- Lenght: 9 days
- Money spent: around $900 (without plane tickets)
- $544 car rent + $200 deposit
- $20 deposit at the hostel
- $100 gas
- $20 souvenirs
- $100 food
- $ catamaran tour randomly booked
I’ve always wanted to spend Christmases in a warm mediterranean country. In 2018 I went to Hawaii for 9 days, in 2019 I was trying to decide between Florida and Mexico, but loads of people told me to choose Mexico. My problem was that, I wanted it to be a solo trip. My mom was TERRIFIED, that I wanted to travel alone to Mexico but the more I read online, the more I was sure it’s gonna be okay. Cancún is a touristy place, they say it is safe for women to travel alone there. So I started planning everything.
I had 9 days off, so -2 for traveling I had 7 days to enjoy in Mexico and I chose Cancún and Tulum for my destinations. I booked a hostel in Cancún, booked a car for 9 days and my flight tickets! I usually book everything at the same time so I won’t miss anything like booking the hostel first then what if a flight ticket is cheaper earlier or later. So first I check all the dates and try to find the cheapest option.
- I use Skyscanner for flight tickets
- Turo for car rentals or a well-known company that I use to pick up a car from the airport.
- Airbnb for places to stay
First things first, it was my most expensive trip but because I wasn’t well prepared, so my fault, I learnt from it. I rented a car online months before my trip for a really cheap price and I did not read the small letter part which said I will have to pay an insurance. Which is still fine because we all have to for a rental car but usually you have a choice if you want the insurance or take the responsibility if something happens to the car you pay for it. I did not have a choice. He told me 2 options which both was at least $500. So not just I had to borrow money on my first day in Mexico but I was also afraid this experience and all those crying will ruin my trip. Luckily, it did not.
Let’s start my journey to Cancun!
I spent 9 days in a hostel called Mezcal Hostel which I loved, the rooms were really cozy, they had hammocks and a pool and breakfast was included which was delicious!
My weather app showed some rain 🌧for the first two days… But since everybody went to the beach I joined them, and an hour later I got soaking wet but I kinda liked it, the air was still super hot so the rain actually felt good.
On the rainy days I randomly booked a catamaran tour🛥 to Isla Mujeres which was a perfectly organized tour. I have to tell that almost all my days started with stress mainly because of the bad traffic, lack of parking facilities…
Yes, that’s me up there. This is called the spinmaker which is only for good swimmers because you have to jump in from the boat without a life west, swim to the rope, they take you up, spin around until you fall down or you have to jump down. Pretty fun!!!
On the boat we had free drinks and had so much fun dancing and enjoying the view. Once we got to the island we had a lot of free time to have some tequila, swim, ‹ — well, these two are not good together, go to souvenir stores,etc etc…🍸🏊🏼♀️💃🏼
We rented golf carts and cruised around the little island and made some stops at nice views.
I was amazed by the view and how clear the water was. So many people on the boat didn’t believe I travel solo, and kept asking why or if I’m not afraid. If you travel solo, always make sure who you tell and what. I’m not afraid to tell them I travel solo, especially that 99% of the people at the hostel travels solo as well, but never give out personal informations, and people- friends and relatives always know where I am and I have my location shared.
The following day I wanted to go to the Pink Lake (3–4hrs from Cancun)
( illustration–› )
I made some new friends on the boat they were a cute columbian couple who wanted to join me and it turned out we are at the same hostel. So the next day we woke up early and we started driving… Got to a gate because we entered an other state. Our passports were at the hostel but we all had copies and pictures of it. The police officers stopped us and asked for the passports and did not accept the copies so he said we can pay him some $$ and can let us go or we pay the fine he gives us and can keep going or we turn around and won’t go anywhere. He asked for too much so we decided to turn around after 1.5 hr drive and went back home… I was really disappointed but we all learn from our own mistakes don’t we?
So I went back to the local beach and the best thing happened to me, I was just lying in the sun when 4 young people sat down next to me and it was great to hear their conversation, their laugh, how much fun they had, and they started playing frisbee. Ugghhh, beach, friends, frisbee?! What else do I need? So I just kept watching them having fun and when the guy almost hit me with the frisbee came talk to me and just had a quick convo about where we are from and how long we are staying. He was a really kind guy around his 30s, originally from India but he lives in Dubai. Little later they asked if I wanted to play so I joined and had so much fun with them, turned out they are 4 minutes away from my hostel so I took them home by car and I ended up at their hostel having some fun every night! There was a girl from Brazil who volunteers at her hostel, a girl from Canada and a guy from England. AMAZING how they just met at their hostel on that day when they decided to go to the beach to play frisbee. I love solo traveling!💙
The next day my plan was to drive down to Tulum and the girl from Brazil had no plans so she joined me. First we went to the Archeological Zone of Tulum — Mayan Port City Ruins.
Then we went on a little snorkeling tour where I saw huuuge stingrays which always scared me. They are craazy big and I unfortunately forgot to bring my GoPro :((
The next day I had a day booked at the Xel-Ha park which as a solo traveler wasn’t AS much fun as it would have been with friends BUT I STILL LOVED IT!
This park is a waterpark but it wasn’t about slides. They had one huge from the top of that light house but they had a lot of zip lines and huge rocks to jump off from. It was mainly about snorkelling, swimming with rays, manatees, different kinds of fish, seeing Iguanas and Coatis.🐠🐟🐡🦚🦜
The next day I had a tour booked to the famous Chichen Itza, which is classified as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and in 1988 was enlisted as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. There I learnt a lot of unbelievable informations of the Mayans and the pyramid itself.
El Castillo (the Temple of Kukulkan) is the famous pyramid which dominates the site of Chichen Itza and it actually sits on another much older temple.
During the Spring (20th of March) and Autumn Equinox (22nd September), sunrays creates a shadow across the Kukulkan Pyramid that gives the appearance of a serpent slithering down the staircase.
I got the email where they told us all the pickup points and times and I just had to walk 20 minutes to the bus stop.
Many of the sites in Chichen Itza are known for their unusual sounds. If you clap once from one end of the Ball Court, it produces nine echoes in the middle of the court. Additionally, a clap in front of the Kukulkan Pyramid creates an echo resembling the serpent’s chirp.
We also went to swim in a 25 m deep Cenote which was an incredible experience for me
I had great talks with Mexicans and they are really sad about what other people think about them. On all of my booked tours they mentioned they hope their changed our minds about them and we haven’t got to experience all those bad things that other people say. I had an astonishing time!!!🙏🏼
I’ve always wanted to spend Christmas away somewhere in a warm place and I am so glad I got to experience this. Honestly I had no idea which day was Christmas because every day was a different kind of adventure☀️🎄
My youtube video of the trip:
Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed the pictures, feel free to contact me if you are planning on going to Cancun! Please leave a comment below if you liked the article or have any questions.