When you live in a cold, mountain climate like the High Rockies its important to travel away and warm your soul during the long winter months. For E's birthday this year we took her to Cancun, Mexico for some sand under our feet and fun under the sun. I've never been to Mexico and really enjoy trying new places to visit, we were in between Cancun, Chicago and Las Vegas - we ruled Chicago out almost immediately as we knew we wanted some warm weather. We started by looking on Groupon (under their getaways tab) for some vacation steals - this trip took place back in February 2015 so during Spring Break. I found a deal for an all-inclusive beach side resort - Krystal Cancun I believe I spent around $500 for 4 days and 3 nights stay at the Krystal I also opt out of all-inclusive as Emily and I enjoy adventuring around for food & drinks (often we find all-inclusive to be a waste of money unless your staying at a 4/5 diamond establishment). Instead of paying for the all-inclusive piece we were able to score a beach-view room which can be seen here from our first room

I say first room because when I spend money on hotel stay I have a certain expectation set for the room - the first room didn't meet my expectations, yes I understand we purchased a group-on deal but sometimes you need to request a change especially being on a birthday vacation. Our second room had just as killer views, and was even more comfortable - we found Krystal Cancun to be a good choice for our first stay in Mexico. The hotel wasn't perfect but we're easy and brushed off all concerns as we were too intrigued with street markets, flea markets, coco bongo and adventuring around town. Here's the view from room two I was able to catch the sun rising one beautiful morning

While we spent our first few days settling into the hotel and on the beach to warm up our cores - we were also fortunate enough to go on an excursion and also leave the tourist heavy beaches to stay in the city of Quintana Roo at a really cozy and reasonable Air BnB which Emily was able to find. Cancun is a tourist heavy area, which thrives off its' Spring Break visitors and winter time vacationers - similar to a destination like Vail, Colorado families have been coming back to Cancun year after year because of its beautiful beaches, fantastic cuisine and exhilarating nightlife. I'll let Emily go into more detail about our dining and day time adventures which included strolling thru street markets (keep your wallet, camera and girlfriends close) and experiencing the culture Cancun has to offer. Here are three things I liked about our vacation and here are three things I disliked about the trip: The Good

The cuisine, culture and people of Cancun genuinely are delightful and upbeat
The perfect weather - we saw rain for 30 minutes on one night of our trip
Photographing the flea markets (see below & the cover image on our site -
plus check out the entire gallery from our trip here)

The Bad

Every shop owner wants you to check out his shop - when your merely just looking around with your eyes and don't expect any level of customer service in hotels
Getting swindled by Taxi Drivers, or not knowing exactly what deal was made, watch out for the people in street markets - you can hustle them as much as they try to hustle you (just keep your valuables close)
Sorting thru the tourist crap to find the exciting, fun elements of Cancun, steer clear of the crap and talk to someone - we spent maybe 30-45 minutes just talking to guides until we found someone we felt like we could trust

Check out Part II of this post - MYT Conquers Cancun Part II

Thanks for reading, ~F

MYT Conquers Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico Part I