Cabo San Lucas is a quick getaway for west coasters looking for sun. In 2006 when our daughter, Sydney, had just turned two years old we purchased tickets for a southbound plane in search of this mysterious thing they call sun. Living in the Pacific Northwest means we only get to see sunshine for two months a year, so we actually need to fly to other places to get our recommended dosage of vitamin D (I wonder if that is a medical write off). With »

In 1999 Kerri and I stopped at a small non-touristy village north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We were looking for lunch and noticed a restaurant with a lot of tables and chairs on the beach with a great view of the bay. So, we grabbed a table away from the other diners to enjoy a good Mexican lunch and the great view. We were expecting the waiter that had been serving the other diners to come to our table with menus, but were surprised when the waiter »

I originally submitted this to Budget Travel magazine for their True Stories section, but they never published it. One of the great things about having your own website is that you can publish whatever you want without having it approved by the editor. So, here it is… Last year when we took a family vacation to Mexico, we got an unexpected surprise. After spending 7-nights at a nice resort hotel we were surprised to find a piece of luggage missing »

We had two options for driving the 100 miles to Cancun from the Valladolid area. Drive the free road that went through towns and had numerous topes, and would take the longest amount of time. Or take toll road 180 (cuota 180) that was the fastest route and free of topes, but would cost us money. Our guidebook said the toll road was about $10 USD to go from Valladolid to Cancun. Not the cheapest toll road, but we wanted to make it to Cancun early enough »

After leaving Dzitnup Cave we headed north to the Mayan ruins of Ek’ Balam. The guidebook said they were interesting, wondrous, amazing, blah, blah… but all Kerri wanted to do was conquer one of these massive pre-Columbian Mayan pyramids before leaving the Yucatan. Since Ek’ Balam was kind of on the way to Cancun, give or take 50 km, and had a stone structure taller than the massive El Castillo at Chichen Itza, we were going to check it out. »

After checking out of the Villas Arqueologicas hotel, Sydney and I went to the parking lot to grab the rental car while Kerri stayed with our bags. The parking lot was gravel and would have been a lot of work dragging our wheeled suitcases through the rock, as we did when we checked in. We were learning. As Sydney and I reached the car I thought Sydney might enjoy riding in the front seat. Being only five years old, the front seat is something she »

Chichen Itza is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and is one of the most visited Mayan sites in Mexico. After visiting so many Mayan ruins the previous week I thought we might be experiencing burnout on seeing so many by this time. We had visited England and Scotland a few years earlier and after a week of visiting every castle and cathedral we came across, we were burned out and did not want to see another castle or cathedral for a very long »

After driving 160km from Playa del Carmen we arrived at our next hotel, Villas Arquelogicas Chichen Itza. The hotel is just a 5-minute walk to the famous Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza and we thought this would be the perfect base to explore from. Our plan was to go to the lightshow at Chichen Itza that night and then tour the ruins early the next morning before the tour buses arrived and the temperature got too hot. We walked into the hotel lobby and »

Driving in Mexico is like investing your money in the stock market and skydiving… at the same time. One mistake and you could be seriously injured and/or take a large financial loss. People often pass vehicles on any side that has an opening, the speed bumps and topes (pronounced TOE-PAYS) will destroy your vehicle if taken too fast, gas station attendants will try to rip you off by not resetting the pump, and of course the infamous corrupt Mexican »

After spending a couple of days lounging in the beach beds and kayaking the rivers at the Hacienda Tres Rios we needed a change of scenery. We had visited the island of Cozumel in 2003 during a 7-day Caribbean cruise and thought it would be fun to go back and spend the day snorkeling and touring parts of the island that we had not seen before. The free shuttle to Playa del Carmen was booked solid that day so we had the hotel call us a taxi. The taxi »

We were not looking forward to the timeshare presentation at Hacienda Tres Rios. If you have never experienced a high pressure timeshare presentation, count yourself lucky. The presentation usually goes something like this: They make promises to give you cash, travel excursions, trinkets, discounts, or whatever it takes to get you to agree to their “90 minute” presentation. Once you show up for the presentation you meet the sales person who acts »

The rooms at the Hacienda Tres Rios are nice. They have polished marble floors, a flat screen television, comfortable beds, and a nice view from the balcony. But they do not make you feel like you are in Mexico. For all we knew, we could have been in a nice hotel in downtown Anywhere, USA. After attempting to drain the hotels water supply by taking long showers we went to check out the beach and the resort’s swimming pools. The beaches were a little »