In fact some of our top highlights of our travels through central America were in Belize. It just kept getting better and better the more we went on to explore! The main attractions in Belize include wildlife, Mayan ruins and one of the longest barrier reefs in the world!

From scuba diving the Blue Hole to crawling through ancient cave systems, zip lining through the jungle, hiking to waterfalls or exploring wildlife, Belize is packed with ADVENTURE!

1. Sail to the Blue Hole in Belize

Ever since I saw a picture of the Blue Hole I knew I had to see it! But it was a little more complicated and expensive than we had anticipated. With a little bit of luck though, we managed to not only see it, but actually sailed to it. And this also meant visiting all the stunning islands along the way! In fact this experience was so spectacular that sailing to the Blue Hole alone is a huge adventure.

Apart from how beautiful the Blue Hole is, especially from above, it is also a pretty special place to dive and snorkel! If you keep close to the reef, the turquoise blue water is pretty shallow and it’s easy to spot many colourful and tropical fish. But to the other side, there is a sudden 125 meters drop where the water has a deep blue colour. This is generally where you spot bigger fish like sharks. The Blue Hole measures 300 meters across and it takes about 30-45 min. to complete the loop if you want to circle it.

What about diving the Blue Hole?

Diving is a completely different experience! Divers descent along a wall and once they reach a depth of about 36 meters, they can see stalactites which were formed by dripping water when the cave was above sea level. However, due to the lack of light the main attraction isn’t actually to spot sea life! The dive is more of a bucket-list achievement suitable for EXPERIENCED divers. So don’t be disappointed if you “just” get to snorkel! My personal highlight? Seeing the Blue Hole from above!

2. Lamanai Mayan ruins of Belize

The Lamanai temples are not just the oldest and best excavated mayan ruins in Belize. They are actually also my favourite Mayan ruins that we got to explore across Central America. Yep, including famous Mayan sites like Tikal and Chichén Itzá. Why?

Avoid cruise ship days and you will almost certainly have the temples to yourself if you make your way here independently!

The temples are most frequently visited by tours from Belize City by water taxi. Due to their location and you requiring to get there by water taxi, the tours cost upwards of 100 USD. The cost certainly puts many visitors off and if in addition to that you choose to make your way here independently and avoid cruise ship days, then you are almost certain to have the temples all to yourself! You will also save yourself a lot of money as the entrance fee is only 5 USD!

Shipyard was founded in 1958 by Old Colony Mennonites from Chihuahua and Durango states in Mexico. Most of the population of Shipyard are Plautdietsch-speaking ethnic Mennonites and very conservative. Horse and buggies are still the main transportation. We got a few friendly waves passing through but it’s definitely not a tourist destination, so ride through respectfully!

The Howler monkeys add to the ultimate jungle feel

I also loved how many howler monkeys live in the surrounding rainforests. You can hear them pretty much anywhere you go. As neither of us had previously heard them they initially really scared us. Then I figured out that all this noise couldn’t possibly be coming from an animal and I briefly suspected that the noises were being played by some hidden speakers in the trees to give you that jungle feel. How tacky I thought … until I saw an entire family of howler monkeys within seconds of forming that thought.

The face carvings of the Mask temple are very unique

We made our way from one temple to another with pretty much nobody else around. I loved the high temple for its stunning views of the endless surrounding rainforest. But the most special one was probably the mask temple which features mayan face carvings. We have previously seen smaller Mayan carvings, but never of facial features. So it was very unique, beautiful and different from all the other Mayan temples we visited throughout Mexico and Central America.

3. Visit the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Cave in Belize

Visiting the ATM cave was one of THE MOST UNFORGETTABLE and adventurous experiences of our travels through Central America! There is a limit of 120 people who are allowed to enter the cave per day and you’ll only be allowed to do so with a qualified guide! The drive from San Ignacio takes just under one hour. Then you’ll have to hike about 2 miles and cross three rivers before you make it to the entrance of the cave. Back in the days just getting to this point was a mission by itself but these days it’ll take you less than half an hour to get there from the parking lot!

What to expect?

The guided tour will take you deep into the underworld, which the ancient mayans used to refer to as Xibalba, meaning “Place of Freight”. Rightly so, as they were not only used for mayan ceremonies, but often to sacrifice humans!

Making your way through the 3 miles long cave will require you to mostly walk, swim for a short period of time, and towards the end climb a little. So expect to get soaking wet! As you make your way across the cave you’ll notice loads of pottery around you. At the end of mayan ceremonies pots were often thrown onto the ground to break them, so the majority of them are broken. But many are still mostly intact with smaller pieces missing.

But the most astonishing part is not only discovering the pre-Columbian pottery, but rather the many BONES, SKULLS and SKELETONS scattered across the cave. There is currently nothing (not even tape) to separate you from them. So the cave is very much left in the same way archeologists found it in 1989!

The entire experience of getting to the cave and exploring it was very exciting and surreal. It can be a little pricey around 85 USD so many people skip it. But trust me it’s 100% worth it to spend the money!!

How to get there?

Your best base is the town of San Ignacio. It’s a nice little town which caters well for travellers. As soon as you walk through the main street in town there’ll be one tour operator after another. So who do you go with?

Which tour operator is best?

Well, you’ll go with the cheapest one and let me tell you why! When the cave first opened to the public in 1998, the archeologists trained a number of local guides who applied to carry out tours of the cave. It doesn’t matter which tour operator you go with, as they ALL use one of the 120 qualified guides. So there is no reason to assume one tour is better than another! They all include transport to the nearest parking place and a basic lunch before you drive back into town. So on this occasion I feel confident that spending more money will not result in an enhanced experience!

Are YOU ready to explore Belize?

Unlike its neighbouring country Belize is certainly on the more expensive side. Especially if you are relying on booking one tour after another and don’t have your own transport. We weren’t quite prepared for it and definitely blew our budget BUT we are very happy that we did. Because Belize was totally worth it!

When it comes to value for money then yes, neighbouring Mexico or Guatemala offer a lot more bang for your buck. But if money is not a concern, then you definitely shouldn’t rush through Belize and explore all it has to offer!

Questions? Feedback? We are always happy to hear from you so please leave a comment below to share your thoughts

The post Belize: Do NOT Miss these 3 Amazing EXPERIENCES! appeared first on ADV Travelbug.

You might be surprised to hear that you don’t necessary need to be a qualified skipper or chef. Some captains will be happy to let you learn on the job! Applying for a deckhand for example requires you to help out with the day to day running of the boat but basically means you’ll help out wherever needed.

You can imagine our joy when my girlfriend Fiona and I found a boat to sail 15 days around Belize and snorkel around the Blue Hole. We used a german website called ‘Hand gegen Koje‘ and sailed on the Wild Too catamaran. But our experience definitely did not go to plan and had a lot of surprises in store! Hopefully sharing our experience will prepare you to ask the right questions before joining a boat or simply entertain you. We often still laugh about this crazy sailing trip!

Finding a boat to join

So neither of us had ever heard about any of these sites. In fact, we met a lovely, retired German couple during a sailing trip in Bacalar who introduced us to the concept just a few days before we tried this out for the first time. The way they explained it was that there are people travelling the world by boat and they rent out the cabin spaces for certain parts of their journey to help them towards the maintenance costs. So I saw it kind of like renting a room on AirBnB, except it was going to be on a boat!

As soon as we reached land we checked it out. Coincidentally there was a boat leaving in 48 hours. So we contacted the captain via the site but didn’t hear back. No worries we thought. We would simply go island hopping ourselves, in so far as was possible, relying on ferries and booking day tours.

Asking the right questions BEFORE you go

Then suddenly the captain, who had just docked in Belize City, got in touch. He just had a cancellation and could accommodate us if we could be ready the next morning. The cost was 700 Euros per person / week. Of course we were totally unprepared so I simply told him that neither of us had any experience with the site and asked him what would be expected of us. Other than the obvious, like keeping our space clean and such things. “Nothing” he replied. “The crew takes care of everything“!

The sailing trip was way out of our budget but this was going to be by far the best way to explore all the beautiful islands and snorkel along the second biggest Barrier Reef in the world. The catamaran looked modern and nice and we’d have a cabin to ourselves with a private bathroom. It’ll be like a honeymoon we thought and decided to splash out and join the trip!

Meeting up on the day of departure

We were met by our Captain Martin who seemed very nice and friendly. He introduced us to Mariette aka TULUMINIÑA who calls Mexico home and has established herself as a local tourist guide promoting conscious, sustainable travelling within the Yucatan Peninsula. She has a great vibe about herself and oozes positive energy so we were instantly happy to hear that she had booked the same sailing trip. Then there were a couple of Swiss guys in their 50s perhaps who seemed lovely too and a to my surprise a family. This was the first time I heard that a child was travelling with us. Martin only told us about Mariette and two couples. Neither of us had an issue with it but it certainly would have been nice to be told in advance, knowing we’d be sharing a small space for a long period of time!

All on board

Once everyone had met, we immediately boarded the boat. Martin took every person or couple in individually to show us our cabins. When he called us, he took us into the promised private cabin with private bathroom. To our surprise though, there was an additional single bed which he had already allocated to the lovely Mariette without asking us if we would mind a change of plans.

It was incredibly awkward to say anything on the spot but Fiona and I were both gutted. Mariette would be the nicest person you could possibly share a room with but after splashing out for this trip we wanted the privacy that was offered to us at the time of booking. But even this was NOT the biggest surprise of the day.

Pre-departure Meeting

Fiona and I still didn’t have a moment to discuss how we felt about the cabin situation when we were all called in for a briefing. Of course this included a safety talk, life on the boat and some practical information of how to flush the toilet and what not. But suddenly we started discussing people’s diets and I got very confused. The longer we spoke about it, the more confused I became. I glanced over at Fiona but she couldn’t make much sense of it either. When we started making a shopping list, I needed some clarification.

“I’m very confused” I said to Martin. “Hasn’t the crew already gone shopping”? The thought of needing to pass the shopping list to the crew and wait for them to return was annoying to say the least. I wanted to set sail and was even hoping to get some snorkelling in on our first day. We will never forget Martin’s response. “You ARE the crew”!

What the F***!

Fiona and I were horrified. When I asked Martin what was expected of us, he told me “nothing” because “the crew will take care of everything”. He forgot to bloody mention the crew was us! So what we had to do was go shopping, cook, do the dishes and as we’d later find out help out with the ropes, anker and watchkeeping. Words cannot describe how disappointed and betrayed we felt in this very moment!

When we disembarked to go shopping and reached the peer I pulled Fiona to the side and we could finally exchange a few words in private. “Do we want this”? I asked her. “I don’t know” Fiona said, clearly as horrified as I was.

We thought we’d signed up to what we thought would feel like a honeymoon. We knew there was an additional cost to the food which we were told was 70 Euros per person / week. But this was the first we heard that we’d signed up to be the actual crew!

We are here now

Fiona and I had to make a decision pretty quickly. We knew getting to the Blue Hole wasn’t easy at all. And we were looking forward to being able to see the most remote islands that we’d never be able to reach if we would just rely on day trips and visiting the main islands.

So although this was absolutely not what we had signed up for, we decided to still go ahead. We were already here after all!

Shopping like The Apprentice

Have you ever seen The Apprentice? There is usually a shopping task involved where teams have to shop smart and gather certain items within their budget. I remember the frantic scenes of smartly dressed business people trying to negotiate in the Medina of Marrakech, sticking out like a sore thumb. Or that other time they tried to negotiate at Smithfields – London’s biggest meat market – to source their ingredients for the task at hand.

THIS was exactly what shopping for the boat was like! Nobody had a car so we needed a taxi. We had to go to the supermarket but also the local fruit and vegetable market. Would we split up or stay together as a group? Would we even all fit into the taxi? Did we actually all have to go or were people happy to stay behind?

