Cancun is Calling The ultimate Caribbean golf experience at Moon Palace is one click away

Michelle Wicks Cypher and her husband Michael, travel agents who have been fashioning golf trips all over the world for nearly a decade now, have put their expertise together for what they hope will be an ultimate golf trip in May 2024 to Cancun.

The couple, who run the Travel There and Back agency in Monroe, Wash., are taking orders for a fournight, five-day stay at Moon Palace Cancun, a five-star, all-inclusive resort on the Caribbean. There is a 27-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course on the Moon Palace property that participants will play.

“We wanted to do this before COVID,” says Michelle. “But travel is coming back and we’re happy to be part of this.”

The event is planned for May 2-6, 2024. Golfers will play the Moon Palace course each day except Saturday, when they’ll move over to the nearby Riviera Cancun Golf and Resort course, also a Nicklaus-design.

Moon Palace is a massive 1,300-room property right on the beach. Six large pools, all interconnected, feature swim-up bars, a FlowRider double surf simulator, and a kids’ pool with slides and water features. Tennis courts, pickleball courts, basketball courts and a mini-golf course are dotted throughout the property. There are nightly theater shows, a dance club and 11 restaurants. The Moon Palace also connects to the Grand Palace next door.

It’s an all-inclusive property, which means all food and drinks are included in the up-front price. The golf is also unlimited. If golfers want to play more than one round in a day, they can schedule that, sunrise to sunset. For any accompanying non-golfer, the Cyphers have secured a $250 credit that can be used for the full-service Awe Spa.

The cost of the trip is $1,995 per person, based on double occupancy (air fare not included). “We were happy we could get it at that price,” Michelle adds.

The trip is open to anyone, though it will likely have a decidedly Northwest flavor. The Cyphers will promote it through golf shows from Seattle to Kansas City to Connecticut and, of course, through Cascade Golfer which reaches more than 100,000 readers in this region.

The Cyphers have operated the Travel There and Back agency for the past eight years, offering all varieties of travel packages including golf tours which have gradually become a prominent part of the business.

The company has put together hundreds of trips to Scotland and Ireland so customers can play the ancient links courses. They have put people on some of the best courses in the world, but golf takes up only four-five hours a day which means the Cyphers need to find enjoyable ways for people to fill the rest of the day.

Golf may be the connecting factor for many in the group but, invariably, some non-golfers are along for the culture, climate or cuisine. Those interests need to be accommodated in some fashion so that no one feels they are giving up their vacation for the benefit of others.

Travel There and Back takes pride in offering a variety of side trips and adventures, such as museum visits, beer and/or whiskey tours, glassblowing or cooking classes. The Cyphers can also set clients up with ancestry experts. They’ve planned golf trips to Africa that might include a safari and domestic golf trips to eastern Washington, Oregon and California (with the obligatory wine-tastings, of course).

The couple has developed a system of ‘travel fittings,’ in which all the vital questions are asked/answered. After a sit-down session, they determine what the priority is for each traveler. Then, working within the travelers’ budgets, they assemble travel packages based on their interests and what they might find interesting.

For more information on the Moon Palace trip, you can contact Travel There and Back at Michelle@travelthereandback.com or call 425-361-5212. There is a discount for anyone signing up for the trip before March 31.