RIVIERA MAYA TRAVEL GUIDE & COST 2021 (CANCUN | TULUM | ISLANDS & MUCH MORE)
what's up guys my name's chris and in today's video i'm going to be covering some of the awesome places that you can visit in the riviera maya i have had the pleasure of traveling to this destination three times with my wife carol i will also be going over the cost of the attractions food accommodation and transport so i'm going to start off in cancun which is where the majority of people will be arriving at the international airport there we stayed at a place called hotel nader which was forty dollars right in the center to get around we rented a car we used a company called national car rental which was 30 us dollars with basic insurance which is mandatory in mexico you can also get it cheaper if you rent longer to beat the crowds we drove 40 minutes up north to a spot called isla blanca the entry fee is five dollars for parking and you can also use their facilities there like the sunbeds this is a unique spot because on one side you have a gigantic lagoon popular with kite surfers and then on the other side you have the beautiful white sandy beach with the turquoise waters south of cancun there is a beautiful place called puerto bornelos this is a fishing village that has no high-rise hotels it's not very developed but there's still many awesome places to eat and places to stay and it has more of a laid back vibe compared to many of the other places in this region further down south there is a place called punta maroma to enter this beach area you'll need to go through one of the beach clubs we went through el dorado maroma beach club which is ten dollars for the day pass and you can also use all their facilities this was easily the most beautiful sand that we've seen in the entire caribbean area it was absolutely spotless you won't see any sargassum or seaweed anywhere and they even had some water bungalows which we didn't know existed in this region now on to the islands across from cancun there is a beautiful island called isla mojeres to get there we use the ultramar ferry from puerto juarez you can get a one-way ticket which is nine us dollars or a round trip for 18 you can leave from multiple beaches in the cancun hotel zone but it will cost you a few more dollars on this island we stayed at posada paso del sol which was 30 per night the nicest beach for us on this island was playa norte north beach which has probably the clearest water that we saw in the mexican caribbean another very popular island is cozumel to get there you'll have to head to playa del carmen and the ticket is twelve dollars one way or a round trip for twenty four dollars you can get a round trip package for cozumel and isla mujeres which is 41 which is definitely beneficial if you're going to head to both islands as you will save eight dollars because the regular round-trip price would be 49 on cozumel we stayed at a hotel called vista del mar which had a beautiful view of the ocean this was 32 at the time with breakfast included but that was in the low season currently for around 40 to 60 dollars you can get a regular place in the center of cozumel we rented a scooter for 25 which included full insurance and we thought the road was great there it's basically just one big looping road around the island and you get beautiful coastal views all the way around on the west coast we visited playa palanca which some of the locals told us was the most beautiful beach on the island here you'll find the same level of beaches that you expect in this region with the pure white fine sand and the transparent water on the east coast we visited playa chen rio which probably wasn't as beautiful as playa palanca but still a nice place to visit the waves were a lot stronger so it was a bit more difficult to swim but there was still an area that had kind of natural pool protected by the rocks so yeah i definitely recommend checking it out the last and our favorite island is isla hall bush together you can get a bus from cancun which takes over two hours and it's around fourteen dollars we used a ferry company called naine himanus and that was ten dollars one way on hallbush we stayed at akval hallbush which was 25 during the low season current prices are showing around 30 dollars in the high season hobash has a completely different vibe to the other islands because there's no real constructed roads it's more like sandy roads there's no cars either only golf buggies so it had more of an island vibe where you can walk around barefoot but we like that we rented a bicycle for the half day which was 7.50 the main beach in the center is playa halbach which is in walking distance if you stay in anywhere in the center and that's a beautiful place to relax it also has some hammocks and swings we then got on our bikes and rode to a place called playa coco which is a bit further from the center and that's a beautiful shallow beach we like that beach more than playa hall brush and it also features some hammock and this is also a spot that you can see some pink flamingos if you get lucky foreign now on to tulum which is probably the most famous place on the entire coast we stayed there twice the first time was near the tulum ruins at a place called jungle house which was 21 us dollars a night and the last time we stayed in the center at a place called casa lupita which was 30 dollars a night if you visit in this region you're probably gonna want to visit some cenotes a six minute taxi ride from the center is the popular grand cenote which is 15 to enter there the water is absolutely beautiful if the sun's hitting you'll get some amazing light rays you'll be able to see some turtles and there's also some caves that you can swim in the latino cenote that we visited was which was 4.80 to enter we've been there twice and on both occasions it was pretty much empty it's different to the grand cenote because it's more in a natural setting surrounded by trees and plants all around and they even have a diving board which was super fun to get around tulum we rented a bicycle which was seven dollars for 24 hours some of the beaches that you can visit are playa paraiso which is very popular because it has easy public access and there is tulum beach which is also a public beach but has no clear public access but you can go through the beach clubs or hotels apparently they're not allowed to stop you from visiting the beach it will just depend on the location and the person that you run into so this region features some absolutely incredible mayan ruins the closest one to tulum is the tulum ruins which is 3.80 to enter and i think it's the only ruins that are on the coast it also has a nice beach that you can access below and lots of wildlife and animals to be seen and you could easily spend a few hours there roughly 30 minutes away from tulum are the cobra ruins you can get there from the ado terminal in tulum and that will cost you around 2.50 the entry to the coba ruins is 3.60 and this is quite a big complex so i recommend that you rent a bicycle which will cost you 2.40 for a limited time
