Information For Your Vacation In Puerto Morelos
One of PM’s less attractive sights has been improved greatly by a little paint and some skilled artists.
This is the underpass at the highway in Puerto Morelos, it now looks a little like an aquarium! Nice work!
Hopefully, the soothing images will enable drivers to relax a little when navigating this busy intersection.
All things Puerto Morelos here: www.InPuertoMorelos.com
Stay with us! www.casadelosviajeros.com
A big opening in Puerto Morelos this week! (July 2022)
Welcome to El Nicho Bakery and Pastry Shop, brought to you by the good folks at El Nicho, one of PM’s favourite breakfast and Brunch spots.
Here you will find the freshest baked breads and pastries, made right here in Puerto Morelos. Vegan and gluten-free options are available too. You can also order specialty items, all made with that El Nicho attention to quality and taste.
This opening this week is only the first step in what will eventually become the New El Nicho. Astrid and Manny have a whole lot of grand plans for the rest of the space, which will be revealed in the fall. For now, both El Nicho locations are open every day, 7:30 am until 2:00 pm.
Congratulations to the entire El Nicho family! (Now…get to work!)
Keep up with all things PM at www.InPuertoMorelos.com
Updated: February 2024
One of the questions we frequently get from our guests departing from Casa de los Viajeros, is how do we pay Visitax? Followed by DO WE NEED to pay the Visitax?
If you are not familiar with Visitax, we’re not too surprised. It is a tourist tax that was introduced on April 1, 2021, in the midst of COVID. It was said to be mandatory for all visitors from any foreign country travelling to the state of Quintana Roo for tourism purposes. The tax costs 271.00 Mexican Pesos/person (approximately $16 USD/$22 CAD). Foreigners with residency cards do not have to pay this tax.
The money is supposed to be used to fund tourism infrastructure projects. This tax should not be confused with the federal Mexican departure tax, which is included in your airline ticket. Visitax is NOT included in your airline ticket or hotel room stay. It is separate.
There is only one official website where you can pay this tax (which took us a lot of work to find). This is the official website.
*For more info on the tax, there is an FAQ button on the above page that provides a little info.
The tax is mandatory, so if you are reading this, and are a foreign tourist, you should pay it. That said, there is very little information about the tax beyond their own website, a few blogs from a year ago, and a good number of scam sites. We wrote to the government to confirm that the tax is still being collected and they replied that it is.
Some visitors have not been asked about the tax and have not had to show proof that they paid it at the airport, while others have.
If you do want to pay online, make sure you pay on the official site. Remember official Mexican government sites always include “gob.mx” in their URL. The official site will not charge you in US dollars, only in pesos. (Currently $271 pesos – Feb 2024)
Under no circumstances should you be required to pay the Visitax in cash.
You can pay the tax in advance or wait until you get to the airport.
You can pay for the Visitax on your phone at the airport. Government employees are sometimes waiting at the bottom of the escalator in front of security and will have signs with QR codes on them which you can scan and pay right away. Just give yourself some extra time in case you run into this. The original plan called for kiosks at the airport to pay the tax, but to the best of our knowledge, they have never appeared.
Unfortunately, there are many unofficial sites offering to handle this payment for you. We found several that popped up on a Google search higher than the official site! The scam is that they charge you a big fee to calculate the tax for you. Here’s a search we tried today to find the right site:
Here are examples of some of the scam sites (we are not linking to them):
Bottom line, if you pay this tax in advance online, make sure you are using the official site. If it tries to charge you more than $271 Mexican Pesos, it is not the real site.
Don’t forget to follow us on FACEBOOK for exclusive pictures and the latest happenings around your favourite beach town!
You may not need a COVID test to fly home. There are major changes to the COVID Testing regulations effect April 1, 2022.
For those of you that still need tests, we have the latest rates for the most cost-effective way to get tested as well as where the labs are located. Plus we have information on the updated mask mandates in Puerto Morelos.
We are NOW taking reservations for Winter 2022/2023. Stay with us at Casa de los Viajeros. 1 or 2 private apartments located steps from the BEST BEACH in Puerto Morelos.
We have 2 very important pieces of news that are going to have an impact on your vacation.
First, the good news… We are in GREEN again. Green is the best colour we can be on the stoplight system and we have explained it once before in a previous blog post. Click here for details.
