Cozumel, Mexico

Have you ever thought, I just need a week to get away, unplug, unwind, and totally relax? We have all had that moment when we think I want to go someplace where there are no children, where there are no partying spring breakers, where there is no loud music, nothing but rest and relaxation available, along with good food and a great beach. My husband, Carl, and I had one of those moments in April of this year and we found the perfect place. The Secrets Aura in Cozumel is an amazing place to unwind but you can still get to the night life in Playa del Carmen or Cancun if you like. We have been to both Playa del Carmen and Cancun but on this trip we wanted to just breathe, fully relax. 

 Carl and I live very planned lives. You know the schedules of busy professionals: meetings, travel for work, evenings reading documents, family events, caring for elderly parents and/or children, church, community events and that is a slow week. Seriously, life can be like a flood of activity and non-stop planned events where you must be at a particular place at a particular time all the time. There is never a down moment and with cell phones for our work and personal lives, there is never really a moment to unplug. However, if your work phone does not have an international calling plan and you are going out of the country on vacation, you are finally unplugged for a period of time to decompress and rejuvenate. Do not misunderstand me, we love our life and our careers. We are very blessed and would not change the great opportunities we have been given to help others in our careers and do things we love, but everybody, say it with me, EVERYBODY needs some down time sometime. 

For this vacation, Carl arranged our airline tickets and made reservations with the resort, but we planned nothing else in advance. It is rare that we schedule our outings for vacation in advance. We do however make sure we will have some sort of internet access to research and book our activities or we will book our outings directly through the resort. We have found trip advisor to be a great source of information for our research purposes. In addition, we have learned that not only do we prefer not to be scheduled for activities prior to arriving at a location, but you also gather a lot of information about what to do and not do just by talking to people when you arrive. It pays to wait to get local insight!

Once we arrived in Cozumel, we knew we had made the right choice to fully relax for a week. The Secrets Aura is very nice and the beach is amazing. There is snorkeling right off the shore. The staff at the resort are very kind and helpful. The food was excellent. The Secrets Aura is an all-inclusive resort. We have found all-inclusive resorts to be very cost effective in most instances. You can eat as much as you want. For those who are drinkers, the alcohol is flowing, and there is typically some free entertainment available every night. After a couple of days of laying in our beach chairs, sleeping a lot, and eating far too much, we decided to see Cozumel. What is the point in going to a great location if you never step foot off the resort and experience the culture?

On our vacations, we generally choose experiences that are both land and sea, if both types of excursions are available. In Cozumel, we rode jet skis. We paid at the hotel and were able to go out right from our beach. We highly recommend you book watersport activities through your hotel. We also ventured by land across the entire island on a jeep tour of Cozumel. That was an amazing tour. We met some very nice couples and we were able to see the entire island in a day. We visited San Gervasio and the lighthouse at Punta Sur and saw so many beautiful parts of the island. We visited Chankanaab National Park and went ziplining, I don't know what I was thinking because I am scared of heights but it was amazing. All of this was part of the day long jeep excursion. It was such a great experience. Just make sure you choose a well-respected, well organized company. It is typically best to book through your hotel. 

After a few nights of walks on the beach, long talks, and great dinners, we decided to go out for a bit of night life. So, we caught a ferry over to Playa del Carmen. It is so cheap to do so and well worth it. We caught the ferry from San Miguel over to Playa. The ferries run every hour and there are multiple ferry companies. We have actually stayed in Playa del Carmen before and had a great time there also. We will blog about that stay another time, but we stayed in Playa for a week and went to Chichen Itza and Xcaret. If you have never been to those places, you must put it on your bucket list. Back to our Cozumel trip, taking a ferry over to Playa del Carmen is a must do. The port area in Playa is huge. There is so much to do there. There is a mall. There are numerous restaurants and bars as well as small shops for custom made items. There is plenty to do and see for people of all ages.

Now here is a money saving tip, we recommend that you leave the resort to shop. The resort prices are ridiculous for basic items. Sunscreen was $42 on property. It was truly cheaper for us to catch a cab to downtown Cozumel, buy the sunscreen, and catch a cab back. Granted we also hung out in San Miguel while we were there and had a great time but even if we hadn't it would have been worth the trip for the sunscreen. We highly recommend you go to San Miguel and do not just stop in at the tourist trap where the cruise ships come into Cozumel. You will find great deals in San Miguel. Another money saving tip is to go to Mexico during the off-season which is typically the day after Easter to mid-December but research this for your travel destination.

Finally, we have a tip for The Secrets Aura in Cozumel. It is a lovely resort with great staff. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay, but they need to invest in more beach chairs in the preferred area. There are not enough chairs in the preferred area to accomodate everyone in a preferred suite. That was the only downside of our entire vacation. That small investment will go a long way with the visitors in your resort. Nonetheless, thanks for an amazing visit. 

On a rating scale of: a place that is not for me, a place to see (at least go one time and stay), a place to be (come back again and again), and a place for me (our absolute favorites), we give Cozumel a place to see. We probably would not stay there for a week again, as we love to see new places all the time, but we are going there on a cruise next year. It is definitely a place to see for more than a few hours on a cruise. 

Safe travels!!!