Travel Route, Mayan Riviera and Chichén Itzá

In order to begin this fun tour, we recommend you lodge for tour nights in Cancun. This tourism destination is one of the most visited throughout the country for its spectacular beaches and excellent infrastructure quality. The best hotel franchises worldwide are present on Cancun’s hotel strip and Riviera Maya offering a vast array of options for all tastes. We recommend the following:

Hotel Aqua is a property facing the impressive Caribbean and eight sophisticated swimming pools three gourmet restaurants and extraordinary rooms.

Hotel Me by Melia this sophisticated hotel has rooms equipped with great technology offering different ambiances with music and shows resides tour different culinary experiences, all with an amazing ocean front view.

Hotel Dreams Cancun is outstanding for its Maya style architecture with great open areas and beautiful patios mixing a contemporary Mexican architecture. Its rooms and suites offer an incredible view of the sea.

Two of Cancun’s best kitchens are without a doubt the restaurants Puerto Madero and Lorenzillo’s. Puerto Madero has a nostalgia concept of the best Argentinean cuisine with a “five fork” award for the quality of its food, impeccable service and enviable location. It offers the most select choices in beef, fish and seafood prepared Buenos Aires style. Restaurant Lorenzillo’s is built completely over Nichupte Lagoon, in hand-carved wood with lobster forms, the crustacean that has made it famous it is the number one seafood and live lobster restaurant in Cancun.

Nichupte Lagoon is surrounded by Cancun, the perfect place to take a step back from the beach parties and enjoy excellent water adventures. Many marinas offer tours, boats, wave runners, scuba diving and many other activities from the lagoon. Nichupte is connected to the sea through a series of mangrove channels. The most spectacular sunsets in Cancun are best enjoyed when viewed from the lagoon.

In order to enjoy good golf you must go to Moon Spa & Golf Club by Palace Resorts with the only golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus in Cancun and an impressive view, offering challenges for all golfing levels. It is not necessary to be lodged at the hotel in order to access the course. Playa Mujeres Golf Club is an environmental achievement, made through a careful rearrangement of local flora, it has become an international model for environmental preservation. Various holes offer a spectacular view of the Caribbean Sea and Isla Mujeres.

The next stop on this wonderful trip is three nights at Holbox Island one of the Caribbean’s jewels within the environmental reserve “Yum Balam”. It is 43 kilometers long and since ancient times has been considered a place of etr4eme beauty and rest by ancient Mayas. Its villa has less than 1500 residents, almost entirely dedicated to fishing. This is the best place to come near the whale shark, the world’s largest fish measuring up to 15 meters long. It stays in superficial warm water where it can find the plankton it feeds on and although it has no common traits with whales, it is somewhat similar in that it only feeds from plankton. It is a very docile viviparous animal and is not afraid of swimmers and divers.

We recommend staying at Villas Paraiso del Mar, mixes a rustic style with the fabulous natural surroundings. The landscape surrounding these villas, the ocean’s beauty and impressive sunrises among absolute peace make it a true sanctuary for rest.

The next stop of this fun tour through the Yucatan Peninsula is Isla Mujeres, a privileged site with great natural and cultural wealth. This beautiful island combines the beauty of the Caribbean Sea with a dense tropical jungle and the wonderful Maya heritage. It is outstanding as one of the national treasures for its beautiful beaches, archeological ruins and marine parks with amazing coral reefs. We recommend you stay at Casa de los Sueños Resort and Spa Center a small luxury boutique hotel with only ten rooms, guaranteeing peace and relaxation for its lack of television sets, telephones and guests under 21 years of age.

This fun and relaxing route goes on with four nights at Playa del Carmen, one of the most attractive destinations in the Mexican Caribbean Sea, located in the heart of Riviera Maya, 68 kilometers to the south of Cancun. It is ideal to rest, sunbathe and practice all sorts of activities as well as ecological parks at Xcaret and Xel-Ha. From here you can scuba dive at the Great Maya Reef, the second largest in the world, more than 500 years old and also tour the cenotes to explore the depths of these subterranean water reservoirs.

