Family Trip to Cancun 2026

One awesome perk that comes with all of the travel Zac does through his work is the SkyMiles that he racks up and every now and then we save up enough to take the family on a trip!  A trip to Cancun with the family has been on my bucket list for a long time.  We traveled to the Bahamas on a cruise before, but going to Mexico required us all to have passports, so for all of the kids except Ashlyn, this was the first time these kids got to have passports with a stamp!

I have some kids that are absolute beach lovers, and they adored having an Airbnb right on the beautiful beach.  Unfortunately, Cancun is well known for having sargassum blooms, and the seaweed overwhelms the beaches, which also draws all the little flying insects, so it isn't necessarily the best place to swim.  I am also learning that Cancun just flat-out has rough tides, which made it a red-flag day every day we were there on vacation.

On our first day after our travel day, we ticked off a bucket list item for me and went to Chichen Itza, one of the 7 Wonders of the World!  It was so jaw-dropping to see this gorgeous Mayan Ruin in real life!  We had a rocky start to our adventure when we were almost immediately pulled over by the Cancun police, who are known to target tourists in rental cars.  Having read some travel tips about going to Cancun, I had previously read that the police are a little crooked and will target tourists and then ask for a bribe to let the tourists go... sure enough, this police man told us that if we gave him $100, he could make the ticket go away.  Zac refused to pay it, and the policeman asked him to step out of the car to talk to his supervisor.  I was kinda freaking out, thinking Zac was going to Mexican prison on day one of our trip!  But I think when the supervisor saw how big Zac is and that he was with a family of 5 kids (we were missing Ian), he told the other cop to just let us go, and we were on our way.  2 1/2 hours of going so slow no policeman would have any reason whatsoever to pull us over; we were there!

Unfortunately, after a fun but very toasty day of exploring Chichen Itza, we went to pile back in the car only to find that the keys were missing!  Zac searched his pocket where he had put the keys and found, A HOLE and no keys!!  We were so frazzled.  We said a prayer as a family and then Tanner and I headed back to check the lost and found while Zac and the others stayed near the car and tried to call the rental car company.  Our prayers were answered and Tanner used his awesome Spanish skills to ask if any keys were turned in.  Miraculously, someone had JUST turned them in 5 minutes before we got there.  The odds that someone found our keys and took the time to turn them in were truly an answer to prayers!

Zac and I had the chance when Ashlyn and Tanner were babies to travel to Cancun as a work incentive trip where they spoiled us by taking us to the all exclusive resort Xel Ha.  We were so excited to take the kids there to show them how awesome it is.

The boys got to take an excursion to go deep-sea fishing!  It sounded like an awesome idea, but in reality the waves were rough, the boat was small, and seasickness was real.  Tanner spent the whole time heaving over the side of the boat, and Zac and Bronson fought back seasickness as well.  The fishing wasn't great, and the boys didn't catch anything personally, but the first mate did make one catch that he allowed Bronson to reel in.

But I think the favorite part for all of us of the whole trip was going to XPLOR.  A resort built around underground cenotes.  There were so many incredible things to do there.  My personal favorite was going down the huge ziplines and even playing with a wild little monkey!!

We also visited a small aquarium and had a fun time watching the dolphins play!

Riding the ATVs at EXPLOR!

Overall, we had an amazing and memorable trip, experiencing so many fun adventures, new foods, and enjoying time together as a family in a beautiful part of the world!