Our Big Secret: Midwest Chill to Luxurious Paradise in Mexico

In an earlier post we told you about a recent trip we took to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. In this post we’ll talk about a more recent trip to Cancun, Mexico, particularly the process of getting in and back out of Mexico. Let’s get started.

Whenever possible, we fly out of our small airport in Springfield, Missouri (see prior post for reasons why). Unfortunately, despite our best efforts to find flights, the least expensive options, by far, left out of Kansas City. At 6.30. In the morning. Keeping in mind it’s about 3 hours from our house to the airport, that meant we’d need to leave home between 1.30 and 2.30 in the morning, to make our flight. Does that even count as morning?! Rather than start our trip on an exhausted note, we opted to stay at an airport hotel instead. Because we’re fans of Hilton hotels, we stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn that was roughly 5 minutes from the airport, on points. Win #1. We left the afternoon before, making the 3-hour drive to the hotel without hitting traffic. Win #2. That meant we could enjoy dinner and head to bed early for a good night’s sleep. Win #3. At least that was the goal. Unfortunately, neither of us slept well (not because of the hotel), but we at least were able to stay in bed longer, not needing to catch the shuttle to the airport until about 4.30am. Win #4. Oh, and if you ever go this route, make sure you ask the hotel if they have a Park-and-Fly rate. Our hotel did, so rather than spend $20-$30 per day, we paid $5 per day, and the hotel shuttle picked us up when we arrived back in Kansas City and brought us straight to our car. Win #5.

We got to the airport with plenty of time before we took off and, after a very quick turnaround in Houston (sadly, not enough time to visit the Centurion Lounge), we were off to Cancun!

We should point out that we weren’t technically in Cancun. We did fly into Cancun and, like Cabo, it was an experience. We filled out the familiar Immigration paperwork (one page form for each person; make sure you keep the bottom portion they give back to you at the desk – stick it in your handy dandy passport holder! – and, having nothing to declare to Customs, we exited the airport after a quick stop at the facilities. This is where you must prepare and brace yourself for battle. Upon leaving the Customs area we were inundated with a deluge of very nice folks trying to sell us things, mostly timeshares or egregiously priced transportation to whatever hotel or resort we were heading to. Different people have different tools in their arsenals to deal with the onslaught. Some, like Jason’s dad, just ignore the chaos and repeated requests, instead keeping a laser-focus on the exit. Others, like Jason, repeatedly say No gracias in an increasingly firm manner. It’s helpful to keep in mind that, while it might be irritating, these are just regular folks doing what they’re paid to do. It just so happens what they’re paid to do isn’t something I appreciate. Still, no need to be hostile or mean, just say no thanks and keep walking.

But this underscores an important point: make sure you’ve arranged transportation from the airport to your hotel/resort before you leave the US. Once you do, they’ll all tell you the same thing: plunge through the throng of salespeople and then keep going until you see your arranged transportation (they’re in different, brightly-colored uniforms outside). This happened in both Cabo and Cancun, so be prepared.

Okay, you’ve broken through the mosh pit that is the people trying to sell you things, now you’re all set, right? Wrong. Now you get to wade your way through the Mexican Flea Market (their words, not ours). Curious? It’s exactly what you’d imagine it to be: a bunch of stalls setup immediately outside the airport with folks trying to sell you all manner of trinkets and souvenirs. There are also a few bars scattered among the stalls, but beware: you may need to cash in your 401k to buy a drink. Seriously, margaritas were something like $45 – and yes, that’s US dollars. Push thorough this and your reward is the never-ending line of pre-arranged transportation. This, at last, is where you’ll find your hotel/resort shuttles or other privately arranged transports. Now, sit back and relax as your driver takes you on a leisurely drive to your destination. Oh, and if you’re thirsty (for water or an adult beverage), feel free to ask your driver to make a pit stop; it’s completely fine for passengers to have open containers. And don’t worry; if you forget to ask, your driver will likely ask you.

Like we said earlier, we weren’t technically in Cancun for our trip. Yes, we flew into the Cancun airport, but after that, we headed South. Specifically, about an hour South of the airport you’ll arrive at the ever-popular destination of Playa del Carmen, home of many picturesque resorts and where we honeymooned eons ago. Go another hour South and you’ll find yourself in Tulum, also home to plenty of resorts we’d all like to stay at. Almost right in the middle of Playa del Carmen and Tulum is Akumal, which is where we called home for three glorious days at Secrets Akumal, an adults-only, all-inclusive resort. We had a junior suite, tropical view, which is essentially a regular room (king-size bed, sitting area, bathroom, etc.) and a covered balcony that looked out at what appeared to be jungle, but was really planted trees and plants that separated the rooms from the rest of the resort. We’ll include a link to the resort so you can peruse at your leisure, but know it was everything we hoped it would be and we highly recommend it, even at the lowest tier. The only thing we weren’t happy about was only being there for 3 days. Otherwise, it was paradise. Drinks were free flowing, plenty of restaurants with different kinds of food and dress requirements, and of course pools and lounge chairs on the beach. How can you go wrong?

