It was the beginning of 2021 and the pandemic was still uncertain. In many countries it was still very difficult, if not entirely impossible, to travel. Thankfully for me and purely from a selfish perspective, Mexico never really closed its borders and that meant I could travel “normally” from Finland to Mexico for Christmas and New Year as I do every year. As usual I try to stay at least a week to work remotely, but this year the pandemic situation and remote work anyway just made it easier for me to stay longer than usual and enjoy more quality time with my family, that´s when I decided I should visit one of our many gorgeous beaches during my time in Mexico.

It took a while but I convinced my parents to travel with me to Cancun, and more concretely to Isla Mujeres. I promised to do anything on my power to provide the most secluded experience, that we would stay in the hotel most of the time and generally we wouldn´t be visiting crowded places but we would take advantage of the all inclusive hotel whose location alone was quite privileged and promised to be spectacular – and it was!-

I know it was still controversial to travel back then but at that time the resorts capacities were reduced by half, and even though we were not completely alone it was way too evident the hotel was having a lot of extra space. The most common way to get to this island is by one of the ferries from Cancun, however as part of the deal and in order to protect my parents as much as possible, I rented a private mini boat to take us to the island. Things got more expensive this way for sure compared to normal times planning, but we were really trying our best to avoid crowds and simply enjoy our time together as a family in such a beautiful destination. Also my family understood how much I needed that sun, sand and sea (“sol, arena y mar” a very popular thing to say in Mexico to refer to the perfect summer vacation), so we did it! We flew from San Luis Potosí to Cancún in January and stayed there for 5 days. We even agreed we wouldn´t communicate this to many people and just enjoy it.

Mia Reef Hotel

Without a doubt, staying at Mia Reef was an excellent choice! The island is small and there are many accomodation options from budget to a couple of high-end resorts. Mia Reef is one of those fancy hotels but I dare to say the location is the best in the whole island! It is situated on Playa Norte, which is considered the most beautiful and pristine beach, and the hotel is in its own island! this is by far the most amazing feature of this place: you walk around the hotel and you get a direct view to all the colors of the Caribbe! In one side the mesmerizing turquoise waters, on the other “darker” blue waters crashing against the reef barrier.

Punta Sur

Our only activity out was travelling to the other side of the island on the South. The most common way of transportation in the island is by renting golf cars. There are many companies offering different packages, by hour , per day o longer packages. In our case we rented it for one day only and we rented it from the hotel so everything would be easy. Very popular place to admire the sunrise. If you are short on time, going around the island with the golf car is one of the best things to do, as you can have a very good idea of the different accomodations, the city center life, different restaurants, souvenir stores, etc, same as different attractions and viewpoints along the way.

Last but not least, some other drone views from this heaven on earth! I am biased because I´m Mexican but I truly recommend visiting and actdually spending a couple of nights on the island. Although there are many tourists naturally, this small island is more relaxed and you can have a more authentic Mexican experience here compared to the most touristy area and fancy hotel zone in Cancun. In fact there are many day tours from Cancun so spend the day in Isla Mujeres and many of these boats are docked in Playa Norte. From my perspective it does pay off to simply stay there and enjoy the island also when the one day visitors go back to Cancun 😉 You will not regret it!