Barcelo Colonial,Playa Del Carmen, Cancun, Mexico
This is my son first trip outside the country and the scare from the pandemic is still fresh in our minds. We been staying put for more than a year and in need to venture out my comfort zone and away from the stress of works.
I missed traveling so much that I got my 3 years old a passport in January 2022 as an excuse to find a place for vacation for a family of 4, and see how he will behave on a trip away from home. After going through prices for transportations, food, rooms, length of stay, and other extra, we concluded that all-inclusive is the way to go (during this one year US have gone through a 25% in inflation). A few days of research, my wife and I was able to conclude to a resort call Barcelo Colonial at Xpu-Ha (south of Playa Del Carmen), in Mexico. Also, we updated our room to get premium status which was only $200 for a whole week. It allows up to jump to other resorts and use their facilities and resturants. We been to Cancun before and love the atmosphere. When my older child, my daughter, was 3 years old, we also spend our time in Cancun. The only worry we faced is the cartel problem that we kept hearing about. Buy my stepsister and her husband came back from Cancun 5 months prior to our trip in September, they assure that it was fairly safe. There was no sign of troubles there. The hard part now is prepared stuff for the kids. If you want to know what I usually brink, go to this link.
After a long flight, I would like to get a hotel close to the airport so the kids can get a peaceful reset for the next day ride to our resort. When going to Cancun, you need to keep in mind that a lot of time, you are responsible for your own transportation from the airport to the hotel and vise vesa. Some hotels (City Express Plus Cancun Aeropuerto) that are close to the airport would promise you shuttle service, but it is not reliable, because they will not send you a shuttle to the airport unless they have a client at the hotel going to the airport. Despite wanting to wait 30-45 minutes and a chance that the shuttle would not come, we just took the taxi to our first hotel. Prior from the trip, my wife has reached out to the hotel multiple time of our arrival a week prior and did not hear from them at all.
Depending on traffic, it is a 40-minute ride without traffic to Barcelo Colonial from the airport.
The resort is called Barcelo which comprise of 6 resorts (Palace, Tropical, Colonial, Caribe, Beach, and Riviera – adult only) and each of the resort has their own theme. The staffs here are amazing, helpful, and they up kept the resort pristine. All resorts are kids friendly, except for the Riviera which is adult only. On our second night there we took a free double decker red bus that is part of the resort and visit each of the resort for free for all guest by Barcelo (see the red bus route below). For me and my wife, this is a perfect family resort by far at Playa de Carmen. A lot of the resort secrets are that you must know what to ask.
Large pocket of shaded canopy with lounge chairs and hammocks are great touch to stay shaded from the mid-day sun. All of the normal pools have a swim up bars and cold bubble area. During the time we stay, the resort allows you to use other pools in the same area (except the Riviera). Best advice is to reserve a shaded area in the morning by placing a clothing bag there, get breakfast, and then go to the pool if you happen to attend your vacation during peak time. The pools is warm, which I think it is around 85 degree F. For the kids, there is a water-play-ground-slash pad. For you kids play on other resorts’ a water-play-ground-slash pad then you need to upgrade your stay to premium which we will talk more about later.
The beach is packed hard and leveled (could be foreign sand) and can be hard for some feet, but as you approach the shore line, the natural sand is covered with beautify-soft-white sands. There are a lot of lounge chairs and coconut trees to keep you cool during the day. The beach at Colonial, Beach, and Caribe are great for the kids to swim in.
You can walk out into the water for 30 yards and the water is only waisted level. The only problem is getting into the water because there are dead corals that can hurt your feet, but it is only the first 3-5 feet as you enter the water. Some days, the ocean feels a lot warmer than the pools. I really enjoy lounging there while looking at the torque water, fresh air, and a slight breeze that barely keep you cool.
Now let’s talk about the food and buffets. For you to want to get into other resorts’ buffets, you should upgrade your stay to premium which is $200 more for a week. You can do this by upgrading to a better and larger room which is close to $200 more for the duration of your stay. Trust me it will be all worth it. We like to pool hopping to different resorts’ pools, and the convivence of eating there instead for going back to our resort can save you a lot of time. The food is abundance and are set like Vegas style buffet. There are plenty of tropical fruits like dragon fruit, passion fruit, ramadan, papaya, and mangos. There are lots of local and Western type of food as well. At the time of our stay, the Beach Resort has the seafood buffet on Monday and Italian on Wednesday. If you like to know what type of buffet are serve, talk to the people at the front desk. Also, the buffet restaurants of all of the resort closest to the beach is not as great as the buffet restaurants closest to the front desk because they have more varieties.
Eating buffet everyday can be old, so the resort has 5 different specialty restaurants (Italian, Japanese, steakhouse, Spanish, and French cuisine) that located at different places of the resort. The Japanese restaurant was my kids favorite cause it is Teppanyaki where the chief does the performance as he cooks your food. To get into any of these restaurants, you must make a reservation a day before. You can take to the people of the front desk to do that for you or go to the premium office and they can help you do it for the whole weeks.
Let’s say that you want sometimes lone away from the kids, this resort has a day-care service for any age kids from 8am – 10pm. To my surprise, the staffs at the day care create games for the kids to be entertain and engage with other kids. Because you pay for the resort, it is free for the guests.
At night, there are a few entertainments, like there is a night market, casino, a mini-mall (called the Maya Mall) which has bowling alley, miniature golf (a group of Canadian said that it is free if is your birthday), and nightly shows (Fantasia, Michael Jackson, magic, circus performance, etc). These shows do rotate with other resorts, so see ask front desk of the schedule of the shows and where it will be.
Oh, did I mention that the food/drink/bar at the bowling place in the mini-mall are free as long as you are a guest of any of the 5 resorts. If you are the younger crowds, there are 2 night clubs you can attend at the Maya Mall.
Of people who wants something a bit different, there are 4 cenote parks across the street of the resort. It can be scary at first crossing the highway to reach the cenote parks because the car would whizzed by at high speed, but it is not impossible. Cenote is a natural pit (or caves) that gather rains water from above which make this a beautiful natural swimming pool. It is much cooler than the water at the beach or pools at Barcelo because they are shade by forest canopy. Each of the cenote park has a different rate for admission ranging from $15 to $30 per adult, $10 to $25 child above 1 meter (3 feet), and free to anyone below 1 meter. The most expensive one was Ecopark Kantun-Chi, and that is what we chose because it is has 4 different cenotes. We only enjoy one cenote which you can see below. The reason is that the first 2 cenotes are caves, and they were a bit creepy, but the 3 cenote was beautiful and spend most of our time there. We did not make to the 4th cenote because my boy doesn’t want to do a long walk to the last cenote and the mosquito makes it less fun. Thinking out this over again, I should have chosen a cheaper option because kids don’t like moving around a lot.
While we were at the 3rd cenote, we met a Russian lady who said that there is a cenote at Barcelo resort, and we need to ask the clerk there about it. She said that it is not as beautiful as the one that we are on now. Well that is good to know when I get back there.
Keep note that, when you visit the cenote, the park will not allow you to use sunblock or mosquito spray because they will make the water murky and fill the fishes in there. I know that the Ecopark Kantun-Chi has a large natural mosquito repellant spray that they provide to you for free after you shower before you enter the cenotes. For what I’ve heard, other park will not provide the mosquito repellent and will not allow you to bring one into the park.