The government has issued a chart explaining the restrictions, but basically, almost everything is open to 100% including the things that are really important to you like bars, beaches, restaurants and public transportation.
For the government’s, details click here.
Second, the inconvenient news. The city is about to finish resurfacing the roads and sidewalks around the downtown core.
Beginning today, the city has announced that they will close the other half of Rojo Gomez and reverse the traffic flow on the completed side. The road behind the church (Avenida Niños Héroes south) is closed and soon the road in front of the lighthouse (Avenida Rafael E. Melgar) will be as well.
It will be great once they are finished, but in the meantime (and we have no idea how long it will be), we will have to deal with this inconvenience. If you are a tourist driving in town, we recommend sticking to Avenida Niños Héroes (going north of the square) and Avenida Rojo Gomez (going south of the square) and you will be fine.
Keep up to date with all the changes in town by subscribing to BEACH READS.
And if you would like to stay with us, contact us today. We have openings as of March 27th, when hopefully the road work will be done.
Last night one of your favourite Puerto Morelos hangouts was turned into a movie set.
Cantina Habanero was used in the filming of a scene in the upcoming movie “At Midnight” by Paramount Pictures.
The film stars Monica Barbaro, Diego Boneta, Whitney Cummings, Anders Holm, Catherine Cohen, and Casey Thomas Brown.
The romantic comedy is directed by Jonah Feingold.
“At Midnight” is a romantic comedy about two people who do their best not to fall in love, Alejandro (Boneta), who lives a predictable life, and Sophie (Barbaro), a rising movie star with an unreliable celebrity boyfriend. During a visit to Mexico (this is where Puerto Morelos comes in) to shoot scenes for her new movie, Sophie falls in love with the hotel manager.
You can read more about the movie here in Deadline and here in Variety.
This is not the first time Puerto Morelos has been used as a location. Our picturesque village has been featured in several TV shows, music videos and commercials. You can see more here.
Be sure to keep up on all things Puerto Morelos by subscribing to our newsletter. And watch for new stoplight information coming out soon!
It’s getting easier to visit Puerto Morelos! Covid testing requirements have changed for Canadians beginning February 28, 2022. Plus you no longer need to complete the Vuela Seguro health questionnaire while entering Mexico.
Plus we have the latest rates for the most cost-effective way to get tested as well as where the labs are located.
We are now taking reservations for Winter 2022/2023. Stay with us at Casa de los Viajeros. 1 or 2 private apartments located steps from the BEST BEACH in Puerto Morelos.
Starting February 7th, we are back in Yellow again after two weeks of being at the orange light on the Covid stoplight scale.
Our Governor, Carlos Joaquín, tells us that the contagion rate in our area has dropped significantly. Also, he says our hospital occupancy is way down as are the daily new cases. The Undersecretary of Health in Mexico also confirmed this downward trend.
This version of Yellow is a different shade than last time we were under it. Occupancy restrictions have been eased, and now everything can be open at 85% capacity. In this blog post, we went into greater detail about what all this means to you and your vacation. Everything seems to be the same as it was, except instead of the 60% capacity limits, we are now at 85%.
We encourage people to continue to wear masks when around others and to continue to social distance. Have a great stay in Puerto Morelos!
Stay with us at Casa de los Viajeros. It’s not too late for this season. We have Suite #3 open as of March 27th. We are also now taking reservations for 2023. Contact us today!
Every Thursday since Covid started, our state governor goes live on social media to update us and let us know what colour we will be next week.
Early on, the state adopted a traffic light system, using Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. The dread red meant everything was closed. We moved out of red back in June 2020, and we are not going back. We gradually moved up to scale to orange, yellow and finally green (stage 1 and 2)
So every Thursday, we get a new poster like this, which is then shared all over social media. It has a lot of info on it, but most of it does not pertain to visitors to our town.
Here is what you need to know about the current poster…
The box at the top has the when and where of the Covid restrictions. You can see it is the current week and our municipality, and the rest of the north part of the state are all yellow.
The most important part of the poster for you is the big red box on the right. This shows the capacities of things you care about.
Open at 60% is hotels, restaurants, historic sites, theme parks and tourist services. Also at 60%, public parks, beaches, theatres, malls, department stores, salons & churches.
