We've been to Mexico on vacation four times, and the Playa del Carmen area for three of those times. It's simply the best place for an all-inclusive beach vacation in terms of quality, price, and service. This time we stayed at the Paradisus La Esmeralda, which was recommended by some friends, and it did not disappoint. The food, in fact, was amazing, which is something I've never said about an all-inclusive resort. Even the sushi, which is usually a joke at these types of places, was fantastic! Good sushi in Mexico - I never would've thunk it.
Anyway, there's only so much pool and beach that my family can stand before we're itching to do something more exciting. We decided to visit the Mayan ruins in Cobá for a morning. It's important to go in the morning, because the sun gets so unbearably hot as the day progresses. So we showed up at 9:30 and were gone by 11:30. It was just as well, because all the tour buses started pulling in just as we were finishing up, and things got a lot more crowded.
We chose Cobá over the other two famous ruins in the area, Tulum and Chichén Itzá, because it's the only site that still allows visitors to climb the largest temple, Nohoch Mul. Tulum is undeniably beautiful, with its beach location, but kind of dull for the kids. And Chichén Itzá is extremely grand, but hot as hell, with no shade in sight, and perhaps too grand for small children. Cobá is located in the middle of a very Indiana Jones-esque jungle that provides shade and interesting scenery for the kids.
The best part is that after you pay your entrance fee (about $6 per adult; the children were free), you get to ride a "Mayan taxi" to the different excavated locations within the site. It's basically a pedicab, and it was, as proclaimed by both kids, the best part of the visit. Something about being driven down the bumpy, shady, dusty paths of the jungle, with a light breeze blowing in your face, feels very relaxing and exciting at the same time. It's about $5 each way, and totally worth the money. You could also opt to rent a bike and ride it yourself, or just walk around. But I highly recommend the Mayan taxis.
We had our driver take us directly to the tallest temple, Nohoch Mul. It is a crumbly, unstable-looking structure with a greater-than-45-degree incline, and very intimidating to climb. The fact that we did it with a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old is probably kind of crazy and bordering on child abuse. But hey, when in Mexico. I was in charge of our daughter, while my husband watched after our son. My daughter scrambled up the thing faster than I expected, and it was all I could do to keep up with her and make sure she didn't climb right off the side, which has no guard rail or banister or even a rope to delineate where you could plunge off the edge.
Climbing the structure gave me the feeling of vertigo, and I couldn't look down, despite my daughter's urging me to do so. She kept turning around and exclaiming about how high up we were getting. Finally, we reached the top, and my husband and son made it, too.
The view is absolutely spectacular, and both children were energized and excited about their accomplishment.
I was worried about how we would get back down, considering how difficult it was for me to climb up. But it turned out that going down was much easier than going up. We simply sat on the steps and inched down on our butts. It took quite a bit of time, but I didn't feel unsafe or suffer from vertigo. We all made it down safely, albeit dustily.
Some tips on visiting Cobá with small children:
1. Travel on your own schedule. Our hotel offered lots of "Cobá package deals" that included things like a guide at Cobá, lunch at a local restaurant, and a side trip to a cenote, but we felt that the kids wouldn't be able to handle an entire day of traveling around in the heat. So we opted to rent a taxi from our hotel that would follow our schedule instead. We were picked up at 8:15 a.m., arrived at Cobá by 9:30, stayed for two hours, and were back at the hotel by lunchtime. It was quite pricey, about a dollar a minute for the driving time ($150 total) plus $70 for the two hours that we were there, but in the end still cheaper than one of the package deals.
2. The heat is no joke! Get there in the early morning (Cobá opens at 9 a.m.). We brought plenty of bottled water, of course, but also some spray bottles so that we could mist ourselves and keep cool. Some people that saw us spraying ourselves asked us to spray them, too!
3. Wear proper footwear and clothes. It's not a good idea to have exposed toes or shoes that come off easily, like sandals or Crocs. The steps can be slippery, crumbly and uneven. You'll also get very dusty and dirty, and you might end up climbing down on your butt, so make sure you're wearing pants or shorts.
4. If you have children with short attention spans, do not stop to visit the other structures on the way to Nohoch Mul. Our pedicab driver kept asking if we wanted to stop to see the various ball courts and other buildings, which all looked very interesting, but every minute you're there, it's getting hotter. So my recommendation is to go directly to Nohoch Mul, then maybe consider stopping at the other sights on the way back, if your children haven't completed melted down by that point, literally and figuratively.
Happy climbing!
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