Birthday Adventure in Cancun with a Pinch of Chaos!
So my birthday was coming up, and I really wanted to go to Cartagena, Colombia, for my birthday, but unfortunately, that didn't work out because I couldn't get a Colombian visa. Anyway, unfortunately, very unfortunately, I booked the flight with Spirit [don't fly Spirit] to Colombia because the price was reasonable at the time, and because I couldn't go to Columbia anymore, I had to try and salvage whatever travel credit we had left, and it was so ridiculous. The flight for myself and my lover was about $888, and the travel credit they gave us was only $466. I'm like, sir?? How??? That made me so mad because I had to end up paying another $300 to change that flight from Colombia to Cancun, Mexico because I wasn't trying to spend my birthday in America.My last birthday was so amazing. I went to the UK with my three best friends from college, and we had a little reunion tour birthday trip where we went from London to Birmingham to Scotland. And I didn't want to do anything less than that this year. So anyway, I ended up going to Cancun.The flight was TRAUMATIC! First, our flight was delayed about three or four times, as in usual spirit airline fashion (so I’ve heard). We eventually got on the plane, we landed in Orlando, Florida, at about midnight; and our next flight wasn't leaving for Mexico wasn't leaving until, I think, 8:00 AM the next day, and just with the way everything, unfortunately, fell apart, we weren't even able to get a hotel reservation. Everything was just really messed up.
We were tired. There was nowhere to lay down. we landed at the airport, hungry and thirsty because Spirit doesn't feed you, and there was nowhere to lay our heads at Orlando Airport. So we eventually ventured out of the airport to a Denny's because that was one of the only things that was open, and we stayed in the Denny's as long as we could because we were tired. We finally found a lil couch to lay down and rest our eyes but when we got up at about 6AM, the departure line at Orlando Airport…. I have never seen anything like it, with all fifty-plus gates on the same security line. When we saw that, we're like, yeah, we're not making this flight. Luckily while I slept, my lover, who is a genius, figured out that Orlando Airport had Clear! So Clear is like TSA pre-check, but better, more expensive, and better. So if you sign up for Clear, you pay a yearly membership. I thankfully don't have to pay that because he works at Clear, meaning I get that family discount, but honestly, it's so worth it because it combines TSA pre-check with a fast track. So what happens is when you sign up, the Clear agent walks you to the TSA line, leaving 900 million people behind you, and you get a walkthrough, which is precisely what happened.
I strongly recommend getting Clear. It’s great if you're running late for your flight. Yeah, just hop on that Clear Lane. So that was our saving grace because otherwise, there's no way we could have made that flight. No way. Anyway, we got on the flight and landed in Cancun safely and hopped on an Ado Bus that took us downtown Cancun, which cost about 120 pesos per person.
We got off the bus at the central bus terminal and headed to our quaint Airbnb loft. Our host was terrific and let us check in early. We headed to this fantastic French place for brunch. It felt like Paris in Mexico. It was amazing. 
Here’s a list of all the amazing places you should eat at if you’re visiting Cancun:
On our first night, we went to a place called Al Sahar. Yo, you can't leave Cancun without going to Al Sahar. It was on the pricey side for both of us. We spent about $200, but it's so worth it. The place was excellent
For breakfast/brunch, go to Cafe Nader, Waffle Boutique, or Cafe Antoinette.We ate a lot of good Italian food in Mexico, look to La Pizzarra Plaza La Isla, Nicoletta and Cenacolo Ristorante. I'm a whore for Italian food, and the Spaghetti Carbonara at Cenacolo I have ever had, and I've had a lot!
So for my birthday, I planned it entirely from Chicago. Here's a video that shows you how I made it happen. On the big day, I had my cake delivered. I had a little photoshoot with my cake, and then we headed out to a couple's massage at Matrix Spa & Massage Cancun. Yo, it was sooo good that I fell asleep, and the hot stone massage was an excellent touch because I’d had a harrowing and heartbreaking start to my day. I initially planned to have brunch at this lovely place called Marakame Cafe. But when we arrived, they had unfortunately closed for lunch, so we ended up right back at the place we had breakfast on the first day, Cafe Antoinette because it was next door.Peace made and bellies filled, we wandered around exploring the city. The first stop was Mercado 28, which is an artisan market. We went to Puerto Cancun, walked around, enjoyed the city, did some shopping, had some snacks, and then returned to our Airbnb to prepare dinner. I made dinner reservations at this fantastic Italian place called Nicoletta. We moved that reservation three times because we weren't ready. We had another photoshoot session because I changed dresses into this sexy dress from an Australian brand called San Sloane. My lover and ‘Nessa (my tripod) took some fire shots! Phew! We had a blast doing that whole photo shoot after that. We headed to dinner at Nicoletta's. It was more than I could ever imagine. It was amazing. Oh, my goodness. It was amazing!I'm a sucker for pasta made in front of me in a cheese wheel. I first experienced that in Miami at the Versace mansion, so we did that again. I also had Alfredo pasta for the first time. It tasted so creamy good, and we had drinks. I was given a complimentary dessert because I put it on the reservation that it was my birthday. When I walked in, the maitresse greeted me with a happy birthday ,and after dinner the waiters brought me a complimentary cake and some candles and sparkles, and they sang for me. It was adorable. The initial plan was to go to a club after either Mandala or Coco Bongo, but I was exhausted; I've been so used to heading to bed around 9 PM at home, so yeah, I couldn't even make it to the club, but I would have liked to. I felt like going to a club is part of that Cancun experience. 