In the supermarket one thing became apparent very quickly: trying to cater for all sorts of different diets would be a nightmare! The child needed special food which the parents would pick out and pop in the basket. One person was vegetarian. The next gluten-intolerant. The other person lactose-intolerant. Honestly, I wanted to tear my hair out!

Can we afford this?

Belize was a very interesting place to shop. Fruits and vegetables were very reasonably priced at the market. The supermarkets weren’t cheap though. But any type of imported foreign food was extortionately priced. There was a jar of jam for 20 USD someone popped into the basket. Fiona grabbed some crisps that usually cost 1 USD and they were around 6 USD. Nutella was crazy expensive!

The worst part? The ease at which everyone just chucked whatever they fancied into the basket. I have no clue where Martin got the figure of 70 Euros per person from but at this rate, we would sure need to dig deeper into our pockets. And I didn’t care for any of the European junk food everyone wanted to buy. But here we are, splitting food bills with complete strangers. We were the only full-time travellers who had a budget to think about while everyone else had well paid corporate jobs back home.

Sailing (mostly) sober

We got to the alcohol section. Fiona doesn’t drink but I certainly enjoy a glass of wine! However when I saw the amounts of alcohol that people were buying I knew what to do. I told everyone we don’t drink alcohol and to share that part of the bill without us. And I sure am lucky we did!

I later ended up buying a bottle of wine on one of the islands and enjoyed it on the deck with Mariette – that was enough for me and saved us a lot of money!

Can we finally go sailing?

It was incredibly late in the day when we were finally able to set sail. It had taken the best part of the day to go shopping! We were starting to get bitten by mosquitos and so we decided to sail further out. But we didn’t make it very far and instead decided to call it a night and aim for an early start in the morning!

It wasn’t a great first day but I was just happy that we were finally sailing and would go snorkelling soon. But not so fast! The next day we first had to go to one of the main islands to do some paperwork for the boat!

In summary the first two days were simply “preparing for the trip”. So if you ever work out the daily cost of your sailing trip, bear in mind that by the time you do your shopping / admin you can easily lose 1-3 days.

Day 3: Time to relax

Finally! After a slow start we were sailing. One of my favourite things about sailing on catamarans is lying in the net in the front and feeling the occasional splash of water to cool you off. It’s also the best place to look out for and spot dolphins! Except, we were just about to learn the no-one-is-allowed-to-chill-in-the-nets rule. WHAAATTT????

I mean that’s the best part of being on a catamaran and never EVER have I heard that you shouldn’t use this area. But Martin was renting out the cabin spaces for a living and having recently replaced one of the nets, he decided it was cheaper to just ban people from using them altogether than to deal with any potential repairs from wear and tear. I was gutted! In addition there were no bean bags or anything to make for a comfortable arrangement of lying on the deck to sunbath. Lying a towel underneath you didn’t exactly help to increase the comfort.

Realising what we’ve signed up for

We were all chilling in various parts of the boat when Martin decided to get completely naked, go for a swim and shower right in front of us. Honestly, I’m fine with nudity when I go to the sauna but living with complete strangers on a boat for two weeks I certainly did not feel the need to get to know people THIS well! In fact, I feel it would have been polite to ask everyone else if they are okay with it, especially as we had a four years old child onboard.

It’s one of those things which, unless you address them right away, get really awkward. And as no one said anything in the first few days, it became normal and part of everyday life on the boat. But as the days passed Martin would start to draw attention onto him. Like asking a question just before he pulled his swim shorts down. Sometimes he would walk from the deck into his cabin and come back out again to get changed. Why couldn’t he have done that in his room? It’s like he wanted to make sure that we were actually watching. As it turned out, Martin was an exhibitionist. I hated that no one said anything, especially as we later found out that at least half of the crew felt uncomfortable with it.

But that would not be the worst issue …

… because the parents of the child turned out to be full-on racists. In the first few days they came out with really ignorant comments. The dad noticed that Fiona was pretty strong when she was working the ropes on the boat. “Look how good she is with the ropes” he pointed out. “Must have been because she’s used to chasing Tigers back home”. I was horrified!

Where do you think “back home” is? I asked. “Don’t know. Where is she from?”. I asked him to guess but he couldn’t come up with anything. Then I pointed out that Fiona was born in England. But he still didn’t get that his comment was really ignorant.

In the days to follow I then overheard a bunch of racist comments. Never said to me directly. And I’m pretty sure that no one else shared his opinions. I just think nobody on the boat wanted to point out to them that they were racist. I decided I wouldn’t be one of them and put him in his place. But throughout the entire time he never said any such comments to me directly. Just as well!

But what about the sailing, snorkeling and diving? Was it amazing?

Of course it was. Not just that. It was the best sailing trip and the best snorkelling we have ever experienced anywhere in the world! Being so far from the main islands tourists usually get to visit and being able to see all the beautiful remote islands instead was a privilege!

The sealife was unreal! It was so easy not just to spot tropical fish but also eagle rays, sharks, turtles, sting rays, manatees and dolphins. And sometimes just from the peer of an island you could see so much sea life in the shallow waters without even going snorkeling.

The highlight was of course seeing the Blue Hole. We even had it to ourselves for an entire 24 hours. It is one of our all-time travel highlights!

So was it worth it?

We later found out that although paying 3200 Euros for two weeks of sailing for two felt really expensive, it actually isn’t for Belize! Most people pay 350 USD for a day trip to the Blue Hole alone and don’t get to see all the amazing islands along the way.

So despite the fact that we weren’t keen on the captain or the family we shared the boat with, we have no regrets. There is no way we would have been able to experience Belize the way we did without this bizzare sailing experience!

That said, the only reason we feel this way is because The Blue Hole was such a highlight and just isn’t easy to get to. Had it been a sailing trip anywhere else in the world I don’t think we would have felt the same.

Top 5 Tips before you ever decide to join a boat like we did

• Check reviews of the captain / boat from other passengers
• Understand what your role is on board. Are you renting a cabin space or you expected to work / help out?
• Remember there will be additional costs for food, docking and National Park fee entrances
• Bear in mind that living with complete strangers on a boat for a week is A LOT no matter how exotic the destination is – you never know who you’ll you end up with on your boat
• Carry sea sickness tablets. When people got seasick we never stopped for them … the boat will keep going

In case I put you off

After our trip we caught up with the German couple who recommended this kind of travelling to us. They reassured us that they never had such an experience before! They were never part of the crew and never EVER had to cook, do the dishes or even take care of the shopping! For them it truly has always been a very relaxing and somewhat luxurious experience.

So please don’t be put off by our story. We just wanted to share our honest account of events to help you have a better experience or know what to look out for if you are looking into doing the same! Have you tried any of these websites before? How was your experience? As always we’d love to hear from, so please leave us a comment below.

The post Crewseekers: Best or Worst sailing Experience Ever? appeared first on ADV Travelbug.

The Blue Hole has a near perfect circular shape and due to the depth of the cave, the water has a deep blue colour. However, the water of the surrounding reefs is very shallow and its turquoise blue colours create a stark contrast. This makes the Blue Hole such a unique place to visit and seeing it from above is simply unreal!

Divers can swim along the walls 124 meters to the ground and explore the stalagmites. But beware! Apart from needing a lot of diving experience, it is also very dark down there. So you’ll probably be able to spot more sealife around the corrals surrounding the Blue Hole.

In the shallow water you can spot many colourful tropical fish, whereas eagle rays, turtles and sharks are usually easier to spot closer to the deeper water. I enjoyed swimming right in the middle so I’d have the turquoise blue water to my left and the drastic deep blue colours to the right. Snorkelling around the Blue Hole was simply magical!

Option 1: Flying above The Blue Hole

Experiencing the Blue Hole is pretty awesome! But if you truly want to see the coral reefs wrap around the dark blue circle surrounded by turquoise coloured water, then you need to fly over it. Or send your drone up, which will save you a ton of money But watch out as it can get pretty windy out here. The wind was around 17 knotts and when our Mavic Pro took off I knew that there was a high chance that I might not see my drone again. Luckily it made it all the way up to take some unforgettable pictures! The fact that it came back down and even landed back on our catamaran was a huge bonus (and relief)!

Pros

– The best way to see it and take photographs

Cons

– You’ll miss out on the snorkelling and diving

The biggest issue with this option you need to be aware of

Hiring a plane for 6 people to fly above the blue hole costs roughly 1,500 USD. So that works out about 250 USD per person. Sure, that’s pretty expensive but for some still affordable. The issue however is that unless you can find 6 people to go with, you’ll have to make up for the whole amount. We haven’t come across a single tour operator that took a booking per person!

Our friend Tracy who was travelling alone in Belize didn’t have anyone else to buddy up. But it was her childhood dream to see The Blue Hole so she ended up having to pay 1,500 USD to fly by herself. Ouch!!

Due to the cost involved we relied on our drone to ‘see’ the Blue Hole from above. However, if you are looking for a reputable tour operator to fly over it, Tropic Air has stellar reviews!

Option 2: Book a ‘Blue Hole Dive’

There are many tour operators based in Belize City and around the islands, like Caye Caulker and San Pedro. Most will offer a day return trip to the Blue Hole by speed boat for around 350 USD. Diving equipment is usually included together with water and lunch for the day.

Remember that diving down the Blue Hole is only recommended for EXPERIENCED divers as you need to descent 124 meters. The water around the surrounding corrals however is very shallow and makes for an easy dive. In fact, it’s perfect for snorkeling as well!

Fiona and I don’t dive and were looking for snorkeling tours to the Blue Hole. The only option we found was to tag along with a diving tour, but the price remains the same, even if you don’t dive. We opted for the sailing and snorkelling option instead!

Pros

– Diving the Blue Hole is a huge highlight and one to tick of your bucket list

Cons

– The Blue Hole is really far out and if you only book a day trip you’ll miss many other equally amazing diving spots like Glover’s Reef Atoll, Turneffe Islands Atoll, Lighthouse Reef and Half Moon Caye for example.

Option 3: Sailing to the Blue Hole

By far the best way to experience diving and snorkeling in Belize is NOT TO RUSH. Sailing will allow you to explore many different tiny islands and get plenty of snorkeling in.

Unfortunately this is also the most expensive way to explore the islands BUT by far, the most rewarding. Not everyone will have the necessary qualifications to rent their own sailing boat of course. But if you find a large enough group of friends to go, you can also rent a sailing boat with a skipper and share the costs. Click here to check out prices from a reputable company!

Fiona and I were just sailing around Bacalar a couple of days before arriving in Belize where we met a lovely retired couple from Germany who told us about ‘Hand Gegen Koje‘. It roughly translates into ‘hand for bunk’. We had never heard about this website, let alone the concept behind it before, but were immediately interested. It basically allows private boat owners to rent out their cabins, quite similar to the way you’d rent out an AirBnB, in return for you helping out on the boat. This means you can book sailing trips at a fraction of the usual cost!

Although we strongly believe that sailing to the Blue Hole is the most rewarding option, we didn’t have the best experience with the boat we joined. We have shared the link below to help you find a boat for free. We actually paid 700 Euros/week each for our sailing experience as we weren’t expecting to work on board. It didn’t quite go to plan though, so if you want an honest review of how that worked out for us check the following link. Crewseekers: Best or Worst Sailing Experience Ever?

Pros

– The best way to experience The Blue Hole WITHOUT missing out on all the other equally amazing world-class diving and snorkelling experiences around it

– Travelling slower will allow you to stop at many beautiful islands along the way

Cons

– Unless you charter the boat with your friends you don’t know who you’ll end up on the boat with

– If you are sailing you’ll need to work with the wind and be flexible enough to change your route

How would YOU like to experience the Blue Hole best?

I hope you found this blogpost useful and informative! Questions? Feedback? Thoughts? Let us know what your preferred option is and leave us a comment below

The post How to See the Blue Hole in Belize appeared first on ADV Travelbug.

