Category: Mexico

10 Tropical Getaways For Winter 2016

1/10/2016

January is the time of year when people inquire about tropical vacation ideas. For those of us in the Boston area - and despite record warmth so far - we are particularly antsy for a winter escape plan as we fear another blizzard scenario like the one that kept us shut-in for months last year (although I think many secretly enjoyed it!).

Most of our readers are from the US, so they are typically looking for something in the western hemisphere, ideally a short flight away. Therefore, we've listed 10 of our favorite warm weather getaways that are relatively easy to reach from the US. No red-eye required (though maybe for West Coasters), and minimal (if any) time zone change, so you can start enjoying your vacation the minute your feet hit the sand!

For the Diver: Caye Caulker, Belize

Also good for: friends, backpackers, solo travelers

"Go Slow" is the island motto and for good reason. This tiny island has no paved roads or cars, and the only way around is by foot, bike or golf cart. It's a 45 minute ferry ride from Belize City and is situated in the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef - the second largest barrier reef in the world. It was here that we dove with sharks, dolphins, turtles and green moray eels. There are no wide, expansive beaches on this caye, but jump off any pier to swim, take a short boat ride out to the reef for a snorkel or stroll over to the The Split for a cold drink and watch the spectacular sunset over the ocean. Finally, Caye Caulker is an ideal launching pad from which to visit the Blue Hole, one of the top dive sites on every diver's bucket list. Interested? Read more here.

For the Surfer: Rincon, Puerto Rico

Also good for: families

Surfers from all over the US flock to Rincon each winter to enjoy the big waves, warm water and laid-back vibe. Instead of long white sand beaches common in the northeast of Puerto Rico, Rincon is comprised of several little coves. Here you can find many quirky, locally owned hotels or house rentals and there are plenty of little beach bars and restaurants to provide fuel for the grueling work-out that is surfing. Many families also love Rincon for the home rentals and safe, laid-back atmosphere. Read more about Rincon here.

For the Adventurous Beach Bum: Tulum, Mexico

Also good for: couples, friends

The beach surrounding Tulum is one of the most beautiful we've ever seen. It's your quintessential Caribbean paradise - white sand, turquoise water, crashing waves, tall palm trees and fresh margaritas (best we've had anywhere in the world!). It offers something for everyone - sun, snorkeling, parties, culture, and adventure. Here you can sleep on the beach all day or, for those of us who like a little adventure, there are plenty of fun things to do nearby - diving, fishing, ruins, cenote snorkeling (highly recommended!), and zip lining. And let's not forget that it's home to the best food in the world. Read more about the Riviera Maya here.

For (Almost) Guaranteed Sun: Eagle Beach, Aruba

If you want guaranteed sunshine, white sand beaches and calm turquoise water then look no further than Aruba. Prices spike in the winter because perfect weather is 99.9% guaranteed on this desert island. There isn't much to do here except sunbathe, swim, snorkel, shop, eat and drink. Direct flights can be found from most cities on the East Coast. Eagle Beach also ranks in our Top 5 Beaches in the World. And this is why it's a perfect long weekend winter getaway. Read more about Aruba here.

For the Thrill Seeker: Arenal, Costa Rica

Also good for: families with older kids

Located a three-hour drive from San Jose, this symmetrical volcano is encircled by jungle, rivers, lakes and a wide variety of flora and fauna. Until 2010, Arenal was Costa Rica's most active volcano, regularly spewing lava while villagers and tourists watched from a safe distance. Although it has recently entered a resting phase, it is still a tremendous natural attraction worth visiting. This region offers so many unique activities - white water rafting, volcano hikes, zip lining, canyoneering, waterfalls, nature walks and natural hot springs. Read more about Arenal, Costa Rica here.

For the Culture Seeker: Havana, Cuba

Also good for: Solo travelers (go on an organized cultural tour)

Cuba has become a hot destination ever since the US relaxed its travel restrictions to the island nation. This destination holds a special place in my heart since I have family that lives here. However, even if it didn't have a personal meaning, I'd find it fascinating. One could spend a full week in Havana enjoying the culture, history, artwork and music. As long as you remember that this is an island of limited means (don't expect the same level of service as elsewhere in the Caribbean) and really try to get to know the people, you will have an extraordinary experience. Also there is little/no internet so you will have a perfect excuse to disconnect from the virtual world for a little while and remember what it's like to be 100% present. Read more about Cuba here.

