A Slightly Reckless Way to Start a Holiday (for us)

Today was the first day of our trip to Mexico, which still feels slightly unexpected.

Two weeks ago we had no plans to be here at all. The idea had been a week somewhere in the Mediterranean at the beginning of October. Spain, Turkey and Greece all came up at various points, but nothing quite grabbed us. Then a very cheap deal appeared for the Riviera Maya, near Cancún, and within a surprisingly short space of time Mexico had replaced all of them.

This is exceptionally late booking for us. I already have the flights, hotels and a rough schedule in place for Canada in June 2027, so arranging a long-haul holiday barely a fortnight before departure feels almost reckless.

The day started early with the drive to Manchester. We stopped first for a McDonald’s cappuccino and then crossed the Peak District in that slightly strange early-morning calm when the roads are quiet and a journey to the airport begins to feel like part of the holiday rather than simply something to get through.

We arrived at Terminal 2 Meet & Greet almost exactly on time. Bag drop was painless enough, although a change of aircraft meant our original boarding passes had to be replaced. Security was equally straightforward, helped enormously by no longer having to unpack liquids and electronics into separate trays. A small thing, perhaps, but airport security feels considerably more civilised without the familiar scramble to dismantle your hand luggage.

We tried the executive lounge for a while. It was busy and, rather disappointingly, a little grotty, so after sitting there for a short time we gave up and went back down to the main departure area. Oddly, it was much nicer: lighter, more spacious and far less claustrophobic.

The flight itself was reassuringly uneventful.

Linda managed seven episodes of The Pitt, which felt like an impressive achievement in its own right, while I watched the hours slowly disappear somewhere over the Atlantic. The food was surprisingly good and, despite the length of the flight, it all passed without much drama.

The original idea was that this would be a relatively quiet holiday by the pool.

We have been to Mexico before, both times with family, so we have already done many of the obvious sights. That was the theory, anyway. Inevitably, after a few conversations about what we might do “just once or twice”, the quiet week began to acquire a small itinerary of its own.

At that point we abandoned the TUI transfer and booked a car with Avis.

We have hired a lot of cars over the years and probably 90% of them have been with Avis. I think of them a little like McDonald’s: wherever you are in the world, you broadly know what you are going to get. Even so, I am always slightly nervous about the collection process.

And at some point, without me really noticing, airport car hire seems to have stopped being at the airport. Increasingly there is now a bus involved, followed by another building somewhere a few miles away. Cancún was no exception.

In the end, though, it was all fairly painless. The inevitable attempt to sell us extra insurance came and went without too much drama, and before long we were out on the road.

The drive itself could hardly have been simpler. Essentially one long, straight road from the airport towards the hotel, with that familiar feeling of arriving somewhere warm and slightly unfamiliar while trying to remember exactly how everyone else drives.

First impressions of the hotel were not especially promising.

The room had a slightly musty smell and felt as though it had perhaps been closed up for a while. We were told the hotel was only around 35% full, so maybe that explained it. A large resort at low occupancy can have a slightly strange atmosphere at first, as though everything is open but not quite fully awake.

We went looking for the buffet dinner.

There wasn’t one.

Apparently during the quieter season the hotel closes the evening buffet and relies instead on guests booking the speciality restaurants, presumably because it makes more sense than producing mountains of buffet food for a half-empty hotel.

So instead we ate outside at the Mexican restaurant, looking straight out towards the ocean, which was a considerable improvement on wandering around trying to find a buffet that did not exist.

We also had company.

Halfway through dinner an extremely tame raccoon appeared and casually jumped onto the chair opposite me, looking for all the world as though he had a reservation.

Shooing him made absolutely no difference. He simply sat there with the patient expression of someone wondering when his starter was arriving.

The waiter eventually appeared with a water spray and dispatched him with the efficiency of somebody who had clearly done this many times before.

It was, all things considered, a rather good first dinner in Mexico.