Mexico truly has something for everybody! Artists can explore the thriving art scenes of places like San Miguel de Allende, Oaxaca City and San Cristobal de las Casas. Wine lovers can explore the ‘Ruta del Vino’ and foodies can feast on deliciously fresh seafood in Baja California. And then there is Oaxaca of course – the epicentre of Mexico’s food culture. But did you know that Mexico also offers world-class surf breaks, snorkelling and diving? And in addition to all of this, the abundance of natural beauty will leave hikers and nature-lovers truly spoilt for choice!

So no matter if you want to be completely off the grid and camp on remote beaches or party on rooftops, indulge in fine dining and relax in hot springs – Mexico won’t disappoint!

CLICK HERE TO EXPLORE MEXICO BY REGION or watch our travels through Mexico on YouTube for more travel inspiration!

1. Wine Tasting in Baja California

I’m an absolute wine lover! And despite the fact that Fiona doesn’t drink alcohol, I’ve managed to drag her to fourteen wine tastings across the world so far. It doesn’t matter if we are in Bali, Vietnam or Guatemala – if a country produces wine, then I want to taste it!

And what better welcome could we have expected after crossing the border into Mexico than to couchsurf with a local winemaker? It was pretty awesome! Jorge took us into work for a few days. We cleaned out barrels, checked all the sulphate levels, adjusted them accordingly and spent a lot of time in the actual vineyards. But the best part of it was tasting all the delicious wines of course and to make sure they were maturing well

You can explore ‘Ruta del Vino’ from Ensenada, or if you want to splash out, stay at one of the many vineyards.

2. Ride through the Sonoran Desert of Mexico

I’ve seen many deserts before but none quite like the Sonoran desert! Riding through it, surrounded by gigantic cacti, felt absolutely surreal! Surprisingly, despite the harsh climate the Sonoran desert has the most diverse vegetative growth of any desert in the world. Who would have thought?

To be honest, as we were riding through it I didn’t pay much attention to the diverse plant and animal life. The climate felt dry and harsh! But in reality, the types of plants growing here, not only survive but thrive in this environment!

There are two ways to experience the Sonoran desert. Ride south on Highway 1 and you’ll have a pretty decent asphalt road which only requires you to avoid a few potholes. Alternatively, take any of the dirt roads running in parallel to the highway. If off-road is your kind of thing, then you’ll be in heaven! We had an absolute blast riding through the Sonoran desert on our Adventure Bike.

CHECK OUT: TOP 10 PLACES TO VISIT IN BAJA CALIFORNIA

3. Swim with Whale Sharks in Mexico

Did you know that that there are many places in Mexico where you can snorkel or dive with Whale Sharks? They are the biggest fish in the ocean but don’t worry, they are very gentle and luckily don’t eat humans

If you want to swim with these gentle giants, then your best bet is Baja California or the Yucatan Peninsula. But pay attention to the time of the year as you can’t spot them all year round!

It is very easy to book tours to the Espiritu Santo Island National Park from La Paz. Punta Baja is a reputable tour operator with great reviews. Tours costs upwards of 100 USD.

For sure the nicest places in the Yucatan Peninsula to see the whale sharks from are Isla Holbox and Cozumel. However, this is down to personal preference (whale sharks aside these are two beautiful places to visit). To find out more check out the blogpost below!

TOP 10 PLACES TO VISIT IN THE YUCATAN PENINSULA

4. Sunbathe on Balandra Beach

Mexico is blessed with turquoise coloured water and white sand beaches. The Yucatan Peninsula and Oaxaca coastline in particular boast some of the most beautiful beaches in Mexico. But surprisingly, one of our all time favourite beaches was Balandra Beach in Baja California.

I loved how undeveloped it is! There are no public toilets, no bars, no restaurants, no nothing! You can’t pay for sun loungers on the beach, so you better bring everything you need for a beach day, including food and water. Secondly, the water is so shallow that you can walk onto one of the surrounding beaches. It wasn’t crowded when we visited but we felt adventurous. So we packed a dry bag and walked 30 min. across the water onto the opposite beach, which we literally had all to ourselves.

Last but not least, the turquoise colours of the water are UNREAL! Depending on the tide and day of time you visit the beach can look a little different and during low tide the water is particularly shallow! There is also a beautiful hike (you’ll see the trail easily from the car park) which will award you with the most stunning views of the coastline!

5. Celebrate Independence Day in Mexico

San Miguel de Allende is a beautiful small city in Guanajuato, with immaculately maintained colonial-style buildings and colourful carved wooden doors. It has a thriving art scene and some of the best rooftop bars in Mexico overlooking the historic town.

Independence Day attracts locals from all other parts of Mexico for a huge two day celebration. It starts with “El Grito de Dolores” on 15th September with parades moving through the streets surrounding the historic centre. And it ends with fireworks outside of ‘Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel’, the Neo-gothic 17th century parish church. Celebrating Independence Day in this picturesque city was definitely a highlight of our travels through Mexico!

San Miguel de Allende celebrates festivities all throughout the year and is a very popular place to visit. It is absolutely beautiful and of course also worth visiting outside of festivities. If you want to find out more about San Miguel de Allende then click here!

6. Hike to Tamul Waterfalls

The regions of San Luis Potosí and Chiapas in Mexico have an abundance of natural beauty and boast countless stunning waterfalls, as well as rivers with turquoise blue waters. But Tamul waterfalls was my absolute favourite one!

It’s pretty spectacular and in order to get close to it most people visit by boat. The scenery is stunning and the gorge completely overgrown with vegetation. BUT if you are feeling adventurous and don’t mind a little bit of off-road you can make your way to it independently allowing you to have the waterfalls all to yourself!

Click here to find out more about ‘La Huasteca Potosina’ and how to reach Tamul Waterfall without a tour.

7. Visit the hot springs of Grutas Tolantongo

Amongst the Sierra Madre mountain range in Hidalgo you might find the perhaps most perfect natural infinity pools. Carved into the cliffside and overlooking the mountains the views are hard to beat!

Or why not take a dip in the volcanically-heated thermal river? It flows down in sections creating perfect little pools to relax in. It originates at the main grotto where the water temperature is at its hottest and follows the canyon floor where the water temperature naturally gets cooler.

Fancy a natural sauna perhaps? Then step through the waterfall at the main grotto to explore the cave system where the temperature rises quickly with each step you take. Check out our in-depth guide for more information below!

GRUTAS TOLANTONGO – KNOW BEFORE YOU GO!

8. Celebrate ‘Día de Muertos’ in Mexico

The ‘Day of the Dead’ is a hugely celebrated Mexican holiday on 2nd November each year. It involves friends and family gathering to pray and remembering those who have died. However, it is NOT a morbid or sad occasion at all! In fact, it’s a JOYOUS celebration of the lives of the deceased which is celebrated with food, drink and parties!

‘Dia de los Muertos’ is generally more celebrated in the south of Mexico. During the day you can expect colourful parades involving music, dance and traditional costumes and in the evening everyone heads to the cemeteries to light up the graves with candles. In the lead up to it locals will often create symbolic altars and public art work as well as decorating their loved one’s grave.

9. Taste Tequila in Tequila

I’m not a huge fan of Tequila but if there is one place in Mexico to have a proper tasting then it has to be in Tequila of course. It’s a colourful, cute little town and with live music as well as a tequila bar right in the historic centre, it’s definitely worth a visit!

Sure, it can get a little touristy with buses in the shape of tequila barrels taking tourists from one distillery to another. But you can easily escape the crowds by visiting the distilleries independently. Our favourite distillery tour was with Tequila 3 Mujeres. It’s just at the outskirts of the city, much less commercial and offers a much more personal tasting experience of quality tequila!

You can even sleep in a giant tequila barrel at the world’s only hotel located inside an actual tequila factory! Matices Hotel de Barricas was a little out of our budget though, so we stayed in a cheap AirBnB right in town instead. But if your budget can stretch this far you can sleep amongst the agave fields in pretty luxurious rooms with a fantastic restaurant and underground tequila bar nearby. They even offer horseback riding in the agave fields and you can tour their distillery also!

10. Explore Oaxaca City

Oaxaca City is one of my two favourite cities in Mexico. I just loved getting lost in its cobbled little streets and walking past all the colourful houses and fascinating architecture. However, it’s nothing like the picture-perfect and immaculately maintained colonial buildings one can find in San Miguel de Allende. In fact many buildings look somewhat neglected and crumbling. But exactly that made it so authentic and fascinating!

Almost half of Oaxaca’s population is indigenous, so it is extremely rich in tradition and cultures. In addition it has a thriving art scene! And to top it all off, it’s also a little food paradise. A trip to ‘Mercado 20 de Noviembre’ food market will allow you to taste all the traditional dishes of this region. My absolute favourite was Tlayudas with Oaxcacan cheese – yummy!

There are also so many amazing day trips you can go on from here which make Oaxaca City a fantastic base to explore one of the best regions in Mexico. To find out more read the blogpost below!

TOP 5 PLACES TO VISIT IN OAXACA

11. Walk across ‘Hierve El Agua‘

Surrounded by beautiful mountains you will find a series of mineral springs and rock formations that are so beautiful they almost look unreal! The water which spills over the edge is very rich in minerals and has over time created a bunch of calcified waterfalls. The best way to see them is to go on a hike, which will also allow you to appreciate the true beauty of this place, as most tour buses just stop at Hierve el Agua for a quick photo opportunity!

To read the full guide on how to visit this amazing place click here!

12. Surf in Puerto Escondido

Oaxaca’s coastline has some of the most beautiful beaches in the whole of Mexico surrounded by lush green rainforest. But surprisingly, it doesn’t get anywhere near the visitor numbers that flock to the Yucatan Peninsula. So luckily you can enjoy these gorgeous beaches with fewer people!

The beaches around Puerto Escondido are particularly stunning and offer world-class surf breaks! Playa Zicatela is a 3.5km long beach and the best-known surfing spot in Oaxaca for experienced surfers. If you are just starting out, try a more sheltered beach like Playa Carrizalillo.

13. Fall in love with San Cristobal de las Casas

San Cristobal de las Casas was my favourite city in the whole of Mexico! It is set in a gorgeous valley surrounded by the central highlands of Chiapas. I instantly fell in love with its red tiled roofs, colourful houses and fascinating colonial architecture. Alongside a thriving art scene you’ll also find some of the finest coffee in Mexico. You’ll be able to soak up the atmosphere of this vibrant city from one of the many coffee shops and most even offer coffee tastings!

Check out the traditional markets, hike up to Cerro de Guadalupe to soak in the best view of the city or visit one of the many museums. San Cristobal de las Casas is such an awesome city that I have written a dedicated blogpost to tell you all there is to do, including best day trips. Want to know more? Check out the blogpost below!

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS: BEST CITY TO VISIT IN MEXICO

14. Stay on a coffee farm in Mexico

Did you know that Mexico is one of the biggest coffee producing countries in the world? ‘El Ruta del Café‘ is a windy mountain road in the Soconusco region of Chiapas surrounded by lush jungle and coffee plantations. There are several coffee farms you can visit and some even offer luxury accommodation.

If you want to know more about the Chiapas region of Mexico and what else there is to explore, then check out our blogpost below!

CHIAPAS: TOP 5 THINGS TO DO AND SEE

15. Relax on Holbox Island

Holbox is a car-free island with white sand beaches and a bohemian vibe. It is much quieter and much less developed than other islands around the Yucatan Peninsula. The town centre is cute and has a rustic feel to it with some nice coffee shops, bars and restaurants. But 75% of the island consists of jungle, mangroves and empty beaches, so it remains still largely unspoilt.

There is excellent snorkelling and you can spot flamingos straight from the beach also. Depending on the time of the year you can even swim with whale sharks or see planktons. If you are looking for a super chilled place to relax and not too crowded then you’ll like Holbox. There is also a number of luxury boutique hotels and nice restaurants if you want to treat yourself!