For the Romantic: Cartagena, Colombia

Also good for: culture seekers; friends

Now that JetBlue flies directly to Cartagena from many major US hubs, it's easy to discover the colorful culture of Colombia. The cobblestone streets, flower-covered buildings, and ocean sunsets make this city perfect for couples looking for a romantic getaway. Cartagena is full of boutique courtyard-style hotels that are surprisingly quiet, even though they are in the midst of the lively old city. Soak in the Spanish Colonial decor (obsessed!), enjoy the huge variety of fresh fruit drinks (guanabana is my favorite) and if you are a seafood lover like me, sample all the ceviche you can. Read more about Cartagena here.

For the Family: Fajardo, Puerto Rico

Also good for: couples

Puerto Rico is super easy for those of us on the East Coast and in the Midwest US. Last year, Chris and I went to Fajardo and stayed at El Conquistador. Both of us agreed that it was an ideal destination for families since it has something for everyone. Its private island, Palomino, has a calm beach (a must for young kids), restaurant, horseback riding, hiking trails, outdoor games, and sea kayaks. The main hotel has a water park, several pools, incredible views, a variety of restaurants, golf, and a host of indoor facilities that we didn't have time to try. Nearby is the rainforest and beautiful Luquillo Beach if you are looking for a change of scenery. There are also several great restaurants close to the property. Also consider going to nearby islands Vieques (I hear the W is amazing) or Culebra for a more remote beach getaway. Read more about the Fajardo area here.

For the Sailor: Tortola & Virgin Gorda, BVI

Also good for: couples; families; people seeking solitude

Offering tall green hills, serene turquoise water and soft white sand, Tortola and neighboring Virgin Gorda are the poster children of the Caribbean. The Caribbean Sea is very flat here despite consistent winds, making it an ideal place for sailing. The BVIs are a bit more difficult to get to than some of the other destinations on this list since you typically have to fly there via St. Thomas or San Juan, or arrive via boat. However, if you have a full week, considering renting a sailboat and captain for a few days to explore all the remote beaches, islands and reefs. We stayed on land and while VERY quiet, there is lots of fun to be had at the marina bars in the evening, especially if you are there for the full moon party at Bombas on Tortola or Jost Van Dyke's Soggy Dollar Bar.

For the Glitz & Glam: Miami

Also good for: friends, couples

If you're seeking a fun weekend complete with spa retreats, fabulous parties, amazing restaurants and beach time then look no further than Miami. This city has a huge variety of fantastic hotels to choose from and its art deco architecture will motivate any weary winter traveler to get dolled up for a night on the town. Read more about our weekend in Miami here.

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Happy Cinco de Mayo!

5/5/2015

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Hotel Secreto on Isla Mujeres

In honor of Cinco de Mayo I've updated our Riviera Maya page with a few pictures from our trip there several years ago. On this page you'll find our 10 day itinerary, hotel recommendations, a list of activities that we enjoyed, a few tunes and some general tips. Here were a few highlights from our trip:

Best Margarita: Mezzanine Hotel bar

Best Beach: While it's REALLY hard to choose I'd have to go with Tulum

Best Snorkeling: Garrafon Reef Park in Isla Mujeres

Best Non-Beach Activity: Dos Ojos Cenote Tour in Tulum

Best Meal: Huevos Motuleños at La Hotel Tortuga in Playa del Carmen

Check out our Riviera Maya page for more information, pictures and a few tips about dealing with corrupt traffic cops!

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Days 209-211: Long Journey From Caye Caulker, Belize to Havana, Cuba

12/22/2013

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As mentioned in our last post, we were journeying to Cuba via Mexico City. But getting to Mexico City from Caye Caulker, Belize turned out to be a bit trickier than we'd expected.

Journey Stage 1: Caye Caulker to Mexico
We learned that the most 'efficient' way to go was to take the daily ferry from Caye Caulker to Chetumal, Mexico, which lies on the Mexico-Belize border. Then we'd hop on a flight from Chetumal to Mexico City. There was one catch - there's only one ferry per day from Caye Caulker to Chetumal, and only one flight per day from Chetumal to Mexico City (or to anywhere for that matter).

The daily ferry leaves Caye Caulker at 7am, stopping in Ambergris Caye. It then supposedly departs from there around 8am for the 90-minute ride to Chetumal. This would have put is in Chetumal around 9:30. The daily flight to Mexico City leaves from Chetumal at 11:20, so we thought we'd be there with time to spare.

Of course, we did not take into account Belizian Time (i.e. the notion that schedules are meaningless). It turned out that the customs guy who stamps your passport in Ambergris Caye had overslept and didn't show up for work until around 8:30. This meant we pulled out of Ambergris about 40 minutes late. To make matters worse, the boat driver told us the trip to Chetumal would take closer to two hours that day due to the windy conditions and passing thunderstorm. We told him about our flight and he promised to do his best.

