Our Travel to Mexico

At the end of January, my husband and I flew to Merida, Mexico. Merida is on the Yucatan Peninsula and is just over 3 hours northwest of Cancun. Neither one of us had ever been to Merida, so we were looking forward to a new adventure.

We stayed at the Chable’ Yucatan Resort, which is about 40 miles east of Merida. The resort is beautiful and resides on the grounds of an old hacienda.

Our travel down there was a long one as right now, there doesn’t appear to be many, if any, direct flights to Merida. The airport in Merida is not huge and it was fairly easy to get through customs. One of the nicer aspects of the airport is that unlike in Cabo, there weren’t any sales people trying to snag you into visiting a time share or going on excursions. The car rentals are located very close (within walking distance) to the airport as well which was very convenient.

We arrived too late to the resort to do much exploring the first night. We were welcomed by the staff and taken by golf cart to our casita. The casita was perfect for a couple. A bonus for me was the pool just outside our door. The casita gives you the feeling of the jungle being part of the room with the walls of the bathroom being almost entirely glass. (I guess we forgot to take a picture of the shower! There was an outside shower that had a “waterfall” that you could shower in. Unfortunately, we could never get it hot enough to actually do so!)

The day after arriving, we slept in a little, got dressed and then headed for a special treat of a couples massage at the Wellness Center located on the resort. (The first part of that experience differed for Patric and me, so I’ll only cover what I experienced for this portion.) After being greeted at the front desk, both of us were led to separate changing areas for men and women. After changing into my swimsuit and storing my clothes, the spa assistant led me outside to a walled off area that had three different plunge pools to my right and to my left were a couple of saunas. This experience is part of their complementary hydrotherapy experience.

The spa assistant led me to the sauna, where I sat for about 10 minutes working up a good sweat. When my 10 minutes were up, she led me to the first pool which was comfortably heated and I enjoyed for another 10 minutes. She came out again and directed me to the middle pool. This was ice cold. All I could think of was Patric and if he was going to brave the cold or not*. She timed me for a minute and when the minute was up, I was then taken to the last pool which was nice and hot and full of jet streams. I was in this pool for another 10 minutes.

The spa assistant retrieved me and I was led back inside to dry off, handed off my swimsuit to her, got my spa robe on and was led outside to meet up with Patric. We were escorted by the two young women who would be giving us our massages. We opted for the Floral Blossom massage as it was sixty minutes of gentle massage. We also chose the private suite because after the massage, we were able to stay in the suite for an additional hour after our massage. Our massages were some of the best either of us had ever experienced.

Once the massages were completed, one of the massage therapists started the water that was in the big stone tub next to the massage tables. She added some bubble bath to the water and we were able to wash off before getting into the pool just outside the private suite. I also enjoyed the champagne provided to us and we enjoyed the mix of berries and nuts. The private suite and pool is located right next to the cenote that is on property. The cenote is not swimmable but it was very beautiful.

That evening, we went to the fine-dining restaurant on the resort, Ixi’im. According to their website, this restaurant was named the best hotel restaurant in 2023. This restaurant boasts the largest collection of tequila in the world. Each of the main rooms holds floor to ceiling bottles of tequila. The restaurant is located in an old structure that once housed the textile factory where henequin rope was made. The old walls are supported by large beams located throughout along with glass walls which allows you to see the old walls of the original structure. The building is truly architecturally beautiful, combining 21st century engineering along with old world aesthetics.

After dinner, we headed back to our room to relax for the rest of the evening.

Part two of our Merida adventure will be up soon.

*Gentle reader – Patric did not do the cold plunge pool because his experience was different than mine, but he said that had he been given the option, there was no way in hell he would have done it.