What We Saw in Mexico

Picking back up on my review of the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya, I wanted to highlight the amazing experiences we had in Mexico. With our reservations, we had $1,500 in resort credits. This credit could be used at the spa or salon, for a romantic dinner on the beach, for a wine or tequila tasting or for excursions.
This photo, however, was not included.

We got a couples massage, pedicures, manicures and facials. I loved the massage, but I would suggest forgoing the couples thing. You pay a $25 upcharge to have your massages together, which doesn't net you anything other than a shared room. We thought we'd get champagne or something, so it wasn't really worth it. The manicure/pedicure was also underwhelming, but the facial was great.

Our first excursion was to Chichen Itza, which is about three hours away from the resort. 

The tour included a stop off at a tourist knick knack store where I picked up a new friend.

 

We also stopped at a cafeteria-style place for lunch before reaching the ruins. It was amazing. No wonder this place is one of the new seven wonders of the world. It was expansive and wonderful. We spent three hours there before heading back to the resort.

The next day, we took a half day excursion to Tulum, a smaller, closer Mayan ruins that has an amazing beach.

 
We spent a few hours there checking out the buildings, the sites and the scenery. The beach was so amazing, but quite tiny. It was totally worth going out there just to see the beach.

Our final excursion was swimming with dolphins. I don't have any pictures because I wasn't sure how I felt about it. It was so cool to pet the dolphins and such, but I just hope they're nice to the animals and they're treated well. I clearly have issues.

If I had it to do all over again, I'd skip the manicures and pedicures and get our massages separate. That way, we might be able to squeeze another massage out of the experience. We saw the most we could with the credits we were given, though, so it turned out well.