I booked my stay at the Westin purely upon accident...I am a Starwood member with auto booking and while on the site I hit confirm instead of exit. Oops...

I was apprehensive about Cancun, and the Westin in general after reading the mixed reviews, but upon arrival I was pleasantly surprised. I am not high-maintenance, but l am a frequent business traveler and I do like nice things and expect good service.

Here are my experiences and a few tips and tricks I learned along the way.

1. The Westin beach is the best on the strip. The sand is white and powdery, the ocean is a an amazing turquoise blue, and it is clean of algae and debris. If you are going to Cancun to relax on the beach under a palapa, it is the perfect spot. If you want to swim in the water don't go in April as it's quite rough. The pools are great!

2. The Hotel is sub-par. We arrived and there were no upgrades available, but we were given a room with an ocean view. The room was standard (beg for a room with a patio- only the 1st and top floors have them) with a great bed, shower, safe, flat screen tv, plenty of towels and a GREAT view. Unfortunately you can't open the window more than an inch... I was a little bummed at first, but we really spent no time in the room, so I would most definitely book again. The hotel itself is nice and very clean. It also offered exceptional service.

3. If you are a foodie, plan to eat at the several amazing restaurants in Cancun, but please don't waste your money at the Hotel. The breakfast buffet is $24 a person and the food is just ok. If you can score an upgrade to the beach club, they throw in breakfast. Go for that if you can... There is not a place to eat near the hotel so unless you go into town you are out of luck. We did eat at the hotel most mornings, but I had an expense account and was more concerned about finding the perfect lounge chair under the perfect palapa, so we would reserve our spot on the beach and go eat.

4. The bus to the city (20 minutes) is quick, easy and costs $1 US. The minimum for a taxi is $8, and the average cost to get downtown is $15 US, $20 if you head to El Centro. We did both and were fine with both.

5. The concierge will book a weeks worth of restaurant reservations for you. I am a foodie and did a lot of research, so I gave him my list and we were good to go. If you would like my list drop me a line at: pmg38@yahoo.com and I will send it to you. I had some of the best meals in Cancun. Anything from traditional Yucatan to 5 star at the Ritz Carlton.

6. The excursion desk in the lobby at the hotel is great for booking trips. We did a catamaran excursion to Isla Mujeres which was inexpensive and fun. I wasn't impressed with Isla - very touristy, lots of junk, but the sail over was superb. If you must go see Playa del Carmen an $8 US round trip way to do it is to take the bus into downtown Cancun and head to their bus station. They have air conditioned coaches (with a movie) for $3 US each way. I was not impressed with Playa, but i had to see it. It was maybe an hour to get there.

7. Spa, Spa, Spa. I was there to eat, drink and relax. I had 4 spa treatments, one in the Westin and 3 at Le Méridien. I was not that impressed with the Spa a the Westin, which is why I headed elsewhere. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.

8. Getting to the Airport: Email this guy. He will have a car waiting for you and someone with a sign with your name on it. It was quick, easy and $35US total. [-]

Cancun itself is an expensive city. In my opinion it's kind of like Vegas with an amazing beach... I had a great time and would go back again. I would book at the Westin, but i would make sure i could upgrade. I would never again fly in on a Saturday. It is the busiest day of the week and getting through customs and baggage was over an hour.

Enjoy your vacation

We took our children, ages 3 and 8, to The Westin in Cancun for spring break. The hotel is at the end of the strip which makes it nice for several reasons: It's out of the way of the wild spring break crowds. The Club Med next door has a long jetty which makes ocean swimming possible when most of the other hotels have red-flag conditions.

The ONLY thing you need pesos for is the public bus, which runs quite frequently and is easy to take. It cost about $.65 per person, which is the only bargain in Cancun.

The highlight of the trip was renting a car and going to the Tulum area for snorkling in the Dos Ojos Cenotes. We did this through Edventure Tours located in the Tulum parking lot. Our guide (Eddie the owner's brother) was probably under the influence of marijana or just not overwhelming thrilled to be touring with kids. We drove him in our car so any impairment wasn't an issue.. He did take us to some a cool beach and to snorkling lagoon in additon to the Cenote. We rented a car online through Thrifty before we left. The hotel has a Thrifty counter. We could cancel at any time. The Thrifty counter does not have acceptable car seats so bring your own. The car was not the cleanest and they had some issue finding us one although we checked on it the day prior to our sceduled rental day.

The rooms were spacious. There are flat screen TVs w/ mostly Spanish stations. We would have rather had a dresser in the room, as there are none in the hotel. We requested connecting rooms. They hotel would not guarantee them ahead of time, even thought they knew we had small kids. We did finally get them. The rooms are very humid. We finally got de-humidifiers which were a big help. NOTE: Virtually nobody at the hotel knows what a dehumidifier is. Find out the Spanish name for it before you go. By contrast, the Westin in Puerto Vallara has a de-humidifier in every room.

We did get decent maid service every day as we left $5 tip every day. We were in the RBC which is supposed to have nicer, newer rooms and includes breakfast and appetizers. It was great for the kids. It's kind of a free-for-all scene. The "waiters" who sometimes help you find a table and get you coffee and sometimes don't appear, make sure to give you a $0 bill at the end of breakfast which has a line for tips.

The pools are fine but have lots of sand on the bottom as they are on the beach. There are no "free" non-motorized watercraft available as advertised on the website. Also, you can't go in the Lagoon anyway due to aligators.

We did take a "jungle cruise" one day as we knew the kids would like it. They did, but don't waste your money if it just adults going. Not worth it.

We ate at the nice restaurants in town and found the food to be over-priced ($25 for chicken tenders at Lorenzillos) and so-so at it's best. I came home w/ a stomach bug.

Overall, we felt that for the prices we paid we would have much rather been in Hawaii with safe drinking water and good food. Cancun is for tourists. We won't be going back.

Similar to other recent reviews - public areas (lobby, restaurants, pool & beach) are beautiful and well maintained. I just wish I could say the same for the guest rooms. We tried several, all smelled badly of mildew (remains of hurricane damage a few years ago??), are 'beat up' with lots of dings in walls, floors, etc. Shower drain routinely backed up filling the stall with lots of black gunk - not a pleasant experience. Staff are welcoming and genuinely kind, good with kids, even our extremely picky eater. However, if you are the type of person who thinks "I only sleep in the room, it won't matter", then this is a great hotel - one of the widest beaches in Cancun, great pools, etc. If you want nightlife, the hotel is furthest from the downtown area, but bus service stops right in front of the hotel and is convenient/cheap. If you like a guest room at least as nice as your own house, this is NOT the place for you. We would not stay again for this reason.

My wife and I just spent 7 days at the Westin. The beach is great with plenty of lounge chairs, umbrellas and folks serving drinks and complementary sample massages. The sleeping rooms are pretty average and the maid service spotty.

We found the pool areas to be pretty impressive with both a sunrise area and sunset pool, and bars nearby. Had breakfast off the menu rather than the buffet a couple of days that was quite good. The buffet looked good, but just more than we wanted. The burgers at the pool cabana were pretty good for lunch, but we never ate dinner at the restaurants.

With the location at the end of the strip it made for longer trips out for dinner and night life -- though not a real problem. The bus comes pretty frequently but you may get agravated stopping often. We took cabs several trips and it was anywhere from $9 to $17 to get to places along the strip and all the way to downtown Cancun. Ask how much before you get in.

Had a wonderful massage out by the pool. Used the gym and tennis courts -- both very nice facilities.