If you want to find out about other amazing places to visit within the Yucatan Peninsula, then check out the blogpost below!

TOP 10 PLACES TO VISIT IN THE YUCATAN PENINSULA

16. Join a yoga retreat in Mexico’s Hippie Hangout: Mazunte

There is a cute, little beach town on the coastline of Oaxaca with unpaved roads and an awesome vibe! Here you’ll find the best coffee shops, juice bars, gluten-free and vegan food options. But no matter if you are looking for that perfect wood oven pizza or want to taste local Mexican food, Mazunte has it all!

If you are looking for a yoga, meditation or spiritual healing retreat, then there is probably no better place in Mexico to escape to. Many people arrive here for a couple of weeks but never leave. There is something quite magical about this place!

The internet is a little hit and miss out here so it’s probably not a great base for digital nomads. However, if you want to switch off and connect with your inner-self then this is as good as it gets! In addition, Mazunte is a fantastic base to explore the nearby coastline which features some of the most beautiful beaches in Mexico!

17. Jump into a cenote

The Yucatan Peninsula is famous for its cenotes. In fact, there is no other place quite like it. And with over 6,000 cenotes to choose from, you will be spoilt for choice. There is no better way to cool off on a hot summer’s day then to jump into the turquoise coloured fresh waters of a cenote. Did you know that you can even snorkel and dive in some of them?

If you want to know more about where the best cenotes are, what the best time to visit is and how to avoid the crowds, then make sure to check out the blogpost below:

TOP 10 Cenotes to Explore in the YUCATAN PENINSULA!

18. Visit Mayan Ruins in Mexico

Visiting ancient pyramids and finding out about the mayan civilisation is probably one of the most important and fascinating things to do in Mexico! The Mayans had some of the most advanced and sophisticated mathematical systems in the world and entire cities were built based on this knowledge. But you can also learn a lot about mayan traditions and even human sacrifices.

There are thousands of mayan ruins and pyramids scattered across Mexico. If you want to know which are the most impressive Mayan temples to visit and why then click here!

19. Hang out in Tulum

Tulum has a vibrant seafront which is lined with boutique hotels, shops, restaurants and bars. Many face off to the beach so you’ll be spoilt for choice! Most people move between the seafront and the town which is about 20 min. away by bicycle. This is certainly the best way to get around as the main road along the seafront is usually one big traffic jam with nowhere to park.

In town you’ll find amazing coffee shops, book stores and more budget-friendly accommodation and eateries! Tulum is for sure my favourite place to base yourself to explore the Yucatan Peninsula and has a much better vibe than overcrowded hotels around Cancun or even Merida!

20. Sailing in Bacalar

‘The Lagoon of 7 Colours’ is located at the most southern point of the Yucatan Peninsula, at the border to Belize. As it’s a little further out it gets significantly less visitors and is still a largely unspoilt gem!

This is the PERFECT place to come to relax and unwind! Kayaking is one of the most popular activities here but if you really want to take in the mesmerising colours of the water, you have to book a day trip on a catamaran or sailing boat.

Bacalar was the perfect end to our amazing road trip through Mexico. I think that anyone who enjoys nature and appreciates getting away from the crowds will enjoy chilling here also!

Are you ready for Mexico?

I know … I know … we’ve made things more complicated for you, right? You’ve probably noticed by now that our recommendations are scattered across many different regions of Mexico and if you don’t have the luxury of time, then you might need to pick just one or two.

But fear not, as I’ve actually written a blogpost dedicated to solving this exact issue and providing you with an overview of the five most beautiful regions in Mexico. So after reading this, depending on if you love hiking, surfing, diving or history and architecture, you’ll hopefully be able to pick the right region for you – click below to find out more!

WHICH IS THE BEST REGION IN MEXICO TO VISIT?

Hopefully we’ve been able to provide some travel inspiration or at least make you aware of a few new things to explore in Mexico you didn’t already know about. Questions? Feedback? Or just want to share YOUR favourite place in Mexico? We’d love to hear from you

The post TOP 20 Amazing Things To Do in Mexico appeared first on ADV Travelbug.

The freshwater in the cenotes is usually cold – perfect to cool off in the hot weather! And some also offer great snorkelling and diving opportunities. In fact, it’s very common to see fish in the crystal clear waters, if you are lucky even turtles, but certainly an abundance of stalagmites.

Cenotes are probably the first thing that pop into people’s mind when they think of Mexico. That was also the case for Fiona and I. But of course we discovered that they are only a small part of the natural wonders and beauty there is to explore in Mexico.

HERE IS A MAP OF SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR AND BEAUTIFUL CENOTES IN THE YUCATAN PENINSULA – Keep on reading for our Top 10!

For more inspiration check out TOP 20 THINGS TO DO IN MEXICO or watch our travels through Mexico on YouTube!

How many cenotes are there in the Yucatan Peninsula?

Well over 6,000. Say what? Yep, you’d be lucky to visit as much as 1% of them. Most people tend to visit just a few during their visit to the area. Fiona and I were determined to hunt for the most beautiful cenotes and see as many of them as we could! The truth is, they are all very beautiful, but after seeing a handful of them, the novelty factor wears off.

Don’t get me wrong. We never grew tired of them! Magical caves with pristine turquoise-blue waters and roots of strangler fig trees dangling from the rim of the cenote. Birds flying into and out of them, resting along the cave walls which are overgrown with vegetation. Fish swimming in the crystal clear waters. It feels like going back in time into a long forgotten lost world.

However, after we were lucky to experience some of them all to ourselves we kind of wanted to savour that special experience. Soon we accepted that we cannot see ALL of them and the desire to hunt for the next ten cenotes on our list wore off. But ONLY because we felt totally satisfied and over the moon at all the beautiful cenotes we already got to see!

What type of cenote are you after?

Did you know that there are many different kind of cenotes? Some are completely open, looking more like a lake. Some are literally hidden inside of caves. And others are engulfed by limestone walls overgrown with vegetation, allowing you to look up into the sky.

Miguel Colorado is a very large open cenote where you can rent kayaks, zip line above it and hike around it. It’s great for swimming and known for its abundance of wildlife surrounding it.

Cenote Ik Kil is very popular because its walls are almost entirely covered in vegetation, providing you with a real jungle feel!

Cenote Ponderosa (Jardin del Eden) is particularly popular with scuba divers as it has a collection of underwater caves, passages and crystal clear waters.

What is the best time to visit cenotes?

The lighting makes a big difference as it turns those crystal clear waters into magical shades of turquoise blue. This is more often the case if you visit in the afternoon and the light shines directly into the cave!

However, afternoons are often also the busiest times to visit and especially better known cenotes can get overrun with tour buses.

For us personally, the most enjoyable experiences were when we could avoid the crowds. And the best way of doing so is to visit first thing in the morning. The lighting might not be perfect, but the cenotes are still stunning!

How to avoid busy and overcrowded cenotes?

If you are looking at a map of cenotes in the Yucatan Peninsula, you might wonder which are the busy ones and which may be quieter.

1. Avoid cenotes located close to tourist hubs like Merida, Cancún and Playa Del Carmen.

2. Cenotes located around popular Mayan ruins are usually pretty busy, like Ik Kil which is very close to Chichen Itza.

3. The entrance fee is a good indication. Quieter cenotes usually have an entrance fee of 2-5 USD. Popular and busier ones can cost up to 20 USD to enter.

What are the most beautiful cenotes in the Yucatan Peninsula?

Before we get into it, bear in mind that the most popular cenotes also attract the biggest crowds. So making your way around the most beautiful cenotes may not mean you’ll have the best cenote experience! You may enjoy yourself much more in a less popular cenote that you’ll happen to have to yourself or share with fewer people. And knowing how many cenotes there are around and that the majority of people often head to the most popular ones, you might even hunt for more remote, lesser known cenotes. There is a good chance that you’ll find many stunning alternatives that haven’t been hyped up by social media yet!

Perhaps pick a couple and plan to be there first thing in the morning to avoid the crowds. Then look for some cenotes that you haven’t already heard of, which are a bit out of the way, perhaps even free to visit. It’s best to mix it up – don’t just chase the most popular ones! After all, it’s about relaxing and having fun!

Our absolute FAVOURITE CENOTE experience

If I had to choose only one of the many cenote experiences, it would be our visit to Los 3 cenotes de Cuzama.

What I loved was that it wasn’t just a dip in another cenote. I loved the experience of getting to the cenotes by horse on tracks built and used by the mayans. The three cenotes we visited were also extremely diverse! Some we could jump straight into. Others required us to climb down a ladder into an ancient tree, follow a hidden underground passage, through the most amazing caves until we reached the water. And the turquoise colours of the water was just unreal!!

‘Los 3 cenotes de Cuzama’ actually encompasses more than three cenotes. But in order to spread people out the three cenotes you’ll get to see may vary. As everyone is getting around by cart and horse, it’s easy to see if any carts are parked up in front of the cenotes. If it looks busy, you can skip and go to another one. This meant that we were either completely alone or only met people as we entered or exited the cenote despite visiting in the middle of the afternoon.

Renting a cart with guide and horse for up to 4 people costs 20 USD. So even when Fiona and I shared the cart alone we found this to be very reasonable. The tour itself took 3 hours. Beware, the ride is somewhat bumpy!

Ready to explore?

We hope you found this blogpost useful. Hopefully it has provided you with some valuable information to plan your trip and encouraged you to seek for some lesser known cenotes too!

Questions? Thoughts? Feedback? We are always happy to hear from you – please leave a comment below!

The post Best 10 Cenotes to Explore in the Yucatan Peninsula appeared first on ADV Travelbug.

We were ecstatic when we got accepted for the housesit! The property was an old colonial style mansion with a gorgeous roof terrace. The kitchen and living room alone were bigger than my flat back home. I couldn’t think of a nicer place to unwind!

For more inspiration check out TOP 20 THINGS TO DO IN MEXICO or watch our travels through Mexico on YouTube!

First Impressions

We arrived into San Miguel de Allende way ahead of schedule. So we decided to stop for lunch at a restaurant which was located on the main street leading into the historic centre. A rather fancy Italian restaurant and certainly not our usual choice. But we were about to live rent free for 6 weeks and our budget definitely had room for a celebratory lunch

The restaurant was busy and full of ex pats to our surprise. The prices were certainly steep! Not too far off from what I’d expect to pay at my local Italian restaurant in London. What was going on? Were we still in Mexico? We had a long ride behind us and decided to stay put, but it was certainly very strange.

After lunch we rode to the house which was located in the popular neighbourhood of San Antonio. Our ‘new home’ was only 10 min. walk from the historic centre. To get to it we had to drive down tiny cobbled streets. Each side of the street was lined with the most beautiful, colourful colonial style houses. We instantly fell in love!

Exploring Town

Usually when we get to a place we want to visit, we unload the bike as quickly as possible, find a shower and go off exploring. But not this time! We were in absolutely no rush. The home owners left after giving us a tour of the house and we didn’t want to move.

The property felt more luxurious to us than a 5 star hotel! The ample space, the beautifully restored antique furniture, the Egyptian cotton sheets on our bed. And at long last we’d be able to wash all our motorcycle gear – what a treat! We started setting up home and watched the sunset from the roof terrace which overlooked the neo-gothic 17th century parish church ‘Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel’. It was magical!

A couple of days later we were finally ready to explore further afield than the corner store where we’d gotten some groceries, fresh fruits, tortillas and fresh chillies. It was time to explore the historic centre of San Miguel de Allende.

Main sights

The walk into town itself was simply breathtaking! Every building was beautifully restored, maintained and painted. I never got bored of walking into town because we always discovered some new beautiful details we hadn’t previously spotted. Eventually we made it to Jardin Allende which led us into the main square and right in front of ‘Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel’ – the postcard perfect landmark of this colonial town! It was pretty spectacular and I paused for a moment to remind myself how lucky we were to live here for six weeks.

