July 2012 Puerto Morales, Mexico! Jewel of the Mexican Riviera!

For our 15 year anniversary, we decided to go big and not go home...for 5 days anyhow.  We wanted warm water, somewhere tropical, and somewhere that all worries could be erased temporarily...even money while traveling.  We opted for Puerto Morales, a quaint town about 15 miles south of Cancun and 15 miles north of Playa Del Carmen...two highly commercialized tourist towns.  It was perfect for what we were looking for. Quiet, uncrowded, and tropical. ;-)

We decided on a medium sized resort Marina El Cid.  It is an all-inclusive and we opted for the bells and whistles package...it was on sale and in our decided budget (under $3000 total air/car/hotel/food).  We even chose to splurge and get the "honeymoon suite" with in-room jaccuzi.  When we got to the hotel...which I must add was quite the ordeal...I better explain that first.  Our flight got in around 9pm, we got our bags and through customs and into our car by around 10 and we were on our way in an unfamiliar land.  The Mexican riviera is fairly simple to navigate as it has one main road that goes along the the west side of the coastal towns.  You just have to pay attention to the signs...in spanish, of course, and you have to know your turn off points.  Be advised of the crazy speed bumps along the highway...you don't see those in the USA...maybe we should have those...nah.    We did find our turn off but once in Puerta Morales, we got totally lost as the signage to turn for our hotel didn't look like a it was leading to a resort...it looked like a dirt road to nowhere..especially in the dark of night.  We did a few loops around the little town and there were armed police on the streets.  I got out, and in my poorest attempt to get directions (yes, I was talking slow and motioning with my hands and pretending to know a few spanish words), they were able to figure me out and they directed us back to the poor signage.  We went in faith down this dirt alley that wound around for a while till it became paved and grand.  We had arrived!  It was well after 11:30pm by the time we got into our hotel room and we were famished.  All the restaurants had closed down but since we had splurged for the preferred package, we were able to order room service and that was a huge PLUS!  But, our room was the biggest plus of all.  We had been UPGRADED!!!  It was awesome!!! We had a huge balcony the size of our room and it had a large hot tub on it...pictured below.  

Our room...before we messed it up with all our stuff. Hahahhaha.

The pot-holed alley that we drove through to get to our hotel...and a crazy looking bird we saw.

The road to our hotel where it started to be paved...

Our room was on one of the upper floors with the awesome upgraded balcony.

View from one of the restaurants at the resort...there are four.

Hacienda Arrecife--Mexican gourmet--fabulous dinners! We liked the buffet here for lunch.

Alhambra--buffets...we ate their mostly for breakfast items

El Alcazar--Upscale dining featuring Asian-Mediterranean cuisine...Very tasty and elegant!

La Marina--Nice seafood dining on the marina 

My view from my lounge chair...Baywatch?

Nice.  A view of my hubby is always nice...especially when he is having fun!

The resort took great care to keep the beaches pristine and the water was absolutely warm--LOVED IT!  On the beach there you can reserve palapas and you have free access to kayaks and boogie boards.  Waiters are there to attend to your needs if you need drinks or whatever.  We are not alcohol drinkers but we drank a lot of virgin fruity drinks to stay cool and hydrated...gotta get our moneys worth, right? =P

This is the view from one of our balconies.

Here is a picture of the AWESOMELY huge deck!

LOVED this!

Pool slide.  I didn't venture down it but my husband did.

Kid friendly side of the pool--basketball, volleyball, and kiddie pool.

We wanted to go see some Mayan ruins.  There are so many down there to see. We chose the coastal ones in Tulum.  

The water was absolutely the bluest I'd ever seen

There was a swimming area but we chose not to get wet since we were about 45 minutes away from our hotel and didn't want to mess with it.

This was in the town of Puerto Morales...most of the architecture was similar to this

This was a typical "no worries..no pressure" flea market in the town

Big reason to get out of Dodge to celebrate!

We would go back again. Oh yes, we would.

A note about all-inclusives--Loved locking up the wallet and just enjoying everything prepaid.  If you have teenagers, this would be awesome for them.