what's going on everybody this is islandhopper tv and today we are coming to you from
Xel Ha and we're going to talk about Riviera Maya things to know let's get into it [Music]
yeah so the first thing you want to know is what exactly is riviera maya
the Yucatan coast that faces towards the Caribbean sea so from Belize all the way up
towards right where cancun is that whole area in between that includes akumal
playa del carmen uh tulum that whole area bakalar that's all riviera maya
so uh why do they call it that well you ever heard of the french riviera this is why they call it
that is because you have the coastline right there and this is where the mayans lived so riviera maya
so the riviera maya is actually famous for all of its resorts that's what this place is known for
you've got many different villages small villages where they have just big resort communities
400 all-inclusive non-inclusive all these different types of mega chain resorts every
time you're driving down the freeway right alongside here you'll see on both sides of
the road these big complexes that's where all the resorts are when you're in small towns like akumal
there's basically one big giant uh resort compound whereas playa del carmen it does
have resorts but it's got mostly hotels in there same thing with hotel zone up in cancun they are
there are some resorts in between but for the most part you're either going to be staying at a resort
or you're going to be staying at some chain hotel or even a airbnb
we've stayed at both i prefer the smaller hotels to the bigger ones
yeah so there's a lot of activities that you're going to want to do when you come here zaha owned
by ashcarette ashcrat is a main park which is a cultural center an aquatic park uh historical park
lots of different things at the escherite main park but here at jalha which is another escarrette
property it's more of an eco park so your activities are going to be different or explore
so there's various different uh theme parks and then there's actually going out into activities
like uh tulum archaeological site or chichen itza the closest ones that you're going to really see
are going to be tulum archaeological site most people are probably going to go there look at
this little guy right here he wants to come and be in the camera he like came running right up here
okay those are all over the riviera maya we'll talk about uh animals but get getting back into
the uh things the activities uh most of them are gonna be like going to cenotes
which are privately owned uh so they're not gonna be regulated whereas you go to these
theme parks they are regulated that means you know you're going to do the mass thing
they're going to be guidelines and restrictions you're going to cenotes there's no
regulation it's a free-for-all they can have a whole bunch of people in there
over in these regulated places there's limitations to how many people can come here
all right so is riviera maya family friendly and my answer would be yes but is everywhere
uh family friendly no uh many people think that it's a honeymoon destination or a spring bay
break destination but as you can see here at zaha there's tons of kids people brought their
kids from uh the u.s from europe from all over the world and they bring them to these theme
parks like i was telling you about earlier and the resorts they do have some pretty good
accommodations specifically for families so yes riviera maya is a place you can totally bring
all three of your kids five of your kids ten of your grandkids who knows how many
and have a really good time but you will want to come to places like escarette or zoho
it comes to safety in riviera maya that's probably something you're really concerned about i would
say overall it is really safe i mean uh cozumel that's a island just off the coast of riviera maya
pretty safe place a lot of people don't think it's safe when they get here until they get out
get around but uh overall i would say this whole place playa del carmen
walking around here there's going to be isolated incidents but for the most part it's a really
safe place so don't be too concerned uh obviously at night it gets a little bit
more wild but pretty much going around the daytime it's a safe place
so when it comes to the weather out here you're going to notice that uh the dry season is kind
of inverted here we are in the tropics it's going to be from november until about march or february
that's the dry season probably the best time to come here the hottest time to be here is going to
be june believe it or not march may through may not necessarily the best time to be here even
though it's spring spring break a lot of people like to come here during that time period it does
get really hot muggy and humid we're here uh in march right now and uh it's pretty humid i mean
the sun can be cooking hot so uh but overall they do get uh you know some hurricanes to be aware of
that that's gonna happen probably starting in august until about november at the latest so
if you could travel here it's just be aware that that's possibly when some hurricanes could show
up so do a little bit of research on hurricane season before you book during that time period
yeah so when it comes to transportation the best way to get around is probably going to be taxi
unless you have a private car so if you actually have a rental car that will get you pretty much
