Riviera Maya is one of the leading tourist destinations in the world. Every year thousands of tourists arrive who travel in all inclusive in Riviera Maya. Any advice they won't give you?
If you come from all inclusive in Riviera Maya by hiring a vacation package from Spain, Argentina, Mexico or wherever your place of origin, your travel agency provides you with the information.
Despite this, you can always keep details in the inkwell, they are not experts in the destination normally.
We know the area well and we are up to date because we live here from the 2007. We hope to help you with your trip 🙂
Several of you have asked me about the security issue, I wrote this post about la security in Riviera Maya.
TIPS FOR THE FLIGHT OF THE ALL INCLUSIVE PACKAGE IN RIVIERA MAYA:
FLIGHT DURATION AND TIPS: your trip from Spain will have an approximate duration of 10 hours, from Argentina more or less the same, subtract a couple of hours, according to the scales you do. During the flight they offer channels with movies, series, documentaries and music. If you do not want to pay more than 3 euros for about auriculares, take your family home, they will charge you on the plane.
PROCEDURES FOR ENTERING MEXICO: in the plane destination to Cancun they will give you individually the entry form to Mexico, which you must fill out. In this form you should basically say the days you are on vacation, the hotel where you are staying and your passport information. In the box corresponding to the state of Mexico that you are going, you must put Quintana Roo. You must also fill out the Customs declaration, one form per family group. Fill both papers in the plane and take them by hand when going down, they will ask for the documents next to your passport.
If you come to Riviera Maya to a friend's house and not a hotel, you must know the address of the friend to put it in the entry form. If not, put the name of a hotel.
ARRIVAL PROCESSES TO CANCUN AIRPORT:
PROCEDURES AT THE CANCUN AIRPORT: in the booth of customs, you will deliver the entry form next to your passport. You return part of the entry form that you must deliver at the airport to your vacation, save it well. If you lose it you will have to pay an 30 USD on departure.
After the customs you will have to pick up your luggage in the tapes. The luggage, due to inspections, will surely take a long time, patience. And no, you still can not smoke here, hold on a bit more.
Pick up your luggage you go to the luggage inspection point with your form Customs declaration and your family. You will have to press a random button that tells you if you check your luggage manually or not. Previously all the luggage at this point go through scanner control.
AIRPORT DEPARTURE: Once this procedure is finished, you can now go to the exit from the terminal, where they will be waiting for you with a poster of your agency or company. Look at the different posters and you will find yours. There you will have to wait until the passengers of your same agency meet all, and from here they transport you in van or bus to your hotel. By the way, here you can throw your cigarette.
After smoking, another great despair is using the mobile. How to use your mobile in Mexico? I leave you an entry about calls from Mexico. At the airport there is no free WIFI signal, you should wait to connect at your hotel.
TRANSPORTATION TO YOUR HOTEL: el trip to your hotel It can last, between one hour, and one hour and a half, depending on the distance and the number of hotels that stops before by the other passengers. More patience, you are on vacation, it is already known that large groups slow down the dynamics.
By the way, it is likely that the staff of your agency that takes you to the hotel will emphasize that do things on your own It is VERY dangerous, let alone car rental, better all on excursions. they say it for their own interest, they close options to tourism based on fear. Each one sweeps his own house, but it seems ugly that they put this fear into tourists.
ARRIVAL AT ALL INCLUSIVE HOTEL OF RIVIERA MAYA:
WELCOME TO THE NEXT DAY WITH THE OPERATOR TOUR: The day after your arrival you will have a talk at the all-inclusive hotel in Riviera Maya with your travel agent. At the meeting he will inform you of the tours you can do in Riviera Maya. Surely the talk for your trip gives you security, some skip this talk. It is not mandatory that you go, although it is convenient for you to do so because in the talk they offer you their excursions. In this talk they also invite you to book the theme restaurants in the hotel, I'll explain: all-inclusive hotels usually have buffet-style restaurants, where you do not need a reservation, and some thematic Japanese, Italian, and Mexican food, where you need to book a day in advance. In the welcome speech, they strengthen the information in some way in destination. In many of the hotels they offer free daily transportation to Playa del Carmen.
