Beyond the Resort: Our Cancun Honeymoon Adventures
We enjoyed the convenience of an all-inclusive resort—but driving a speedboat, parasailing, exploring underwater and swimming through Rio Secreto made the honeymoon ours.
Our Cancun honeymoon began with an adventure before we even left Jacksonville.
Gina hadn’t flown in more than 25 years. We upgraded our Delta flights from Jacksonville to Cancun through Atlanta to First Class, giving her a considerably different introduction to modern air travel than she might otherwise have experienced.
We were seated in the first row when the plane began accelerating down the runway in Jacksonville. Just before liftoff, Gina—who does not normally talk this way—offered a concise assessment of the situation:
“Oh shit!”
We made it into the air, spent our connection in the Delta Sky Club in Atlanta and continued to Cancun. By the end of the honeymoon, the same woman who had reacted so strongly to takeoff had parasailed over the Caribbean, traveled approximately 15 feet underwater on a sub scooter and swum through a cave in near-total darkness.
That first flight turned out to be only the beginning.
An All-Inclusive Resort Was Our Home Base
We stayed at Sandos Cancun using RCI points from my timeshare. After arriving, we paid approximately $1,200 more for an all-inclusive package covering three daily meals, drinks and one spa treatment each.
The resort gave us easy breakfasts, dinners waiting when we returned and frozen margaritas beside the beach or pool.
It did not keep us behind the resort gates.
We used credit-card points to rent a car, giving us the freedom to explore on our own schedule. Instead of depending on a resort desk or third-party seller, we contacted the excursion operators directly and booked each experience ourselves.
Our phones worked normally in Mexico, so making the arrangements was as simple as calling the operators.
We regularly skipped the resort lunch we had already paid for, found an inexpensive local place to eat and continued with the day. We may have sacrificed a little value from the all-inclusive package, but we gained far more from the experiences beyond it.
Driving Through the Mangroves
One of our excursions put us behind the controls of a small yellow speedboat.
We weren’t alone on the water. A group of us traveled together, but each couple got to drive its own boat. That made it feel more adventurous than simply boarding another sightseeing vessel and letting someone else handle the experience.
We followed the group through the mangroves before heading out for snorkeling.
The mangrove route was part of what made the excursion memorable. We weren’t merely speeding across open water; we were navigating a completely different side of the Cancun landscape.
We don’t have photographs from the snorkeling portion, but that doesn’t diminish the memory. Sometimes the absence of a camera means you were busy participating in the experience.
Parasailing Together Over the Caribbean
We also went parasailing.
This wasn’t a solo experience. Gina and I went up together after launching from a boat.
Another couple joined the outing, although we didn’t know them before we boarded. The arrangement gave us a chance to watch their entire flight from the boat—rising into the air, floating high above the water and eventually returning—before or after taking our own turn.
Going together made the experience particularly appropriate for a honeymoon. Neither of us had to remain below and watch while the other enjoyed the view.
The ride combined the excitement of being lifted from the boat with a surprisingly peaceful perspective once we were above the Caribbean.
Riding Underwater on a BOB Sub Scooter
One of the most unusual experiences was Aquaworld Cancun’s BOB sub scooter tour.
BOB stood for Breathing Observation Bubble. The scooters used large air-filled helmets that allowed riders to breathe while traveling underwater without holding a scuba regulator in their mouths.
The guides made the process remarkably easy. We briefly held our breath while going beneath the surface, and they guided each of us into the helmet. Once inside, we could breathe normally and ride the underwater scooters at a depth of approximately 15 feet.
I was already scuba certified, so being underwater wasn’t entirely unfamiliar to me. The scooter, however, offered a very different experience.
For Gina, the entire experience was new.
After more than 25 years without flying, she had gone from that memorable reaction during takeoff in Jacksonville to driving herself underwater in Cancun.
The BOB sub scooter tour has since been discontinued, so travelers can no longer book the same Aquaworld experience. That makes the photographs and memories an interesting snapshot of an excursion that was available during our January 2019 honeymoon.
Biking, Hiking and Swimming Through Rio Secreto
Of all the adventures we booked, Rio Secreto was our favorite.
The experience began on mountain bikes. From there, we continued on foot before entering the cave system and swimming through the underground water.
Our group included approximately 15 people. Once underground, our helmets and lights illuminated the rock formations and water immediately around us, but the cave beyond that light remained intensely dark.