After a tumultuous ferry ride through very choppy water and rain, we ended up pulling into the Chetumal pier just a shade under two hours later, around 10:30. This left us with 50 minutes until our flight. Next, the Mexican customs agents had to line up everyone's luggage on the pier and wait for the drug dogs to sniff through them all...twice. Then, we had to go through the standard immigration procedure at the pier, which included paying $25 each to enter the country. Fortunately, they brought us to the front of the line due to our flight!

We ended up clearing customs around 10:45 - 35 minutes before our flight. We found a cab driver at the pier who, fortunately, was willing to take US Dollars and also had a heavy foot. He got us to the airport in about ten minutes (we tipped him well!), just as our flight check-in was closing. We made it with literally one minute to spare!

So if you are thinking of taking the ferry from Caye Caulker to Chetumal and then catching the only flight out of Chetumal that same day - YES, it is possible, but NO, we do not recommend it!

Journey Stage 2: Mexico City
Our flight on Interjet was wonderful! They provide tons of leg room and free tequila. We met a really nice lady from Argentina on our flight named Patricia. She had lived in Mexico City for a year and was going to back to see some friends. We spent the entire flight talking about traveling in Argentina and Cuba - she had a lot of suggestions! She also gave us a recommendation on where to eat that night in Mexico City. After we landed, the three of us decided to split a taxi to Zocalo, the historic old town of Mexico City. This is where our hotel was located.

It was supposed to take us 15 minutes to get to our hotel. It took 2 HOURS, and we didn't even get all the way there. We eventually got out of the cab and walked the rest of the way through the jammed packed Saturday markets in Zocalo. This was our introduction to Mexico City traffic, which after all of our travels, now holds the title of the worst we've ever seen. Lesson learned - if you show up in Mexico City on a Saturday afternoon, stick to the subway.

We booked one night at the Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico, one of the city's beautiful old hotels. It sits just off the central Zocalo. Here are some photos of the building and the surrounding area:

Inside our hotel

View from our room's balcony

Outside Mexico City's beautiful old cathedral on the Zocalo

Happy New Year!

Mexican Food - just what the doctor ordered
We took Patricia's recommendation and hit up Cafe de Tacuba for an early dinner. This old restaurant, a few blocks from our hotel, offered a huge menu of traditional Mexican dishes at great prices. After a long day of stressful traveling, chili rellenos, tamales, tacos and guacamole were just what we needed. Mexican food makes everything better!

Cafe de Tacuba

Journey Stage 3: Off to Havana
The next morning we headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Cuba. Fortunately, the traffic was non-existent early on Sunday morning so we made it to the airport in about 15 minutes. We bought our Cuba visas, checked in for our Interjet flight, and soon were off to Havana.

The flight was uneventful, although at one point the crew made an announcement that the Cuban government requires them to disinfect the interior of the plane and its passengers before arrival, in order to eliminate pathogens. Then, a flight attendant walked up and down the aisle dousing everything with some sort of aerosol spray. After visiting 40 countries, this was the first time we'd seen anything like this.

We arrived in one of Havana's older airline terminals. Going through immigration was a little strange, as you are only allowed to go one at a time (usually Chris and I go through immigration together), and you have to go into a small vestibule with the immigration agent where you wait while they examine your documents. If you pass muster, they unlock a door on the other side of the vestibule and you exit. Then the next person comes in.

Once we passed through immigration and collected our bags, we found our taxi driver who had been called by our Casa Particular (B&B). He showed us where to exchange money, and then we were off to our Casa. As a side note, the exchange rates at the airport are among the worst around, so it's best to exchange as little as possible there, then hit one of the official Cadecas in the city later on.

Upon exiting the airport terminal, we saw a small parking lot surrounded by lush green countryside. The parking lot wasn't completely full of old 1950's American cars as we'd hoped. The cars in Havana are a mix of old American cars from the 50's, lots of small Soviet-made Lada sedans from the 70's and 80's and increasingly, small late-model Hyundais and Kias from Korea. There are also a handful of German luxury sedans cruising around. Our taxi was one of the Hyundais.

Casa de Haifa y Pavel
When Cuba was opened to tourism in the mid-90's, there was a shortage of decent hotels available for people to stay. The government's solution was to allow Cuban citizens to apply for licenses to rent out extra rooms in their homes. These houses are known as Casas Particulares. We had done a bit of research online and knew we wanted to stay in the Vedado neighborhood (just west of central Havana) because it's a nice neighborhood that is close to my family and only a short taxi ride from old Havana. We found a place online that had received great reviews called Casa de Ana y Pepe. Ana, who has one of the oldest continuously operating Casas in the city, was booked (as she usually is), but referred us to a house around the corner called Casa de Haifa y Pavel. We booked a room here for just $30 per night. This is about the average rate for nice Casas Particulares in Havana and represents a great value relative to traditional hotels, where prices are similar to those in other countries. And while Casas are a bargain for travelers, they're also a great source of income for Cuban families, who typically earn an average of about $12 per month from government jobs. Best of all, you get to stay with a Cuban family and see what life is like for ordinary people there.

