How We Spent 5 Relaxing Days in Cancún, MX

Ahh, Cancún. Cancún is a city in Mexico on the Yucutan Peninsula bordering the Caribbean Sea. It’s known for its white sand beaches, tropical weather, and stunning resorts. You can make your trip to Cancún as wild or as relaxing as you’d like, and we chose the latter this time around 🙂 My sole purpose for this trip was to relax and not have an itinerary, which is usually the way I go for every trip. We were in Cancún for 4 nights, and honestly I felt like it wasn’t enough time – a full week would have been ideal, because our flights weren’t timed well. We lost about 2 days since we arrived at around 11 am on Saturday 3/13, and our flight was at 2 pm on Wednesday 3/17.

We stayed at the Fiesta Americana Condesa, and the location was great. It was about a 10 minute bus ride to the hotel zone which is where all of the nightlife and shops are, and about a 20 minute ride to the airport. The resort was beautiful, and of course we did all-inclusive which is something that I highly, highly recommend when going to Cancún, or even Cabo San Lucas.

On the hotel property, there were 3 restaurants open for dinner – La Mexicana (Mexican), Roseta (Italian), and San Telmo (Argentinian Steakhouse), a seafood / ceviche bar, a taco area, a spot for brick oven pizza, another station for healthier options like salads, wraps, etc., and the best spot of all – the Sushi Corner. Honestly for being an all-inclusive resort, the food was delicious, and the sushi was great. A few of our favorites were the flank steak roll (I’m a strict seafood sushi eater only, but this roll was dynamite), an avocado roll with shrimp, crab, and eel sauce, salmon nigiri, and the avocado tempura roll.

The seafood / ceviche bar was a close second – it was outside at the pool right next to the beach, and it was beautiful to just sit there and enjoy some baja shirimp tacos, ceviche and shrimp cocktail. We were also pleasantly surprised by the restaurants! In order of preference, I liked San Telmo the best, with Roseta coming in a close second (and I’m not even a huge fan of Italian). La Mexicana was still delicious, but I was honestly a little disappointed because there weren’t many options, and I’m a huge fan of authentic Mexican food so I was really looking forward to this one.

But we weren’t disappointed with the selections – I was pleasantly surprised with our overall experience and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a great deal at a beautiful beach resort. The only thing that I would have liked to have been able to do is go into the ocean, but we weren’t able to because the tide was too strong and the waves were too big where we were staying (we saw a couple people close to drowning).  If you go down past the hotel zone though, the waves on that side of the peninsula were much smaller and something you’d see more of on a tropical island – crystal blue waters, small waves, white, soft sand, ahhh..

The hotel also had a beautiful hotel lobby bar that opened up so it was half indoors and a little outdoors, so you always had that constant ocean breeze. At night, they have live entertainment and it was an awesome time to just hang out and not have to worry about leaving the hotel.

On Saturday night, we did end up going downtown to the bars (only because it was our first night and we felt like we should). We ended up at none other than the infamous Coco Bongo, and bought a bottle of vodka for about $100 split between 4 people which wasn’t horrible. We weren’t in Cancún for the nightlife so much this time, so for those who were looking to go to bars every night I unfortunately don’t have any other recommendations this time around lol.

Anyways, the next morning we woke up and went downstairs to get breakfast, and I will say that even though the food wasn’t amazing, they did have a lot of different selections and it was still buffet style – due to Covid-19 everything was individually wrapped, and the staff made things for you to order like from their omelet bar or served you other items at the stations. We spent the day by the pool, which was so relaxing – they have a swim up bar (a must!), and 2 pools on different levels. They also had a DJ playing, and the hotel staff would play games with all of the pool-goers throughout the day as well that ended up being quite entertaining to watch. Pro Tip: If you go to the swim up bar and ask for a premium alcohol, they’ll give it to you free of charge. All you need to do is ask and make sure you tip them 🙂

We also ended up booking a package through the hotel that was $140 for 3 activities – you could pick from about 10 different options, but we chose Parasailing, A Jungle Tour, and an Islas Mujeres excursion.

