Trip Report – Cancun, Mexico Vacation

I am sitting here on our United Airline Ted flight about halfway back to Los Angeles from our 8-day, 7-night vacation to Cancun, Mexico where we stayed in the Hilton Cancun Beach & Golf Resort. It is a great time to reflect back on the trip before we both jump back into our work world tomorrow morning.

A quick reflection is that even though it was both the slow and hottest season in Cancun, we had an excellent time. There are several reason for this, including the hotel and poolside being less crowded than they might be, a number of “programs” or tours, and the weather of course cooperated for us.

Would we come back again?

I think that is a very good question. While for folks on the East Coast, this is a pretty close and somewhat Americanized location – in a lot of ways Cancun reminds us of Hawaii – especially Waikiki. It is not any cheaper, and it takes about the same amount of flight time to get here as it does Hawaii. The main advantage that it has in my opinion would be the scuba diving and snorkeling access & availability – it may also be the one thing that is less expensive than Hawaii.

Which brings me to my only regret on this trip. If I had to do it over again, I would have taken the 3-days and become open-water certified using up a couple of the days we spent poolside relaxing. I thought about it earlier in the week, but lost sight of it until Thursday. Once we checked out the availability and pricing, it was extremely reasonable from one of the main scuba diving companies – Aqua World. Aqua World charges around $400 for a 3-day course that include course materials, books, training, and 5-6 dives for your open water certification.

So, to answer the question – I believe we would come back to Cancun with a couple of minor modifications. The first would be to come during a different time of the year, when perhaps it was a little bit cooler. The second would be to do a trip that is a little shorter, although it makes it tough coming from West Coast where you lose a day traveling here. Then finally, I would make sure to dedicate the time to get open-water scuba diving certified. Maybe we’ll be back sooner than I think…..

Here was our itinerary for the week:
Day 1: Getting there
Day 2: Tulum & Xel-Ha
Day 3: Relax at the Hilton Cancun Beach & Golf Resort
Day 4: Visit the Ancient Mayan City of Chichen Itza
Day 5: Relaxing & Shopping in Cancun
Day 6: Jungle Tour & Snorkeling
Day 7: More relaxing & Pat O'Briens
Day 8: Senor Frogs & heading home

A few random commentaries:
Inclusive Resorts: These appear to be the rage in the Cancun area right now. Just as they are in other areas of the Caribbean, such as Jamaica. If you have kids and you want to have a predictable, set budget for the week then these may be for you. However, if you like to do any exploring and sampling of the local eateries and experiences, you may want to re-think that as you probably will not get the benefit you are looking for.
Real Estate: And I thought prices in Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara were out of control. The prices for land and condos here is high – I wonder if it poised for a fall like is happening stateside right now. For the price of some of these places, you could get a nice ocean condominium or house in Orange County or perhaps even Malibu. Hmm, where would I rather live or vacation?
Prices: Expect to pay at least the same or many times more for everything than you do in the United States. Yes, even for beer. Cancun is just like any other resort town in the Hotel zone and at most tourist areas. There are not a lot of deals to be found.
Buses: The bus systems, once you learn how to use them are great and easy. While we burned through some pesos on taxi rides the first couple of evenings, once we started using the buses we realized that in some ways they were easier and definitely cheaper, $2.20 round trip rather than $20.
Shopping: Realize that any Mexican souvenirs that you buy such as blankets, tequila, and most crafts are not from the Yucatan peninsula. That means yes, you will pay more.

‎ Read more of this post!

Senor Frogs in Cancun, Worth the Wait

Today is our last day in Cancun, with our flight leaving for Los Angeles out at around 6:00pm in the evening. We planned to spend the day relaxing, packing, and finally heading down to Senor Frogs for lunch. Luckily, while the Hilton Cancun does not have hospitality rooms, they were very generous in giving us a late checkout time of 2:30pm, the time we needed to head to the airport.

So, around 11:00am we caught a bus down to Senor Frogs. Once arriving, we noted that Senor Frogs did not open until noon which left us in a little bit of a predicament. Should we wait the 45 minutes to visit Senor Frogs or should we find another place to eat?



Given the popularity and visibility to Senor Frogs in Cancun, we decided to wait it out. After killing some more time at the Plaza de Fiesta Mexican outlet – and consequently buying a few more things – we headed back to Senor Frogs.

