If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw that we took our kiddos to Mexico for Spring Break!
Want to guess how long I’ve been wanting to take my kiddos out of the country?
Like since they were born!! But… then the pandemic happened and we had the whole ordeal of getting passports…
But as soon as Bo adopted Avery, we got her new birth certificate and then applied for her passport!
Once we got everyone’s passports, I was eager to book a trip! I wasn’t sure where but I knew that I wanted to go somewhere tropical.
I followed travel bloggers and travel agents on tiktok and tried to learn as much as I could about all-inclusive resorts. I also priced out a trip to Costa Rica staying at an AirBNB.
When it came down to it, I wanted to go to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico that was family friendly. I found the Palladium Hotel and Dreams Natura, but Hotel Xcaret Mexico was the most appealing!
Hotel Xcaret (pronounced esh-car-et and roll that “r”) has three hotel and 8 different parks. Just by looking at the website, it was kind of difficult to see what was what so here is a quick explanation:
There are three hotels in Xcaret:
- Hotel Xcaret Mexico – this is the ONLY hotel at Xcaret that allows small children (under 16)
- Hotel Xcaret Arte – Adults only (16+)
- La Casa de La Playa – Boutique Hotel (16+) $$$$
We stayed at Hotel Xcaret Mexico in a “Suite Ocean View” in Casa Tierra. Casa Tierra is the building by the ocean. Next time we go, we thought about requesting a room close to the kids pool! And the swim up rooms looked amazing!
Our room had two queen beds, a hugeeee tub, a balcony with a hammock, and separate shower and separate toilet room (this was so helpful for 4 people in one room). The beds were super comfy!
What does “ALL FUN INCLUSIVE” mean?
There are 8 Parks at Xcaret (and more coming soon). Here are the parks and our experience with kids 4 and 8 years old:
We spent a few hours here and had an amazing time! We put our things in a locker (included) and put on sunscreen and bug spray, grabbed life jackets (included), and we chose to send one back pack to the end of the river (they put our backpack in a locked, waterproof bag and gave us a key to wear around our neck to pick it up at the end of the river). After we were all settled, we found the entry to the river and floated through caves and it was so fun and probably my favorite part of the whole trip!
After we were finished with the river, we followed the black trail to the beginning of the park and found the Children’s World. This was probably our kid’s favorite part! They have life jackets for the kids and lifeguards everywhere! There were two bridges, the one on the right led up to a ropes course/slide trail which looped around and around. The kids did the whole thing twice and it was so hard to get them to leave!
The only draw back of this park was the food/drink situation. At the other parks, all food and drink were included, but at Xcaret, you had to pay unless you were at a “buffet restaurant.”
We arrived in Mexico on a Saturday, so our concierge helped us plan what days we would go to different parks. Xel-Ha was one of two parks that were open on Sunday so we decided to go there first!
Xel-Ha was not one of the parks that I was looked forward to going to but it turned out to be so cool! To get there, it took an hour bus ride and we had to be on the bus by 9:30am and we couldn’t come back until 6:00pm so it was a big commitment with two kiddos.
When we arrived, we were offered upgraded experiences like swimming with dolphins, etc. This wasn’t something that we were interested in, but if you are, keep telling them that you aren’t interested and the price will keep going down. (The cheapest we heard was $50/person, buy 3 get 1 free)
Also, they were offering waterproof phone pouches 2 for $60+ (I can’t remember the exact amount but it was pricey)… If you want to take pictures with your phone, I suggest ordering a 2 pack on Amazon for $9.99.
Once we got into the park, we found a locker station and put away all of our things. Then, we ventured out! We snorkeled in the river, did a rope swing into a Cenote, jumped off a 14ft cliff into the water, ziplined into the water, and so much more!
At the end of the day we changed into our dry clothes and rode the bus back to the hotel.
Xplor is the more adventurous park, we didn’t get to this one during the day…
Xplor Fuego is just the Xplor Park at night. We did get to this park but once we got there we learned that my son (4) could only do a hand full of activities…
We did the underground river and the rafts, but that was it at this park. We did walk through what felt like miles of caves in between and the kiddos loved that! We also ate dinner here!
We were going to take turns zip-lining so one parent could stay with our son, but we then learned that the zip-line was 45 min and the kids were tired so we decided against it and just went back to the hotel.
The great thing about Xplor is that there is a bus every 20-30 min and the ride is quick.
Our concierge told us that our son (4) wasn’t big enough to go to this park but it looked super fun!
We didn’t make it to this park either! We just ran out of time! We heard from another family that it was fun with the kids and it was a quick park!
From what we heard, this is a party on a boat! Super fun, but we didn’t make it to this one either.
Our concierge told us that our son wasn’t big enough for this park either.
My Tips:
- If you can pack everything in a carry-on do it! It will save time going when you land.
- Call ahead to make dinner reservations at the restaurants that require it. Our favorites were Catina Los Faroles (no need for a reservation)
- Avoid the “invitation to the 90-minute presentation.” Your concierge will offer this to you when you get to the resort and offer you coupons to the HA’ restaurant or the spa or to swim with the dolphins. We accepted and the presentation took about 3 hours and it was the most intense sales process I’ve ever been through. To me, I will gladly pay $250 for a massage and not waste my time on something that is the price of a car.
- When you get your wrist bands, but the kids’ on your own arm (unless they are big kids) Our daughter lost her swimming the first day and the wristbands are $150 to get another one.
- When you go to the parks, wear your water shoes. Pack a change of clothes, sun screen, and water bottles to refill.
Must-Haves:
water shoes – https://amzn.to/3qklavJ
kids water shoes – https://amzn.to/3qiZwYN
waterproof phone pouch – https://amzn.to/3ubS7eP
waterproof phone case – https://amzn.to/3N2gNz3
biker shorts – https://amzn.to/3u6whtn
fire tablets – https://amzn.to/3ihrtf5
bluetooth headphones for kids – https://amzn.to/3ieXTHj
sun screen – https://amzn.to/3KTbnEO
bug spray – https://amzn.to/3ip5enr
body glide – https://amzn.to/3KWy6A0
kids suit case – https://www.target.com/p/kids-crckt-21-hardside-carry-on-spinner-suitcase/-/A-85336624?preselect=80183838#lnk=sametab
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