Trip Review - Holbox, Mexico

Considered not posting this, but after spending the weekend in Holbox, it's obvious the cat is long out of the bag with the island, especially with the Europeans.

I first heard about Holbox 10 years ago when we went to an all inclusive in Playa Mujeres. We had a photographer come and take us to playa blanca off resort. In talking she said, the best beach to go here is Holbox. I remember looking then and it was a relatively obscure beach town, I wish I had taken her advice and gone sooner. What an amazing place.

Travel:
We flew into Cancun and then booked our shuttle with Holbox Tour and Travel. They were right on time with a sign in hand to guide us. Cost was ~$120 each way.

The drive is ~2 hours and there's no way around it being a shitty drive. Small bumpy roads where the driver goes about 100mph, but other than paying for the plane (which I'd do with a group of 3 couples or more), it's your only option to get to Chiquila for the ferry. After an early flight, I fell asleep off and on for about an hour. We made it to Chiquila, bought round trip ferry tickets ($15 each way per person), and caught the ferry within 10 minutes of being there. 20 minutes later, we were getting unloaded in Holbox. It makes for a long travel day, especially compared to the resort area, but it's worth it.

Stay:

I wanted to stay at Casa Las Tortugas. It was booked during our stay so unfortunately it wasn't an option. I think it was the highest rated resort on the island. We stayed right next to it at the Mawimbi Hotel. It was awesome. Only complaint was the paper thin walls and windows. We were there during Carnaval, so it was like having a front row seat to the show outside in our room until 3am all weekend with the floats and parades going on outside. I think there are 20 rooms at Mawimbi and the hotel is serviced by the same 8-10 workers. Salvadore and Homber were great. We had the complimentary beach and laid at the beach club each day. It was about $350/night

Mawimbi only had nights for us for 2 nights, so we stayed at the El Corazon Boutique the remaining 2 nights. I didn't know this when I booked it, but they had a share with Mawimbi for beach access. Corazon was a little further from the water than Mawimbi (4 blocks) and not as nice, but still a great stay and a great breakfast. It was about $250/night.

The Mawimbi beach club and bar seems to be one of the nicest on the whole island. We never really left that spot during the day. Drinks were reasonable, but resort priced. $250 pesos for a mixed drink/pina colada. $80 pesos for a beer. A lot of times I got up, walked to the mini-market, bought a few beers for $20 pesos each and drank them while walking around or put them in my Yeti.

Ocean
The water was hit or miss. It seemed like each afternoon the tide and wind blew in and with it, came the sargassum. We had one day it was really bad and we had another where it was almost completely gone the entire day. When it's not there, man what a pretty sight to see. When it is, it doesn't hinder anything, but is kind of meh. This is entirely dependent on where you stay on the island. There were a few resorts a couple hundred yards North of us that had beach clubs where the only view was sargassum and piles of old sagassum, which doesn't smell the best. I would have been disappointed to spend a couple hundred dollars a night and deal with that.

Food & Drinks
Each morning Mawimbi and El Corazon put together a pretty basic breakfast. Fresh fruit, yogurt, eggs, and beans. It was very nice to start your day with a filling/delicious meal and not having to think about food.

For lunch we often found a taco spot or small food place. Ate well for dinner.

Lunch:
2x De Tuxpan Veracrus - The best carne asada quesadilla I've ever had. We went back two days to eat it.
1x La Barracuda - Incredible Ceviche and Guac. The Large platter mixed Ceviche is enough for 2 people to eat. Chicken tacos were average, but this was the place to go for seafood.

Dinner:
Barba Negra - Went for dinner the first night. Had the tacos. Fish for me. Steak for the wife. Pretty good spot. I thought over priced for tacos, but a nice kickoff for the trip
Viva Zapata - The best corn tortillas I've ever had handed out by the little old woman who was in the back making them. Chicken Fajita plate for me. Steak fajita plate for my wife. Both very good and filling.
Tierrasal Lena y Fuego - This was a cool place with a lot of people out. A few checked in with reservations, but we didn't need it for the 2 of us. My wife had the pistacchio crusted fish. I had the Pasta Carbonara. After eating tacos and Quesadillas, it was perfect. Had a few glasses of wine and a beer. All in ~$100.
Ruben Pizza Holbox - On the last night we wanted Lobster Pizza, so we at at Ruben's. It's inside an open air market of all sorts of food trucks and a couple of guys making Pizzas and throwing them in the oven right there. Good portions. It was like $30 for 2 pizzas and 2 beers.

I loved Holbox. We've done Costa Rica and chose this trip over a return to Costa Rica or going to USVI/BVI. I messaged multiple friends while there that we needed to go back sometime in the future. The beach was great (aside from the sargassum), it was reasonably priced, and it checked the box of being a more immersive trip that a normal resort. Mawimbi was the perfect quaint little place if you're looking for chill and relaxation. I love the town aspect of just being able to leave your stuff at the beach club and walk to any one of a couple hundred restaurants and bars. I won't be surprised if Holbox is the next Tulum (I've never been), if it's not already that, but while it's not, put it on your list.

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