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A nice (if a bit pricey) way to spend a day at the beach

My go-to shore excursion recommendation in Costa Maya will always be Maya Chan Beach. You can read more about it on my blog here, and you can click here to make reservations, because trust me – if your cruise stops in Costa Maya, you want to go to Maya Chan.

But every summer, the hard-working folks at Maya Chan take a break during the months of June through August. Since my port stop in Costa Maya happened to fall on June 1, I went looking for an alternate beach club for the day. I was pleased to find Nacional Beach Club.

Nacional is one of the many beach clubs in downtown Mahahual. This area is a short five-minute taxi ride from the cruise port, making it a convenient option for a quick day trip. Port stops in Costa Maya are shorter sometimes, so this would be a good option when you only have a five- or six-hour day rather than a full eight- or nine-hour port stop.

We arrived at Nacional a little after 10 am and were checked in at the front desk and shown to our seats. I was pleased that the seats were reserved for us and a sign displayed our name! We were in town on a slow day (one small and one medium-sized ship), so I wasn’t surprised that we had first-row seats next to the water.

The chairs were comfortable and there were two tables you could use for your food/drinks. It was extremely windy that day, so we used our towels to hold things down on the tables so they wouldn’t blow away.

Nacional offers an extensive selection of food and drinks, all of which are included with your day pass. I was pleased to see a carajillo, one of my new favorite drinks, was an option, and it was delicious. Like many of the Costa Maya beach clubs trying to seem upscale, Nacional serves its drinks in glassware, which I find odd in the beach-club environment. I brought my Owala tumbler to drink from and was pleased that I had.

The food we had at Nacional was all good, but nothing special. I mean, if you’ve had the tacos at Maya Chan, your bar is set so unbelievably high that nothing is ever going to come close, so I’ll admit that I was a bit spoiled.

At one point, our server disappeared for a bit, but otherwise, we didn’t have many complaints about the service. If there was something to complain about, it was the omnipresence of the beach vendors, but they were just doing their jobs. Even still, it did get a little annoying saying “no, thank you” a hundred times over.

When we were done, our server brought us back to the front of the beach club and got us a taxi back to the port. Your taxi both ways is included in the price of your day pass admission, which is a nice touch.

If you’re looking for a beach club that’s close to the port, Nacional is a nice option. But (I’ll only say it one more time, I promise) if you can go to Maya Chan, you should.

I bought my pass to Nacional through Viator, and you can click here to buy yours through a link that will give me a small commission (at no cost to you) as your travel agent. Viator often runs promotions and offer codes itself, and if you’re signed up for cash back through Rakuten, you can also get some of the amount you’ve paid back.