Now, I feel like I need to do everyone a service here and mention that this isn’t normal parasailing, which we didn’t realize when we bought it – you basically sit in a little “couch” style seat and are hoisted into the air like you would normally parasailing. However, with this version you AREN’T strapped in. I repeat, you ARE NOT STRAPPED IN. When we went to Cabo San Lucas a few years ago, we were strapped in to a harness attached to the parachute, and I much prefer that one!

It was a windy day, so we probably lasted about 5 minutes up there before we were flagging them to let us down, because the seat kept rocking and I ran through about 100 scenarios of what I would do if this seat were to flip over…. It wasn’t relaxing to say the least, and I 10000% prefer the normal parasailing where you’re strapped in and attached to the parachute, legs dangling safely in the air.

The Islas Mujeres tour was supposed to happen on Monday, but they weren’t able to fill the boat so it was cancelled. It worked out because we decided to do our own excursion and catch the ferry over to the island ourselves. We took the bus down to downtown Cancún, which was about 10 pesos a person, where it dropped us off at Playa Tortuga. When we got there, we bought an Ultramar ferry ticket over to the island for about $42 round trip, and the ferry was actually very nice. It was a quick boat ride – about 25 minutes, and when we got to the island we rented a golf cart for another $45, but you can keep it all day. The golf cart is definitely the best way to get around the island, and it was a lot of fun!! We rode around the whole island in about an hour and tried to make it back to catch the 1 pm ferry, but we actually ended up missing it and the next one didn’t depart until 6 pm. So, when they say the boat departs at 1 pm, they really meant it departs at like 12:50 pm.

There are worse things that could’ve happened than ending up stuck on a beautiful tropical island, so we made a day of it. We got a bite to eat at one of their beach-side restaurants in the sand where I got some amazing seafood tacos with conch, fish and shrimp. Their servings were huge too, and I could only eat 2! Afterwards we went to go lay on the beach for a few hours, and it was beautiful. The water was crystal clear, light blue, and it looked like something off of a post card! It was warm and relaxing too, and was definitely a day well spent. After a few hours of that, we went to a bar called Stingray which was adorable – it had swings as seats around the bar – what’s better than swinging with a cocktail in hand.

Afterwards we walked back to where the ferry pick up point was, which was about 20 minutes, but we did some shopping along the way and made it back just in time. I definitely recommend making a day trip to Islas Mujeres if you have enough time – the island truly has something for everyone, whether it’s listening to live music, soaking up sun on the beach, or drinking cheap beer and eating cheap, delicious tacos.

The following day we went on the Jungle Tour which included a speedboat and snorkeling. It was probably my favorite excursion we did! We got to drive the speedboat ourselves, and the tour guide lead the group of about 6 couples to a snorkeling spot at the southernmost point of Cancún. Along the way you go through the lagoons and mangroves where the water is emerald green, and it’s absolutely beautiful. The snorkeling was neat, but I’ve heard from some of the locals that there are better spots where you can see tons of vibrant fish. But this snorkeling site was cool because you got to see underwater sculptures as part of the Underwater Museum. We even saw a few sting rays!

Overall it was a blast, and it was only 2 ½ hours so it didn’t take up the whole day – it was the perfect amount of time to drive a speedboat, snorkel, and make it back to land in time for happy hour 😉

To wrap it up, Cancún is absolutely beautiful, and the hotel was definitely worth visiting again. You can make Cancún whatever you want the trip to be, whether it’s relaxing at the resort, packing your trip with excursions, or eating and drinking your way through the city. The hotel staff were incredible – they were so friendly and would help with anything we needed during our stay, and I can say the same about anyone we came across outside of the hotel as well.

It’s a spot to go if you’re looking to relax, enjoy the warm weather, sunshine and sand between your toes, and if there’s one thing I recommend it’s to make the investment and do all-inclusive! Even if you want to venture out and leave your resort, it’s still worth it considering the drinks alone are included, and you at least have the option to have any meal covered should you end up needing it.

I’m already planning what we’re going to do for the next trip, like making a stop in Tulum to see the Mayan Ruins, or visiting the Cenotes, water-filled sinkholes that naturally occur in limestone rock when an underground cave collapses in on itself and exposes the groundwater underneath. There are thousands of these across the Yucatán peninsula, so I recommend adding these to your itinerary if you have the time! Message or comment with any questions and stay tuned for the next post!