Mayakoba, Mexico

We were slow to plan a family vacation this year, but Bryan finally planned something kind of last minute & boy did he do a good job. I'm not a huge fan of Mexico, but the girls have never been there & it is a quick & easy direct flight so we headed to Riviera Maya for 8 days. We left last week & the girls were so excited to finally head back to the beach:

There is a gated development outside of Playa del Carmen called Mayakoba where there are 4 different hotels with tennis & golf:

 We were spoiled right from the beginning. Normally we just use public transportation but since you still hear a lot of safety concerns in Mexico, we scheduled private transportation through our hotel & when they picked us up, they had booster seats, stuffed animals & juice boxes for the girls:

We also had cold drinks for us, along with wifi & assorted Mexican candies for our trip. I should have known right then & there that we were going to be pampered all week!

Oh yeah, did I mention our resort was in the jungle?! Our hotel only has 128 rooms, actually villas. Every villa has their own plunge pool & rooftop deck. And most of them are built on the lagoon so they all have private boat docks. The girls thought it was so awesome that we had to go by boat to get to our room:

Let me go ahead & warn you that this post will be all about Mayakoba because we loved it that much! So, I will start with pictures of our villa. Thank goodness I took pictures right when we got there because after that, we very much made ourselves at home :)

And my favorite part was the bathroom! We had this huge tub overlooking our own private courtyard where there was an outdoor shower:

The tub was so big it took about 45 minutes to fill it up. But that outdoor shower was my favorite. Who knew showering outside when you're in paradise could be so much fun?! We had an indoor shower as well but the girls & I never actually used it. And did you notice in the picture with Sadie that there were 2 little robes for the girls? Sadie was so excited about that! 

Next stop, our rooftop balcony:

Unfortunately, we did not spend that much time of there. At night it was dark with no light so we couldn't sneak up there to read. One morning Bryan went up there early to read while the rest of us were asleep & he said it was all wet. And during the day, it got the full sun & was hot. 

So right after this picture, the girls ran downstairs, changed & jumped in the pool while we unpacked & settled in:

Finally we ventured out for dinner & to check out the rest of the resort. So technically we have the boat dock & can travel by boat any time we wanted, but it was much easier just to walk out the front. There were actually lots of little paths throughout the property where you could walk, ride a bike or catch a golf cart:

 Yep, that's right I said bike because they gave us 2 bikes when we checked in:

This was one of my favorite things about our week! We had heard about the bikes before we went & tried to bring the girls scooters since they didn't offer children bikes, but honestly, I'm glad we didn't bring them because they had fun riding the golf cart while Bryan & I biked everywhere. We went back to the lobby to check out the quiet pool, the restaurants, shopping, etc.

I feel like the pictures don't do it justice but honestly it was just so serene & secluded being surrounded by the jungle. It was about 5 minute ride down to the beach which really wasn't that bad on a bike or a golf cart, but that was probably my only complaint was that we couldn't see the ocean all the time:

We finally found the family pool & kids club when we headed to the beach. And see that cute turtle? They had some really cute mosaic art animals throughout the property & the girls & I had fun finding them:

I am sure you all know that I took a TON of pictures all week long so I have plenty to blog about. Unfortunately, as soon as we got home, we had to head out of town again for a quick weekend get away so I will blog about the rest of our trip next week. But I will confess that we were spoiled rotten. It definitely was not a great beach, but the resort & their customer service was AMAZING! If the car ride didn't give it away, I should have known when we got to our room where our butler was waiting for us with a candy bar, goodies for the girls & home made drinks for us:

You heard that right, we had our own candy bar with gummy worms, mini oreos & m&m's. And did I mention that the main lobby bar had a fully stocked candy bar sitting out for anyone to have any time?!

I am usually a chocolate girl & this was more sugary gummies, which is Bryan's favorite so his face might have lit up more than the girls! Let's just say that we ate so much candy this week I should probably schedule all 4 of us dentist appointments. Seriously, we had a great trip - besides being spoiled, the weather was perfect, we celebrated Bryan's birthday & just had a fun time together just the 4 of us. Can't wait to share more pictures!