Cancun, Mexico

We walked into paradise the moment we stepped on the Hyatt Ziva Cancun property. My whole family was awestruck by the amazing view of the sand and sea.

Getting there was a little more of an adventure so let's start at the beginning. Before kids, my husband and I loved to travel. After one kid it was more challenging than the twins came along and challenging became seemingly impossible. Gone were the days when we could jump into the car and hit the road on a spontaneous road trip or grab last-minute airline tickets to go on an adventure. I refused to hang up my passport and with significantly more planning we have been able to enjoy lots of travel with our family of five. 

Cancun was one of the places I had wanted to go to for a while. I know many people who would want to leave their kids home on a romantic vacation but we saw an opportunity to enjoy family time and one on one time. I started looking for a romantic getaway with the kids.

I did some quick research and landed on the Hyatt Ziva and I am so glad we did. We picked this resort mostly based on the amazing reviews that the childcare received. Also, the location as it is situated with beaches on both sides of the resort. I always like to have an objective for our vacations it helps me hone in and make decisive decisions that can otherwise be very overwhelming. This vacation was meant to be a relaxing, romantic beach vacation. So having a resort with amazing beaches and somewhere that we would be comfortable leaving our kids was the top priority. 

We definitely hit our goals with this vacation and I honestly wouldn't have had it any other way now that we've done a romantic/ family vacation. The kids club was indeed outstanding. The people that worked there were kind, fun and so responsible. I felt very comfortable leaving my kids there and my kids loved it and begged to go. We have done kids clubs before so my expectations were that the kids would be watched but that's about it. I was so wrong the kids had full activities going on all the time; obstacle courses, clay art classes, and even an entire splash pad. When we picked the kids up it was so much fun to hear about all the exciting things they did. The balance of spending quality moments with the kids at the beach and having family time as well as getting one or two dates every day was absolutely perfect. Dale and I got to do all the adult things like relaxing on the beach sipping cocktails, getting massages, and doing a tequila tasting. 

Although there were about 200 things I would've liked to have seen and done in Mexico we stuck to our goal and stayed mostly at the resort. Staying at the resort provided us the opportunity to relax and let our lives slow down. This is hard for me as I'm usually the type of person who crams in as many activities as possible but as a family, we needed this to be easy. We spent most of our time moving from beach to pool and never felt like we needed more. The beach was the perfect amount of clear warm water with some fun shaded cliffs. The waves were calm because it was a cove and the water was shallow. There was really no reason to go anywhere else it was paradise. 

Staying at the resort meant we got to try everything it had to offer including all the restaurants. We ate burgers in a car at Chevy's the first night as this was one of the only casual dining options for dinner and I was not getting three boys into a nice restaurant after being on a plane all day. Then we had Italian where they let the boys make their own pizza before wood-firing them. I loved that it felt like a fine dining experience that paid attention to what the kids actually wanted too. We had hibachi the next night this was probably the least kid friendly and even my more adventurous eater was not really happy with the prefix menu. We ate steaks at Tradewinds this was our favorite restaurant between the views, the food, and the service everything was top-notch. The last night we were sunburnt and tired so we went to the brewery. We watched football and taught the boys pool while eating wings and burgers. We knew the kids wouldn't be into the ceviche bar so we lunched there while they were at kids club. The proximity to the beach and the margaritas made this place above and beyond. 

This all-inclusive resort was actually ALL-Inclusive. Part of the relaxation for me was not worrying about or abstaining from certain things to save money. Everything from cocktails, fine dining, lattes, and treats from the candy store were something we could have without seeing it on our bill. 

The memories we made on this vacation will last forever. We had so many moments of joy, relaxation, and adventure. The resort offered so much to do that we could go back again and again and try new things every time. I am sitting here almost a year later and the kids still talk about the trip and all the fun we had.