and the good thing about coba ruins is that the main ruin you're able to walk to the top a lot of the other ruins now you're not able to walk on them anymore to protect them and from the top you'll have amazing views of the landscape and canopy some other ruins that are very close to tulum are the muyil ruins we got a collectivo shared van from tulum which cost around 3.40 and that took around 18 minutes to get there the entry fee is 2.40 but inside you might pay another 2.40 if you want to enter the mangrove area and get watchtower access which i recommend this place is great because you also have access to the siankhan biosphere from there there is a kind of expensive boat tour which is fifty dollars per person and the boat tour is around two hours there you will enter two big fresh water lagoons and some man-made and natural mayan canals which were used for trading between different tribes at the time and the highlight for us was when we used some life jackets as diapers and we floated down this river that had a really strong current and you would float for around 40 minutes and this was one of the best things that we did in the riviera maya the majority of the towns along the coast are quite new so you'll have to venture inland to find the beautiful colonial towns of the past one of our favorite towns in mexico is by adelie a beautiful super colorful old colonial town there we stayed at casa tortolita which was 29 us dollars and it included two bicycles which was great i'd say the main attraction in baiadalid is just walking around the streets because the colors and the architecture is absolutely beautiful you can visit a convent for around two dollars which has a museum and also the building looks really nice the main square has an old church with many nice restaurants and hotels surrounding it and that would be a great place to stay in the middle of the town there is a cenote called zaki which is 1.45 to enter and has a artificial waterfall and there is spots that you can die from at night there is a free light show at the convent at 9 15 every day in english except for wednesdays and that will tell you all about the history of biadeline so surrounding by adelaide there are many other cenotes we visited a cenote called cenote osman which was 7.35 to enter and we visited that place because it had a rope swing and also these amazing tree roots that would dangle down from the ground into the cenote there are two other cenotes within the same complex called cenote and cenote you can either pay four dollars to just visit one of them or pay around six dollars for both which i definitely recommend and these cenotes are very different to the previous ones because they are more enclosed kind of like a cave another great reason to visit by adelaide is that it is really close to chichen itza mexico's wonder of the world from by adelaide we got a colic tivo shared van for around two dollars the entry fee for chichen itza is around 25 and you can easily spend around two and a half hours to three hours there it's not just the main pyramid that you see in the pictures there are many other ruins and even cenotes within the complex and you'll definitely be able to see why it's one of the wonders of the world the last and probably our favorite town is bakala which is two hours south of tulum and very close to the border of belize bakala is an amazing place to visit because it has a super beautiful lagoon it's not on the coast and it doesn't have any beaches but the lagoon is basically the same color water that you'd find on the coast in the riviera maya we stayed at an airbnb house for 29 a night and to get around we rented a bicycle which was 7.20 for the day
our first stop was cenote azul which is a huge cenote and that was 1.25 this one was also surrounded by plants and trees and they also have a restaurant that would be a nice spot to eat at overlooking the cenote nearby is a place called cocalitos which is a dollar 75 to enter and it also gives you swimming access to the lagoon this place is a stromatolite protection area which is a kind of live bacteria that you're not allowed to touch or stand on as they're trying to preserve it and it has some swings hammocks and sunbeds to relax at and a restaurant too to see the lagoon properly you're going to need to do a boat tour you can do a shared motorboat tour for around 15 or there are other private options like a sailboat which is a more eco-friendly option for around 140 the price might change depending on the amount of people and what they are going to offer you during the tour hello now on to the food so this is obviously gonna depend on the kind of places that you eat at if you go to fancy restaurants or local places but the majority of the time we ate at local places and there we could usually eat for around three to four dollars per person and soft drinks would be less than a dollar and a beer would just be around a dollar there are many mexican street food places for example we ate tamales once and that cost around a dollar fifty and that filled us up and we've eaten at their mexican sweet stalls things like marquis eaters for around three to four dollars for a big macazita even in tourist places we could usually find some meals for around six to ten dollars but the menu did have things up to around twenty dollars obviously really fancy restaurants let's say at a beach you're probably going to spend way more than 20 dollars per person on a meal alcoholic drinks at a lot of the beach clubs in tulum will cost you over 10 dollars for something like a mojito and four to five dollars for a beer for the sim card we used a mexican company called tell cell and we got the biggest plan which was twenty four dollars for unlimited data when using social media text and calls and it also included six gigabytes of data but there are other cheaper plans available since this region is a huge touristic destination the language barrier isn't a big problem the majority of the restaurants and hotels the people will speak enough english to provide their service at least but you might encounter some mexicans that speak very little english so if you know a few words in spanish it will help you a lot if you're planning to film like us keep in mind that all the ruins are no drone zones and they will check your back so don't take any drones to the ruins they might also charge you if you have any professional looking cameras at the ruins and even when entering mexico it can be a problem i've seen that other creators have had to pay tax on their camera gear or drones when entering apparently mexico has a law that you can only bring one camera per person so they might charge you tax on any other cameras hopefully you found this video useful if you're planning on a trip to this region it is an absolutely incredible place you have the mixtures of cenotes beaches islands lagoons ruins food amazing people all in one place at the end of the video i will link a playlist that features all these different places that were mentioned in the video but in more detail their daily vlogs so yeah you'll be able to get a lot more information about each place if you enjoyed this video please drop a like to support us subscribe if you like to see more videos like this follow us on instagram and we'll see you around
2021-03-09 05:04
