Back in August 2023, myself (Lucy) and Adam got married. As we’ve lived together for a while now, we asked for any wedding gifts to be money that we could put towards our honeymoon. As I had done most of the planning for the wedding, Adam was left in charge of organising the honeymoon, which he kept a complete surprise from me. Over the next five weeks, we’ll tell you all about the mystery Mexico honeymoon. We hope you enjoy!
Travelling to Mexico
Within the UK, TUI Airways flies directly to Cancun, Mexico from eight different airports. These are London Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, Doncaster Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. Being based in the East Midlands, quite a few of these are close enough to travel to without being too far away. Adam chose Manchester as these flight times suited us best.
We drove to Manchester Airport the morning of our flight – our flight time was 12 noon so it wasn’t too early of a morning for us. We parked at JetParks Ringway which Adam had booked beforehand with the travel agents. The car parking couldn’t have been easier. As we had pre-booked, the barriers to the car park opened as we drove up to them and then we drove in and found a parking space. Once we found a space, we waited at the closest bus stop until the bus came. Luckily this wasn’t very long. The bus drove round to the airport and stopped off at all three terminals. This took around 14 minutes in total as our terminal was the last stop.
Once at the terminal, we checked in our luggage and went through security. Again this didn’t take us long. Once we were through to the departures lounge, our gate hadn’t been called yet so we went and got some breakfast. We went to Wagamama for breakfast – something we didn’t even realise they did – but we both really enjoyed our meals.
Not long after breakfast, our gate was called. However, when we got to the gate, they were not letting people onto the plane yet so there was a big queue and the gate was situated in a narrow corridor so it felt very busy. We still hadn’t started boarding the plane when we were due to depart but we boarded not long after. Thankfully this didn’t take too long and soon we were on our way to Mexico!
Arriving at Cancun
After around a ten hour flight, and a whole book read, we touched down in Cancun. It didn’t take too long to get off the plane and the walk to immigration wasn’t too long. We had been given a form to fill in on the plane but hadn’t had a pen so searched for a pen in my bag whilst we queued and filled in the form. However, we didn’t need our form for this part of arrivals and just had to speak to the woman in the booth.
Once through the immigration booth, we had to wait for our baggage – this is where the airport started to get crazy! Instead of just one flight’s luggage coming onto the conveyer belt, three flight’s worth of luggage was on it. The area around the conveyer belt was really busy and we ended up waiting for our luggage for quite a while. Once we had got our luggage, it was hard to leave the area because of how busy it was and how little space there was to squeeze through with two big suitcases and two small suitcases. Thankfully Adam took the two big suitcases so I could squeeze through with the two little ones.
Next we had to give our forms to a man on the gate. He checked over it and gave us half back to hand in before leaving. We then had to put our suitcases through another x-ray machine. Once through this, we had to give another woman the other half of our immigration sheet. She then instructed us to press a red button which lit up two lights in front of her. If the light went green, you could leave the airport. If the light went red, it meant you had been picked for a random suitcase search. Remember how I said Adam was holding both of the big suitcases, well guess who got a red light – you got it! Him!
This took such a long time and I had to go and wait in the main part of the airport for him. Here was crazy too! There were lots of car hire companies trying to persuade everyone who walked through to hire a car from them. We couldn’t see any signs for where the hotel transfers were and thankfully an English couple who had been on the same slight spotted us looking completely lost and directed us to the right place.
Travelling around Mexico
Adam had pre-booked a private transfer to the hotel for us. Coach transfers were available but for just a few pounds extra each, Adam thought it was worth it to get a private transfer. Once we had found where to get this from, we didn’t have to wait long for our transfer. We got into the car ready for our hour and a half drive to the hotel.
