(It ended up being fine, and we’d absolutely stay in that AirBnB again.)

It certainly wasn’t ideal, especially with a pool in the back, and the AirBnB ad didn’t disclose this info, but we decided that, since the door locked from the outside, and since we’d brought the baby monitor with us, we would make do. Turns out, unbeknownst to us, each of the 3 bedrooms at our rental house had its own external entrance, meaning that the room the boys were sharing was basically it’s own little house, connected to our room by an external hallway. When I got back from getting the pizzas and some necessities, Sona had a look of horror on her face. She helped arrange all of our transfers, had our rental golf cart waiting at the house when we arrived, had already ordered us pizzas, and was happy to show me how to get a few groceries from the market just 3 minutes down the road. Luckily, our AirBnB had an on-island concierge of sorts, and she was AMAZING. We arrived in Holbox after 9PM, not having eaten dinner. To be honest, we’d underestimated the length of the travel day, mostly because the flight to Cancun seemed so quick and easy, compared to most of our flights, but the boys took it in stride, and they enjoyed checking off the various modes of transportation on a travel day to-do list they’d made.

ferry ride to Holbox, and then a golf cart taxi ride to our rental house. To get to Holbox, we took an Uber to the airport, a flight to Cancun, a 2.5 hour van ride to Chiquila (we had a private transfer with Miguel’s Holbox Transfer Service, and they were great), a 20 min. I’ve said it before on this blog, and I’ll say it again: pick a popular beach destination, like Cancun, and drive an hour or two away, and that’s where you’re going to find the sweet spot.

Convenience isn’t in and of itself a bad thing, especially when traveling with kids, but we’ve often found that, if you’re willing to sacrifice a little convenience, the pay off will be worthwhile, and that was absolutely the case with Holbox. Here’s the thing: if a place is convenient for you, it is also convenient for lots of other people. Getting to Holbox isn’t exactly easy, though, but that’s one of the reasons why it is special. That, coupled with the fact that we found really inexpensive tickets to Cancun, made it an easy choice. Turns out, when it comes to our preference for quieter, more remote, less developed beach spots with lots of local color, Holbox checks all of the boxes. Next time!) So, when we were trying to find a beach spot for spring break this year, we dug a little deeper into this small, sleepy island town. (Ironically, we didn’t actually swim with them, as it wasn’t the right time of year. Holbox has been on our radar for a while, as we’d long heard it was one of the best spots to swim with whale sharks.

Kawaii Bento Boxes by Joie Staff