Playa del Carmen, Mexico

[MoneyGuy]

We're attending a wedding in Playa del Carmen in January and are considering leaving the all-inclusive where the wedding is taking place and spending a second week somewhere else in the area. A key location would be Talum. I'm looking for advice and ideas from people who have traveled here for places to go and things to do in the Talum area for a second week after leaving the all-inclusive (Barcelo Maya Resort, which looks to be one of the best resorts anywhere). Talum would be a step down, definitely, but I'm looking for something else from this part of the trip.

[red sky]

Tulum?

[csnarpy]

Seriously consider Isla Mujeras, you can rent a beach front house for minimal cost. It's a 20 minute ferry to Cancun and is very relaxing.

Whenever we go to Cancun, this is where we go. It's quiet and not busy. You travel around on Scooter or a golf cart. The restaurants are first class and the beach houses are incredible.

Just my thoughts.

[Sample00]

Originally Posted by csnarpy

Seriously consider Isla Mujeras, you can rent a beach front house for minimal cost. It's a 20 minute ferry to Cancun and is very relaxing.

Whenever we go to Cancun, this is where we go. It's quiet and not busy. You travel around on Scooter or a golf cart. The restaurants are first class and the beach houses are incredible.

Just my thoughts.

couldnt agree more, the place is awesome and the food on the island is unreal!

[burn_this_city]

I've stayed at the Barcelo Maya before, super nice resort. It was also the resort those people were decapitated at. I've also been to Tulum, we only did a day trip though so I can't comment on accomodations ect.

[redforever]

There are the ruins right at Tulum of course, the ruins at Coba are maybe an hour from Tulum and the ruins at Chitznitza are maybe 2 to 3 hours away. The ones at Chitznitza are the most restored. If you go to any of the ruins, I highly suggest you get a private guide. Not expensive at all and you get so much more out of your visit to the ruins.

Tulum is also the departure point for the Sian Kaan Biosphere Reserve. There is some excellent fishing in the preserve, as well as tours and educational programs. They actually have ecotourism accomodations right in the Preserve too.

We rented a private house right on the beach, about 5 minutes north of Tulum, most come with staff to take care of the properties, even cook for you. There are also resort type accomodations right by Tulum.

Tulum area is very quaint and more isolated compared to Cancun or Playa del Carmen which are more party centrals. So decide what type of atmosphere you are looking for.

[Doctordestiny]

Tulum info here.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g...Vacations.html

[GreenLantern]

Originally Posted by csnarpy

Seriously consider Isla Mujeras, you can rent a beach front house for minimal cost. It's a 20 minute ferry to Cancun and is very relaxing.

Whenever we go to Cancun, this is where we go. It's quiet and not busy. You travel around on Scooter or a golf cart. The restaurants are first class and the beach houses are incredible.

Just my thoughts.

We actually spent a day on this island as part of our tour and man was it ever a nice change of pace from Playa.

PDC was a bit busy for my likeing, and way to many tourists.. I know that sounds weird but anyway.. we landed on that isle and just had a blast.

That was easily the best day of our trip.

[IliketoPuck]

I've been to the Barcelo Maya as well, it's a great resort, with lots to do during the day/evening. (It's actually where I met my Fiancee, small world)

As far as touring around, if you want to get asked to buy drugs, make sure to stop in at Playa del Carmen.

I found the scuba diving to be alot of fun too, but never got a chance to get to see Tulum or Chitzinitza. If you ever visit Belize or Guatemala, I would highly suggest visting the ruins of Tikal, they are spectacular.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ighlight=mayan

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ighlight=mayan

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ighlight=mayan

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ighlight=mayan

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ighlight=mayan

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ighlight=mayan

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ighlight=mayan

[socktape]

Things to do around Tulum:
As already mentioned...

The ruins... bring a swimsuit. Ruins at Coba.

