As fun as being on the resort is, you really miss out if you don’t take the time to investigate the area you are visiting. You really can’t say you’ve experienced a destination if all you’ve ever seen is resort properties.

Resorts provide us with a utopic view of a destination, not the reality.  Part of the draw of Akumal is that there is so much within walking or cabbing distance.  You really don’t need guided tours, which is fantastic. The walk to town is less than 10 minutes and Tulum the town is only a 10 minute cab ride away.  You can also walk the non-resort area’s of the beach for very long stretches.

We walk to Akumal most days and after discovering the golf cart rental last year, that has also become something we look to do.  It allows you to see and experience that much more of the area. After trying a few golf carts this year we ended up with the pink hot rod they use for advertising.

This cost 800 peso’s for four hours with a 400 peso deposit, returned to you when you bring the cart back. Well worth it. It’s a great way to explore the area.

After last year’s visit we knew we wanted to go to La Buena Vida and try the food. It didn’t disappoint. My husband said his burrito was the best he’s ever had anywhere.

For the rest of our time we just drove around checking out places we saw last year.  Great way to do a self guided mini-tour! The walk back is always great too.

We didn’t stay up too late that day as we left for Bacalar early the next morning. We’ve seen a lot of things as we’ve traveled Canada, the US and Mexico but Bacalar was incredible. I can’t believe we hadn’t heard of it until two days before we went.

Our first morning at the resort we visited our tour rep from Air Canada to let him know we had our own transportation to the airport. He asked what we were thinking of doing and we mentioned that we wanted to do something off the beaten path. We really aren’t interested in the whole tourist park thing – you can do that anywhere, we want a more authentic experience. He mentioned Bacalar so we did an internet search and yup, it looked nice. We headed off the to resorts tour desk to get their thoughts and you could just tell by the way they talked, it was special. Originally we had thought of going to Holbox but Juan really thought, based on what we were looking for, we would love this.  He was right.

I was going to do my off resort post as one but I think Bacalar deserves it own.  It was special.

From what our guide told us it is the educational and artistic hub of the Riviera Maya. It wasn’t hard to see that everywhere you went. It is a city with lots of buzz.