Top Things to See and Do with One Week in Mexico

Cheap fares to Mexico are not uncommon, so if you are looking for a budget-friendly getaway, keep reading! In an effort to save money, we took a one week trip to Mexico using a package through CheapCaribbean. Reviews of this website are mixed, but we certainly had no problem and spent about $950 for roundtrip flights and an all inclusive hotel for one week. Talk about a steal!

Note that while most of our trips are EXTREMELY packed with activities, we decided to make this one a little more relaxing. There are a few just “relax” days in the itinerary, but feel free to add activities on these days as you wish!

Day 1: Getting to Mexico

The first day was mostly a travel day. We booked transfer services to our resort through Canada Transfers in advance, but there are many options available. Upon landing in the Cancun airport, our shuttle was waiting for us and drove us for approximately 1.5 hours to our resort. We would be staying at Barcelo Maya Beach and Caribe for the entirety of our trip, an all-inclusive family resort.

After checking in and getting organized in our room, we walked around the resort, catching one of the free shows happening that night.

Day 2: Relaxing on the Beach

This was one of our planned “relax” days. After sleeping in and grabbing food at the breakfast buffet, we grabbed our towels and headed for the beautiful waters! The day was spent reading, eating and swimming.

Note that there WAS seaweed on the coast, but the resort’s workers did their best to clean it up as much as possible. It wasn’t a huge issue, but was pretty gross when entering/exiting the ocean. This has been an ongoing problem in Riviera Maya for many years that they are still looking for a permanent solution for.

That night we enjoyed a fancy dinner and got dressed up to head to Jaguars, our local nightclub. We danced the night away!

Day 3: Relaxing by the Pool

Well, we relaxed by the beach. Now it was time to relax by the pool! After having a few Pina Coladas, we joined in water aerobics and dance lessons in the pool!

We also spent this day wandering around our resort to see what else it had to offer. We found some beautiful blue waters and a “Riviera Maya” sign – a great spot for some photos!

That night we did a photo shoot on the beach. I was able to use my nighttime lens with my Sony a6000 to get some fancy shots!

Please see the other locations for Days 4 and 5 before returning to Playa Del Carmen.

Day 6: Xel-ha

There are A LOT of options for aquatic theme parks near Riviera Maya, but after a lot of research, we opted to purchase tickets for Xel-ha. There are also a ton of way to purchase tickets, but we purchased through mycancuntours.com as they were the cheapest at the time. Transportation to/from the park from our resort was included.

The park itself is large, clean and with tons of activities for adults and children! Make sure to wear biodegradable sunscreen as you will be spending a lot of time in the sun today. Also, bring some snacks if you want to save some money!

We rode tubes through the mangroves, ziplined into the blue waters, and snorkeled in a large lagoon, just to start. There are cliffs to dive from, tropical birds to hold, and plenty of dining options.

There is so much to see and do here, we definitely recommend a full day! There’s even an area just to fall asleep in the hammocks, if all the activity wipes you out like it did to us!

After a full day at Xel-ha, we were driven back to our resort and got dolled up for a fancy “last dinner”.

The night ended at Jaguar’s, our local nightclub, yet again. 

Day 7: Last Day in Mexico

We had an evening flight, which allowed us some time to hang out at the resort in the early part of the day. We had made some friends at Jaguar’s the night before, so we used today to hang out in the pool with our new friends!

Unfortunately, it was soon time to say goodbye. We packed up, got our transfer back to the airport, and hopped on a plane back home.