Playa Del Carmen, Mexico: Our First All-Inclusive Vacation

Like I shared in my post last week on adventures versus vacations, I’ve always been a fan of adventures. I love the silly moments, the brushes with new people and cultures and foods, and all the ways adventurous trips stretch you, grow you, and give you great memories.

When Jordan and I headed to Mexico this past week for four nights in an all-inclusive resort outside of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, I was a little nervous. I’m not the best at resting, and was worried that with nothing on the calendar but sunbathing and eating I’d get a little restless.  But y’all….it was a lot of fun!

First off, the resort was absolutely beautiful. The buildings were bright and open with lush, well-maintained grounds that we loved exploring. There were all sorts of little creatures running around the place too, and we giggled (and ran away) anytime we saw giant sunbathing iguanas or little raccoon/monkey like creatures that we called “kookaburras” (I think they’re actually called coatis).

The path to our room

Hubby was pretty excited about the bottle of wine ready for us upon our arrival!

Aside from the first night when I accidentally stood on a giant anthill while watching some kookaburras and got about 50 little bites on my feet, our three days looked pretty much the same. We woke up each morning and had a yummy breakfast at the main dining hall, and then headed down to the beach for some sun time.

We lay out for a few hours the first two mornings, giving both of us lobster-red sunburns and giving my husband the chance to finish what I think is the first novel he’s read in years (thank you Sparknotes for helping my husband to graduate high school). I reread Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist and pretty much bawled every other chapter. Her words are so poignant and wise about marriage, life, and a million other things, and I highly recommend any and all of her books!

After eating yummy tacos and bowls and bowls of delicious guacamole for lunch, we’d head back to the beach or pool for round two, sipping more Banana Mama’s or coconut margaritas, our new favorites. Even though it was a little hot, the beach was beautiful and we loved getting to soak in some prettiness.

Finally, we’d finish off each day by eating dinner at one of the resort’s five restaurants, all of which were delicious! It was so fun to order drinks, appetizers, and dessert with every meal and not feel guilty about it (I am pretty darn cheap when it comes to well…just about everything, so knowing nothing cost “extra” was big for me).

All in all, we really did love our trip. It was slow and full of fun conversations where we dreamed about our family, our future, and the things we are excited to see God do in our lives and in our marriage. It was also full of playing, of laughter and silliness and freedom from responsibility.

Even though I would have loved to go into town and explore Playa del Carmen or the nearby ruins at Tulum, I think we made the good choice to stay at the resort and just let ourselves rest. Would I go-all inclusive for every trip? Probably not. I think hubby and I both love adventure too much to go that route.

I don’t know that we’ll have as many fun stories and moments we’ll laugh about for years to come as we did in our Europe trip last summer, or even on our honeymoon to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and Sonoma, CA. But did we enjoy three days of delicious “free food,” endless fruity drinks, and sunburned noses? You betcha.

Thanks for a lovely few days, Playa Del Carmen! We thoroughly enjoyed your beautiful beaches and delicious food and hope to be back again soon!