Travelers Info
Air Travelers
Mainland Travelers
Cruise Ship Passengers

Cozumel Island
About Cozumel
Holidays & Events
Getting There
Cancun to Cozumel
Weather
Exchange Rates

Accommodations
Hotels
Vacation Properties
Bed & Breakfast
Vacation Rentals Online
Dive/Hotel Packages

Water Activities
Scuba Diving
Scuba Dive Shops
Snorkeling
Deep Sea Fishing
Reefs
Beaches
Marine Park Rules

Adventure Tours
All Adventure Tours
Jungle Jeep Tours
Horseback Riding Tours
Snorkel Tours
Scuba Diving Tours
Deep Sea Fishing
Jungle Bike Tours
Jungle Trek Tours
Tarzan Tours

Tours/Sight Seeing
Special Attractions
Tours/Excursions
Island Tours
Day Excursions  

Island Guides
Beaches
Nightlife
Restaurants
Shopping
Food

Mayan Ruins
Chichen Itza
Tulum
Coba

Ecological Parks
Chankanaab
Crococun Crocodile Park
Tres Rios
Xcaret
Xel-Ha
Cenotes
Xpu-Ha
Sian Ka'an Biosphere
Punta Laguna
Garrafon

More Services
Specialty Services
Car/Vehicle Rentals
Getting Married
Real Estate
Travel Agencies
Tour Operators
Emergency Info
Great Links

Travel Essentials
Travel Tips
Packing List
Taxi Fares
Ferry Schedule
Spanish Lessons
Photo Gallery
Consulates

About TravelNotes
Advertise
Contact Us

Rentals

Online Hotels

Car Rentals

Adventure Tours

Scuba Tours

 Cozumel Trip Report
Posted by Pam on Feb. 4/02

Trip report - El Presidente

El Presidente Hotel

Larry and Pam
January 26 - February 2, 2002
El Presidente

Just back from a wonderful week in Cozumel.  It was our 9th Mexico trip, the last 4 have all been to Cozumel.  We stayed at the El Presidente, as always, and it was wonderful.  This was our laziest trip.  We usually try and get out and about on the island at least a couple of times but had a great deal of difficulty motivating ourselves off of the beach.  We decided if it was that hard it wasn't worth it so spent most of everyday on the beach at the hotel.

We did the Six Continents Club membership this year for $100.  This gets us a free nights stay as well as the fun fringes of welcome drinks and fresh fruit in the room.  When we were checking in they brought us cool wet towels to freshen up with, nice touch.  We take small gifts to leave with the $1 tip for the hotel maid, things like nail polish, small flashlight, hair scrunchies, etc, and they seem pleased as our room was constantly decorated with new methods of twisting towels and washcloths to make swans and flowers and it was liberally sprinkled with hibiscus flowers and petals.

Our favorite beach waiter, Theodoro kept us happy with drinks and food. Not the cheapest way to eat but it sure is splendid to have nachos and seafood under the palapa. Even a tuna sandwich is quite tropical when dressed up with a fanned avocado.  We discovered a new favorite drink, the Tropical Blend.  It is a combination of bananas, coconut milk and rum.  Very relaxing. Cool!

I wake up very early so would lay awake waiting for the sun to rise at 6AM(while there I don't want to miss a minute of sun time, for those of you in southern states you really should try a winter in Minnesota to help you appreciate Cozumel even more).  We purchase bread and juice at Chedraui and I would take this to our patio along with my trip journal and books and would write up what we did the day before and identify fish, birds and flowers we had seen the day before.  It is surprising how much pleasure I get from reading my little journals on a cold winter day in Minnesota.

About 8AM the sun would come over the hotel and we would go down to the beach.  We snorkeled twice a day and the fish are stupendous. I got the Paul Humann book for identifying Reef Fish and also the Reef Creatures one. They are the best I've seen.   Among other fish, we saw barracuda, several kinds of parrot fish, angel fish, morays, rays, etc.  I even saw a pair of
Spotted Eagle Rays go by, startled me as they are so large and move so fast.   We really enjoy snorkeling and that is one of the best reasons to stay at the Presidente, many of the snorkel boats come and dump their groups right outside the ropes of the hotel beach.  It is that good.

About 4PM we would start thinking about supper so would get cleaned up(wash off the sunscreen) and go to town.  I will write up the restaurants with food and prices on the restaurant review page so just a brief list here.

Our restaurant choices were:
La Mission(the one on Ave Salas) - we like the seafood and lime soup
La Choza - the best shrimp fajitas, lime pie and great prices
Panchos Backyard -  terrific atmosphere, I had the shrimp kabob and it came with a little grill to the table
Las Palmeras - okay but annoying that they allow vendors to approach your table to try and sell you things right in the restaurant, we won't go back there
Caribeno - the beach restaurant at El Presidente, the menu isn't very broad but the atmosphere is spectacular, open air right on the beach with no traffic noise
La Veranda - this remains our favorite restaurant on the island,  the atmosphere and food is spectacular
New La Mission 9(the one  on Ave Juarez) - this was lovely and again we had seafood

After eating we would walk through the downtown area looking in shops and buying a few souvenirs.  I like silver and Mexican glassware but have to look a lot to find exactly what I want.  The best night for this was Thursday as there were no cruise ships in town and the sidewalks were much easier to navigate.   On this trip we noticed the Sonora Grill and the southern location of Ernestos and plan to try these next time.  We made several stops at Chedraui(the super walmart of the island) for breakfast breads, juice and Pepsi for my husband.  Pepsi is $.50US there as opposed to $1.90US in the servi-bar at the hotel.

One afternoon we did tear ourselves off the beach and head into town as I had heard about a restaurant supply store and have been on a quest for a molcajete with a ram or donkey head and have only been able to find pig heads or plain on-line.  Alas, still no mocajete but lots of other neat stuff.  We then walked back to the waterfront through primarily residential areas.  We hadn't walked in those areas much because I can never decide if we are infringing on peoples privacy or just absorbing some of the real atmosphere of the island.   We also went through the market area but didn't see a molcajete there either.  We may have missed it though as we were quite overwhelmed with the quantity and variety of merchandise and don't have good enough Spanish to ask.

The airport is working very hard to make our flights safe as they did do searches of all checked luggage and carry-ons.  Since it is all done manually it takes quite a group of people to get a plane loaded, but it was done efficiently and didn't really delay anything.   The new section of
the airport had opened since we were there in May and it greatly increased the available seating.  They also now have a small deli bar and seating area along with a branch of Los Cinco Soles.

Our trip was completely wonderful as usual and we are already talking about when we are going back and what we will do when we get there.  It was a little scary to see how empty the hotel was, hope things pick up so we have a home away from home to go to.

Pamela W. Zalesky
Senior Software Project Engineer
Blaine, MN

Trip Reports

Lodging Reviews
Mayan Tour Reviews
Scuba Dive Shop Reviews
Things to Do Reviews
Restaurant Reviews

Email us to have your review listed or removed. Thanks!

back to top