Just opening, we headed in and grabbed a seat. We ended up with a nice corner table on the lagoon, but my back was to the main part of Senor Frogs. Although I knew that they would attempt to surprise and scare you, I was caught off-guard when our waiter grabbed me from behind and blew his whistle. I just about jumped out of my seat. Just part of the fun at Senor Frogs. As somewhat of a comedy, both of the cokes we ordered were served in the Dos Equis Yard glasses used for beer – a nice touch.

In terms of the meal, it was much better than I might have expected. We ordered some guacamole to start with and they did not skimp. A traditional mortar bowl used for grinding corn meal was completely filled with a generous amount guacamole. Way more than could fit on the chips, so they kept them coming. (On a side note, Senor Frogs had the best chips we ate all week. Not sure if it was the time of day and they were just freshly made, but several other places did not have the same quality we are used to back in Southern California.)

For our meal, we both ordered a Beef Taco Salad which was impressive and tasty. With an oversized flour shell in the shape of a taco, it was filled with lettuce, steak, cheese, cucumbers, tomato, carrots, and a nice spicy ranch dressing. The meal was very tasty and highly recommended.

While Senor Frogs is generally known to be a party place where “Anything Can Happen”, it is great to know they have great food as well. There is also one opening soon (2 months) in Honolulu, Hawaii. We will make sure to visit it on our next visit there, which seems to be annually these days.

‎ Read more of this post!

Storming Weather in Cancun, Mexico

Ok, not really. But for us Southern Californians it kind of was. I mentioned in some previous posts that the weather we had this week in Cancun, Mexico was amazing. And it was. We anticipated having rain and showers every day based on what Weather.com told us, but we encountered very little.



In fact, the majority of the weather that we saw spanned the last couple of days. Last night, we were caught in a downpour on our way to Pat O’Briens. Then, when we came back from the night out, there was a great lighting storm happening just off the shore from our hotel combined with some good rain. Very fun to watch, especially if you are a Californian and not used to this sort of thing.

Then this morning, the storming continued. Not a ton of rain, but we caught several waterspouts off the coast, something that I had had never seen in person. It was a little unreal to watch them come down out of the clouds and form a mini-funnel cloud like a tornado on the water. Then, just as quickly as they formed, they disappeared.



The other news is that there are actually waves that can be surfed here. All week long, the breakers just pounded out on the beach. Today for the first time, you can see that the break offshore and there are some surfers in the water. Good news there.

Luckily, I grabbed a couple on quick snapshots. The good news is that I inadvertently found a whole bunch of new settings on my Canon PowerShot G7. I had previously complained about some of the night photos it took. What I somehow missed (and feel like a moron) was the ability to choose from about 30 different shooting modes including action, 3 nighttime modes, cloudy, sunny, etc.

Looks like I will have some setting to try out on future shots and hopefully further improve. I could have used this information back in June when we took photos on a sunny beach up in Pismo Beach, California.

‎ Read more of this post!

Hilton Cancun Beach & Golf Resort – Our Opinion

We really enjoyed this week’s stay at the Hilton resort here in Cancun, Mexico. As with any resort hotel stay, there are both good and bad things to say about them. In addition, among the other Hilton properties that we have stayed at – we most closely associate this with the Hilton Hawaiian Village from a comparison perspective.



Overall, this is a very good resort and is worth considering for any vacation. Especially if you want to stay close to the beach, pool, or do a lot of activities outside the Center of Cancun.

The concierge staff here makes that stay at the Hilton Cancun Beach & Golf Resort that much better. At every opportunity, including before one even arrives – they take very good care of you. We were able to have questions answered, opinions provided on tour options, and reservations made in very quick order. This staff is definitely a huge plus for this hotel.

The beach and pools are perhaps the best part about the resort. They are huge, spacious, and there is plenty of available space poolside in and out of the sun. Shaded cabanas both by the pool and by the beach are free without any charges in a first-come-first-serve manner. This is a big advantage that this property has over the Hilton Hawaiian Village where space, including shade is tough to come by even during the slow season. And if in Hawaii you want to spend the day on the beach, expect to shell out $50 for a couple of chairs and an umbrella. The poolside service staff and bar are relatively timely and friendly which is not always the case at resorts. And, there are a bunch of activities all poolside during the day for kids and adults alike including water aerobics, water volleyball, and ping-pong.

