Mexico, the Yucatan peninsula, honeymoon road trip

Why Mexico?

When we were planning our wedding, we were very very excited to plan a cool trip for our honeymoon. First and foremost, we just love to travel in general, and we also enjoy to the fullest discovering new cultures, new landscapes and mostly new FOOD.

In our final shortlist, were Mexico and Indonesia, and we ended up chosing Mexico because David already visited Indonesia and we wanted something new for both of us for our honeymoon. Moreover, many mexican meals are based on corn flour or can easily be gluten-free, so that was also an easy solution on that side. We chose to focus on the Yucatàn peninsula, this wonderful region known mostly for his stunning beaches with turquoise blue water, the Mayas ruins, culture and anthropological sites.

This trip was a blast so we wanted to share it with you and give you some of our recommendations in terms of itinerary, things to know, hotels or even restaurants. So here is our guide

First of all, before preparing your trip you need to know when Yucatàn is the most enjoyable. From November to April, as it is the dry season, you will be more likely to avoid big rainy days and weather surprises, so it is the best moment according to us.

Budget and money tips

When it comes to travelling, we know it is confusing to plan a budget. And as we know that not everybody is sharing informations, we decided to be transparent and to give you the amount that we spend round about. From that, you will be able to see, according to your standards and expections what are your possibilities. Here are what we paid:

Hotels:

Cancun: NH Cancun Airport Hotel, a great four stars hotel, just a bit outside the city. We spend 245€ for 2 nights.

Holbox: La Puerta Azul, wonderful beach front hotel. Rooms are 20 meters away from the beach. Be aware of the mosquitos on rainy days. We highly recommend it, the view and the breakfast worth the price. We paid 260€ par 2 nights.

Valladolid: Hotel Waye, 89€ for 1 night. Very cute hotel

Campeche: Hotel Plaza Campeche, 71€ for 1 night

Bacalar: Mayana Hotel, 111€ for 2 nights

Tulum: Jade Tulum Hotel, 330€ for 3 nights

Total hotel budget : 1100€ for 11 nights.

Flights: 593€ for Paris-Cancun one way, 480€ for Cancun-New York one way, and then we spent one week in New York and flew back from there to Paris

Food: Between 5€ and 13€ per meal for one person is the average according to us. You can find of course more expensive restaurants but also cheaper “street food” or local restaurants.

Car rent: we had an issue with our original booking (see tip below), so we had to book a car there for 500€ round about for whole trip. But you can have a way cheaper car if you don’t have very high car expectations and book it early enough.

Tips: When you book your car make sure you read carefully every details in the payment conditions. Indeed, many car rent companies don’t accept debit card (which are commonly used in Europe). So pay attention to every details and anticipate which card you will bring or from what car rent company you will rent your car.

Our itinerary (1400km)

Because we loved how smoooth our road trip was, we wanted to share with you our itinerary, so you could get insipired if you ever plan to go there.

• Cancun

We started our honeymoon in Cancun. We had a wonderful hotel and it was a good relaxing way to start our adventure. NH Cancun Airport Hotel had a really really good room service and an amazing all you can eat breakfast. Apart from that in terms of restaurants one that we can recommend is The Surfin Burrito, next to the beach, with amazing burritos and ceviches ! We did not have time to go to the islas mujeres, but if you stay more than 2 days it is somehting you should do. If we skip all the non-free tourist beach clubs or beaches that you will fine everywhere online, one amazing beach that we could recommend is Playa Delfines. It is a free access beach, with a breathtaking turquoise water !

• Holbox

We left Cancun and drove in the direction of Holbox, a heavenly island in the north of the Yucatan. The only way to reach this island is to drive to a city called Chiquila. So we drove two hours and discovered the mexican roads. We have to warn you here about something that we did not read that much online about mexican roads: you will find many many, like a loads of road holes !! So be very careful while driving because they can be super surprising, you can be driving a very clean recent road and doing 70-80km/h and suddenly drive on a huge hole that could damage your car really bad. We insist here because this was really surprising sometimes, and because it was not only for specific roads. On many of them we saw big holes and also heard stories of people who had to change their tires in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, when you will reach chiquila you will arrive at a harbor where you will have to get on a ferry to reach the Holbox island. Don’t worry if ferry tickets sellers come to you to tell you that the blue ferry is better that the red one, it is a normal thing there. You can chose between two different ferry company, but the price difference is not big. While arriving at the Chiquila harbor, you can either try to park in a parking spot prior to the harbor (what we recommend), or litterally give your car to non-free parkings. With those parkings, the crazy thing is that you will have to give your key to that company (because they sometimes have to move the cars to make them all fit) and get it back when you leave Holbox. We know it sounds super scary but it looks like it is a system that works and we did not have any issue by doing that. So you will decide what is the best option for you. The price of the ferry tickets are more or less 150 pesos per person for one way.