It was dark for the majority of the drive to the hotel but driving through Mexico, you don’t see that much. The roads reminded us a bit of Wacky Races and we couldn’t really understand the rules of the road. We were both very glad that we didn’t have to drive ourselves. There were check points along the road, which were full of men dressed in camouflage uniforms and holding huge guns. When the vehicles approached these check points, quite a few of them flashed their hazard lights. The road to our hotel was one straight road, similar to a motorway here in the UK, but didn’t really have exits like motorways do – cars could pull onto the road in most places. Also if you wanted to go to somewhere that was on the other side of the road, you had to wait until there was a specified space in the middle of the road where you could do a u-turn and then drive back to where you wanted to go.
We finally arrived at our hotel but we weren’t even sure it was a hotel as as you drove along the one straight road, you couldn’t really see anything as most hotels were set back off of the road. Our hotel was behind a large gate with security on it – again with a large gun! We weren’t sure where we’d come to. However as soon as the gates opened and we drove onto the resort, it was like we’d been transported to a completely different world. We drove down a long drive lined with lit palm trees and we knew we had arrived in paradise. The transfer dropped us off at the hotel reception.
Travelling around the resort
Once we had been dropped off at the resort and checked our bags in with the Bellhop, we checked in. After checking in, the Bellhop loaded our luggage into a golf buggy and took us to our villa and our room.
These golf buggies were available for all guests to take us around the resort, especially to the different restaurants around the resort. We didn’t use them that much as it wasn’t too far to walk around the resort and we enjoyed walking along the beach and through the rainforest and spotting different types of wildlife.
More travel around Mexico
As part of our honeymoon, we went out on an excursion one day (more on that later in the miniblog) and this was the only day that we went out of the resort. As part of the excursion, transport was included. We were picked up in a mini-bus from one part of the resort. When we got on, the mini-bus was already full of people who had been picked up from other hotels around the area. The minibus stayed with us for the full day, took us to the different stops on the excursion and then took us back to the hotel at the end of the day.
Although we didn’t go out of the hotel on any other days, the hotel rep had said that they would be able to book us taxis to the two local towns if we did want to go and explore them. This way they would confirm a price for the taxi before going so that people wouldn’t be overcharged. We made friends with a couple from close to where we live who had been out to Playa del Carmen who said that the hotel had booked them the taxi, the taxi had dropped them off and then waited the three hours they went shopping so they knew who was bringing them back and where they would be waiting for them. They also didn’t have to pay the full price for the taxi until they got back to the hotel – they were impressed with this service from the taxi.
Travelling home
On the last day of the honeymoon, the Bellhop came to our room to pick us and our luggage up (we had booked this with the concierge a few days prior). We were dropped off at reception where we waited for our private transfer back to the hotel. We waited with people who were also getting a coach transfer. The coach transfer arrived before our transfer as they had to pick up other passengers from other hotels on the way to the airport.
Our private transfer didn’t arrive on time but the TUI rep was there to help us out. She rung through to the transfer company and the transfer arrived soon after. We ended up arriving at the airport at the same time as the coach transfer so it didn’t end up too much later than it should have been.
At the Cancun airport, everything was quite slick from dropping off baggage and going through security. At security, you could leave all electronics and liquids in your bag so this made it go a lot quicker than back at Manchester. We had plenty of time to get food before our gate was called so we went to TGI Fridays for food – which was very expensive and I wouldn’t recommend going to.
There was then plenty of seating for us to wait in until our gate was called. The boarding of the plane was a lot quicker going home and we departed on time. Due to head and tail wind, the flight home was also a lot quicker.
Once we landed back at Manchester, the arrivals department was pretty quiet so we got through there quickly, just as baggage was coming through to the baggage hall. Adam’s suitcase came through really quickly but mine came through one of the last so this was the longest wait we had at Manchester Airport. Once we came out of the airport, we found the bus stop for our car park bus which arrived minutes after so we didn’t have to wait long to get back to the car – this journey took around 8 minutes as we just drove straight to the car park. We then got back to our car and set off on our way home. Again, because we had pre-booked the car park, we just drove up to the barrier which lifted up and we set off home from our honeymoon.
Overall the travel wasn’t too complicated for our honeymoon but I would definitely recommend not having to do any of the driving yourself, other than to the airport car park, especially in Mexico!
