I went to Mexico with my family for spring break and it didn’t totally suck

This spring break I packed my bags and headed to the beautiful, sunny Riviera Maya in Mexico, just south of vacation hotspot Cancun. The Riviera Maya is dotted with 5 star hotels and beach front resorts all along the pristine coast. But I was not destined for a week long rage-fest on the beaches of Mexico.

Instead, my family and another family we often travel with, rented a house in the sleepy seaside village of Akumal. Far from the packed resorts and bright lights of Cancun, Playa Del Carmen, Puerta Aventuras, etc. I’m sure many of you are wondering why in the hell I would first of all, go to Mexico with my parents, and second of all, not enjoy one of the gorgeous beachside resorts.

What it essentially boils down to is two different types of vacations.

“Be” Vacations

The first type of vacation is a “be” vacation. “Be” vacations are the all inclusive resorts where you don’t really do much but drink, lay in the sun, and occasionally dip in the pool or ocean. I call them “be” vacations because there’s no agenda. You don’t have to do anything, you can simply be on the beach or be by the pool.  These vacations are awesome because you can just do nothing, which makes it almost impossible not to be relaxed.

I rope most college spring breaks into this category. Yeah you might go to a bar or to a beachside concert, but in the grand scheme of things you’re really not doing much. Which is totally fine and probably how I will be spending my next spring break. This year, however, was a much different story.

“Do” Vacations

Waiting for our shuttle to rent an automobile

In contrast to the “Be” vacation, my family took a “Do” vacation. For starters, we rented a car for transportation for the week. That’s right. We drove all over the Yucutan peninsula in a car that read gas in liters and speed in Kilometers.

We also skipped the all-inclusive resort for a rental home in the middle of a small Mexican town. While it was still a tourist area, it was much farther off the beaten path than anything in Cancun.

The rooftop deck was a popular spot

This also meant for food we had to go to Mexican super markets or go out to restaurants, often where English was spotty at best. Luckily my Mom, brother, and I all studied or are currently studying the language. The food itself was delicious. We got true Mexican cuisine, as opposed to Americanized Tex-Mex. And don’t even get me started on the margaritas.

I thought Cactus had good margs, but they don’t even come close to the ones I sipped south of the border.

NOTHING beats fresh seviche on the beach

While there, we did our fair share of sight-seeing as well. We saw Mayan ruins at both Tulum as well as Chichen Itza. We took an excursion to an underground cave filled with water called a cenote.

Perhaps my favorite sight was snorkeling in a nearby lagoon and seeing multitudes of fish and even a few sea turtles.

Temple Run?

We did have some relaxing downtime among all the activities. A couple of the days we went to beach clubs where you could pay and hangout on a beach for a day.

The cool thing was I, didn’t go to the same beach twice the whole week so I got multiple views of the lovely Atlantic Ocean.

Ultimately, my family and I’s “do” vacation was a whole lot of fun. I will admit that as much as I love the fam, I don’t think I could have handled an entire week doing nothing on the beach with them. What made this vacation great was all the activities I got to do with my family. So next time your Mom calls you up and asks “Do you want to go visit Yellowstone with us?” Give it a shot.

That being said, you can probably catch me at South Padre next spring break.