JET LAG: the time difference with Spain is 7 hours, if you travel from the American continent it is reduced. You will have jet lag, especially in transoceanic flight. My recommendation is that you stay asleep on the plane and go to sleep around 22 or 23 pm, so you will get used to the new time zone faster. You will likely wake up at 5 a.m. for the first few days. The good thing is that you can go to see the sunrise on the beach.
WHAT ARE THE AREAS YOU WILL STAY IN ?: Riviera Maya It is divided by zones according to the type of tourism and its nationality. For example, in the Zona Hotelera from Cancun most are Americans or Canadians. If you come in an all-inclusive package from Spain or Argentina, you will most likely stay in a hotel on the coastal strip near Playa del Carmen.
HOW TO CHOOSE THE TOURS IN RIVIERA MAYA:
In the all-inclusive hotels in Riviera Maya, they usually sell the most expensive excursions. The easiest is to go to Playa del Carmen, where you will find a varied offer of agents and excursions. Many tourists use their first day after arriving to go to Playa del Carmen, where options for excursions, restaurants, shopping are greatly expanded.
There are agencies that sell onlineIt is also a very good option to hire before coming, it is usually cheaper.
How to easily plan the tours of the all-inclusive trip in Riviera Maya
The Civitatis agency sells all types of excursions online: it has good prices and services, You can book with them through the blog in a safe and easy way. The tours are in Spanish. With them you can Cancel free until 24 hours before. We have affiliation with them, something that allows us to continue with the work of this website thanks to the commission we received. Thanks in advance.
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MOVE FOR FREE IN RIVIERA MAYA:
BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT: about moving in public transport you will have it easy too. All-inclusive hotels in Riviera Maya are located at a from the main road. You just have to go out to this one and wait, in the direction of the road you are heading, the vans that carry posters from Cancun-Playa del Carmen or Tulum-Playa del Carmen. Tips for touring on your own Riviera Maya.
RENT CAR: rent a car in Riviera It is a good option to move on your own. Yucatan Peninsula has good, well marked and safe roads. Here are some tips for driving around these lands. the car is left at your hotel or at the airport, comfortable and easy, they give you options.
PROCEDURES AND EXIT AIRPORT RATES:
OUTPUT PROCEDURES: remember that you must deliver the part of the entry form to Mexico that they gave you when you arrived. If you lost it you must pay 30 usd.
AIRPORT RATES: something that sometimes is not clear and creates suspicion is that you will have to pay exit fees if your ticket does not have them included. Travel agencies, to offer a more attractive price on their vacation packages, tend to ignore these rates. Ask your travel agency If the departure fees are included in your ticket.
The price of the exit rates are about 60 euros (1100 mxn), which you can pay in euros, dollars or Mexican pesos on departure (do not accept 100 usd tickets). He paid It is done in the billing line, before arriving at the counter. You can not pay by card, carry the amount in cash.
Back to Spain, the flight will be shorter, about 8 hours. The meteorological phenomenon called jet streams It is the cause.
You may be interested in reading about currency exchange, tips, bargaining in the information to travel to Mexico. I hope this information helps you to prepare your all-inclusive vacation in Riviera Maya.
Good way,
- Offers on flights international and national ..
- Find the accommodation with the best offers from Booking.com.
- Stay with airbnb and get 25 € discount.
- Contract activities, tours and excursions organized.
- Rent a car with the indispensable and necessary best discounts.
- Secure your transfers of arrival or departure to the airport.
- Travel safely with IATI and take advantage of 5% off.
If you prefer, you tell us your idea of the trip and together we organize it.
Hello Sandra, I loved being able to read the note of the trip to the Riviera Maya.
