Spring Break 2017: Club Med Cancun Yucatan

We spent last week on the beach in Cancun, Mexico. Want to see? I’d love to share our family vacation with you. Lots of pictures. More pictures than words.  And I feel like I have to say this: there’s a mix of crappy iPhone pictures with nicer shots with my big camera. Note to self: lug out the big camera more. Better pictures are worth the hassle.

Traveling with Kids

Tim and I have made it a priority to travel together, just the two of us. We find it so important to have that time to reconnect and focus on just us, away from the kids, who in our everyday lives can consume us.

That means we haven’t traveled with the kids as often. We take road trips to see our families every summer, and we’ve gone to Disney with Tim’s parents (twice), but this was our first “family vacation” with just us. 

This trip made me realize that while I love traveling with just Tim, I really love traveling with the kids, too. Life goal: travel more. Less stuff, more experiences. 

Club Med Cancun Yucatan

Here we are checking in to our resort, Club Med Cancun Yucatan.

If you are looking for a super family-friendly resort, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better fit than Club Med Cancun Yucatan. My kids just loved this place!

There’s so much for families to do at this resort. 

Because of its unique location, there is one beach where the waves are big and fun to play in, and on the other side of the resort there is a beach with calm waters where you can kayak, sail, paddle board, or wind surf. Meghan and I kayaked, but we didn’t get any pictures. 

On the other side of the resort, there’s a lagoon where you can go water skiing. I was tempted, but slightly afraid the lagoon may have crocodiles, so decided to not ski. All of the water sports are included at no extra charge. 

There was a toucan and lizard the kids could get pictures with, but only one of my kids was interested in that. 😉

There is also a Kid’s Club that, if you want, you can drop your kids off to hang out and do activities with their staff. We didn’t do this simply because this was our vacation with the kids, but it’s a nice feature for couples who aren’t ever able to have their own vacation.

The one day Meghan did take part in the Kid’s Club was the day they had a performance. She wouldn’t miss that! She spent time rehearsing with the group of kids and then got to get up on stage and perform in the evening show. She loved it!

Every night there was a kid-friendly show to watch, but it started at 8:30. Luke was usually ready for bed, so I’d bring him to bed and Meghan and Tim would stay up for the show. Meghan and Tim are the night owls of the family and Luke and I are the early birds. 

There was also tennis, basketball, a playground, and mini golf. There’s no way you could ever be bored at Club Med!

The last activity I have to tell you about is the trapeze. When we were searching for resorts online, it was the trapeze that had Meghan transfixed. She knew Club Med Cancun Yucatan was the place she wanted to be when she saw she could go on a real trapeze. She did it with NO FEAR.

Tim and I also tried the trapeze (Luke wouldn’t do it), and let me tell you, that thing was SCARY. I have a fear of heights and I almost didn’t make it up the ladder. After I finished, I knew I never wanted to do it again. Meghan did it twice and I’m still amazed at how brave she is.

The Ocean

Of all the different activities, my kids seemed to love swimming in the ocean the best. The first day, I think they spend about 6 hours in the ocean with barely a break. At that point I was worried about my stamina for the rest of the vacation.

The ocean definitely wore Luke out. He napped every day. Sometimes right on the beach, other times he demanded we take him back to the room. “I’m going to sleep for 90 minutes in my bed!” He’s a unique 5 year old, for sure. Loves his sleep, just like his mama.

Food

We’ve been to all-inclusive resorts where the food was terrible, so we are always weary when we stay at an all-inclusive. I love food and having bad food on a vacation is a bummer. This time, we got really lucky because the food was fabulous. 

You’ll have to take my word for it, because this is the closest I have to a food picture. I shared a few on my Instagram stories but didn’t save them. 

I will say this: we indulged a lot on this vacation. I ate all the delicious Mexican foods and loved them so much. We had dessert everyday and wow, it was good. That’s what vacations are for, no? Enjoying good food without worry. And it’s always a nice reminder how indulging that much isn’t a sustainable lifestyle. It feels great to be back to my regular eating routine today.

Most meals we ate at the main buffet. There were a lot of options for both us and the kids and different stations of fresh foods being prepared, something different every day. The last night we ate at one of the two other restaurants that required a reservation, and it was good also.

As I’m sharing these pictures, I’m noticing that we don’t have one photograph of all four of us together. Funny.

Weather

It rained one full day while we were there, and two more half days. Although it really stinks to have rain on a beach vacation, we tried to stay positive and make the best of it. We ended up swimming in the pool straight through the rain on one of the days.

“We’re not going to let this rain spoil our fun” as Luke said.

We did a little painting during some of the rainy weather, too. Such concentration.

Even with the rain, this was such a fantastic family vacation.

We miss you already, Mexico. xoxo