In terms of the property, restaurants, and rooms – they are all relatively expansive and impressive – as the hotel is somewhat of a sprawling mega-resort. The rooms themselves are fairly typical Hilton rooms with all the standard amenities, standard United States plugs, and generally over-sized balconies. The restaurants serve a variety of inter-continental foods including Sushi, Italian, Mexican, and American flavors.

If you want to take a little time to look at the negatives of the resort, here they are:

1. Distance from Cancun Central forces a bus ride ($1.30 for two each way) or a cab ride ($10 each way) to get anywhere without walking approximately 4-5 km (2-3 miles). It can be somewhat inconvenient.
2. Rooms and hallways can be very loud, especially in the upgrade wing. Because of the Mexican themes with the use of all tile and marble flooring in rooms and hallways you hear everything that goes on in the hallway as well as potentially everything above you such as chair moving. That means if someone comes in loudly and shuts their door at 2:00am, you are likely to hear it. The best way we found to mitigate this was by making sure the fan in our room was running on high anytime we are in there. The only way to fix this would to be change the setup of the rooms and hallways with materials that better absorb sound.
3. The free breakfast that HHonors Gold or Diamond members receive is only the continental buffet. This is the way that Hilton Hawaiian Village used to be and after a lot of complaints did away with this as well as the tip not being included. Having to upgrade for “meat” or other items seems a lot like hitting people up for nickels and dimes. It should just be a free breakfast.
4. Linens are clean, but not always “clean”. What we mean by this is that mainly the towels will have some stains on them. They are definitely clean, but do not appear to be as “new” because of some stains from water, rust or what have you. Normally you would expect these to be re-bleached or thrown out.

Other than those, the Hilton Cancun Beach & Golf Resort is an excellent place to spend your vacation – on par with a resort like the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Hawaii. In some areas it is better and other areas it is not. However, definitely an enjoyable place to spend the week – even better if it is free with HHonors points!

‎ Read more of this post!

Checking Out Pat O'Briens in Cancun

After we finished our purchases, we headed to Pat O’Briens via a nice stroll of about a mile down roadside. Once we got there, we were very happy in our choice for the evening. While it was not very crowded, we still had a great time – and it started to really pick up towards the end of our evening.



When at Pat O’Briens, you must have a Hurricane drink that they are famous for. So, I had mine and we ordered a little baby one for Ashley, just so she could try it out. For an appetizer we ordered the Caprese salad with Andouille Sausage. While we generally love the tomato, basil, and mozzarella salads – the added twist of the sausage was a nice addition.

Then for dinner, I ordered the Chicken Cordon Bleu which may have been one of the better meals I have had. I really like Chicken Cordon Bleu to start with and Pat O’Briens had a great twist on it. The main twist was the it was fried and included a marinara and an alfredo/mozzarella sauce to top it all off. Basically, it combined two of my favorite dishes, the Chicken Cordon Bleu and the Chicken Parmigianna – very highly recommended. Ashley had the Blackened Chicken Caesar Salad and it was just what she was looking for as well.



As we were finishing up our desert or Apple Tartan, the real fun began. Throughout the night, the theme at the Pat O’Briens is for the waiters to bring the drinks that are ordered out to you on top of their heads. We even saw a couple of double-deckers. That is when it got a little crazy.

The bartender Fernando did a great triple-decker delivery within the bar that was impressive in itself. Then, however a real show started. Throughout the night, there was a video playing on one of the many screens that was the “World Bartending Championships”. We were not paying much attention to it, but once things were starting up we noticed the person performing on the screen was the same bartender from the video.



As you might imagine, we spent the next 20 minutes mesmerized by all of the juggling, drink making, and tricks that Fernando was performing. If those were not enough, at one point several bottles of liquor were lit as wicks and then juggled as well. All of it was topped off with a finale of Fernando making and pouring six drinks simultaneously. It was a great way to end the evening.

If you’re in Cancun, check out Pat O’Briens. Have you been there before?

‎ Read more of this post!