There was a tourist information centre located right next to the square. We walked in to get a map of all the little cobbled streets around us. To our surprise the town was really small and it would barely take us two hours to visit all the main sights!

The historic centre of San Miguel de Allende is simply beautiful! It boasts immaculately maintained colonial buildings featuring Spanish Baroque architecture. In addition, you’ll find a thriving art scene. We met many artists during our stay and it’s easy to see why they are drawn to a place like San Miguel de Allende. One of the things we fell in love with were the many colourful wood carved doors!

San Miguel de Allende’s incredible culinary scene

There is no shortage of rooftop bars, top-notch restaurants and coffee shops scattered across town. Prepare to be spoilt for choice! Unlike other places in Mexico, going out for a meal in San Miguel de Allende doesn’t come cheap though. Given the amount of expats with high levels of disposable income prices may still be lower than going out in London but they are rocket high for Mexico!

Fiona and I considered it a treat to have access to a beautiful kitchen and after many months on the road being able to cook our own meals. So we didn’t actually go out to eat at all in our first 4 weeks. Then, towards the end of our stay, we started going out for leaving dinners with friends we’ve made and checking out quite a few rooftop bars. We had saved quite a bit of money staying in one spot and not moving for a month so decided to indulge in a little bit of fine dining. It was certainly a treat!

Best Day Trips

The Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco

Dating back to the 17th century, the church features Mexican Baroque mural work and is a designated World Heritage Site. Located only 14 km outside of San Miguel de Allende, the rural community of Atotonilco feels like worlds apart from San Miguel de Allende. The ride on gravel roads to reach it was short and fun.

Relax in thermal Hot Springs

Unknown to many people San Miguel de Allende was founded on the edge of an extinct volcano. There are many thermal hot springs you can visit with some offering a pretty luxurious spa stay. It’s certainly a very different experience than visiting the popular thermal spas of Grutas Tolantongo.

Fiona and I chose to visit the Mayan Baths. It’s an adult-only spa that requires reservations as entry is limited to only 45 visitors. I don’t like crowded places so we decided to pay a little extra for this upscale spa experience. We loved the underground thermal water pools, tunnels and candle-lit stone caves! The facilities, service and our massage all lived up to our expectations of a luxury spa stay. Unfortunately the food and drinks didn’t. But we enjoyed our stay overall nonetheless!

Wine tasting right outside San Miguel de Allende

Okay, I’ll be honest. It was nowhere near as special as exploring the old vine route in Baja California. But given it’s proximity to San Miguel de Allende we gave it a shot anyway and thought it made for a lovely visit.

We chose to visit Viñedo Dos Búhos. It’s a family run, organic vineyard set at the base of the Los Picachos mountains producing artisanal wines. We happened to be the only ones there when visiting (they seem to be more used to organised tours) and enjoyed this personal experience. I had a little wine tasting in the cute courtyard and it felt very relaxing and quiet if you want to get away from busy San Miguel de Allende.

Take a trip to Guanajuato

Gunajuato is another colonial city and UNESCO World Heritage site surrounded by beautiful mountains. You’ll be greeted by colourful houses, busy plazas, stunning architecture and if you ride in like us, you may just as well get lost in its confusing underground systems. With traffic redirected through the network of underground tunnels, Guanajuato is a great city to walk around and lose yourself in. It’s a lively city, which isn’t as perfectly maintained as San Miguel de Allende and doesn’t attract anywhere near as many ex pats, giving it a much more authentic feel of the true Mexico. We really enjoyed our day trip !

What I didn’t like about San Miguel de Allende

Okay, so you probably figured out by now that we were having a great time! Nonetheless it was impossible to turn a blind eye towards the negative footprint the large ex pat community has left on the city. With house prices sky rocketing they have become unaffordable to the locals. So have the many restaurants and rooftop bars, although you can still find local eateries where owners are struggling to keep up with the ever increasing rent.

Many of the high-end boutique hotels and restaurants may employ Mexican staff but the owners are often ex pats. There are many language schools, art classes and yoga studios dotted around town. All used by ex pats contributing directly into the pocket of other ex pats. See what I’m saying? All the benefits that come with increased tourism and popularity of San Miguel de Allende don’t appear to serve the locals, rather the ex pats. And many locals are having to move further out of town and commute into their city as rents start being unaffordable.

During our stay we met quite a few ex pats but we also made a lot of local friends that we had met via couchsurfing. So we really got to see both sides! One of our ex pat friends who had come to San Miguel de Allende to submerse herself into the art scene and paint was offered a job at a local art gallery. She turned down the job as the salary was extremely low given the cost of living in San Miguel de Allende. Still, her offer was three times higher than the salary of our friend Jonam who is a local and had worked at the same gallery for a few years already.

Learning Spanish in San Miguel de Allende

We also took Spanish lessons from a local teacher throughout our entire stay. Luckily the homeowner who we housesat for had a great contact for us! Our teacher asked us to pay her the same she gets paid by the language school to teach us for an hour every day: 5 USD each. Yet, if we had wanted to book Spanish lessons at her school we would have been paying 20 USD per hour each and 50 USD for a private class. That’s on par with what I used to pay in London. And it also shows that once again, locals salaries haven’t increased while prices continue to rise!

San Miguel de Allende was the perfect spot for our intensive Spanish course! It really gave us the head start and basis we needed to communicate with locals and keep improving our Spanish throughout our travels in central and South America.

Who is most likely to enjoy San Miguel de Allende

As an independent traveller looking for an authentic Mexico there is definitely a risk that you are going to be put off by the amount of ex pats living here. And you will probably be put off by the prices too. But if you stay a little out of town you can still find an AirBnB around 20 USD and if you stick to local taco stands San Miguel de Allende is still do-able on smaller budgets.

I think San Miguel de Allende is great if money is not an obstacle and you are looking for a base to take that art class, learn Spanish or join a yoga studio. Do you like a bit of fine dining and rooftop bars at night but you are willing to accept that no matter how beautiful San Miguel de Allende is, it has lost some of its authenticity? Or perhaps you love the feel of smaller cities like me and San Miguel de Allende might just offer you that perfect balance.

If you are nearby or considering a detour to visit, I recommend it 100%. We loved our stay here! But it was only after discovering places like Oaxaca City, San Chrístobal de las Casas or even Guanajuato that we had to admit that San Miguel de Allende is nowhere near as authentic. So it’s a bit of a trade off. Do you want picture perfect or somewhere a little rougher but more authentic?

Are you heading to San Miguel de Allende? Do you have any questions we can help with? Or have you been already and want to share your thoughts? We’d love to hear from you so please leave a comment below

The post How Authentic is Picture Perfect San Miguel De Allende? appeared first on ADV Travelbug.

There is no denying that Grutas Tolantongo is a place of divine natural beauty. But we definitely feel that pictures only tell part of the story. In actual fact it was quite different from how we may have imagined it from seeing it on social media previously.

So let us provide you with a more complete picture and share this honest, unfiltered review with you. Grutas Tolantongo is a stunning destination, which embraces Mexican culture but should not be confused with a luxury spa resort.

Here is everything you need to know before you go to make the most of your stay!

For more inspiration also check out TOP 20 THINGS TO DO IN MEXICO or watch our travels through Mexico on You Tube!

How to get there

Grutas Tolantongo is about 200km (125 miles) north of Mexico City. The drive takes around 3.5 hours and it’s definitely recommended to secure a hotel nearby and arrive nice and early in the morning to ensure you get the maximum amount of time to enjoy all that Grutas Tolantongo has to offer.

We found the drive, especially the closer we got, absolutely stunning. We saw the sun rise across the beautiful mountain range with breathtaking views of the valley on our way there.

The last stretch is a long and curvy serpentine gravel road until you reach the entrance. You don’t need a 4×4 and it’s not a challenging stretch of road for Adventure motorbikes either. We were fully loaded and enjoyed the ride.

When to visit Grutas Tolantongo?

First of all, forget about having this place to yourself as you may have seen it on social media posts before. Yes, it’s not as well known in other parts of the world but in Mexico it’s a very popular place to visit. Avoid any kind of national holidays or weekend if you want to share this place with fewer people.

Fiona and I visited Grutas Tolantongo as part of a bigger road trip. We were just coming from visiting San Luis Potosi and heading towards Mexico City. So it was very much a stop off on our way through and unfortunately for us this happened to fall on a busy weekend. Ouch!

Take our word for it how busy this place gets and pick a quieter time than we did!

You won’t be able to pre-book hotels

There are four hotels located inside the Grutas Tolantongo.

• “La Gruta” hotel: closest to caves, tunnel and river
• “Hidden Paradise” hotel: best for natural landscape and proximity to thermal pools
• “La Huerta” hotel: best for views of the river and surrounding mountains
• “Molanguito” hotel: recent addition to meet demands and probably the least exciting option

None of the hotels inside Grutas Tolantongo accept bookings !!!

If you want to reserve a room, you need to get here as early as possible, queue, cross your fingers and hope for the best. We found it very unrelaxing standing in line not knowing if we’d be able to get a room or not for quite some time.

Click here to find out more information about opening times, prices and other useful things to know.

Your best shot at securing a hotel room at Grutas Tolantongo

Fiona and I wanted to be here at 7am to increase our chances of securing a room. We were still quite a drive off and had to get up at 4.30am to make it happen. But imagine our surprise when we started passing big, huge tour buses heading in the same direction. We certainly started to get a feel for how busy this place would be. We got here early but we were far from being the only people here. After we got into the queue many more people kept arriving closer to the opening time.

If you want to secure a hotel room get here as early as possible! The Grutas Tolantongo water park opens at 6 am. Fiona and I arrived around 8am. But we still had to wait for a good hour to find out whether or not we could check into the hotel.

The hotels are in different locations. So while you queue at one hotel, you can’t really check for availability in the others. We queued for “Hidden Paradise” and around 9am we found out they had a room for us.

Check-in

Sometimes early check-ins are possible but certainly not on a busy day like ours. We were told to come back around 1-2pm. Meanwhile we could store our belongings at the office and enjoy the thermal waters. It was a mission carrying all our stuff as the parking space were we left our fully loaded motorbike was a little walk away from the hotel. But we were grateful they agreed to take in our belongings at least (which they looked like they dearly regretted once they realised how much stuff we had). Their office is tiny!

Grutas Tolantongo Thermal Pools

As we were staying in the “Hidden Paradise” hotel, we were located closest to the thermal pools. We were finally ready to experience the hot spring wonderland we had imagined! Picture a bunch of infinity pools carved into a natural cliffside overlooking the beautiful Sierra Madre mountain range.

I want to tell you that it took my breath away. But instead I was really surprised to see that amongst the stunning infinity pools people had pitched their tents. It was an eye sore to say the least.

Then we got into the water. Surprisingly it was lukewarm. I expected the water to be nice and hot. I should add that I’m a HUGE fan of thermal pools! But I’ve never visited thermal pools that were lukewarm. It was a warm, sunny day with bright blue sky. Nonetheless, I couldn’t see myself chilling in the pools for longer than 15-20 minutes.

Yes, we took beautiful pictures. But be under no illusion. The pools were busy! People kindly moved out of the way when we tried to take a picture though. So with a bit of patience we got some pretty awesome shots.

Getting around Grutas Tolantongo

The entire complex of the water park is huge. The main attractions are the thermal pools, the thermal river and the cave. But it can take around 45 min. walk one way along the river to get from the thermal pools to the cave. There are taxis, but we found them relatively expensive (in relation to the entrance fee anyway). And besides, we wanted to explore the place and were keen to get around by foot, taking in the pretty views.

Watch out for on-going construction works

The walk was indeed beautiful. But surprisingly we passed so many building sites. There is a huge drive to expand the water park and accommodate more visitors. So everything from new hotels to new man-made pools and even restaurants are being built. Watch out for the odd metal rods sticking out from the ground and make sure you don’t trip on any debris whilst walking around.

