My Trip to The Riviera Maya in Mexico
I am back from one fabulous trip to the Riviera Maya on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. It was a last minute trip that Ed sprung on me only 4 days before we left.
With our life in limbo and living for the past 5 years with unemployment hanging over us – we needed to get away. We used the opportunity to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary! Our actual anniversary date is not until December 3rd, but November and December look too busy for us, so we decided to celebrate a little early.
It looks like we really splurged, but we are part of RCI which is a time share and got to exchange our week to an All-Inclusive resort, The El Dorado Royale.
We stayed in the casitas section of the resort.
It was quite nice having our own little piece of paradise for the week. Since the resort was gourmet all-inclusive – I didn’t have to cook or prepare a meal all week.
One step up from the casita we stayed in was the section where each casita had its own swim-up pool. Pretty cool! This is where we plan to stay the next time.
In one of the end units that has a private beach deck and chef included :)
I didn’t get any good photos of the interior of our casita since I only had my iPhone, but did manage to get these to show you the outside shower. There was a big and spacious tumbled granite shower inside each casita, too, but I enjoyed using the totally private outside shower that every casita had. That spidery looking thing in the bottom left photo is the shower head.
The center of every casita section had its own pool and swim up bar.
Complete with in-the-pool bar stools. We were never thirsty.
Since the beach is only steps away…
…the bartender even makes sure your glass is never empty while you are on the beach. They also bring gourmet goodies out to you to munch on.
There are beach beds all along the beach. We didn’t have the best weather, so I never needed to get out of the sun and into the shade to enjoy these, but I can imagine on hot sunny days, they are a perfect place to enjoy the beach and be out of the sun.
Along the entire beach front of the resort is a walking path. It was beautiful to walk along, especially at night.
Since the resort is pretty large, golf carts take guests wherever they want to go. Bikes are available for all guests to use and we did tour the resort on them until I flipped over the handlebars and ended up with banged up knees and elbows – nothing a golf cart ambulance couldn’t take care of with some antiseptic and gauze pads.
Ed and I decided to walk everywhere so we would get exercise since we were eating and drinking all day long.
Since the resort is a spa resort there are massage huts scattered all along the beachfront to get a massage. I did get to enjoy this perk after falling off the bike. My muscles were pretty tense after trying to break the fall. It helped.
The beachfront path took you to all the restaurants on the property. We ate gourmet all week long. Breakfast was buffet style, but lunch and dinner were sit down 5 course meals. None of the portions were huge, just right – very European.
We enjoyed getting to eat outside along the oceanfront.
On our last night, we even got to enjoy a candlelight dinner out on the beach.
It was dreamy and to make it even better – a full moon was shining down on the beach and water.
One of the items on my lifetime To-Do list was to see the Mayan ruins. I could not let the opportunity pass. We took a bus tour on Saturday to see the ruins of ChiChen Itza.
I could write an entire series of posts on this – it was amazing and really gets you thinking about how the Mayan people did everything they did using astronomy and mathematics.
I had to keep reminding myself that I was not at Disney World. These ruins were the real thing that were built between 495 – 1200 A.D. The main pyramid at ChiChen Itza is called El Castillo. It is perfect in its geometry and correlates to the sun and the Mayan Calendar. I would have loved to climb to the top to get a bird’s eye view of the area and get to look inside, but that is not permitted anymore.
It is amazing that the carvings are still intact – which makes me believe that they were quite deep and impressive when they were initially created.
As all vacations go – the week went by way too fast. It was hard leaving, but a storm was coming up the coast which made it a little easier to say good-bye.
I didn’t buy anything to bring home, but did pack a few pieces of brain coral in my suitcase to display on my bookshelf.
We are sure to return… the resort and the Mexican people were just wonderful. This is one vacation I will remember for a long time.