up and down the coast although the driving is a bit wild i mean people drive in the middle of
the road uh you got taxi cabs even the ones that you're driving in they're going to be coming like
driving basically in the middle of the road kind of swerving in and out the roads are not straight
they're like curbs right in the middle of the road you'll have oncoming traffic you know
it's just a wild cruise but when you're in a taxi cab that's probably the most ideal or they have
this aventura it's like an uh there's a i don't know the exact name of it but it's what the locals
take it's a lot cheaper but uh again it's not a regulated deal so with the taxis it's regulated
but when you're if you want to save some money they do have a line that goes up and down the uh
the highway from basically tulum all the way up to playa del carmen maybe even up above cancun
just cheaper but not regulated a little bit more wild when i say wild i mean like you know it's
it's a free-for-all and that's how the locals like to do it when you gringos show up here
you guys want regulations you want to be protected you want to be safe
and i understand that but that's that's basically transportation out here they do
have some shuttles also shuttles are are good but you got to stop uh every once in a while
and drop off and then you got to go to the next hotel drop off or pick up and then sometimes if
you're the last one to get picked up or dropped off it can really uh be a hassle in the shuttles
yeah so the flora and the fauna the plant life the vegetation and the animals let's see i'll
tell you what's out here so they do have snakes okay they also have these ring-tailed kind of cats
i would call them a kota monday but that's not what they're called down here they do have some
jaguars they have about five different species of large cats that are out here the jaguar the puma
and a couple other smaller cats but you won't you rarely come across those now
uh there are those uh brown recluse spiders so just things that you'll want to keep in mind
out here they do have those black iguanas so but there's not a lot of predators out there aside
from the big cats so you're good they do have two different species of monkeys that you'll find out
here the mexican spider monkey i can't remember the other one but good luck to finding that then
in the uh marine wildlife you'll see manatees see stingrays you'll see dolphins uh although
it's not as abundant as i would like it to be when it comes to the plant life you could see
lots of tropical plants out here you've got these palm trees it's really a true rain forest out
here in the yucatan and riviera maya so uh i don't know about hiking through all that thick brush but
you know the mayans they used to live here so pretty cool
all right let's talk nightlife in riviera maya i'm going to tell you right now playa del carmen
is poppin nightlife straight up if you want nightlife that's where you're going to go everyone
thinks you got to go to cozumel and then you're going to have this great time cozumel is not
really a party place and you know you just leave car play del carmen and you go across the ferry
be careful with that because uh the orange ferry is 40 minutes the del mar is 20 minutes
stay away from the orange one unless you like inhaling uh what is it um gas toxic fumes
uh but as far as the nightlife goes tulum's going to have some nightlife plied del carmen
going to have some nightlife cozumel not so much i mentioned that even though it's an island uh but
um cancun has some pretty good nightlife but overall i would say playa del carmen
that's the spot to be if you're a big nightlife kind of person so is tulum getting going with that
so for those of you who are curious if you can come to riviera maya and genuinely relax
absolutely make sure you pick a really nice hotel resort that has a pool great ambiance and you can
totally escape that rat race that you're in come on down here and relax it's a really inves it is
a relaxing environment some people come down here to even work for extended periods of time just to
get into a relaxing environment while working uh maybe remotely but you can see right now i'm
relaxing in the jungle you could sit and relax on a beach you could sit and relax by a pool
totally relaxing place so if you're one of those people who just needs a moment to relax you're
going to find that here in riviera maya but me personally i like the adventures
yeah so when it comes to the bugs out here in uh riviera maya there are these no seems or i can't
see them or the invisible bugs that'll get you especially in tulum so they're not too bad in
playa del carmen and they are kind of seasonal there are going to be certain types of years or
time of the year when it's going to be worse but down in tulum they do say you want to bring some
bug spray so right now i'm not dealing with any mosquitoes or any bugs right here there's no seems
but uh they do have them in tulum i've been told that a couple times so bug spray it is manatees
all right guys so that's going to conclude this episode of things to know about riviera maya watch
some of these other videos here if you guys are looking to uh learn more about mexico i'll put
some links right here we've gone all over mexico subscribe to the channel we'll see on the next one