We were greeted by Pavel, who was excited to have only his second set of American visitors ever! He is a biochemistry professor at the local university and hosts frequent classes and study sessions at the house. Pavel enthusiastically showed us to our room. Our place was around the back of the house with its own entrance, terrace, kitchen and bathroom. The room also had A/C, which we didn't need as it got very cool at night.

Outside our room on our private patio

Sunset behind the house

View of neighboring buildings from our terrace. The buildings run the gamut from good condition to barely habitable. Our casa was in very good condition, likely because Pavel & Haifa can use money earned from renting out their rooms to maintain their large home.

Our private kitchen

Looking out to our terrace

Our habitacion. It was simple, but very quiet, clean and comfortable.

With Pavel and Haifa

We really had a wonderful stay with Pavel and Haifa and enjoyed getting to know them over the next several days. The room was clean and comfortable, and their hospitality was amazing. We had a home cooked breakfast at their house every morning for $5 for the pair of us. This included scrambled eggs, a cheese sandwich, fruit, toast and Cuban coffee which was fantastic!

One night, we all stayed up late discussing the latest American movies and TV shows, about which Pavel and Haifa are much more knowledgeable than we are. Apparently many movies from the US are available in Cuba even before they are available back home. This was just one of many fascinating tidbits we'd discover about Cuba over the coming week.

A couple of nights during the week when we weren't with my family, we ate dinner at Ana & Pepe's house. We had read that the Cuban restaurants can be very expensive and the food is usually sub-par. Ana & Pepe cook meals every night for their guests as well as guests from other casas in the neighborhood, and the prices are reasonable relative to restaurants. So we ate twice with them and got to know them a little better and met other travelers from Hong Kong, Germany and Italy. Like most Cubans, Pepe loves to dance and after dessert he threw on some salsa and gave his guests dancing lessons!

The thing I loved most about Pavel & Haifa and Ana & Pepe was how welcome they make you feel. It reminds me so much of my own family. For example, anyone who visits my grandparents' house is greeted with "welcome to your home in Puerto Rico!". Well, it was the same in Cuba. Both couples insisted we think of their homes as our Cuban homes and by the end of our stay we felt like part of the family.

Stay tuned for the next couple of posts, where I'll introduce you to my family and take you on a tour of the neighborhood and old Havana!

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10 Tropical Getaways For Winter 2016

For the Diver: Caye Caulker, Belize

For the Surfer: Rincon, Puerto Rico

For the Adventurous Beach Bum: Tulum, Mexico

For (Almost) Guaranteed Sun: Eagle Beach, Aruba

For the Thrill Seeker: Arenal, Costa Rica

For the Culture Seeker: Havana, Cuba

For the Romantic: Cartagena, Colombia

For the Family: Fajardo, Puerto Rico

For the Sailor: Tortola & Virgin Gorda, BVI

For the Glitz & Glam: Miami

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Days 209-211: Long Journey From Caye Caulker, Belize to Havana, Cuba

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Archives

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10 Tropical Getaways For Winter 2016

For the Diver: Caye Caulker, Belize

​For the Surfer: Rincon, Puerto Rico

​For the Adventurous Beach Bum: Tulum, Mexico

​For (Almost) Guaranteed Sun: Eagle Beach, Aruba

​For the Thrill Seeker: Arenal, Costa Rica

​For the Culture Seeker: Havana, Cuba

​For the Romantic: Cartagena, Colombia

​For the Family: Fajardo, Puerto Rico

​For the Sailor: Tortola & Virgin Gorda, BVI

For the Glitz & Glam: Miami

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Days 209-211: Long Journey From Caye Caulker, Belize to Havana, Cuba

Author

Archives

Categories

For the Surfer: Rincon, Puerto Rico

For the Adventurous Beach Bum: Tulum, Mexico

For (Almost) Guaranteed Sun: Eagle Beach, Aruba

For the Thrill Seeker: Arenal, Costa Rica

For the Culture Seeker: Havana, Cuba

For the Romantic: Cartagena, Colombia

For the Family: Fajardo, Puerto Rico

For the Sailor: Tortola & Virgin Gorda, BVI