Bianca: And here we are, the most anticipated part of the holiday. Paradisus La Perla Resort Playa Del Carmen. I really had one goal for our honeymoon. To come back black!! I’m a simple lady, some booze, some tacos and some quality tanning time. The other half was keen for some in-depth exploration of the Yucatan, my planned exploration was basically from the poolside lounger to the food-hut (which I didn’t even have to do because they have poolside waiters…).
Alas, despite this ‘miscommunication’ of holiday intentions our Playa Del Carmen accommodation was stellar.
DAY 1
Fellow FFS’aker Vanessa spent her honeymoon at Paradisus and couldn’t stop raving about her time here. I was SOLD! Our King Junior suite was in the vicinity of $500 a night. This is an all-inclusive resort and IS WELL WORTH THE PRICE! If you can stomach all the obnoxious loud Americans that is…
A large two-person tub, two separate vanities, two-person shower (with separate heads) basically every girls dream bathroom. As well as a generously sized outdoor balcony. Ours fronted on to the hotel’s periphery so there was no real view to enjoy. There are two resorts within the property, La Perla (the Adults only section) and Esmeralda (for the families). We really only crossed over one night for one of our meals.
There are 24 bars and restaurants within La Perla & Esmeralda. There are 2 buffets operating on any given day and 14 designated restaurants. This was definitely a much more slick operation than Grand Oasis Tulum so I couldn’t foresee any double dinners here. Not that we’d want to, we were completely satisfied by the portions and quality at every single meal during our stay.
Our first dinner was at The Grill.
With a mix of Italian & Argentinian dishes on the menu, we somehow settled on salmon and a burger?? No idea how that happened… Our first night was trial and error in regards to the quantity ordered, as the individual portion sizes are on the smaller side. Spring for the Empanadas, they were delicious.
Day 2
Jules had all intentions of becoming a Mer-man this trip, sadly we both suffered at the hands of the 40-minute ferry from Playa Del Carmen to Cozumel. We had booked a snorkelling excursion straight off the ferry and with little time to recover after the bumpy ride we were a little worse for wear, hence being so light on the photos.
The reef whilst pretty, really had nothing on what we experienced in Vanuatu. Whether the recent Hurricanes had anything to do with the state of the reef I’m a little unsure.
Alas, our Cozumel day trip wasn’t really maximised. There is quite a lot to do on the island. So please, if you do go. Do the following and report back… just tell me it was horrible so I don’t get the FOMO. Shopping in downtown/ San Miguel. Snorkel at Money Bar Beach club. Visit the Mayan Cacao Company. Palancar Beach and visit the San Gervasio ruins.
Dinner, however, more than made up for it. Bana offers an impressive Asian fusion menu.
Continuing the Margherita train for the day!
I’ll preface this meal with Julian stating ‘It was the best sushi I’ve ever eaten”. Big call. I don’t recall eating much that day and I was clearly in way too much of a hurry to eat and forgot to take a photo of the menu. So please excuse my amateurish recount.
I do admit, this was up there for some of the best sushi I’ve had. Particularly the crispy prawn topped with torched melted cheese, sublime!
DAY 3
Chichen Itza (Chicken Pizza). Do you go or not? We organised a tour from Paradisus that started at 7:45am, we got back to the resort at 9pm. Let’s just say there may or may not have been a few arguments! Included in our tour was a 2-hour visit to Chichen Itza to view the Mayan ruins, a Mexican buffet lunch, a stop at Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman Cenote and a quick stop at Valladolid.
The timing of our visit to the Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman Cenote was a little unfortunate. As it was a fairly warm day that quickly descended into rainfall. Obviously through no fault of the tour operators but I didn’t particularly want to jump in whilst it was raining.
And our final spot. Valladolid, the third largest city in the Yucatan. We really only explored the towns main square because it started bucketing as soon as we got off the bus. Never fear, I made it to the chocolate shop!
Vento, with a nod to Oriental Mediterranean, was next on our restaurant hit-list.
Day 4
It certainly didn’t start very promising. The rain gods were not very kind, with heavy showers from the early morning until midday. But, the universe knew I was in desperate need for a tan and the heavens cleared. And thus began my epic 5-hour tanning/pool session, mixed in with a few cocktails, several tequila & vodka shots, some tacos and nachos and a little drunken fat nap. All in all, a very successful day!
By this point, I’d yet to have some authentic Mexican tacos. But our final meal was to be at the hotel’s Mexican restaurant. And what do you know, not a single taco in sight…
And with that, we bid adieu to Playa Del Carmen and headed to Cuba!
Bianca
That looks like heaven! All that fabulous food and a divine hotel too-that’s my idea of a great holiday 😀