Capacity is limited to 50% in casinos
The poster goes on to explain the limits on transportation. The list starts with motorcycles, which are limited to one person…presumably the driver. Private vehicles are limited to four persons. Taxis are limited to 3 persons, which included the driver. Buses and collectivos are limited to 50% capacity.
On the bottom of the box is the bad news, things that are not open at all. These include bars, nightclubs and discos.
The pictograms at the bottom reinforce the obvious, keep your hands clean, wear masks, keep your distance and stay at home if you have any symptoms. The little box on the right refers to gyms, open at 70% if outdoors, 50% indoors.
The part we skipped on the right refers to things that we assume you will not have contact with. It lists things like schools, courts, construction sites and mines. It also lists many things that have always been open like supermarkets, pharmacies, banks and fishing operations.
Watch our In Puerto Morelos Facebook page, we will keep you up to date with what colour traffic light we are currently under. Stay safe and we hope to see you soon in Puerto Morelos.
For more information on what to expect when visiting Puerto Morelos during Covid times, click here.
And for information on COVID TESTING click here.
Early in January, our state moved from Green to Yellow on the traffic light scale. What does this mean to you?
The reason we have moved from Green to Yellow is due to an increase in Omicron Covid cases in our area. We do not want to move backwards, so please wear good-quality masks when you are indoors and try to stay at least 6 feet away from other people. This will help to stop the spread and get us back to green faster.
Being in yellow means that there will be a reduction in capacity at hotels, historical sites, restaurants, gyms, theatres, etc. Basically, any venue will now have a capacity of as little as 60%. This does include the beach. Lucky for us our beach is huge, which makes social distancing easy.
We do recommend making reservations for your favourite restaurants now that seating is limited. We are having a busier than usual high season and we don’t want you to be disappointed when you can’t get a table or have to wait in line. Contact information for most places can be found here on our Puerto Morelos Restaurant Guide.
Capacity limits apply to transportation too. Taxies are allowed a maximum of 3 people and this includes the driver. That means that if you are a group of 4, you may need to take 2 taxis. You can see all the taxi rates here. Private cars are only allowed a maximum of 4 people. Collectivos and buses are restricted to 50% occupancy.
We don’t know exactly how strictly these rules will be enforced. Your best bet is to continue with the following rules that are in place at this time. You will likely find they are very similar to what you are used to at home (except the disinfecting mat, we are not sure what that is all about).
Here’s what you can expect when you visit Puerto Morelos during Covid:
Many ask, “Do I have to wear a mask when I go to the beach?” You should wear a mask when you are walking to the beach if you are near people. Once you are at the beach, most people take their masks off as long as they stay at least 1.5 meters away from other people, outside of your family/group. Our beach is very large making it very easy to social distance.
Do you have to wear a mask when you are walking around the town? You are supposed to wear your mask anytime you are off your property, but most people only wear one when other people are nearby.
At restaurants, you may be required to order some food with your drinks. It is a town law that restaurants/bars are following so that they can be open. Please check with each establishment to see what their policy is before you order. Many restaurants and bars have had to pay heavy fines or face closure for trying to bend these rules, so please don’t blame the owners or staff. It is not up to them. Also, many restaurants must be closed and dark by 11:00 pm. Some places have paid extra fees to the government to stay open later. If you are arriving late to an establishment you may want to check their closing hours before you order.
A lot of us think this move back to yellow is a caution from our state governor to all of us to take more precautions as omicron moves through. Personally, we are being more careful about keeping our distance and have upgraded our masks to N95 or KN95 type. We choose to dine outdoors whenever possible, which is very easy to do in Puerto Morelos.
Now you know what to expect when you arrive in Puerto Morelos. We think you will find that it is probably not much different from your hometown. Puerto Morelos is a small town, with lots of wide-open spaces and fresh air, so we do believe that you can have a very nice vacation here this winter. We and the whole town will be very happy to see you!
If you would like to join us this winter, we have had a very RARE cancellation at Casa de los Viajeros. Suite #3 is open from February 23 to March 19, 2022. If you are interested, contact us today!
We do recommend that before you leave home you purchase health insurance and vacation/trip interruption insurance. Should you test positive, it is up to you to make your own quarantine arrangements as there are no government facilities here.
And last of all. You may need to take a COVID TEST before returning home. You will find everything you need to know about that here. Have a safe and happy stay in Puerto Morelos.