Other things...

all the big touristy stuff...
Xel Ha, Xcaret, Xplor. If you are south of PDC then you have really good access to these places.
Akumal/Akumal Bay(free if you have your own gear) and Yal-Ku Lagoon - Awesome snorkeling. Good place to see some sea turtles.
Puerto Morelos (north of PDC) is really good for snorkelling/ diving as well.

Can't stress this enough.... don't go on tours, especially if your hotel is located south of PDC. You can Collectivo it to most of these places for under 3 bucks a person and stay as long as you want vs having a couple hours here a couple hours there. There are many forums and even threads in this forum that will help you to figure out what to do.

Guides are easy to find if you really need one as they are all at the gate just waiting to get hired, they'll most likely approach you. Like most shopping, negotiate a rate for the guide.

If you do want to go to Chitzinitza, rent a car and go yourself... leave early in the morning to beat the tours and be done there before it gets really hot in the afternoon. It is way cheaper...(100+pp on a tour vs. 100 for car and about 15-20pp at the gate) and again, you can stay for as little or as long as you want. There is a good website run by a couple of former calgarians that run a bookstore in Puerto Morelos that details an itinerary for a trip to the ruins and then a side trips on the way back that we did last Feb. Highly recommended! www.almalibrebooks.com/

[Knalus]

If you do decide to go to Chichen Itza (I would recommend it), and you are looking at spending the night, Mayaland Hotel is right next door, and is a great place. I was afraid with a name like that it would be all plastic pyramids, like a cheap Disneyland thing, but it was the opposite. A beautiful old Spanish villa, with big jungle trees covering one of the nicest grounds I've ever seen for a hotel, even the restaurant inside has a hallway view of parts of the ruins of Chichen Itza right there. Absolutely gorgeous, I've never seen anything like it. Rates were very reasonable as well, but that might have something to do with swine flu when I went. Still, it's only a 2.5-3 hour drive from Cancun, and it's a Mayan experience you'll never see anywhere else.

http://www.mayaland.com/index.php

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by socktape

Things to do around Tulum:
As already mentioned...

The ruins... bring a swimsuit. Ruins at Coba.

Other things...

all the big touristy stuff...
Xel Ha, Xcaret, Xplor. If you are south of PDC then you have really good access to these places.
Akumal/Akumal Bay(free if you have your own gear) and Yal-Ku Lagoon - Awesome snorkeling. Good place to see some sea turtles.
Puerto Morelos (north of PDC) is really good for snorkelling/ diving as well.

Can't stress this enough.... don't go on tours, especially if your hotel is located south of PDC. You can Collectivo it to most of these places for under 3 bucks a person and stay as long as you want vs having a couple hours here a couple hours there. There are many forums and even threads in this forum that will help you to figure out what to do.

Guides are easy to find if you really need one as they are all at the gate just waiting to get hired, they'll most likely approach you. Like most shopping, negotiate a rate for the guide.

If you do want to go to Chitzinitza, rent a car and go yourself... leave early in the morning to beat the tours and be done there before it gets really hot in the afternoon. It is way cheaper...(100+pp on a tour vs. 100 for car and about 15-20pp at the gate) and again, you can stay for as little or as long as you want. There is a good website run by a couple of former calgarians that run a bookstore in Puerto Morelos that details an itinerary for a trip to the ruins and then a side trips on the way back that we did last Feb. Highly recommended! www.almalibrebooks.com/

The last mexican rental car I drove had a detachable gear stick, it detached as I was driving, fun times.

[MoneyGuy]

Some good comments. Thanks for all those. The links are useful also.I should have searched them. Chichen Itza is a must see for us. It's funny but my brother who will be with us won't leave the resort because he's scared. If people aren't white and if things look different than what he's used to, he's scared to go out.

