A Globetrotter in …. Cancun?

This spring, I had $300 vouchers for a Frontier Airlines flight. And, Frontier has direct flights to Cancun. This made the idea of traveling to Cancun for Spring break with my husband and three children very attractive. In just under four hours, we could leave behind a gloomy Kansas spring, and be on the pristine beaches of Cancun.

The only problem was I did not want to go to Cancun – famed for its high-rise hotels and Spring Breakers who get drunk and party ‘til they drop. Not my idea of an ideal vacation. As a former backpacker who has traveled the world with (and without) three kids in tow, Cancun seemed a bit too touristy for my tastes.

Of course, I knew that there are many small towns on the Mayan Riviera where one can stay. You can fly to Cancun and travel to Tulum or Puerto Morelos or another smaller town. These towns don’t have the party vibes and built-up atmosphere of Cancun.

Thus I began my search for an isolated palapa in Tulum where I could be alone basking in the Caribbean sun. After an extensive online search, however, I realized that Tulum is not the same as it was when I last visited in 1999. It has turned into an expensive eco-resort destination where beach hotels are $150 a night and up. And (gasp) many of them don’t accept children!

I thus looked into Akumal, where I found a decent condo for $80 a night. However, some online searching revealed that Akumal has a busy, small, crowded beach.

After spending hours online, I decided that I could not waste any more time trying to find a place from afar. We’d just fly to Cancun and figure it out from there. One thing I know about traveling is that, outside the United States, the best deals often are not online.

At the Westin, where Iguanas roam free

Feeling just a bit nervous about taking my husband and three kids to Cancun without any hotel lined up, I went on priceline.com. Actually, first I went on betterbidding.com to figure out what the going rate for a hotel in Cancun was. I couldn’t believe it! We could get a 5-star or resort hotel in Cancun for $55 a night. I placed my bid for $55 a night and we got the Westin, a very nice hotel at the more secluded end of Cancun. When they gave me the option to extend my stay one more night, I decided, “why not?” That’s how we spent our first two nights in Cancun.


And, I have to admit it was nice. My kids are partial to fancy hotels. I found out that the hotel has free parking. Since the taxi was going to be at least $30, we decided to rent a car for the same price. We got a decent car from Easy Way and thus were able to travel to the city of Cancun for dinner. In the city, the food is much better and cheaper than on the beach.

Tatiana at the Hilton Swimming Pool

We decided to rent a car for the week. That enabled us to leave our lovely resort hotel early in the morning after our second night and travel to Tulum to find a hotel. I’ll describe that trip and the hotel in another post. For now, I want to focus on one key point. We went back to Cancun after three nights in Tulum because I booked our last two nights at the Hilton in Cancun.


Our hotel in Tulum was $40 a night, and it was a two-star at best. The girls complained that the television didn’t work and it didn’t have a swimming pool. The hotel was far from the beach, and the room was small. For just a few dollars more, we could be at the Hilton. So, we went back and had a lovely, relaxing time our last two days in Cancun.

There you have it. That’s how a globetrotting backpacker ended up at the Hilton and Westin in … Cancun!