We arrived at the resort late Sunday afternoon and immediately had lunch; keep in mind we’d been going since about 4am and hadn’t really eaten anything yet. After lunch we explored the property a bit before heading to check out our room and getting ready for a late dinner (and drinks). Monday morning was pretty low-key; we slept in and had room service for breakfast (also included in your resort fees). In the afternoon we got ready for Jason’s cousin’s wedding (the reason we were there) and headed out for the festivities, more on this later. Tuesday was a day with no plans, as more than a few folks were sleeping off hangovers (not us, thankfully). So, much time was spent on the beach visiting with family. We also sat for the treacherous COVID test. Keep in mind the US currently requires a negative COVID test within 24 hours of your flight back home. Most of the resorts have facilities on-site and the test is covered in your other fees. Make sure you check out the hotel/resort’s quarantine policy just in case you get a positive result (but honestly, is quarantine in paradise really a bad thing?). While in Cabo we had to schedule our test via a QR code we scanned at the front desk; in Akumal we scheduled the test during the check-in process. Fortunately (unfortunately?) our brain pokes returned a negative result, so we were cleared to come home, to the snow.

The wedding we attended was at Blue Venado near Playa del Carmen, just a short 20 minute shuttle ride away from the resort. It. Was. Gorgeous. Let me just drop their link right here and you’ll see exactly what I mean. It was fabulous. Highly recommend, it almost makes us want to get married again, almost. A beautiful outdoor ceremony on the shaded beach followed by vegan appetizers and drinks, an amazing vegan dinner (Tasha was pumped about the vegan/GF menu – she could eat everything!!) and one heck of a dance party! We were exhausted but had so much fun dancing the night away to Imperial Band! Jason’s family knows how to throw a helluva swelluva party! We shut the party down and took the shuttle back to the resort where we promptly crashed for the night.

Checking in for our flight was a bit different than when we were in Cabo. For that trip we flew home on United Airlines, which has a new addition to their app called the Travel Ready Center. Basically, when it’s time to check in for your flight, the app will send you there first, where you answer COVID questions, upload your test results, and so on. Once done, it’ll automatically take you through the standard check in process. On the way home from Cancun we flew American, which has a different process. Rather than have everything in their usual app, American requires you to download and use the Verifly app. Once downloaded, you have to create a trip, which requires a little information about your flight home. Then you take care of all things COVID in that app, and, once complete, it syncs with the American app so you can check in like usual. When it works, like it did for us, it’s not much of a pain, though it would be nice for it to all be integrated in a single app. But when it doesn’t work, as was the case for some of our family members, you can’t do any of the check-in process until you get to the airport, including the COVID procedures, which means standing in line to check-in manually. Download the app before you leave, folks.

Other than this new step, the journey home was actually simpler than in Cabo. We didn’t have any additional forms like we did at the airport in Cabo; everything was in the app, which was nice. Because we flew with carry-on bags only, we went straight to security, which was pretty quiet. We read stories from other folks who had been in Cancun around Christmas that it took about 3 hours to check-in, get through security and to their gates. Our experience, by contrast, took about 15 minutes from the time we walked in the airport and through security. Again, we had carry-ons which usually speeds things up and we weren’t travelling at peak holiday season, so make sure you budget enough time if you do differently. So, after a thorough perusing through the Duty Free store, we headed for lunch with Jason’s parents and then onto our gate for our flight to Dallas. Customs in Dallas was equally low-key thanks to our Global Entry membership. If you don’t remember from our earlier post, while everyone else has to stand in lengthy lines, if you have Global Entry you go to a different area, which is almost always completely empty. Step up to the kiosk and have it snap your picture and it’ll spit out a receipt with your information. Walk around the kiosks to the Customs agent, hand them your receipt, and you’re on your way. It really is that easy. Yes, it’s also a little creepy how it knows your information from just your picture. Technology is amazing.

We also discovered that, at least in Dallas, there are TSA Pre-check security lines after Customs! There were two options: go to the security line that Customs naturally ends at (no TSA Pre-check, which means unpacking everything and disrobing to scan) or follow the signs to the next regular security area with TSA Pre-check. In our case, it was about a 5-minute walk, which was well worth it. After clearing security, we were off to our gate for the flight back to Kansas City. Once there and with our bags (we had to check Jason’s bag in Dallas because he bought Scotch in the Duty Free store), we called the hotel and they sent the shuttle to come get us so we could pick up our car and make the 3-hour drive home. We rolled in the driveway at about 1 am and Tasha immediately asked when the next trip was. And so the planning process begins again.

Still dreaming of Mexico…