Tren Maya Episode 7 - Best Adults Only in Playa del Carmen
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- In this series we explore the entire Tren Maya route.
While staying in Puerto Morelos we stayed at four different adults only resorts to see how they stack up against each other based on check-in experience, drink selection, food quality, the room, pool vibes, and of course the beach.
We visit:
The Hilton (all-inclusive)
Royal Hideaway Playacar (all-inclusive)
Thompson Main House
Wyndham Alltra (all-inclusive)
Stay tuned until the end where we rank them all, and give you the cost breakdown for each stay.
Great info! Thank you! I was wondering if we should try one of the other adult only resorts. We’ll stick with Royal Hideaway. This will be our, maybe, 5th time there. We love it although it could use some updating and as you said, better food. The food is okay but only some of it is truly delicious.
Glad you found it helpful. Royal Hideaway really was the best unless you want a party atmosphere.
Hola Georgia and David. I hope you are enjoying Huamantla. Hopefully you will find the Parroquia de San Luis Obispo open so you can photograph the retablo mayor. There are other churches in the town but I'm not sure if any have a better interior. It would be great if the town is making a sawdust carpet while you are there, but they usually make those for specific religious celebrations. Occasionally they are more than a kilometer in length, and very detailed. Tlaxcala has numerous beautiful churches. You saw the two major ones in the capital, but there are others, which would have been easier to see when you were there, but I'll mention a few anyway, since I'm thinking about Huamantla. In Zacatelco, a few miles south of the capital, there is Santa Inez, which is supposed to still have some of its 17th century retablos. Nearby, in Chiautempan, there is the attractive church of Santa Ana. Best of all, I think, is another Parroquia de San Luis Obispo, this one in Teolocholco, Tlaxcala. Located a bit northeast of Zacatelco, it has a great collection of gilded Churrigueresque retablos.
I suppose you have discovered that not far from Cuetzalan there is an archaeological site named Yohualichan, a nice bonus after enjoying the scene in Cuetzalan. In 1974 I attempted to visit the Sunday market in Cuetzalan, but had the type of luck you usuallky have with churches. Originally I had planned to go to the Saturday market in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca and the Sunday market in Putla. I spent Friday morning looking at the convento in Huejotzingo and the churches in Acatepec and Tonantzintla (you could photograph the interior back then) before starting for the Mixteca Alta, but a few miles before reaching the junction of the highway near Huajuapan de Leon a small bridge had washed out, leaving a 20 foot wide, 15 foot deep gap between me and my goal. It was getting dark so I camped along with several dozen other motorists. In the morning it was obvious that the road would be impassable for days, maybe weeks, so I looked for another option, and decided on the Sunday market in Cuetzalan.
On the way I stopped at the market in Tehuacan and saw some women from Miahuatlan and Altepexi, wearing their distinctive huipils. Earlier on my trip I had photographed women from those towns in the Wednesday market in Ajalpan. Another woman from a village I couldn't identify was selling live carnations, the roots wrapped in corn husks. I drove past Ciudad Serdan (very picturesque cemetery- got a good photo of fancy, old monuments). Near Oriental there were numerous old haciendas, and I stopped to take a few photos of the ex hacienda de Torija. The padlock on the hacienda chapel was ancient and as big as a frying pan. Speaking of Oriental, between that town and Perote, about 58 miles from Puebla and near the town of Tepeyahualco, lie the ruins of Cantona, a huge, seldom visited archaeological site.
This was late June, during the rainy season, and a flash flood had washed out the bridge that I had hoped to cross the day before. It rained from Oriental to past Zacapoaxtla. The scenery in this part of Mexico is spectacular, in part because of the rain. Near Zacapoaxtla a large landslide covered most of the road but enough of the dirt had been cleared away to open one lane. Unfortunately, about 10 miles from Cuetzalan, a bigger landslide completely covered the road for at least a 100 yards. Well, that was frustrating. 50 years ago many women in Cuetzalan still wore their traditional huipil, skirt, quechquemitl and unique hair style. Probably not so much now.