It’s also totally unrelaxing to use some of the facilities with the noise of building work going on in the background. Even the main thermal pools are being expanded and depending on where you are, you’ll hear the building work.

The thermal river of Grutas Tolantongo

After some walking we reached the volcanically-heated river which originates in the main grotto and follows the canyon floor. It flows down in sections creating perfect little pools to relax in. As the water is flowing down a slope you can hear the water flow from each pool to the next.

But something was taking away from the river and the natural beauty surrounding it. The entire stretch along the river was covered in tents, people barbequing, music blasting out of big speakers and it was so crowded that it felt like we were walking through a funfare.

It was like a little festival was going on with people pitching their tents right by the river. We continued towards the cave which was a further 20 min. walk.

The cave of Grutas Tolantongo

The closer you get to the cave, the hotter the water of the river gets. Finally, I thought … hoping the water would be warmer than the thermal pools.

As you get close to the cave, you’ll be required to lock all your belongings into a locker as you are not allowed to take anything with you inside the cave. So we followed the instructions and then proceeded to the cave where we were greeted by a queue leading into the cave.

The cave is located inside a cliff which is covered in vegetation with a stunning waterfall flowing right down it. It’s so beautiful to stand in front of it that we didn’t mind queuing for the cave at all. The cave is also the source of the water which flows directly down the river from it.

To enter the cave you need to walk through the waterfall. Despite all the thermal waters and hot temperature inside the cave, the water running down the cave as you enter is cold. But don’t worry, as soon as you enter it’ll get seriously hot so we actually appreciated this refreshing surprise.

The tunnel of Grutas Tolantongo

After entering the cave you can walk through a 40 meter long tunnel which features stalactites and stalagmites. The temperature rises significantly the further in you go. The warm water is about knee high with only one part that requires you to swim a few meters across (ropes provided). I almost didn’t make it to the very end of the cave as I felt so hot I thought I was going to faint. You can turn back at any time if you feel unwell though.

We really enjoyed visiting the cave despite it being quite busy. It’s absolutely beautiful and after feeling disappointed with the temperature of the water so far, I certainly appreciated what felt to me like entering a steaming, hot sauna.

Eating at Grutas Tolantongo

There is no food shortage here and there are many different places to eat. Some basic looking eateries and some proper restaurants, but essentially all serving more of less the same food. You can definitely find cheap enough places to eat if you are on a budget. Many families also BBQ all along the river so there is always a smell of freshly grilled meat in the air.

Nighttime at Grutas Tolantongo

After sunset and dinner we decided to go back to our hotel. The walls were super thin so we could hear every word the people next door were saying. Although we all had private rooms it still felt like a shared space. But what really bothered me is the ever louder blasting music coming from the various speakers around. Taste of music aside, the quality of sound the speakers were producing was terrible. Never mind that different music was being played on top of each other at full blast. We just wanted to relax in our room but it was impossible. I feared it would continue all through the night and I wasn’t looking forward to it. Then, completely out of the blue, all heaven broke loose. It started thundering and you could hear the windows being battered by torrential rain.

I immediately thought of the many poorly set up tents we saw throughout the day. I was pretty sure that many people would not be able to stay dry in these weather conditions. But almost instantly all music stopped and it was quiet and peaceful. I felt so relieved and it was so relaxing for the rest of the night. Yes I felt pretty bad for anyone camping that night, but I was too busy enjoying the outcome of the drastic change in weather, as that it would cause me a sleepless night.

If you like the idea of walking around, having some drinks and quesadillas to loud music, this might be just your ticket. But if you want to relax away from the noise you may prefer to find a hotel located outside of the resort.

Best time to take photos

The best time to take photos is to get up super early in the morning. Of course we had planned to be the first ones up and take some awesome shots before leaving. But it was miserable the next day! Really foggy, cold … there was no way the pictures would do the natural beauty and views any justice so we decided to have a lie in instead.

How much time to spend in Grutas Tolantongo?

The complex is pretty big so it definitely takes a day to check it all out, even if you pay for transport / taxis and don’t do it all by foot. For sure many families stay here for a week to camp out by the river, gather with friends and family and enjoy the thermal waters.

I was very happy with our one day visit. We saw everything and experienced all it had to offer. Even if it hadn’t been as crowded or noisy, I am not sure I would have stayed longer. The thermal waters just weren’t hot enough for my liking to spend another day here. If you arrive first thing in the morning then I think one day is enough.

So is it worth visiting?

Yes, but pick your time better than we did. Avoid weekends and holidays. Weigh up the options of queuing for a room to stay on-site vs booking a place within a short driving distance. It might be easier knowing you have a place to stay for sure and not losing time in the morning to queue and look for accommodation. We were lucky but it’s frustrating to not know if you can have a room for sure.

Also, despite the fact that not everything was to our liking I need to say that after our 4 months stay in Mexico we learned a lot about Mexican family life and entertainment. So a lot of it was down to cultural differences.

One person might think that the people managing Grutas Tolantongo don’t care about preserving its natural beauty. But others may embrace how liberally people can enjoy all the natural beauty around them. There is no denying the locals were all having a great time! And after all, this place is in Mexico, run in a way that is most likely to be enjoyable to Mexicans so I don’t believe it should change just to accommodate us tourists. Natural beauty aside this place will definitely give you a feel for the Mexican way of life.

Even though Fiona and I picked a super busy day to visit we are both grateful that we could experience it!

Are you ready to experience Grutas Tolantongo?

Hopefully this blogpost has helped you understand what you can expect from a visit to Grutas Tolantongo. The good, the bad and the ugly. Once again, we are happy we got to see this place and certainly don’t mean to put people off. We just felt this place is being really hyped up by social media and felt it would be worthwhile to write a transparent review, not just posting awesome pictures. Though we love the pictures too of course

The post GRUTAS TOLANTONGO: All you Need to Know Before You Go appeared first on ADV Travelbug.

And if you are looking for some awesome travel inspiration check out
TOP 20 THINGS TO DO IN MEXICO or watch our travels through Mexico on YouTube!

How to book the La Paz to Mazatlan Ferry Crossing ?

The two companies that operate this ferry crossing are Baja Ferries and TMC. Baja Ferries focuses mostly on passengers and is popular with overlanders. TMC is predominantly a cargo ferry. That said, you can go with either company as they ultimately both offer passenger and cargo crossings.

Both ferries travel overnight. TMC allows you to stay in your vehicle. Baja Ferry doesn’t but allows you to book a cabin. The cost is more or less the same. For Fiona and I, it wasn’t important which ferry we would travel on.

Can I book online?

In theory yes. However, it was not possible to buy tickets online at the time we tried to book. You can call the company directly and our Mexican Couchsurfing Host was luckily around to help with this. Despite his help we also didn’t succeed to book over the phone though. We therefore decided to arrive in La Paz two weeks before our intended departure in order to book the tickets in person, directly at the ticket booth.

What are the ferry operating times?

Both companies usually offer regular services throughout the year. However, during the time of our booking (August 2019) TMC had no departures at all for several weeks. We could therefore only travel with Baja Ferries.

Baja Ferries Ticket Office in La Paz

Upon arrival we were first told that Baja Ferries weren’t able to sell us a ticket either. We were so stressed at this point! We had committed to a house sit on the mainland and didn’t have the luxury of waiting around for a few weeks. After some more spanglish we understood they could only offer us a ticket for a cargo ship. That was fine with us. We just needed to get across! The lady at the counter then wanted a bunch of paperwork but wasn’t able to sell us an actual ticket still. Our place will be reserved she said – just like that! No ticket, no formal reservation of any kind. Fiona and I had very little trust in this process. So we decided to travel to the actual ticket booth at the ferry departure terminal and try our luck there!

Baja Ferries Ticket Booth at Terminal Pichilingue

If you type “Baja Ferries Pichilingue” into Google Maps it’ll take you to the La Paz to Mazatlan ferry crossing departure. This is also where you should in theory be able to buy your ticket in person. It’s roughly a 25 min. drive from La Paz downtown.

Upon arrival the situation was still pretty much the same. Provide a whole bunch of documents and just rock up on the day. No payment required in advance. I insisted on an email confirmation stating that we had a reservation at least. Luckily the lady behind the desk agreed to provide us with one. We felt a little better about that already.

Paperwork required to book the La Paz to Mazatlan ferry crossing

T.I.P. (Temporary Import Permit)

In order to get our paperwork sorted, we first visited the Banjercito (little booth next to the ticket counter). The T.I.P. is an essential document to travel across mainland Mexico. You will need it when entering and exiting. The idea is that you pay a deposit for your vehicle which you’ll get back once you exit the country again. Providing you haven’t illegally sold your motorcycle of course

The fee for preparing the T.I.P. is roughly 60 USD. The deposit will depend on the registration year of your vehicle.

The documents you’ll need to provide are:

1. Passport
2. Vehicle Registration & Title
3. Insurance (both for Mexico and USA where we purchased the bike)
4. Driver’s license
5. Mexico Tourist Card (you receive this at the border when first entering)

Note: It helps to have several copies of each document above. If you don’t, you’ll need to run back and forth to another little booth to get copies for a small fee.

Once you provide all necessary documents and pay (card or cash) you will receive your T.I.P. and a sticker for your windshield. I strongly advise you to check the documents for typos. Pay special attention to the VIN number, license plate, passport number and make sure everything matches. Typos are common and cause such a headache later if not immediately rectified. We learned that lesson at a later stage in Panama where it caused us huge issues later with our sailing trip to Colombia.

Ticket reservations are meaningless – don’t rely on them!

Once we obtained our T.I.P and showed our documents we finally received our e-mail confirmation for the La Paz to Mazatlan ferry crossing. Once again, they don’t normally send any kind of confirmation. We insisted on it for peace of mind. Little did we know, that it counted for nothing!

We now had two weeks to enjoy Baja California before our actual ferry departure. And we felt happy it was all taken care of. Off we went to explore Baja California Sur. You can read more about our favourite places below:

TOP 10 PLACES TO SEE IN BAJA CALIFORNIA

We returned to La Paz the night before the ferry crossing. The ferry departure time was 5pm. However, we were told to arrive no later than 1pm to complete all necessary procedures before we could board the ferry.

The day of our La Paz to Mazatlan ferry crossing

So here we are. We arrived nice and early and proceeded to the very same ticket booth where we reserved our tickets. But surprisingly we were told that we couldn’t buy a ticket and that the ferry was sold out. We were furious!

Next we were told to go to another ticket booth where we might be able to obtain a last minute ticket. In case of cancellations or any left over space as they explained. So now we found ourselves in a tiny little booth filled with lots of other people wanting to take the ferry. There was no information how long we would need to wait or how many people may be able to travel. And there was no system to determine who arrived first. So we didn’t move and waited impatiently!

Last minute tickets … but not for us!

Around 4pm the people behind the desk started giving out tickets. But not to us. Just anyone else … including people who walked through the door only minutes before. We were outraged!

Someone later provided us with the following explanation: The ferry can only carry a certain amount of passengers. It is therefore in their interest to carry as many vehicles with the fewest amount of people (ideally one vehicle and the driver). In our case the transport of the motorcycle was cheaper than a car or van or truck and we were riding two up. In essence, we were taking up valuable passenger space and more money could be made selling tickets to single drivers of larger vehicles.

I can’t confirm if this is what happened. But it certainly felt like it. And without any other plausible explanation we accepted that this might be how Baja Ferries operates. By this time it was around 5pm. Tickets were now all sold out and we were told that around 7pm we could board another ferry going to Topolobampo. We checked our phones … Topolobampo was 280 miles and roughly a five hours ride north of Mazatlan. No way! We declined and demanded to be put on the next ferry to Mazatlan. But of course, we could not buy any tickets again. Imagine returning the next day to find yourself in the exact same situation.

