of our luggage and items, so we stayed put. 

Because we got married at the resort, we dealt with the front desk staff more times than I can count over the course of our stay. Overall, I would say that they did a very good job of handling our guests. However, I was slightly disappointed when each day I would leave the out of town gift bags for our guests at the front desk, informing the staff of the name of the guests (which were written on the tag on the front of the bag) and yet only two couples actually received their bags upon check in.

The Beach:

Hands down, the beach is the shining star of this resort. The beach is wide and expansive, with the softest white sand and most beautiful turquoise colored water. Each time our friends and family arrived at the resort, we would take them down to the beach and everyone was mesmerized and blown away by its beauty. Nearly all of us hailed from the Pacific Northwest where white soft sand just doesn't exist. The resort has hundreds of loungers placed all along their portion of the beach and there are servers that will come to wherever you are on the beach to take drink orders. Additionally, the resort offers free rentals of non-motorized water sports (i.e. kayaks) that a few of our guests took advantage of. The waves here are minor, at least compared to the waves we are used to in the PNW which made swimming very easy and manageable. If the beach is the most important part of your vacation, then I would highly recommend the Riu Palace Riviera Maya simply for that reason alone.

Be forewarned: I took hundreds of photos of the beach and had a difficult time narrowing it down to the many you will see below.

The beach at Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

The beach at Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

The beach at Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Shyawn walking along the beach at Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

The beach at Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

The beach at Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

The beach at Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

The beach at Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

The beach at Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

The beach at Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.