Visiting Mexico’s Riviera Maya during the COVID-19 pandemic

I visited Cozumel, Mexico and Tulum, Mexico in December of 2020 and I want to share my experience what traveling to Mexico is like during the pandemic. I will caveat that obviously it is a fluid situation, so my experience may not be the same experience a week from now, month from now, or few months from now, especially as the vaccine rolls out and the world gradually reopens again. As of now, no COVID-19 test is required and there is no quarantine upon arrival. You can also quite easily check what is open in the state that you are traveling to on this website. Mexico is under a color coded system (not dissimilar to California’s) that dictates what is open. For reference, I was in Quintana Roo under a “orange” color which allows open public spaces at reduced capacity. All my experiences below are under this level of restriction.

My impression of traveling to Mexico is that they do a very good job of abiding by COVID-19 protocols. In fact, I thought they did much better or at least equal job than where I live in Orange County, CA at following protocols. Every hotel clerk, taxi driver, scuba diving instructor, guide, restaurant server, ferry terminal employee, bartender, activity director wore a mask and practiced social distancing. The only time in my one week trip where I was in a situation where I was in close quarters to people whatsoever was on the plane ride over and I believe this is the biggest risk with traveling to Mexico, and even then middle seats remained open on both my Southwest flight there and Delta flight home. Once you land, the taxis are normally big vans with plexiglass in between you and the driver. Once at your resort, there are almost no tourists to be seen and restaurants are all open air, seriously limiting your COVID-19 exposure. Both in Cozumel and Tulum, often times my group would be the only ones using the amenities such as the resort pool or beach, or if there were others, they were seated plenty further than 6ft away.

While Mexico took COVID-19 protocols seriously, my vacation was also never hindered by the protocols. Despite the protocols in place, everything was open. Restaurants were open, activities were open, ruins were open, etc. I was able to do everything on my list that I wanted to do. I got to go scuba diving in Cozumel, ferry to Isla Pasion, go on an ATV tour, lay on the beach, swim in cenotes, go to Coba and Chichen Itza ruins (one of the 7 Wonders of the World!). Prior to travel, I was really worried that these activities would be closed, making my experience in my mind not worth the risk of traveling. That was not the case at all; I was able to do everything I wanted to in a safe and COVID friendly manner. Yes, you have to wear a mask all day at Chichen Itza, yes you have to wear a mask when entering a restaurant, or when not swimming in the cenotes, but that was well worth it to be able to go on vacation during the pandemic!

The best part, and obviously not for the local economy, was that despite all the Americans traveling to Riviera Maya, it felt downright empty most of the time. Isla Pasion off of Cozumel, which normally has thousands of people crowding the beach from cruise ships, was empty. I was one of maybe 10 people at most on the island. I got to see Cozumel in a once in a lifetime opportunity, when there are not crowds. I truly don’t think I will ever experience having the most beautiful Mexican beach I have ever seen to myself again in my lifetime.

Obviously it is up to you and your situation, because the risk of COVID is not going to be nonexistent with traveling, and you can be as safe and conscious of protocols as possible and still catch COVID-19 (or hey you can get COVID from even going to your local grocery store or a small family gathering), so I will caveat that you SHOULD be prepared with potentially getting COVID-19 while traveling and you SHOULD be prepared to quarantine for 14 days (depending on local guidance) upon your return.

I personally evaluated my own health situation and at 25 years old with no health conditions, I made the call that I would travel despite the risk that I could contract COVID-19 while traveling. I ensured upon my return that I went directly into quarantine, so that I would not expose those that may be at a higher risk of a bad infection. It is a personal decision that you have to make but I do want to encourage you that Mexico is taking the pandemic seriously, despite what you hear in the news, and I also urge you to not let your travels infect anyone else upon your return. On the flip side, I never felt that I was at serious risk of infecting a local in Mexico as the mask wearing was so widespread and I was never in close quarters in an unventilated area with anyone that works in the tourism industry, or any local or fellow traveler for that matter.

One thing I was concerned about, is the week before my trip, the CDC came out with a Level 4 ‘Do not travel’ to Mexico and warned that you “might be prevented from returning to the United States as scheduled” if you come into contact with someone that has COVID or if you have COVID. What the hell does might mean? Mexico is not where I would want to get stuck if I have COVID. Luckily, this was a non-issue for my group but it was at the back of my head what would happen if I fell sick on my trip. My trip was only 7 days so with the standard 5 day incubation period I was luckily most likely to show symptoms upon return and not while physically in Mexico. I am assuming that this is a warning to scare people, I have not heard or read anything about anyone getting stuck in Mexico. I would presume many have traveled with COVID symptoms home from Mexico (ethics aside of whether you should do this or not).

Also, when there they did temperature checks literally everywhere, airport, restaurant, to get into the hotel, etc. I have no clue if they are actually doing anything if you have a fever, but imagine getting home to your hotel and they do a temperature check and you have a fever…do they just make you sleep on the street? What if I am just sunburnt and that shows as elevated temperature? Thoughts in the back of my head on the trip….but I think I was overthinking it. I am making an assumption that if such issues arise that it would be in some news story somewhere about a horrific travel experience by a fellow traveler. An assumption on my part, but again, something you have to decide for yourself and a risk you are taking. But again, given the number of Americans traveling to and from Mexico everyday, I have to assume that this is just scare tactics and that you will be allowed back in the US, or into the hotel in Mexico you are staying, without issue.