Although my plans were a wreck (there is a saying that if you want to give God a good laugh tell him your plans) I did have a chance to explore the area and discover numerous attractive towns. Zacapoaxtla was very picturesque, as were the pueblos magicos Tlatlauquitepec (the road sign left off the last two syllables) and Teziutlan. Teziutlan has a Sunday market but I didn't see any women wearing a traditional costume. About 11 km from the semitropical Tlapacoyan, near Santiago, lie the ruins of Cuajilote. This area of Mexico is rich when it comes to waterfalls. A scenic but sometimes winding road goes to Misantla, located on the Rio Palmas. Misantla is an old colonial town (founded 1564) that is graced with a few flamboyan (flame) trees. The stark white Santa Maria de la Asuncion, with its baroque facade, dominates the town. A couple of miles west of Misantla lie the Totonac ruins of Paxil, and a bit south of Paxil there is another site, Los Idolos (Tochpan), where numerous large statues were found. I don't know how many of the statues are still on site. In 1974 the ruins in the area weren't developed so I didn't see either ruin. The old cemetery in Misantla has about 50 historically significant marble monuments plus thousands of others. The area is attempting to preserve its linguistic and dance heritage. Atzalan has an ancient roofless church ruin that lies away from the colonial buildings and church on the plaza. There is another waterfall nearby. Altotonga is also very picturesque, and I saw a man wearing a palm thatch rain coat in the rain. Well, I hope you found this interesting and perhaps helpful. Stay safe.
Sorry for the late reply, we have been busy. We spent a day visiting the cantona site (loved it, so impressive), touring the hacienda in Tepeyahualco, and hiking to a couple of the nearby crater lakes. We went on another day trip to Tlatlauquitepec, we visited a waterfall and in town they were having a market day. Some of the women were wearing traditional clothing. We did get to see the main church here as well as the ex convento and both had beautiful gold retablos. Tomorrow we head to Cuetzalan where we hope to visit a couple of waterfalls and visit yohualichan. Then we are off to Papantla and then Ciudad Valles.
Hola Georgia and David. Great job on the video but are you sure this video shows Playa del Carmen? Astounding. When I passed through the area in 1974 the Playa del Carmen that I saw consisted of two or three Maya type houses and a tiny store that sold essential supplies to the Maya who lived nearby, plus gasoline from drums. The beautiful beach and ocean in your video are the only thing that I recognize. Rather than swimming I did the only other activity available to visitors--I parked on the empty beach and enjoyed a brief siesta in my car. I'm glad I traveled when I did. Resort prices seem really high, although the accommodations you enjoy are much more luxurious than anything I experienced. My first trip in 1967 (7 weeks, 6400 miles) cost about what the cheapest of the four resorts cost you for a day. My 1974 trip (5 months, 17,000 miles) cost less than the four days spent at the four resorts. I think I traveled at the time that was right for me, and you are traveling at the right time for you.
I tried to send information about Orizaba, Cordoba, and adjacent areas last week, but my old computer froze up and I couldn't finish what I was writing or send anything. I'm sure you kept busy anyway. Where are you now? There are interesting ruins near the coast between Veracruz and Tuxpan (Zempoala, El Tajin, etc). Tlacotalpan, Lago Catemaco and the Salto de Eyipantla are worth a visit, and there used to be some really interesting Indian villages east of the lake. The road to Oaxaca via Valle Nacional was one of my favorite drives. Very scenic. The area around Cuetzalan is really interesting, and there are more archaeological sites in the area. You've seen less than half of the sites in Oaxaca, Morelos and Hidalgo that I've mentioned. Plus Tepotzotlan. Stay safe, stay cool, stay dry. Well, the first anyway. The rainy season will be here soon.
Thanks, hope you are doing well. I personally have seen a ton of change in Playa del Carmen. The first time I went was back in 2005 and the chain restaurants weren't there yet, the malls weren't open either. There were a few resorts, many unpaved roads, and local restaurants bars and shops. I can only imagine the difference you see. Prices in Playa, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Cancun, and Tulum are similar to what we were paying in North Carolina before we left.
We are currently in Huamantla till Tuesday, then two nights in Cuetzalan before spending a week in Papantla, after that two weeks in Ciudad Valles to see all the waterfalls. We visited Zempoala last year from Pachuca and El Tajin is definitely on the list.
Good video! Question, for Royal hideaway, did you have AC issues? Was it too hot for places?
Thanks! We didn't have any issues with the AC in our room. Most of the restaurants are open air so they don't have AC. We were comfortable.