After the ferry, you will land in paradise. Holbox is just one of the calmest place we ever saw, with unbelievable landscapes. The holbox village is not huge but very cute for long walks there. What we remember from our stay in Holbox: clear water, best sunsets, outstanding food. If we could give you two recommendations, it would be : rent a bike to cycle inside the village and along the beaches, and go to Punta Mosquito or Punta Coco in the morning.

• Valladolid

After taking the ferry back to Chiquila, we then drove to Valladolid, a city full of colors, with a bit of a Cuba vibe in some streets. From there we went to our first Cenote, called Cenote Suytun. If you never heard that word, A cenote is a natural sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater. We were excited about seeing those magical wonders. The price of the Cenote Suytun is 140 pesos per person, more or less 6 euros. You are allowed to swim in this one, but life vests are mandatory. It was definitely a magical moment!

Cenote Suytun, a morning of october 2022.

When we left Valladolid, on the way to Campeche, we stopped at Chichen Itza, the wonderful archeological site, with the most famous temple in Mexico. Seeing this wonder of the world was a blast. It was a good start in our path through the Mayan culture. Indeed Chichén Itza is known as the largest Mayan cities that ever existed. The architecture is…. wooow ! During your visit, you will also see 2 cenotes and other temples for exemple. Depending on how interested you are, you have the possibility to take a guide for your tour. The price of the tickets are more or less equal to 24€. Our best advice would be that it is better if you can go early in the morning.

Chichen Itza

Yucatan, Mexico.

• Campeche

We continued our way from Valladolid to Campeche, and after 4 hours of drinving (interrupted by our stop at the Chichen Itza), we finally reached our destination. We actually did not know that much about that city but we were blown away. This city one of the cutest we saw, so colorful and full of life. The cherry on the cake was that we stayed in campeche during the huge celebrations of El dia de los Muertos. This day (the celebrations can last more than one day) is very important in the mexican culture, and celebrates the death and life. In a way, Mexican people are honoring their deceased people, buy building home altars and offering their favorite food and beverages.

So we had the opportunity to witness the crazy atmosphere in the city, cheerful and joyful, with hundreds of adults and kids, dressed up and disguised with colorful and traditional outfits.

What we can recommend: watch the sunset next to the beach, visit and walk around the colorful streets. Regarding the food, we HIGHLY recommend the restaurant La Maria: One of the best restaurant we ever went to! Everything was sooo tasty and soo creative, please go there you will not regret it!

• Bacalar

Six hours of driving from Campeche and we arrived at Bacalar. Another paradise ahead of us. Such a crazy clear water there! We could not believe it! We booked a boat tour, thanks to our hotel staff who recommended it, and we could swim in a kind of water that we never seen. 

Eating in restaurants with a view on the clear blue water was definitely our favorite thing to do there! Our favorite spot to do so was Kai Pez, and we highly recommend that you order the Surf and Turf on the menu.

The city center looks like a village and is extremely cute to walk around.

• Tulum

Tulum was our the last step of our trip so we really planned to chill and do nothing there. That is the only part of our honeymoon where we were unlucky with the weather. Indeed it rained during the majority of our stay. But gladly our hotel Jade Tulum, was outstanding and we had a jacuzzi on the balcony of our room!

Two things that we can recommend for sure:

• the Gran Cenote, which is a famous Cenote, were you will see and swim with many small cute turtles

• the restaurant Mezzanine: This thai restaurant is part of a wonderful hotel on the beach, and provides amazing authentic thai food that you will appreciate for sure.

The price of the Gran Cenote is 300€ per person. It is better to go there early to avoid the crowd. And good thing to know is that there is another Cenote called Cenote Calavera.

After we left Tulum, we had to drive back to the airport of Cancun. On the way, we decided to make a quick stop in Playa del Carmen, to watch the sunrise, with almost nobody on the beach. That was such a cool and unique moment!

Our General Review

Our trip to Mexico was the best possible 1st part of honeymoon. We literally fell in love with the Yucatan peninsula, the food, the weather, the people, the vibe and all those beaches with turquoise water straight out of movies. We often talk about how underrated is that part of the world according to us. The Yucatan region is really something you should definitely visit! You won’t regret it! We enjoyed every single bit and plan to go back there one day. This was the best possible trip for the beginning of our honeymoon.

You can find here some of the memories that we got from that unforgettable trip !