So for the rest of the trip, we were supposed to do a tour where we would get to do a zip lining and ATV tour and also get to see a Cenote. Seeing the Cenotes and the Mayan ruins are some of the top, top things you do when you travel to Cancun, but unfortunately, we weren't able to do these things, and I'm still so mad about it. The tour company just never picked us up. We paid quite a bit for this tour; the day was almost wasted because there's so much we could have done; we could have gone to Tulum or seen the ruins at Chichen Itza. I wanted to do so much, and we just kept having a series of things that weren't working out. We also tried parasailing and going to Isla Mujeres, but the ferry was inconsistent, and none of those things worked out either.If you plan on going to Isla Mujeres, you should know this; the ferry times are inaccurate. We set sail from Playa Tortugas to Isla Mujeres about half an hour later than the time schedule, then we got to the island and found out that the last ferry would be leaving back to Cancun 45 minutes after we landed; that sucked. So we didn't even get to spend time, time there. Most of the time we spent in Isla Mujeres, we spent almost two hours in a long ass line waiting for the ferry that would take us back to Cancun. Yeah, otherwise, it was a great trip. I was unprepared for how hot it would be, so pack some SPF 50, slather that sunscreen everywhere (reapply every 2 hours), and buy a straw hat for extra sun protection.
Anyway, here is a list of things you must do when going to Cancun, Mexico:
*a huge majority of the things we wanted to do didn't happen sadly.Go on to trip to Isla Mujeres. It's beautiful there; you can also snorkel and do other water activities. I’m still bummed we didn't chill on the beach or even see the underwater museum, but I hope you do!If you're looking for a shopping experience, you should go to the La Isla shopping experience. There's a ferris wheel called El Sol de Cancun. You should go there at night because there are fewer people. It costs about $17 per person, and you can see a fantastic area view of Cancun’s Hotel zone and the sea at night.You should get a massage and book ahead. So many of them are around, so pick the one you like. What I noticed about the massage places I looked up is you can either go to them or they can come to you.Visit Mercado 28; it's a large artisan market, and everything there is handmade. I spent a pretty penny there, but it was all worth it.You should also visit Puerto Cancun. It’s another shopping experience center.
Things to know BEFORE going to Cancun, Mexico:
The ferry departure times are not very accurate, so plan accordingly.
Another thing to know about Mexico is that the Ubers and the regular taxi drivers don't mess with each other. They don't like each other. There are certain places where the traditional taxis dominate more than Ubers, so the Ubers don't go everywhere. On a few occasions, we had Uber drivers tell us that they couldn't go to particular locations because those locations were dedicated to taxi drivers. So we weren't staying in the hotel zone and had to take Ubers there, but Ubers couldn’t pick you up. So if you're in the hotel zone, there are a lot of regular taxis, and they’ll transport you wherever you're going. We were staying downtown, and the distance to the hotel zone was about 23 minutes, and the average price was about 600 pesos, which is about $30.
You need to be mindful and have a bunch of cash (Pesos) because people tried to pull one over on us when we used our cards to pay for stuff in different locations.Definitely know some Spanish if you're going to Mexico. If you don't have your Google Translate app ready, that could be helpful for you.Ask if they have Conchas (pronounced 'Koncha') when you're out for breakfast. I had it at Cafe Nader, and it was unbelievable.The Zara in Mexico is 900 times better than the Zara in America. So if we're trying to shop Zara, go to Mexico, period.Another thing about Cancun, every single place that we went to had excellent customer service. Like, I'm talking 20 over 10. And that was so refreshing because you know how it can sometimes be back here in the States.
I’ve made it easy for ya’ll by hyperlinking all the important spots. If you want some more juicy deets on my Cancun trip, click here. Until I book another flight somewhere… who knows where, follow me on Instagram and TikTok for more travel stories, tips, itineraries, and gist. xxx- Summer