El Placer, Mexico
The view from our back door of our AirBnB
Finding Our Vacation Destination
Back in December of 2020, we decided to travel to Mexico. Due to COVID, we weren’t able to travel much that year and by December we were getting a little stir crazy. I booked the trip on a whim so I didn’t have much time to plan things out. I had 5 days to find lodging and come up with things for us to do. Since it was peak COVID time, I knew the majority of our time would be spent at whatever house we booked. That meant I needed a house or studio that was right on the beach and preferably a bit remote.
One thing I try to do when I travel is to go to new places and see different things. On our previous trip to the Yucatan, we stayed in Playa Del Carmen and traveled extensively throughout that region. My husband and I love the Yucatan with the beautiful Caribbean beaches. We decided that we wanted to go to the Yucatan region, but we wanted to go someplace new. On our prior trip, I wanted to visit Laguna Bacalar, but with so many ruins and ceñotes to visit, we never made it down that far. With that in mind, I then got on my AirBnb app. One thing I like to do on the AirBnB app is find a general location and just start looking up and down within that region to find a spot.
Once I logged into the AirBB app, I started scrolling just south of Tulum on the beach and started zooming in and looking for places to populate with a price. That’s when I found an amazing spot in a village called El Placer. To call El Placer a village seems silly, it’s a strip of land with houses and vacant lots. El Placer is about 20 minutes north of Mahahual and about 5 hours south of the Cancún airport. Since El Placer is pretty remote we knew that we would need to stock up on groceries. We also knew there were some smaller markets and fruit stands in Mahahual.
About Our Lodging
Our AirBnB was a downstairs studio with a private entrance. The studio was simple, it had a bathroom and shower and a small kitchenette where we could prepare our daily meals. The window inside the studio looked out at this beautiful beach. There was an outdoor shower that you could use to rinse off after spending the day in the water. The caretaker of the property resides in the upstairs unit and there is an additional studio on the other side of the house. When we were there, we were the only visitors besides the caretaker. All of the properties around us were vacant at the time of our visit. The cost to rent this AirBnB was $69 USD a night! The one downfall of this location was the trash on the beach. I am not sure if it was the time of year or maybe it is the way that the tide comes in, either way, there was trash on the beach. That said the trash wasn’t enough to detour us from swimming and hanging out on the beach. Even with the trash the beach was beautiful. White sands and turquoise blue water what’s not to love? Would I visit this location again? Absolutely!
Laguna Bacalar
Things To Do
We stayed in El Placer for about two weeks, at a certain point we wanted to venture out. Here are some of the things we did:
Costa Maya- Is a small village located just outside of Mahahual. Costa Maya is where we would go to pick up groceries, visit the fruit market and pick up any random supplies we needed. The town is pretty small but it does have a couple of hotels.
Mahahual- Is a small village that I imagine gets pretty busy when the cruise ships are docking there. Luckily while we were here the cruise ships were not running due to covid so the village didn’t seem overly crowded to me. We would visit Mahahual when we felt like eating out or getting a cocktail next to the beach. I am vegetarian and was pleasantly surprised to find enough options for me to eat. Mahahual is also a great place to stroll along the malecón.
Laguna Bacalar (Lake Bacalar)- Prior to our trip, Laguna Bacalar has been a destination that I have wanted to visit for years. Lake Bacalar was just under two hours away. This lake of seven colors did not disappoint. On the lake there are several open ceñotes that you can swim in on your tour. One thing that we didn’t do that we regretted was going to Fuerte San Felipe. It is a fort that was used to protect the citizens from the pirates. While we were visiting we were told that the lake was not as vibrant as it normally is due to a recent hurricane.
Chetumal- I wanted to visit this town while we were down there, but we never made it. Supposedly you can see manatees swimming in the water. It is also a larger town that has bigger markets like Costco. If I were to do this trip again I would have taken an additional plane ride to the airport in Chetumal to avoid driving five hours from Cancún. Chetumal boarders Belize and is about 2.5 hours from El Placer.