CANCUN: MORE THAN JUST ALL-INCLUSIVE RESORTS

I had never been to Mexico until this past September.

Yup, that’s right. The one place where even all of my non-traveling friends had visited, I hadn’t. And you know why? Because Cancun had never interested me.

I honestly probably wouldn’t have visited Cancun if it hadn’t been the destination for the annual travel blogger’s conference TBEX.

Whenever I thought about Cancun the only things that came to mind were all-inclusive resorts and partying. While there is a time and a place for staying at all-inclusive hotels, like when we went to the Maldives or for a romantic honeymoon, it’s certainly not what I had in mind for a trip with a group of friends.

Upon doing some hotel researched, I saw that Flipkey offered plenty of accommodation options other than all-inclusive resorts!

You all know by now that I like being able to stay like a local in places I visit, which is why this was my third time staying in a Flipkey rental. And while there really isn’t anything local about Cancun, we still wanted somewhere affordable, somewhere that we could all stay together, and somewhere convenient for getting around, since we were heading there for work after all. 

And after falling in love with a property on Flipkey, we booked it and were ready to go.

Compared to the price of all the all-inclusives nearby (which are insanely high because food and activities are factored in), we saved a fortune by booking an apartment. Split between our group, it was far more cost effective even after factoring in exorbitant taxi prices to get around the strip.

We ended up choosing a penthouse right along the beach, it sounds fancier than it was, trust me, but it allowed everyone to have plenty of space. It had a large common area, which was perfect for when we all wanted to hang out and socialize, yet its multiple bedrooms offered more privacy for when we got sick of each other.

It was so much nicer than having to run up and down the hallways of some impersonal resort trying to herd everyone together. Plus, there was never any argument on where we could go to hangout or whose hotel room we’d have to take over.

I loved having a spacious kitchen that included a washer and dryer. Because let’s face it, after backpacking the previous month through Central America, I had needed to do laundry like yesterday!

Plus, check out that view from the kitchen table…

Don’t even begin to worry that we may have missed out on the best part of any all-inclusive, the all you can drink bit, because we had more than our fair share of tequila flowing in our apartment!

Relaxing on the balcony each evening, while taking in the sunset with friends, I knew we had made the right decision in booking an apartment.

And while I wouldn’t recommend the exact property we stayed in as there were quite a few misrepresentations, I would use Flipkey again in a heartbeat!

Disclaimer: A huge thank you to Flipkey for helping to host our stay. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d certainly still hate Cancun!