On safety, is it safe to drive your own car. I've heard about police stopping you and requiring bribes to let you go but I think that's very unlikely in a tourist area like this.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by socktape

If you do want to go to Chitzinitza, rent a car and go yourself... leave early in the morning to beat the tours and be done there before it gets really hot in the afternoon. It is way cheaper...(100+pp on a tour vs. 100 for car and about 15-20pp at the gate) and again, you can stay for as little or as long as you want. There is a good website run by a couple of former calgarians that run a bookstore in Puerto Morelos that details an itinerary for a trip to the ruins and then a side trips on the way back that we did last Feb. Highly recommended! www.almalibrebooks.com/

Disagree. Renting a car is only cheap until the corrupt Mexican cops start pulling you over and extorting money from you.

[socktape]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

On safety, is it safe to drive your own car. I've heard about police stopping you and requiring bribes to let you go but I think that's very unlikely in a tourist area like this.

I guess it is possible, but more often than not I haven't heard of anyone having an issue. I would think that it depends on where you are going as well. Most of the stories that I have heard were second hand of people (Americans) in the actual city of Cancun. I have heard worse shakedown stories of people getting caught for pissing in the street after leaving the bar.

Little tip I read about though...
I would be more concerned with the guys at the gas statioin ripping you off...make sure the pump is zero'ed out before they start filling it, they can conviently forget. Make sure you take a picture of any dents and or scratches with your camera/phone when you check the car out so they can't try and blame them on you when you return.

That being said...
If you're driving into the city(pdc, Cancun), the other drivers are loco and I wouldn't really reccomend you do so unless you stick to the outskirts. (poorly marked one ways, very narrow streets and manditory marked streetside parking areas) If you're worried about it there are a lot more cops here to run into as well.

All the places I mentioned are very accessable from the main highway running N/S down the penninsula and it is very simple driving. Out from your hotel to the site in less than 1 hour.(approx travel time between PDC and Tulum) These places are accessable by Collectivo,(except Chichen Itza ) which is similar to a city bus that runs up and down the highway for the better part of the day... seriously easy and cheap. Most of the resorts have one or two of them sitting on the inroad waiting to take passengers. You would only need to take a car to Chichen Itza. It is a really easy trip, especially if you take the new toll road. It was like driving here... you do the speed limit and everyone is ripping by you. Just need to watch out for the other drivers, the big speed bumps and your turn coming up.

[Knalus]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Some good comments. Thanks for all those. The links are useful also.I should have searched them. Chichen Itza is a must see for us. It's funny but my brother who will be with us won't leave the resort because he's scared. If people aren't white and if things look different than what he's used to, he's scared to go out.

On safety, is it safe to drive your own car. I've heard about police stopping you and requiring bribes to let you go but I think that's very unlikely in a tourist area like this.

It's pretty safe - the police and military are there to protect their biggest resource, tourists, not milk them.

As for the roads, they're better than they were in Saskatchewan 10 years ago.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Knalus

It's pretty safe - the police and military are there to protect their biggest resource, tourists, not milk them.

As for the roads, they're better than they were in Saskatchewan 10 years ago.

That's like saying the Oilers are better than the Eskimos.

[MJM]

My mom's vacation group rented a car and had a cop pull them over. He said he was just making sure they were fine/not lost etc. 5 minutes later another cop pulls over their rental car, and guess what he found. Some apparent drugs the first cop had planted in the car. Told everyone in the car to give him what they had on them, and the problem would all go away.

I think it happens more than some people like to admit. The Riviera Maya is generally safe, and I would recommend it to anyone, but I would not recommend renting a car or taking public transportation. The Mexicans will not touch/harass a tour because they know the government would come down on them hard, but once you flee from the tourist scene, you become a lot more fair game to them.

I know last time I was in Playa Del Carmen, I asked the cab driver why the cops drive around with their lights on all the time but none of the locals/cabs stop. I asked him if it was to stop the tourists stupid enough to pull over. He wouldn't admit it, but he sure didn't deny it either.

[socktape]

I had heard something similar... not to stop for the cops that is.