From what I see, you are living in that area.
I would like to ask you if it is advisable to travel on your own and search
accommodation in accommodations or other options outside the hotel.
I am from Patagonia Argentina and would like to be able to visit that area of Mexico
having more information, than what is already seen on the internet.
Thank you very much, beautiful note. Martha.
Hello Marta, thanks for your comment. Although it seems that everything is all-inclusive hotels and vacation packages, there are variety of lodgings in all the towns of Riviera Maya (Playa del Carmen, Puerto Morelos and Tulum are preferred by the traveler) and you can do it on your own quietly. If you arrive at the Cancun airport, from there you have bus transportation to Playa del Carmen, a coastal town from where you can move to other places. Sure in the blog you find more information that may interest you for your trip. Any more concrete doubt you contact me and we will try to solve. Greetings to beautiful Patagonia!
Children also pay exit fees? Thank you.
Hello Ezequiel, here you catch me with information. I think I remember that up to two years they do not pay, then yes. It is in accordance with the age that the plane ticket must already pay. Regards!
Hello Sandra, very good information. Tell me what would be the best time to travel to the Riviera Maya, since in Uruguay you do not know how to explain very well, it depends on each agency as they see fit.
Hello Alicia, the agencies say their best time according to their offers ... Look, for weather the best months are January to February, it has a better temperature and it rains little. From April it starts to press again the heat, and then on August the rainy season begins. What is certain is that in tropical weather, the 12 years that I have lived in the Caribbean, the climate is more crazy, as everywhere ... And the tropical climate alone is already very variable and unstable.
I hope it serves you.
Regards,
Video where you can explain everything you need to know if you go to Riviera Maya, Mexico
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7xbw4AzFp0
Hello Francisco, if someone can help you here, I'll leave it.
Greetings and thanks,
Hello
I do not smoke cigarettes, I smoke in hookahs, do you know if you can take the hookahs and some packet of hookah tobacco (sold in the tobacconists) in the Cancun airport in the check-in bag?
Greetings and thank you very much
Hi John,
There has to be no problem with that, in my way of understanding. You know, they'll look at you weird and they'll judge you according to whoever sees you, as they usually do, but it's not illegal at all. I love hookah, by the way. Tobacco in a well sealed package is no problem either.
Greetings, anything else you already tell me.
Sandra
Hi Sandra, in May we are going to visit the Riviera Maya again, but this time we are going with a small one of two years, can you give us advice about excursions ???
Thank you.
Hello Liomara,
I was recently with some friends who have a little two and a half and what I noticed most is tiredness on long trips. Places of coast as Xel-há or Xcaret give you much comfort with the small. Akumal is a comfortable beach and nearby is the YalKú lagoon. We went to Punta Laguna and had a great time, although their kids are some SUVs: https://youtu.be/D39HUWebHxg https://youtu.be/AGgIfpeRSxc
If you have already been sure you know Chichén Itzá, that excursion is very long for the little one and also they do not find out anything at that age in the archaeological zones. There are more comfortable cenotes to go with children like Gran Cenote (at 4 km from Tulum), Cenote Cristal, Garden of Eden ...
I do not know the disposition of agencies to these places in their excursions, maybe it is better to book in a private plan, according to your intentions.
If I can help you more, I will be delighted. If I can think of more places I write to you.