We were so upset at this point that we just wanted to get out of Baja and reach the mainland at any cost. So reluctantly we accepted the ferry crossing to Topolobampo after all.

Going through customs

This part was very straight forward. We walked back to the parking lot and passed the main gates, proceeding in the “Nothing to Declare” line. They checked our passport, TIP and ensured the VIN matches the paperwork.

Weighing your vehicle

Okay so this part I was actually looking forward to. I knew our motorcycle weighed about 200kg. But with all the crash bars and luggage I was very curious to know what the scale would say. We paid and received a ticket in return. But no one had any interest in weighing the motorcycle. I insisted because we had two hours to spare and I wanted to know how heavy the bike is. No luck!

Finally … we could buy that damn ticket

Once you pass customs there is a little TMC office to your right. The exact same booth we previously queued for tickets. But only now, after passing customs and paying for not weighing our motorbike, were we actually able to buy our ferry tickets!

Boarding the ferry

We could board the ferry almost immediately despite being super early. Perhaps because motorcycles have to park at the very front. In any case I was pretty happy about that. The ferry staff then secured our motorcycle with straps. I will add though, that we bumped into some locals on GS Motorcycles that carried their own straps. They advised “it’s better” to secure the bikes properly and even helped us out with an extra strap.

Life on the ferry

We knew we had boarded a cargo ferry but I didn’t expect such a poor set up. There was a canteen which only served food at a specific time. No announcement was made and you could easily miss it and not be given any food. This happened to us but we managed to track down the chef (not like we had anything else to do). He kindly gave us a plate of leftovers. The food was extremely basic so we recommend you bring snacks!

Apart from the dining area, which was tiny with rather uncomfortable chairs, there is just one area for passengers. It’s quite small and consists of a few rows of seats. The room is pretty chilly, the tv is on non-stop and that is pretty much where you are expected to stay for the duration of your journey.

There are basic toilet facilities and you can go for a walk. But honestly, there isn’t much to explore. We were happy to have made friends with the chef and the other motorcyclists so we killed some time listening to each others travel stories.

Once we arrived, after a sleepless night, we had to ride five more hours to Mazatlan. In order to get there quickly we took the toll roads. The money added up quite quickly. Yet another unexpected expense! But then we arrived in Mazatlan where Mauro, our fantastic couchsurfing host, came to meet us. He took us out for some tacos and we headed to the beach. I’d love to tell you that the trouble of the ferry crossing was soon forgotten about. But honestly we still get worked up thinking about it today.

How can we avoid these problems with the La Paz to Mazatlan ferry crossing?

I honestly don’t know what we could have done differently or better to avoid the issues we had. Some people have a trouble-free experience. But we are one of many travellers that were not so lucky! The forums online are full of similar disappointments!

Understanding the process helps. Come prepared and understand that you can’t buy a ticket until you pass customs. And whatever you do, NEVER ASSUME it will be smooth sailing and bring that extra bit of time.

Sorry we don’t have a magic recipe to make the ferry crossing easier. But we hope this blogpost has helped to prepare you for some of the issues you may encounter nonetheless.

Last but not least: please share your experience with us! We’d love to know how the ferry crossing went for you. If you have any questions, tips or advice please comment below

The post LA PAZ to MAZATLAN Ferry Crossing: All you need to know appeared first on ADV Travelbug.

HERE ARE OUR TOP TIPS TO MAKE SURE YOU DON’T RUN INTO ANY SURPRISES !!

It’s a little out of the way

Monument Valley isn’t really close to any airports, major cities or other National Parks. The nearest airport is Flagstaff (176 miles). It’s a small airport though and doesn’t have great connections. And you are unlikely to find yourself nearby from visiting other National Parks. No matter where you are coming from, you’ll need to factor in a little extra time. BUT of course it’s totally worth it and shouldn’t be missed. Just be aware and plan ahead !!

You WON’T be able to enter Monument Valley with your U.S. National Park Pass

You probably already know that you can purchase an annual pass which allows you to visit hundreds of National Parks in the US. Sure, that’s probably more than you would, or perhaps even could, visit during your stay. But if you are planning on visiting more than 4 National Parks, it will already pay off to buy an annual pass instead of paying the individual entrance fee at each site. It’s even valid for an entire vehicle for up to 4 adults. That’s awesome value – less so if calculated per motorbike of course but we were still pretty pleased with that deal! However, there are some exceptions and Monument Valley is one of them!

Monument Valley is a tribal park fully owned and operated by the Navajo Nation – the largest American Indian tribe.

Fiona and I didn’t know this upfront but were more than happy to pay the 20 USD entrance fee. It’s very reasonable and also a lot less than most other National Park charges!

You can ONLY drive into Monument Valley with a 4×4

So if you arrive in a regular car you will only be able to park up at the visitor centre. Sure, it’s got a super nice view of the valley (picture above) but you will most likely want to ride through it. Fiona and I assumed this wouldn’t be a problem on our Adventure Motorbike. After all, the whole point of owning one, is to take it off-road. And our bike had all the customisation one could want for off-road adventure too. When we realised we couldn’t drive in, we were genuinely gutted. And the worst part was yet to come!

Guided tours are VERY EXPENSIVE

When we found out that we couldn’t drive ourselves, we looked at taking a tour of course. I’m really not a fan of guided tours in general. But on this occasion I felt like I could look past it as all the guides were Native Americans. I was super keen to learn about their culture and learn about Tse’Bii’Ndzisgaii (tribal name for Monument Valley) from them. But the enthusiasm quickly faded when we realised that tours here cost around 80 USD. To tell the truth, that was out of our budget and there were no alternatives for cheaper / shorter tour options.

Fiona and I felt really disappointed when we decided to turn around. After all, we only checked out the visitor centre and the view from the car park. We expected more from our visit and so did our BMW F800 GS. We didn’t get why a 4×4 could self-drive into the valley but we couldn’t. But just as we were about to head back we got chatting to one of the guys working there. Lucky, he felt a little sorry for us and pointed out the dirt road leading into the valley. Happy ending?

You need to be comfortable riding through sand if you want to ride through Monument Valley

Okay, so this was my first time riding on sand! The first part of riding into the valley was super fun. A little windy dirt road, but not too steep with stunning views. Soon we reached the iconic Mitton and Merick Buttes, our first stop. You can see them from the visitor centre already. But standing in front of them and looking at them from within the valley still felt pretty impressive. It is that classic postcard view of Monument Valley that we were dying to see with our own eyes!

From here on it quickly started getting sandier though. I have to admit that I was soon out of my comfort zone. In the beginning I walked the bike through some patches with deeper sand. I was way too scared to just throttle on and as a result, we had to turn around. Although we didn’t complete the whole Valley Drive, we were still super happy though. I mean, we would have nearly missed out on it altogether. I still think that doing half of it by ourselves was more fun than doing it all as part of a tour!

If it rains, roads can become very muddy and challenging in Monument Valley

Okay so logically with rain the dirt roads, especially the sandy parts, will get pretty muddy. Tours generally take place even if it rains. However, if the road conditions are very bad, they could also be cancelled altogether. I was struggling with the sand in super good weather conditions already. I reckon I’d be fine if I was riding through it again now. After all, we did quite a bit of sand riding since then. But mud? Errr … I would struggle again for sure!

You can take a self-guided hike in Monument Valley

Generally speaking, you are not allowed to freely walk around the valley as you please. You are also required to stay on designated roads at all times! BUT there is one super nice trail, about 3.2 miles long that you can hike without a guide. The Wildcat Trail leads to the first stop of the Valley Drive. It does actually offer you some of the most iconic and beautiful scenery.

So if you LOVE HIKING or if you DON’T HAVE a 4×4 and DON’T want to fork out 80 USD for a guided tour, this is a great option!

Summary

So here we are. These are the main things to keep in mind when planning to visit Monument Valley. I’m still unsure if motorcycles are banned completely these days or if there is just a push towards taking expensive tours. I do know many riders did it before us! But I haven’t heard about anyone riding through it more recently. Hopefully this information was helpful to a few of you out there. We hope other ADV Riders can still ride their bikes through the valley! And hopefully a little more skillfully than I could

If you have any questions, comments or advice we left out then please let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you !!

The post MONUMENT VALLEY: All you Need to know before you go appeared first on ADV Travelbug.

I never had a particular love for Adventure Bikes. Living in London you didn’t see many of them and I mostly thought they were unnecessarily big and ugly and I certainly had very little use for them living in the city and just needing a bike to get around whilst being able to cut through traffic. When I chose to buy my first Adventure Bike it wasn’t for looks but rather practically and functionality. I wanted the most suitable bike for long-distance travel. After owning and putting so many miles on my Adventure Bike I couldn’t imagine riding anything else any more. The comfort and freedom it offers you to truly get lost off-road is simply priceless to me.

I wrote this blogpost for people pondering about which Adventure Bike they might want to consider for a round-the-world trip. With Adventure (ADV) Riding being one of the fastest growing segments of motorcycling and so many fantastic bikes out there we are truly spoilt for choice these days. By far, the single best way to determine what suits you best is to ride as many bikes as possible and figure out what works best for you. But often we don’t have the luxury of doing just that, so here are a few questions you can ask yourself to help you make the right decision when choosing the right bike for your adventure.

1. What is Your Budget?

It sounds like a no brainer. Of course, you are only ever going to buy what you can afford. But is that thought alone enough? Most of us have limited financial resources and planning long-term travels will most likely mean sticking to a particular budget. Buying your motorbike and gear will probably eat up a considerable chunk of it. You will also be riding through countries where most of the time you will not have the option of buying fully comprehensive insurance including theft. What would happen if your bike got stolen or even worse, you had to write it off in a crash? Could you afford to buy yourself a new bike and keep travelling or would losing your bike signal the end of your travels? If my budget would be 10k GBP then I’d probably be more comfortable buying a bike in the range of 5-6k GBP, knowing that if worse comes to worse, I could buy something similar, if need be a little older, but I’d be able to stay on the road. Secondly, don’t underestimate that it can be very expensive to kit your bike out for a round-the-world adventure. Click here to find out more about all the customisations we currently have on our BMW F800 GS. It all adds up: footpegs, bashplate, crash bars, luggage rack etc. Make sure you factor  all these things into your budget. Also consider that maintenance costs of a bike can vary quite a bit so given the on-going costs throughout your travels you may want to keep this in mind when selecting a bike. If money is not an issue and you can afford to buy yourself the latest model of the adventure bike you really want, one last thought should be, is it too flashy? Our bike is from 2013 and we’ve put so many miles on it and dropped it so often that it looks a bit like a warhorse now, compared to when we first got it. But even though that’s how we perceive it, even our old bike draws a lot of attention in third world countries. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be on a brand-new, shiny Adventure Bike. It’s something to keep in mind.

2. Are you Riding Solo or Two Up?

Let’s say you are planning a round-the-world trip and eyeing up the Ténéré 700. This might seem like a fantastic choice when travelling solo but would most likely be unsuitable and not comfortable at all when riding two up. We are riding the BMW F800 GS two up and we feel extremely comfortable on it. We know quite a few couples who rode this bike two up across the world too. We have often encountered people advising us to upgrade to 1200 cc for maximum comfort. I’m tall, not very heavy and Fiona is much shorter, weighing even less. We don’t need to upgrade for comfort. Granted, for two people that are bigger and heavier our bike may not be comfortable enough, but don’t assume you need a 1200cc bike just because you are riding two up. I think we could have even felt comfortable on the BMW F700 GS (although I prefer the ground clearance of the 800cc) but the 650cc for sure would not be comfortable for us riding two up at all. So dual sports bikes and small Adventure Bikes are great for solo travellers but riding two up you will most likely need to be looking at a 800cc Adventure Bike and upwards.

