After all of the stress and excitement during the last couple of weeks before the wedding (not to mention the wedding day itself), a week out of the country doing absolutely nothing at all was MUCH needed. We spent the week after the wedding in Playa del Carmen, which is just south of Cancun. Other than being a little rainy, it was the perfect honeymoon. Relaxing, and full of good food and drinks.
Our resort
The only thing Brent really cared about in the entire wedding planning process was that our honeymoon would be at an all-inclusive resort. We used CheapCaribbean.com and found a great deal at Paradisus. It is a 5-star resort, so it was like having date nights at 5-star restaurants every night for a week. We felt so spoiled. There were multiple bars and probably 15 restaurants to choose from. All of the restaurants were included, except for one that you had to pay for because the chef is world-famous I guess. We didn’t end up going there because there were so many other options that we didn’t have to pay for. This is a pretty big resort, but half of it is adults only. The adults only side never felt crowded at all. The all-guest side was more crowded with lots of kids, but still not too bad. I think we only had kids at dinner one of the nights.
Brent is smart, so he chose the bar closest to our room and tipped really well the first couple of nights. So every time we got drinks at that bar, they were the best quality. We ended up hanging out at that bar every night we were there, and sometimes during the day too when it was raining. They had couches and beds everywhere, as well as regular tables. They had a DJ and sometimes live music every night too, so it was really a fun atmosphere.
Most of the time we were there, we spent in the main pool right by our room. It had a swim-up bar, but they also had great service. If you didn’t have a drink in your hand, someone would go get one for you pretty quickly. They also had a snack bar, little huts with beds that you could reserve, and a good amount of room to lay out. So we really didn’t ever have to leave that pool if we didn’t want to. If we ever go to this resort again, we are going to get a first floor room because they were swim-up rooms. They had a kind of moat that went around to all of the first floor rooms so they had their own private little parts of the pool basically.
Our room
Our room was definitely better than any hotel room I had stayed at before. We had a main area that included a kitchen, living room, and balcony that had a jacuzzi on it. The balcony was also accessible through the bedroom. The bathroom had two rooms – one room had a large bathtub, two sinks, and a large closet area with lots of mirrors all over the room. This room was perfect for getting ready. Then there was a separate room with the toilet, shower (with double shower heads), and another sink. I seriously couldn’t get over how swanky that bathroom was.
It was really nice having a jacuzzi outside on our balcony. Even if it was raining, we could still be out in the water. Almost every night, we ordered room service (a bottle of wine and dessert) and hung out in the jacuzzi. It was so relaxing and romantic, and we felt SO classy.
The food
Our first night, we were so tired after a day of traveling, and we hadn’t made any reservations yet, so we actually just hung out at the bar for a bit and then went back to the room and ordered room service. I think I just had a burger and fries or something and Brent had maybe a steak? Honestly we were so exhausted. I did take a picture of our dessert though!
The restaurant we went to the second night actually ended up being our favorite. It was Latin fusion and it was amazing. My favorite was the ceviche. We had one that was tuna and one that was octopus. For the meal, I had some sort of fish on rice. I don’t even remember exactly, and don’t remember what Brent even had but it was so so so good.
The third night, we had sushi. We both love sushi, and any time we have the chance to get fresh sushi when we’re on the coast, of course we have to do it. The best part of an all-inclusive resort is you can order as much food as you want since it’s all included! So we ordered four rolls at first, and then ordered four more plus a couple of apps. Definitely some of the best sushi we have had. The resort also has a winery on it, so any wine from their winery was free as well. We had a LOT of wine on this trip lol
On our final night, we had to eat at the Mexican restaurant of course. Our server actually brought us every single app on the menu. I think it was like six or seven different apps and they were all pretty good. One was actually bone marrow that you scrape out of a bone. For dinner, I had octopus that actually looked like an octopus. This was one of my favorite meals but Brent wasn’t so impressed.
The outfits
My favorite thing about packing for a tropical vacation is you just wear a simple dress every day. If I wasn’t in my swimsuit, I just threw a dress on and maybe a necklace. Not a lot of effort went into any look this week. The first full day, I wore this simple white dress from Amazon. It is a little see through, but it was okay since I was just wearing a swimsuit underneath anyway.
For dinner that night, I wore this simple black dress from Amazon but didn’t get any great pictures of it. On the second day, I actually had bought this swim cover-up from the store on the resort. I thought it was so cute and unique. Plus it was super lightweight, which was nice because it was so hot and muggy. All of my swimsuits are from Victoria’s Secret, but I didn’t really get great pictures of any of them.
My dress for the sushi restaurant is my favorite one of the trip. I love this dress so much, and it’s actually from Kohl’s. I bought it for my family bridal shower, and it was perfect for Mexico too. I like how light and flowy it is, and it has a built in bra that is really flattering. I wore the same shoes from Lulu’s every night.
We only actually went to the beach for a little bit on our last day of the trip. The water was pretty murky at the time and there was a lot of seafood, I guess because of all the storms in the Gulf lately. So we didn’t even get in the water, we just got drinks and laid out for a bit. This swim cover-up is so cute and so cheap on Amazon.
For our final dinner at the Mexican restaurant, I wore this cute dress that is also from Kohl’s. I love the off-the-shoulder look. It’s simple but still nice for date night.
We had such a great time even though it was a relatively short trip. Brent did want to do one or two excursions, but with it raining for a little bit each day it wasn’t ideal weather for leaving the resort. Plus all I really wanted to do was lay around, drink fruity drinks, and hang out in the pool as much as possible. It really was the perfect honeymoon for me. After all of the wedding craziness, it was nice to just have a few days to be all by ourselves and not have to worry about anything, especially money. We loved our resort too, and would definitely go back anytime if we return to Playa del Carmen someday.