Regards,
Hello Sandra:
Thank you very much for your help, the truth is that when we fumos three years ago we visited the Xplor and the Xel-ha I loved both, besides that we had a great time, but we believe that this year neither of us can go because she does not have in those parks a place to bathe without danger. As for the Xcaret, if we were sorry not to visit it and we want to do it this year we have seen that despite not being as natural as the Xel-ha it has as a kind of beach, plus many animals that you love. We for free visited Tulum, we did it in public transport and then we walked to Paradise Beach, which we thought was spectacular, this year we had the same idea to rent a car since we are going as a family and we are 4 adults and two little ones from 2 and 10 years. The video of your friends left me surprised if they are all-terrain jeeps, my daughter has not been hooked to the rope and is already crying, is a little cagonceta. The Akumal thing that I loved with the lagoon looks spectacular. And the cenotes also seemed a good idea, what I do not know is if the hotel prepare bags of food not so much for us but for children, we also look at the hotel with a magnifying glass and we decided on the Palladium that It also has a kind of children's playroom for 2 years, with activities and games. The truth is that the beaches of the hotels have nothing to do with the ones you sent us, that is why we want to take a walk through those you have recommended to us.
Thank you very much for your ideas, they have helped us a lot.
The Mayan Riviera is one of the most wonderful places I've been. Many people decide to stay at the hotel with the bracelet and miss unforgettable landscapes and places.
Good afternoon, Sandra.
In the 2008 we were my husband and I honeymoon, Mayan Riviera is amazing we did all kinds of excursions, amazing all, the truth that you have decided a good place to live.
This year we want to go in November or December, when we were there in November and the perfect weather, we did not catch rain.
My question is ... you live there can you tell me if the weather when we go is good? and I would also like to go with a child of 11 years, is there any danger to him? Is it better to get vaccinated?
The truth is that when we were there, it did not look like they were, but of course we are not alone anymore and to listen to each other as if yes, which is why it stops you more.
By the way if I go again to Riviera to the site that would go back to Xcare »t and more knowing that they have changed the show that is no longer what I was at 2008.
I would appreciate it if you would answer me.
Greetings from another Spanish woman who loves Mayan Riviera.
Hi, Leticia,
Insurance go back to enjoy the destination a lot, it's good that you come back. Regarding the child's vaccines, he does not need any. A good mosquito repellent and protect yourself well from the sun and that's it, without any problem. Riviera Maya is a very familiar destination, no problem. November and December are similar months in climate, better December because it is not so hot, it is more spring. Very well informed of Xcaret, that's right, they changed the show.
That you enjoy the vacations a lot, if any doubt arises with pleasure I try to solve it.
Warm regards,
Sandra
Dear Sandra,
I am organizing a group for November in Riviera Maya and I would like to contact you for excursions. At least we would do Tulum, Chichen and Xcaret. I would like you to recommend me the best hotel option 5 * all inclusive depending on your beach. We stayed a couple of years ago at Iberostar Paraíso Lindo and we liked the beach, but the standard of the hotel is outdated in our opinion.
Thank you so much in advance for your attention
Mario
Hi Mario, it's a pleasure to be able to help you.
Regarding the hotel I will be unfair but I will recommend a couple that I think fit your suggestions: Grand Riviera Princess or Secrets Akumal Riviera Maya could be an option. I think that with the hundreds of hotels that I have, I am far from giving a precise answer, although I hope it will serve as a base to investigate more. I contact you by mail directly to solve whatever Mario arises.
Warm regards,
Sandra
Hello excellent article, I want to know if in one day I can tour the Mayan Riviera, since I will be in Cancun but I only have one day to know it ...
Hello Fran. From Cancun it is easy to move to Riviera Maya. There is a lot to see in Riviera Maya, according to your priorities and tastes make a plan. If concrete it is easier for me to help you. Regards,
Hello! I came to this blog looking for information on the internet. I know the post is old but I do not lose anything trying to get an answer! LOL. I tell you that I am going to travel to Mexico in May of 2018. It is a package that starts in Mexico City and ends in Cancun. Although the excursions are group I travel alone. My query is, the last 3 nights are in Cancun, all inclusive but free, without excursions, and I want to know if or if Tulum. Can I go alone by bus from Cancun to Tulum without any problems? Is it necessary to hire an excursion to enter Tulum? I hope you read my question, thanks 🙂
Hello Andrea, old but always active around here, and the updated entries 🙂
Of course you can go on your own to Tulum, without a tour and entering by free. I leave you how to go from Cancun to Tulum by public transport and something else in case it helps you: https://www.elcaminomascorto.es/como-ir-de-cancun-a-playa-del-carmen-y-tulum/ https://www.elcaminomascorto.es/tulum-como-ir-caribe-mexicano-zona-arqueologica/
Any questions you write me.
