Easter in Mexico pre trip report

[ali-s]

Not sure how may of you will be interested in a pre trippie of our mexican trip, but as I intend to do a trip report it make ssense to do a pre trippie

We are ; Ali ( me) trip planner , organiser, control freak
DH, professional miserable git ( still )
DS13
DS11

This trip started out as a cheap non- Disney week in Orlando for October half term , but I got to thinking it's a long way to go for a week. So considered 2 weeks in the summer school holidays - but the humidity, rain and possibilty of hurricanes kept me dithering. Easter would have been better, but we wanted to see Harry Potter world and that wouldn't be open then.
In amongst all this indecision I was busy dibbing and came across a post by someone enquiring about Mexico, one of the replies, I can't remember whose included links to X -Hal, an eco park on the Mayan Riviera, I clicked on the link and OH WOW ! I want to go there !
I should explain that I have a history of choosing holiday destinations based on nothing more than a photo I've seen in a book, or a few seconds of video footage on a travel programme, but MEXICO this was somewhere I knew nothing about and had never considered before. DH has always had an interest in the Mayans , and infact, at the time was ploughing through several library books on the ancient Mayan civilizations. It was the work of a moment to ask him' do you fancy going to Mexico to see the Mayan ruins ?' He ,of course ,was enthusiastic. DS11 is all for going somewhere he hasn't been before, that left DS13 who was looking forward to another tour of the orlando theme parks. I rather rashly promised we'd see lots of animals in Mexico ( another interest of his )and that we'd go back to Orlando in 2011 ( that one is going to cause me some hassle I know ) .
Knowing nothing about Mexico , I reverted to my pre Dibb days and went around the travel agents collecting brochures and dodgy info , and , luckily, ridiculously high prices for package holidays, before I came to my senses and gave myself a slap round the face and a stern talking to. ' what was I thinking?' ' we don't do package holidays - 2 weeks in one place is hell for us, I can't even visit Orlando without changing hotels 3 times
With this in mind I changed my itinerary and decided to base our hotels around the attractions we wanted to see.
I booked flights from Heathrow to Cancun with Continental, not sure DH realises he's flying indirect- he's not the best flyer, so think I'll omit to tell him that we go via Houston on the way there, via Newark on the way back, must admit I'm a little worried about the Newark connection, we have 1hr 46 mins , but we have to catch the last London flight of the day, and of course we have to go through US imigration. Might phone Continental closer to the time see what they say.
We are staying our first 3 nights in Playa del carmen at Hotel Aventura mexicana, the gardens look lovely, I can't wait.
aventuramexicana/
We'll have a day around town and on the beach and the 2nd day maybe go to Xcaret eco park.We will go snorkelling, I've done it before on the Great Barrier reef,a fantastic experience, but scary in open water for a first timer so DH and the boys can try it in a calmer , safer environment. They also have animals if the snorkelling isn't a success and a much raved over evening show.
On the 3rd day we will take the ADO bus ( sounds a bit like our National Express ) to Valladolid, a colonial city a couple of hours away.
I've booked us 3 nights at Casa Hamaca, a guest house that has 2 double beds and a hammock in each room, we're already arguing over who gets to try the hammock first
casahamaca
While in Valladolid we will visit Chichen Itza, the most well known of the ruins, think they are 1 of the 7 new wonders of the world. We will also vist Ek balam, smaller, quieter ruins and Rio Lagartos, a coastal mangrove type area where we can take a boat trip to see the flocks of flamingos. ( see how I'm getting the animals in for Ds13 ? )
Then it's onto another ADO bus to Merida, another colonial city, I saw a picture of one of the old buildings in my guide book and spent weeks trying to find a legitimate reason to include Merida in my itinerary, realising that Uxmal, another large ruin, wasn't too far away , was all the reason I needed we now have 2 nights booked at Hotel Marionetas.
hotelmarionetas
We'll have enough time for a look around the city and I've booked a driver for a day to take us to Uxmal and , just incase the ruins are geting a bit boring, a Hacienda - bit like the plantation houses of the 'old south', we'll see how the slaves used to harvest the plants to make rope.
The morning we leave Merida ( a sunday ) they close off the streets and have open air dancing and take to their bikes and ride around the streets, we'll be sure to see ( and maybe try ) that before we take a final ADO bus for a 4 hr journey to the coastal town of Tulum.
Then it's a quick taxi ride to the Grand Palladium all inclusive resort where we spend our last 4 days. I've tried to curb my habit of booking excursions , as it's all inclusive I don't want to spend too much time off resort and we'll want to spend time on the amazing looking beach and in the pools.They also have mini golf , which DS13 loves and archery, which DS11 will want to try. But I have book a multi activity day trip- we will go zip lining ( gulp, seemed like a good idea at the time ) visit Tulum ruins and do some more snorkelling to see fish and turtles.
Another shorter trip I've booked is to the monkey sanctuary where we can actually go into the cages and play with the monkeys.
The Grand palladium itself gets lots of reviews mentioning the abundance of wildlife roaming around the resort, so should have DS's animal interest covered.
grandpalladiumwhitesandresorts
After 4 nights here we will get a transfer back to cancun for our flight home.

So, that's the plan, don't think I'm going to make any changes, hopefully we'll enjoy it as much as we are looking forward to it ( apart from DH who is doing his usual ' I'm not sure I want to fly anywhere now, maybe you can cancel me' )just hope it doesn't spoil our plans for going back to Orlando in 2011.

[paulap]

Sounds fab, Ali.

[DIBBadmin]

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