Brings me to another point: my experience in Mexico during the pandemic is NOT what I read about in the news. I was actually rather surprised with how strict Mexico was in terms of controlling the pandemic – even with a few silly rules. For instance, they had car sanitizers when entering a cenote parking lot. Interesting….don’t think your car can transmit COVID but hey at least they are ensuring safety. Another silly rule was that they required you to wear a mask in your car…yes your rental car when you are only with the people in your own family. What I keep reading in the news is about how Americans are flying to Mexico and there are wild parties with no social distancing and then the Americans come home with COVID. This was not my experience. Maybe I was just there when the authorities were being especially strict, but I have a feeling that Mexico wants to remain open to tourism so they are taking all the precautions possible to keep the economy open.

~If you are looking to party in Mexico read the below, or if you are just curious if the wild claims in the news are true! Otherwise you can skips this and continue reading on after~

Now if you are not worried about COVID and in fact are seeking out somewhere to go that you can party with no restrictions, and are reading in the news about wild parties in Tulum, I personally did not witness this. I was reading about a rave in Tulum a week before I went and I’m a little shocked because it was very strict when it came to nightlife in Tulum. Maybe this was direct aftermath of the rave and that is why I had this experience, but all bars closed around 12:30/12:45am. One bar even sang a ‘bai bai” song to kick people out. They would promptly shut off the music and essentially shove people our the front door. What I had read online about music blaring until the wee hours of the morning could not have been further from the truth during the pandemic. It was actually a little creepy, walking home after the bars closed at 12:30, it was dark, no cars out on the road, no tourists walking home, and everything was absolutley dead silent.

There is a set party route in Tulum, so each bar essentially has their ‘night’ and that is where the party is that night. It goes by a set schedule so every Thursday is Casa Jaguar, Friday Gitano, Saturday Papaya Playa Project, etc. Must be because of COVID and I think it is a near certain case of price gauging, but each night had a cover charge which was never the case before COVID-19. Thursday night was a $20 cover, Friday was $50, and Saturday was an astounding $200 cover because they forced you to buy a table to get in ‘because of COVID’. Places were also being very sketchy; if you called ahead, they might even deny entirely that they are open. Again, perhaps this is aftermath of the rave that Mexican authorities are clamping down and trying to keep Tulum out of that kind of publicity, but I got a very odd and unfriendly vibe from trying to go out at night.

We quite obviously turned down going to Papaya Playa Project and tried to find another bar to go to on a Saturday night. Everything I read pre-COVID is that you could walk into any bar and it was a fun party. The entire downtown beach part of Tulum was straight up dead. We walked the entire street stopping at every bar at 10:30pm on a Saturday night and were getting asked if we would like to be seated for dinner….for dinner at 10:30pm on a Saturday night!! We could not find a single place to go to. Perhaps we didn’t have the inside scoop? In the news, people raved of partying at private villas. What private villas? I don’t know, but partying should not be that hard to do on a Saturday….it was just a very odd experience.

So a word of caution, if you are coming to Tulum purely because you are sick of COVID-19 restrictions in your hometown and you heard you can go party in Tulum with no restrictions, I strongly urge you to reconsider. Now Thursday was fun and Friday night at Gitano was fun, there were a good amount of people and other tourists out, but it was all open air and again not ever crowded in any one area (I never felt at high risk of getting COVID here unless you perhaps spent your entire night on the dance floor, but I remained in the upper patio and never felt at risk), but when trying to go out the next day, everything was absolutley dead. Tulum did not feel back. COVID did feel like it existed. So plan for hit or miss nightlife, in fact plan for the miss so that you are not disappointed. Plan for a different type of vacation and wait until COVID-19 pandemic subsides before coming for that type of Tulum trip, if that is what you are looking for, unless you have some inside scoop that us normal tourists are not privy to… Or rent an Airbnb and do all your partying within your own group at your own Airbnb if that is what you are looking for.

~Okay done talking about partying, you may continue~

So all in all, I found Mexico, if you are willing to travel, a great place to go during the pandemic. It is up to you to decide if it is worth going and if it is in your ethics to travel during the pandemic. If you are going just for partying and no restrictions, you will be disappointed. But if you are coming to take part in all the lovely things Riviera Maya has to offer or if you want to seriously minimize chance of exposure and never leave your all inclusive resort, I think you can do so safely – and might just find yourself alone on a beautiful beach without a tourist in sight.

Business, especially in Cozumel are struggling. I felt rather awful honestly, everyone asked for us to do a TripAdvisor review and they said people think they are closed. On our ATV tour, they literally did the tour just for my group, no one else was there. They came to work that day purely because of us…so I can’t recommend highly enough to go and spend your tourism dollars in Mexico in a relatively safe and fun way. I do not think you will be disappointed! I personally had the trip of a lifetime and was SO thankful that after many months of going stir crazy without a vacation, I finally got to go on one.