Greetings and good way,
Hello good day
I wanted to travel this year at the beginning of the Riviera Maya, but I do not have a lot of fingerprints. Could someone tell me if they make the fingerprint test at the airport to clear customs? Thanks and best regards
Hi Yaiza, at the airport in Cancun, the fingerprint test has been done for some years. In the land borders with Belize and Guatemala they do not do it.
best regards,
Hello, I am going with my partner on their honeymoon in June, we will go 15 days. I plan to take an all-inclusive resort but move around a lot. What I'm wondering is whether to do the visits on our own with a rental car, or through organized excursions. What do you recommend me. And I don't know if you could recommend me to any of the hotels that have given me offers: Grand Palladium Kantenah Resort & Spa; Grand Riviera Princess; Grand Palladium White Sand Resort & Spa; Valentin Imperial Riviera Maya or if you recommend me your one in particular? And finally, could you tell me the things that I cannot miss on this trip?
Hello honeymooners, good destination to celebrate 🙂
I would choose the Valentin, it is only for adults, you will be calmer, they are all great. I do not recommend any other because each agency has their suggestions to package, and those are very good.
I leave you a little the unmissable excursions of Riviera Maya, the top ones: https://www.elcaminomascorto.es/mejores-excursiones-top-desde-riviera-maya/
I link the map of Riviera Maya with options to visit, so you can see what you want more: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1m_x_0isFeRgWP2TygyKGK1LX-rtLFyG5&usp=sharing
Regarding the rental car and excursions, in the end you would get more or less same price if you are two in the car. Both things are safe, with one you go more to your rhythm and you trace the routes, and in excursions you share more and you have guides. If you want me to recommend a specific agency I help you with that.
Regards Pedro Juan and Josie,
Excellent post, thanks for all your info! We will be traveling to rivera maya, to the grand palladium kantenah the 10 of April. We are 4 couples, with a child of 1 year and a half each. What excursion would you recommend as they are very small and if you have idea of the prices of them. I would also like to ask you if it is true that the water is very dangerous, and we should always be with mineral water even to brush our teeth! Thank you!
Hi, Anahi,
Topic excursions with children so small you are always the dads that you value best your kids, but keep in mind that everything that is Chichen Itza, Ek Balam or Valladolid represents you almost a whole day by distances. You could go to Laguna Yalkú or Laguna Kaan L'uum, beaches like Akumal or Xpuhá, and cenotes like Grand Cenote, Cristal or Cristalino (you can find them in the blog to see if you fancy them). All these cenotes have shade and resting areas to be with the baby in the water. The archaeological zones cerquitas I recommend Tulum, Muyil and Cobá. As you are several, maybe it's better for you to get a taxi driver to take you and organize the day at your own pace. From Muyil you can take a boat tour through the channels of the Sian Ka'an Reserve, very nice.
I happen to you in private contact that I do not like to leave phones around here.
Regarding the water: in the hotel you will always be left in the room with some water bottles, to be able to carry them with you always. Water has a lot of lime, which is why it is not potable. Personally I wash my teeth with tap water, but you better do it with mineral water and calmer,
Enjoy the trip a lot 🙂
I bounced the message to this mail miru17_88@hotmail.com Did something happen to you?
Hello Sandra .. question from Puerto Juarez to Zona Hotelera km 15. you will have an estimate of how much Taxi comes out ?? by your answer Thank you.
Hi Mary,
Expect to pay over 300 pesos, I do not know the exact price. Negotiate before entering, in theory they have fixed rates, they can show them.
Warm regards,