Well I am going through photos from the last year. They bring back pleasant memories and hopes that we will be back to traveling more soon. Just before things shut down in 2020 we spent a week at Dreams Huatulco. Huatulco is on the West coast side of Mexico, in the state of Oaxaca. It is one of the lesser tourist areas, probably because of its lack of air service. Sun Country offered one flight a week from Minneapolis. It is a popular weekend trip for people around Mexico City since it is only about 1 hour 15 minute flight between the two.
As usual our vacation started with a pre-night hotel in Minneapolis. I always feel that travel days are stressful, so having a pre-night hotel in Minneapolis eliminates the stress of getting to the airport and gives us a place to keep the car for a week. We can have a drink and unwind before a semi-restless nights sleep with the anticipation of the next day. But at least we are in Minneapolis.
without TSA preapproval, the line was long to get through security. Here is where the end of the line was when we got to it, on the walkway over the road into Terminal 2.
Flying into Huatulco we got a great view of the coast.
This was our first trip to Huatulco (hopefully not our last). It is a very small airport. At the time we came in we were the only aircraft. There was only one person working the customs/immigrations so it was slow going. The oddest thing to me was more than once they asked about jerky. It is not allowed and if you had it you needed to dispose of it prior to arrival. They even had a dog sniffing for it (that had to be the easiest dog training ever.." Find jerky" :) )
Dreams Huatulco is about a 30 minute drive from the airport. The countryside reminded me a lot of Costa Rica. The entry to Dreams Huatulco was very creative.
We started out in a tropical view... which is a good room.... BUT we did end up upgrading to Oceanview. At Dreams Huatulco to get an Oceanview you have to upgrade to Preferred room category. That also got you access to Preferred Lounge and separate area on the beach.
Dreams Huatulco has 421 rooms located on Tangolunda Bay. It is a very nice, family friendly, what I would consider smaller, all-inclusive resort. Of course our favorite location would be the beach. There were sometimes venders on the beach, Mexico beaches are public.
and surprising to me was the snorkeling off the shore wasn't too bad (especially for the Pacific Coast)
One issue with the hotel was the chair savers, and the "towel police" if your spot was empty 20 or 30 minutes they would actually pick your things up. I also don't like it when people save spots and then don't show up for hours, but 30 minutes??? not enough time to walk the bay or even really get breakfast for that matter. They really only did it until 7 am or so. So, since I am a morning person I would grab our towels, and a book and head to the coffee cafe, Coco Cafe, grab a pastry and an latte and get our spots on the beach. That was usually 6am or so. Believe it or not, I was not the first person out there. It was nice to enjoy the quite and listen to the waves but...
After the "police" left I would either see if Tom was awake or head for a walk on the bay. One the far end, a small river that flowed into the ocean and it was a great spot for bird watching. The walk there was a bit lopsided because of the steep sand bank, but well worth it. Even by myself I felt safe, be it on the beach or on the street side on a walk back to the hotel. (of course it is always better to walk with other people).
We did take one excursion on this vacation, a tour of 3 of the 7 bays. It also included some snorkeling for Tom.
The food and restaurants were. Here is a sampling.
All in all this was a great trip to a lesser known Mexican tourist area. Below are some misc. pics. I hope you have enjoyed.
A farewell from the airport and a view of the coast upon take off, headed home.