Last year we took a family vacation to Cancun in January and had such a wonderful time! One of the activities we did included a day trip with stops in Playa Del Carmen, the Mayan Ruins in Tulum and a cenote near Coba.
This year when we were thinking about where to go, we remembered how much we wanted to spend more time in each of those areas. We decided on an Airbnb in Playa Del Carmen.
As soon as we arrived in Playa Del Carmen (PDC), we found an authentic Mexican Restaurant just a few blocks from our Airbnb. We all enjoyed virgin pina coladas and of course, the boys had to have chips and guac! lol!
We finished the evening with some ice cream and I had to snap this photo to document the boys white, winter skin before they hit the beach!! ;-) They tan SOOO fast so I had to have this "before" photo!!
One of the first beaches we went to was Akumal Beach. It's located between Playa Del Carmen and Tulum and is best known for the sea turtles! We went swimming with the sea turtles and it was amazing!! :-)
It costs a couple dollars for parking (50 pesos for the day) and you pay a fee per person to get onto the beach ($100 pesos/person). Some people will say that you can walk up onto the beach without paying. Maybe if you're just one person you can do that, but a group or family like ours can't just walk in anywhere without being noticed and charged! lol
The sea turtle swim is an additional fee but I think we were able to negotiate about $20usd per person. If you've ever been to Mexico you know EVERYTHING is a negotiation! lol! We went with the boys while Nana kept baby JJ and I think we saw about 11 turtles and a stingray!! It was awesome and the boys loved it!!
Jaden wore his hat and long sleeves a lot this trip! :-D He became a little Mexico baby!! He loved the sand, beach water and especially grew to love guacamole and mashed mango but his skin never grew to love the sun!
The boys can just sit like this for hours playing...
...and resting :-D
Those first few handfuls went straight to the mouth!!
Lots of naps and nursing on the beach for him! I'm learning that the days of napping on the beach for me are probably over. Maybe in 20 years? lol!!
I feel like PDC is where to go if you want to be close to everything.
We would get up in the morning and walk to Starbucks for coffee, walk two blocks to the beach and sip our coffee, then two blocks back to our condo. Everything is walking distance, which is especially nice if you don't rent a car.
Our nights were mostly spent in the condo. If you're into the nightlife there is PLENTY there!! But we just went out a couple times and quickly learned that staying out past 8:30pm wasn't for us!! haha!!
Let's just say it's more of an adults-only vibe after 9pm!
So jealous of that nap!!! <3
JJ lovin' on daddy :)
We went to the local Walmart and did our grocery shopping for the week. That helped a lot with keeping our food costs down and those tummies full!! Seriously, their appetites have increased a TON over the past year!!
Next blog will be all about our week in Tulum. We stayed at the Airbnb in Playa that I linked in the second paragraph for the first 7 days of our trip even though we traveled to Tulum for two of those days. In my next blog post I'll link the Airbnb we stayed at and beach clubs we used in Tulum, along with all the details on what family-friendly activities we experienced!! :-)
xoxo
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