Do you have that place where you go to so often it feels like home away from home? You know the places you want to eat, the stores you want to shop in, the views you are accustomed to, so you forget to take pictures because everything is embedded in your memories. For me this place is Cozumel, an island located of the East Coast of Mexico in the Caribbean across from Playa del Carmen/Cancun. As i started writing this blog a year ago it would have seemed to most people who know me that the first place I would write about would be here but it is such a special place to me I wanted to go back this year and look at it with fresh eyes, take pictures, create new experiences. We landed in beautiful sunshine at the end of March and this began 11 gorgeous days and one very rainy one, this of course was fitting as it was our last full day there. I like to think the island was crying because we had to leave.

We stay at the Grand Park Royal every time we visit.  Yes there are lots of other great hotels but we like the staff, the proximity to town, the beach and even better this year they made one of the beachfront pools an adult only area. If you go tell Aldo I say hi, he is one of the main concierges in the lobby area. If you need anything special he can arrange it for you from a private tour, dive guide, off site dinner recommendations and much more. When you enter the lobby you are greeted with a massive thatched roof and very friendly staff (this hotel does offer timeshare so you will need to decide for yourself if you want to look into that). I would recommend booking an ocean view room and if you book through Expedia they are now offering upgrades to one of the higher floors and spa discounts (we took advantage of both).

There is a buffet that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.  For breakfast I have a go to of a chorizo, tomato, cilantro and cheese omelet (had this every single day), a glass of chocolate milk (brings out the kid in me) and fresh fruit. I rarely go to the lunch buffet as I am usually at the pool, diving or on an excursion.  So I take advantage of the snack bar and have a guilty vacation pleasure of a hotdog with nacho cheese sauce, pickles and mustard. Most evening we go to the buffet but there are three other restaurants, Caribbean, Mexican and Italian that you can make reservations for. I recommend doing this your first day as they book up quickly.  I don’t personally think its necessary to go to these unless you are looking for a more intimate setting than the buffet room.

For the nights we go into town we visit three restaurants every trip. The first is Wet Wendy’s, here we always order to share…a peanut butter margarita, queso fundido with chorizo, fried avocado and an entree (I like the tacos, both grilled shrimp and fish).  Usually we end up here twice on our trips because its so good.

Next we go to El Moro, this is a small back alley restaurant view a view of the street that unless someone tells you about you will never find. Order the seafood sampler platter (its not on the menu but is a must), the grouper is so delicious and a margarita (we had mango).

Our third must visit restaurant is Guido’s…I know what you are thinking…Italian food in Mexico? The answer is YES! They make pasta from scratch and the seafood is fresh from the sea. To drink you have to have the sangria (we like white), and we usually end up drinking two small pitchers so I am not sure why we don’t just order the large one. We started with the garlic flatbread and caprese salad. For my entree I ordered squid ink linguine with scallops, shrimp and octopus. Jacs ordered the prosciutto wrapped scallops with a Milanese risotto. Even though we were quite full we made room for their specialty the Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert. Are you hungry yet?

Tonight we went into town for some shopping, ceviche at The Thirsty Cougar, followed by a fabulous taco tour. Thanks to Juan Carlos with The Taco Tour Cozumel for a fun and delicious night filled with tacos and fun facts about the island. I hope anyone visiting here will take this tour. You won’t be disappointed!

1. Campechano (this was my favorite…beef cooked in pork fat with chorizo). Sadly the Tripe was not ready yet and we were too full on the way home.
2. Arrachera (Skirt Steak) and Beef Tongue (3rd fav)
3. Chile Relleno (2nd fav) and Mole (4th fav)
4. Pastor and Chuleta Fresca
5. Taco crepe for dessert! I chose banana with Nutella of course

If you are a shopper of jewelry then I recommend going to Mexican Fire Opal (they are not online but if you are in the town square go to the clock tower.  To the right you will see a bank and then a yellow building with a restaurant and then you will see the shop.  Oscar, Javier and Joseph will take good care of you, let them know I sent you. This year I bought two pieces a Zultanite ring and a Fire Opal pendant. I was looking for a pendant to go on a rose gold chain and the original setting was in silver with white sapphires. They remade the setting for me in rose gold included in my price and they resized a few rings that no longer fit (side effect of weight loss).  If you are looking for a large selection of quality souvenirs I recommend Cinco Soles at the North end of town.  This is not a place where we haggle on price and you may spend a bit more than you would on the street but the quality and selection is fantastic.

As we do every trip we prearrange a diving trip with Hector Aguilar (we have been diving with him for 5 years). We book a private boat for only a bit more than a public boat.  This year we had a new diver with us so she had her own dive-master who certified her open water dives for her PADI tropical referral course. Because our friends had never been diving here we requested to go to the Palancar Wall and Caves and as usual they did not disappoint. We saw turtles, rays, a huge moral eel, a nurse shark and tons of fish. What we love best about this dive site is all the swim-through’s, its an experience you will never forget.

The last adventure we took with our friends before they went home was to rent a jeep and drive around the island. We did not go into Punta Sur because Jacs and I were going on a bike tour and one of our friends really wanted to see the ruins so we had to pick and choose.  Our favorite stop of the day was for Mango Mojito’s (the best on the planet) at Welcome to Miami where we lazed about in hammocks for the afternoon.  We drove on to Coconuts, the view is great but the food and drinks are below par.  We ended up running out of time so we drove up first thing in the morning to San Gervasio to wander through the Mayan Ruins, this was a good decision as it was already getting very warm out.

After our friends had gone home, Jacs and I had arranged a private electric bike tour with Beach Bum Bikes. Our guide Fernando was great. We rode all through Punta Sur, to the lighthouse and lagoon and then we made a quick stop for another mango mojito at Welcome to Miami because you cannot ever have to many of them.  We did some off-roading up to Jade Cenote but it was too brackish to swim but we saw lots of bats.  This was a fantastic day and we will definitely do it again.

As always it is hard to say goodbye to this beautiful island but for those of you who know me know that I will be back soon.

Happy Travels!