I'm not a cruise guy either. the thought of being stuck on a ship with thousands of fat obnoxious tourists eating doesn't sound appealing. And then when you do stop, you are at a tourist trap with not much time to really do much. Just my 2 cents Having said that, I wouldn't mind taking an Alaskan cruise sometime
Yeah, it's better to ignore him so he doesn't have another reason to reply in this thread. Good point, when you port you end up at a tourist trap area anyways. The pendulum is swinging back to a resort.
if the beach is a big deal for you, playa del carmen is awesome and you can take excursions to tulum and xel ha, etc. if you don't care about ancient ruins and what not i would suggest going to st. john and staying in http://www.maho.org/ or something like it. little more $ than mexico but super cool and relaxing. oh, and is ronny not american or what?
Merida is unlike any other city in the Yucatan. Very, very historical. About 25 years ago, my wife and I spent 3 weeks having fun in Yucatan and Merida was one of our favorite places. We stayed at the Grand Hotel, which was like out of a movie in the 1930's. Very run down, but in a good way, if anyone knows what I mean. Don't go there during the summer months, because the heat and humidity are unreal, but well worth a visit. I've read about some of those colonial rentals, thegary, and it sounds very tempting. You have any to suggest?
i stayed in her house: http://www.yucatanliving.com/art/carla-zarebska-not-forgetting.htm http://www.vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/23100.html
Did you go after the Hurricane a few years ago? What did you think of those GIGANTIC "whales" on the beach? That was really my only complaint, but there's not much they can do about it. It was either that, or have the entire beach erode away.
Not sure what the deals are now, but we used to get a package thingy including the airfare (like "3 nights, including air!!"), and then stay somewhere else after the 3 nights, or extend our stay if we liked the place. Generally, you can fly back whenever you want. Understand that I haven't done this in years!
Try someone like Worry-Free vacations, apple vacations, or travel agents. If you go to a travel agent, they'll sit down with you and go over a lot of different options in your price range & they'll tell you what they've heard about the different resorts, etc. They can usually get you deals that you can't get online as well.
what's funny about this comment is just how many non-Americans there are on a cruise. I went on a Greek cruise a couple of years ago and most of the people were NOT American. But, hey us lazy Americans are just fascinated with cruises. Or maybe its that we don't have months of vacation time like those hard working Europeans and have to take advantage of shorter vacations. A cruise, for example, to the Greek Islands allowed us to see far more places in a week than had I planned it on my own.
What's funny about this comment is that a boat is needed to visit an archipelago. And Greece is located... in Europe.
so its ok for euros to go on a cruise visiting islands around europe but it's not ok for americans to take a cruise leaving america to visit islands?
Do you really want to get into a travel habits + intentions of Europeans vs Americans argument? Don't get me wrong - it would be my pleasure to go into scrupulous detail for those who haven't been outside of Texas - but the insecurities of these people will struggle to digest it (ima_drummer and professorjay come to mind) and you will see a lot of frustrated accusations thrown out. It's so American to want to sit back with 40 other tourists, kick it, and update your facebook from an internet station on a boat telling everyone about the exotic locations you are "passing by" while you make no effort to explore on your own and get your feet wet. No individuality, no sense of curiosity.
Just some friendly advice, don't feed the trolls. BTW, I think I'm going to pick one of the recommendations in this thread and finalize it this weekend. Good picks so far.