3. How Important is Comfort to You?

We already addressed comfort when riding two up but just because you are riding solo doesn’t mean all bikes will offer you the same amount of comfort. Sure, you can customise pretty much any bike to a comfier seat that suits your height but some bikes will inevitably be more comfortable for long-distance riding than others. And yes, the bigger the bike the more comfortable it tends to get, which doesn’t mean you need to go for the biggest bike out there. Consider the customisation upgrades available on the market and weigh up your priorities. People are generally happy to compromise on comfort in return for a smaller and lighter bike. Are you? I find myself somewhat in the middle. I could benefit from a lighter bike as I’m not the best off-road rider out there and riding fully loaded through sand or mud is a challenging for me. So likewise upgrading to a heavier bike is not an option. We have downsized in an effort to travel lighter and decided to get rid of our super-heavy Jesse Luggage panniers but I would not want to downsize to a smaller Adventure Bike because I do value my comfort. So I feel the middleweight Adventure Bikes are best for me.

4. What about Carrying Capacity?

The carrying capacity you require will depend not only on whether you are riding solo or two up but also on your travelling style. Have you mastered the art of travelling light and make do with few things on the road? Are you going to stay in hostels or do you require space to fit all your camping gear? If you are travelling light and solo you might be able to make do with a reckless system (check this one out from Mosko Moto) that you can easily throw on pretty much any bike you choose. However, if you are going to travel two up with camping gear and electronics for photography, filming etc. you will certainly need to install luggage racks and find the appropriate luggage set up to suit your needs. You need a bike that can handle the weight of your luggage, especially if you are not going to travel light. Check out Lukasz and Marta from LATG … see the amount of luggage they have? Now clearly they couldn’t be riding any smaller Adventure Bike as they completely maxed out their carrying capacity. Not every luggage solution will work on every bike. Fitting hard panniers on your Honda XR250L would be a terrible idea (soft luggage works better for small bikes and is always safer for off-road riding in general) but just because you are riding a big bike doesn’t mean you should use its entire loading capacity, or even overload it. Yes, big bikes can handle an incredible amount of cargo and we sure fell down the rabbit hole of adding more and more luggage to our bike surprised just how much more would fit on it and how useful Rock Straps are. We were so impressed by just how much we could fit on the bike that it took us a while to own up to the fact that we were carrying way too much and needed to downsize. The bike was much more difficult to handle off-road and it was a pain to carry all the stuff in and out of places we were staying at day in and day out. Load distribution is equally important to bike handling and rider safety and should be given some serious thought. The biggest favour you can do yourself for a round-the-world trip is to travel as lightly as possible. But whatever you do, make sure the bike can handle the weight safely.

Soft vs Hard Panniers

4. Where Will You Be Riding?

Of course if we are talking about a round-the-world trip then there should be the assumption that you should be able to ride everywhere and anywhere with your Adventure Bike. But doing a round-the-world trip can mean a lot of things. It can mean truly riding through every single country on each continent which would take you many years or simply doing a few stretches of long-distance riding across the world and shipping your bike from continent to continent. If you are going to ride your motorbike across the US, then ship it to Australia to ride the East Coast, followed by a roadtrip through Europe you could get away with riding no off-road at all. If you are going to ride from Alaska to Patagonia and stick to the Pan-American highway you’ll no doubt encounter less off road then someone riding from Alaska to Patagonia not sticking to the Pan-American highway and instead exploring each country in more detail. So first of all, you should consider where you will be riding and what the conditions are like. How much off-road are you likely to encounter? You can spend 3 months in the USA and not even get close to exploring all the off-road it has to offer. But you can also spend a year riding across the US and avoid off-road altogether if you wanted to. Some other countries won’t afford you the luxury of having a choice. Hit South America and the further south you go the more sand you’ll encounter. The same is true for riding across Africa. With so many ADV Riders out there and great forums online (be it a Facebook group or simply asking someone who’s currently out riding a few questions) it’s ever so easy to get information on road conditions and know what to expect. But where you will be riding will also be important for other aspects like availability of spare parts and other things we will explore in more detail below.

5. How much off-road will you be riding?

Do you live for off-road adventure? Will you be searching for the toughest off-road routes wherever you go? Or is your motorbike simply meant to get you from A to B and you accept that one day it will be on tarmac, the next it will be a dirt road? When we first took off my idea of our adventure was not to do any off-road at all. I just wanted a bike that could handle a gravel road, the occasional dirt road and perhaps some muddy patches if we ran into rainy weather. But that soon changed. I started enjoying going off-road and it felt very rewarding to have the freedom of reaching some very remote places by bike. It changed our travelling style completely, for the better. In the beginning I was quite nervous about riding on gravel or dirt roads but one year into our trip this became second nature to me and I became more anxious about riding in deep sand or volcanic ash, both something I had never dreamt I would ever consider riding through. These days off-road riding has become as enjoyable as the travelling itself for us. And as we embrace it more and more we have started thinking about how we can travel lighter, potentially downsizing to a lighter bike and train to improve our off-road riding skills. Despite the fact that we now really enjoy off-road riding, I am not quite able to give up the comfort that comes with a middleweight Adventure bike. Sure, a little dirt bike or dual sports bike would make for some pretty awesome off-road riding. However, we still do long-distance riding on tarmac, sometimes 6 hours a day to get to our next destination and I can’t imagine doing that on a smaller bike. But we met plenty of people who do and love it. It means you can drop the bike countless times and it’s a breeze to pick it up. They are super fun off-road and most of them much easier to fix as they don’t have all the electronics that come with the heavier Adventure Bikes these days. I’ve rented dirt bikes before on holiday to have some fun, but for a long round-the-world trip I personally prefer a middleweight adventure bike. The key question to ask yourself is if you are just riding to get from place to place or if you will be actively looking for off road adventure.

6. Can you Pick it Up?

When I first decided to buy my BMW F800 GS I never asked myself if I would be able to pick it up. The answer is, I can’t. We are riding two up so it has never been an issue but if I was riding it by myself I do believe that I would have gotten myself a lighter bike by now. The Yamaha Ténéré 700 dry weight lies at 187kg whereas the BMW R 1250 GS Adventure weighs 249kg. Sure, it has the benefit that it never lies entirely flat due to its boxer engine and generally has a lower centre of gravity but do you need, and most importantly, can you handle the extra weight? If you are setting off to ride around the world I strongly believe that if you can’t pick it up by yourself then you shouldn’t be riding it. Our friend Tracy once dropped her bike in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains of Mexico. She’s riding a BMW F 700 GS and couldn’t pick it up even after she removed all her luggage. After 3 hours and no one passing by she started to get worried and hit the S.O.S. button on her Spot Satellite Tracker. A couple of hours later someone came to her rescue. When I heard Tracy’s story I realised for the first time that if we weren’t travelling together I wouldn’t want to be riding my BMW F800 GS, because I can’t pick it up either and wouldn’t want to have that worry at the back of my mind, as it would most likely deter me from doing too much off road in remote locations. There are certainly techniques that will make picking up a bike much easier and they are very easy to learn. But it doesn’t mean that everyone will be able to pick up any bike they want. Personally, I have very little strength in my arms and coupled with my pelvis that I have fractured in numerous places and my bad right knee that I’ve had a couple of surgeries on, I don’t appreciate when I’m told it’s “all about the technique”. Believe me, I tried many times. I really do want to pick that bike up but as it turns out, it also has to do with your strength. Fiona at 1.63 meters is able to pick our bike up without any difficulties, fully loaded. I’m very grateful for that! Are you able to pick up yours?

7. How Easy will it be to Fix Your Motorcycle If You Break Down?

Again, this will depend greatly on where you will be riding but it’s a very important question to ask yourself. If you are going to break down on the Yamaha Ténéré 700 or the XT660 in the middle of Africa, anyone will be able to help you out. Rock up on a BMW like we ride and it will be more complicated as it may require a diagnostics tool to read fault codes which needs to be connected to a laptop. This makes fixing Adventure Bikes with advanced electronics much more complicated, as it may not always be easy to get hold of the diagnostic tools required to fix your bike. Advanced Electronics on Adventure Bikes like Traction Control, Opitmised Cornering ABS, Tyre Pressure Monitoring systems, automatic suspension adjustment and so on are all fantastic features designed to improve your riding experience and most importantly rider safety but going back to basics and knowing that you can fix your bike almost anywhere in the world is also a huge benefit. Which is more important for you? In our case, we know that we have a super reliable bike and we keep on top of the maintenance religiously to keep it that way. We also don’t have a tight time schedule so if worse comes to worse and we need to order some spare parts and delay our travels then we’ll be able to cope with it. Perhaps if I was travelling alone I would be more drawn to going with a bike that can be fixed just about anywhere.

8. Availability of Spare Parts

It does make sense to carry some spare parts with you like a clutch and spare brake pads for example. But of course you won’t be able to travel with all spare parts your bike might possibly require so do consider how easy it will be to source spare parts on the road. If you are riding a simple no-frills adventure bike you might be able to fix it easily just about anywhere. But rock up on a BMW and parts may not be as easy to come by, potentially requiring you to have them shipped to you and delaying your journey. Fiona and I sailed from Panama to Colombia together with our BMW F800 GS. We tried to take every precaution we could to protect the bike from the salt water. As soon as we reached land we took it for a good clean to rinse all the salt of it. Suddenly steam was coming out from under the seat. We quickly removed it to find the fuse box and surrounding cables were melting away. Luckily we had the tools to hand to quickly remove the battery. We were in a major big city and required a fuse box but there was absolutely nowhere we could buy it. We would have needed to ship it from the BMW dealership in Bogota. We didn’t have the time to wait (sadly, because Cartagenia is a beautiful city I could have spent much more time in). Instead we settled for a questionable quick fix. The mechanic told us that with any luck it would get us to Bogota but that it needed to be replaced there immediately. As you can imagine we were pretty nervous throughout the 18 hour ride through the mountains of Colombia, though luckily we made it.

9. Your Off-Road Skills

To ride big Adventure Bikes off-road requires some skills, strength and stamina. Sure, it’s all about technique and if you enjoy riding off-road and aren’t too scared of falling off too many times whilst learning you can get your levels of skills up fairly fast. But without any off road skills why not make your life easier and get a small or middleweight adventure bike that’s a little lighter and easier to handle. Or perhaps you can handle a big, heavy Adventure Bike just fine but going for something smaller may actually be more enjoyable and less physically challenging. Picking your bike up fully loaded whilst wearing motorcycle gear in extremely hot weather conditions can tire you out quickly. It’s pretty impressive what people can do on big Adventure Bikes and I love seeing a big bike in super technical terrain on my Instagram feed. But riding a big bike in technical terrain is obviously harder than riding a lighter bike. If you are new to off-road riding ask yourself if you can handle the bike you are contemplating on taking around the world. Ideally, see if you can book an off-road training and rent the bike you are considering riding to test it out first.

10. What Do You Really Need VS What You Really Want?

Some people will tell you that the best bike to take around the world is the bike you already own. That wasn’t the case for me. I dread to imagine myself in South America on my old Suzuki Gladius. Perhaps it might be for you. It’s certainly tempting to think that way since it’s possible to customise pretty much any bike in so many ways. But is it really? Whenever I speak to people who have ridden their motorcycle around the world one common answer I get when I ask what they wish they did differently is this: many wish they had done it on a lighter bike. You might already have your heart set on a particular bike but don’t let your emotions take over. Is your dream bike actually the right fit for you? There are so many strong opinions on the subject of which motorbike is best to go around the world on. However, I strongly believe that there isn’t one motorcycle that will suit all and the only person able to determine what works best for you, is YOU.

How to Prepare for a Round-the-World Motorcycle Trip?

Hopefully the questions above have helped you a little in knowing what to look out for and perhaps even prioritise what the most important criteria is for you. Leave a comment and let me know what bike you are travelling the world on (or would want to travel the world on) and why you feel this bike is best for you – I’d love to hear your comments! 

The post 10 Questions to Ask Yourself before Purchasing a Motorcycle for a RTW Trip appeared first on ADV Travelbug.