Relaxing & Shopping in Cancun, Mexico - Revisited

As we wind down the trip in the last two days for our Cancun vacation, we are spending the majority of today pool and ocean side here at the Hilton Cancun. Nothing overly fabulous or of note really happened. But, at least our shaded spot for the day provided a good view of the ocean, the activities including the ping-pong tournament among other things.



We had initially planned to have poolside tacos although that idea did not work out for us. Apparently the policy at the Hilton is that there are only tacos available if the hotel is at full occupancy, which apparently it was not. So, instead we settled for the Kiosko Nachos which have become our favorite lunch meal to share this week from the poolside Kiosko Grill. These nachos are very tasty and highly recommended with or without the jalapeños.

Tonight, we planned on heading down to Pat O’Briens Irish pub and New Orleans fair food. Although it is not very “Mexican” we do not have one in the Los Angeles area that we are aware of and I have not been to one since I was at the original one off of Bourbon Street in New Orleans about 8 years ago.

As we started to head out to do some shopping and eat, there was a note about a soccer game being played at the soccer field located at the Hilton. There were several teams there from the United States for what I guess to be a tournament. We planned to catch 15-20 minutes of the game (we saw one earlier in the week where the Mexican team dominated). As we went by, the game was no where near starting and it looked like it was going to rain. We thought it would be wiser for us to get on the bus before we got caught in the middle of the downpour.

Once we got down to Cancun Centro to do the shopping, a heavy downpour started. Luckily we were next to the same “mall” where Rainforest Café, Coco Bongo, Carlos ‘n Charlies, and the Hard Rock Café Cancun are located. This was the first real downpour we had seen having the great fortunes of weather during this season. It lasted about 20 minutes and then we made a run for it.

Given the variety of things we were looking to buy, we decided it best for us to check out the other Plaza de Fiesta on the other side of this mall. It was apparently 2-3 times the size of the one in the mall – and given the number of vendors we would have to negotiate with to get a “bargain” we headed over there and made our purchase. Of course, there is also that 10% coupon from the bus ride ticket which we made use of.

‎ Read more of this post!

Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville in Cancun, Mexico

There are of course, several of these establishments in the United States, including the Las Vegas one where I attended a company event a few months ago. Regardless of that, Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville is where we ended up eating dinner this evening. Not necessarily because of any strong desire to spend the evening there, rather because it was the only establishment this evening that had any activity at it.

After taking the R-1 bus down to the Cancun Central area around 8pm tonight, everywhere was pretty much still dead – say maybe a few folks at either Outback Steakhouse or TGI Friday’s restaurant down here. Both a combination of a relatively early hour and the slow season left many a restaurant dead and empty. Senior Frogs, Bubba Gump’s Shrimp, Pat O’Brien’s, and a few others we went by had very few people in them and thus less excitement.

Next to Pat O’Brien’s of course is Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. And while they still had their upper floor closed, the lower floor was full of activity and people. So, after a little contemplation – we ate there. It was a pretty good time at Jimmy Buffet’s. Our food which included some hot wings, a cheeseburger in paradise (but not Cheeseburgers in Paradise), and fajitas made for a good meal plus our waiter was a stand-up guy providing a lot of fun, jokes, and interaction.

Then there is the whole frequent show and performances from the Tiki Performers to a Mexican singer covering Jimmy Buffet songs. It’s fun, loud, and when the rest of Cancun appears to be empty or sleeping – Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville still has a lot of activity going on.

Have you been to Jimmy Buffet’s in Cancun, did you have the same good experience?

‎ Read more of this post!

Jungle Tour & Snorkeling in Cancun, Mexico

Today’s “program” as they like to call them down here in Mexico was taking the Jungle Tour with Aqua Fun just a 15 minute walk from the Hilton Cancun Beach & Golf Resort. The theme of the tour is to hop into a little two-seater boat with a outboard engine and zoom through the Laguna de Nichupte (Lagoon), a “jungle”, and then spend an hour snorkeling off of a reef before returning.



This was probably the best “program” overall that we had this week from both it’s easy of access and the experience itself. We had a lot of fun on this one and Ashley did not get too sea-sick, which is a first for her. That is a great success in itself.

Before boarding our boats, we needed to pay a total of 42 pesos (or $2 each) to the “Comision Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas” in order to benefit the Mexican Government in support of protecting natural habitats. Which, of course we were happy to do. Once boarding we got in our little boats shortly before 10:00am and headed out.