The water was cool without being painfully cold.
At one point, the guides had everyone turn off their lights.
The darkness was absolute. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. There was no faint glow from an exit, no distant artificial light and no opportunity for your eyes to adjust. It was a kind of darkness most people rarely experience.
Then the lights came back on, revealing the cave formations and water around us again.
Reaching the underground river wasn’t the end of the physical activity. After swimming through the cave, we reversed the entire journey—hiking and biking our way back out.
That combination made Rio Secreto feel like a genuine adventure rather than an attraction where transportation delivered us directly to the main event. The journey into the cave and the effort required to return were part of the experience.
It was easily the highlight of our time beyond the resort.
Why We Booked Directly
We arranged all these excursions ourselves by contacting the actual operators.
We didn’t use a third-party booking website, and we didn’t depend on the resort excursion desk. We found the experiences we wanted, called the operators and made our reservations directly.
That approach worked well for us because:
Our phones worked in Mexico
We had a rental car
We could ask questions directly
We weren’t limited to the resort’s excursion schedule
We knew which company would actually provide the experience
Booking directly doesn’t automatically guarantee the lowest price or best experience. It also means you are responsible for understanding transportation, cancellation policies, meeting locations and timing.
For us, the independence was worth it.
We could choose the adventures that interested us rather than selecting from whichever excursions happened to be promoted in the resort lobby.
The Rental Car Changed the Trip
Our rental car was booked using credit-card points, so we had no immediate out-of-pocket rental charge.
More importantly, the car gave us control over the honeymoon.
We could leave the hotel zone, reach our excursions, stop for inexpensive local lunches and return to Sandos when we were ready. We didn’t have to shape every day around a group transfer or remain at the resort simply because our food was included there.
Using points for the rental car was one of the quiet upgrades that made the entire trip better. The vehicle wasn’t the exciting part of the honeymoon, but it made many of the exciting parts possible.
That doesn’t mean every traveler staying at an all-inclusive resort should automatically rent a car. Insurance, parking, navigation, local driving conditions and the amount of exploring you intend to do all belong in the decision.
For our travel style and this particular honeymoon, having a car was absolutely worthwhile.
The Mexican Ice-Skating Adventure That Wasn’t
One day, while driving around, we unexpectedly came across an outdoor ice-skating rink.
Ice skating outdoors in Mexico was too wonderfully improbable to pass up, so naturally, we decided we wanted to do it.
There was only one problem: neither of us was wearing socks.
Driving all the way back to Sandos for two pairs of socks didn’t make sense, so we assumed we could simply buy some nearby. We started checking shops around the area.
No socks.
We tried another shop.
Still no socks.
We went all over the area looking for two ordinary pairs of socks—and somehow couldn’t find any.
So our spontaneous Mexican ice-skating adventure ended before it began, all for want of a pair of socks.
It wasn’t one of the excursions we planned, and technically, it wasn’t even an experience we completed. But years later, we still remember driving around Cancun trying unsuccessfully to buy socks so we could go ice skating outdoors in Mexico.
Sometimes the travel stories that survive the longest are the things you didn’t get to do.
We Didn’t Try to Maximize the Resort
It would have been easy to remain at Sandos and build every day around the all-inclusive package.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner were already paid for. Drinks were included. The beach and pool were right outside. Staying put would have been convenient, relaxing and perhaps the best way to maximize the package financially.
But maximizing the resort was never the goal.
We enjoyed breakfast before leaving, returned for dinner and relaxed with a few frozen margaritas when we wanted a quieter day. The resort did exactly what we needed it to do: it made the beginning and end of each day easy.
Then we went out and made the rest of the honeymoon our own.
The Bottom Line
Our all-inclusive resort gave us a comfortable room, easy meals and a beautiful stretch of beach.
The experiences beyond the resort gave us the stories we still tell.
We drove a small speedboat through the mangroves, snorkeled, parasailed together, traveled underwater on BOB sub scooters and biked, hiked and swam through Rio Secreto.
Some experiences were exciting. Some were strange. One required Gina to get back on another airplane after her very emphatic reaction to the first takeoff.
Rio Secreto was our favorite, but the larger lesson came from the collection of experiences.
Booking an all-inclusive resort did not require us to choose an all-inclusive style of travel. We could enjoy the convenience we had paid for and still leave whenever something beyond the gates sounded more interesting.
The resort made the honeymoon easy.
The adventures made it ours.