We recommend you stay at Hotel Mosquito Beach, a small adult-only hotel with a romantic and luxurious ambiance. Another great boutique hotel is Deseo with a great location in Playa del Carmen just a few feet from the sea with modern facilities and a constant feeling of party, it is from the same company that built Hotel Habita in Mexico City, with a DJ constantly playing chill-out music.

When in Playa del Carmen it is great fun to spend the day at Mamitas Beach Club, a beach area with restaurants, swimming pool, showers, lockers and great service. It is one of the most famous beach clubs on the Riviera Maya and has hosted important international events. Restaurant Negrosal is a fusion of the cuisine from Italian-Mediterranean culture and Southeast Mexican, in a minimal-chic ambiance.

You should not miss our favorite bars. El Cielo is a bar with three different atmospheres: lounge, dance and pop in a minimalist concept. Lounge OM mixes house music with an ambiance reminiscent of Indonesia specializing in fruit juice cocktails.

El Camaleón Golf Course at Mayakoba is unique, intertwined with mangroves, jungle, beaches and cenotes. Its five star club house has a Maya influence and has an amazing channel system that allows golfers to get on a boat at their room and taken to the course. This excellent course was the first to host the PGA Tour in Mexico, the first event of its type celebrated outside the United States or Canada. This event will continue to be held at El Camaleon every year until 2012.

Xcaret is one of the most important natural attractions in Mexico it was once a Maya ceremonial center and today is a spectacular eco-archeological park where you will find subterranean rivers, snorkeling sites, lagoons, natural swimming pools, bird and butterfly sanctuaries, turtles and dolphins. It was created to promote a respectful interaction with Mother Earth.

Xel-Há is a water park offering a great variety of activities such as placidly floating on an inflatable mattress or kayak letting the stream transport you through reefs flora, fauna and its mythical Black Lagoon where you can see iguanas and coatis. Its Delphinus service establishes a link between humans and dolphins, allowing you to interact with these smart animals.

During this magical rest in Playa del Carmen, the next stop of this wonderful route is the sacred Maya city of Chichen Itza, voted one of the new 7 wonders of the world in 2006. It was constructed in honor of the water and fertility gods with a complex architectural and social structure. One of the most impressive shows visitors have experienced is the game of lights and shadows created during the spring and autumn equinox on Kukulkan Pyramid, making it seem like a serpent is sliding down its steps. Also here is the One Thousand Columns Group, the Chac-Mool Temple, the Skull Platform and the Sacred Cenote, gate of entry to the Maya underworld where jewels and beautiful virgin girls were offered to the veneered god of rain, Chaac.

Those who wish to know the archeological jewels of Quintana Roo must visit Coba, a city of the Maya Empire, in the Tulum area. From its temples, the Nohoch Mul pyramid still survives, standing 42 meters tall. These ruins are one of the main tourist attractions in the region for their historical importance and natural beauty.

Tulum is one of the main sets of archeological ruins in the area, with many religious and residential constructions. Its fewer than 15,000 residents are mainly dedicated to tourism, attracted to numerous and spectacular archeological ruins and precious beaches, seeming to be a type of time travel, to know a little more about the great Maya culture.

We recommend you stay two nights at Tulum, possibly at Dreams Tulum, a very impressive colonial style hotel located amid mangroves and the beautiful Caribbean with all the luxury and amenities of the top quality hotels. We also recommend Eurostars Blue Tulum Hotel and Spa, a beautiful hotel with majestic views of the Caribbean and very near the Tulum archeological site. It offers the best food experiences in the Riviera Maya with an all-inclusive gourmet plan. It was designed with a profound respect for its surroundings, created to inspire inner peace. If you prefer a more secluded stay, we recommend boutique hotel Cabañas La Luna, a magical collection of seven ocean front cabins where you can relax and enjoy the Caribbean with a true respect for the environment.

Indisputably one of the region’s most special places is Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, near Tulum. It is an ecotourism center serving as model for sustainable development on tropical ecosystems. It registers a total of 859 species and was established in 1986 as part of the “Man and Biosphere” program by UNESCO. It is unique in the world for the diversity of vegetable and animal biological species, over 52 kilometers and accessed through five entrances: Pulticub, Santa Teresita, Chumpón, Chunyaxché and Chac Mool.

Artículo Producido por el Equipo Editorial Explorando México.
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Foto Portada: Celso Flores