I feel compelled to put down my review for the Hilton in light of all the hubbbub about violence in Mexico and now, unfortunately, swine flu. We stayed here 4-18-2009 until 4-25-2009. We arrived late due to the fact that there were terrible storms in Houston. We got in about 11:00pm. Wihtout double checking first, we were placed in a room with two queens instead of a deluxe king ocean view. My husband called the desk and we were able to move on Monday to a deluxe king oceanview. Boy was it deluxe. 9th floor, nearly uninterupted view of the ocean, terrace bigger than the room itself, and a blacony to boot. It was a FANTASTIC room.
FOOD and drinks: the first night we ordered room service. Maybe it was the fact we were starving nad it was so late at night but the burger and quesadillas were delicious. Breakfast was an incredible spread in Spice, including the best french toast I've had. We at at the poolside grill at least once and the seafood tacos were blissfully delicious. Our only disappointing dinner was a later night last minute at the pizza/pasta restaurant. The pizza choices are just weird. All of our other meals were in Cancun restaurants. I'd like to add to the other reviewers that if you don't like the american restaurant and chain choices found on the hotel zone strip, consider riding the bus to downtown cancun and find a real mexican restaurant. Not only are they a great value, the food was outstanding. We loved La Parilla. The drinks at the HIlton were good, but we took it upon ourselves to go to a downtown Cancun grocery store (not Wal-Mart) and stocked up on cuban rum and Herradura. We made in-the-room pina coloadas, rum and cokes, and margaritas. The sol beer you can buy at the grocery store runs about $.15 a can so you can't beat that.

The service was great, the housekeeping was efficient. There were a few nit-picky cosmetic things about the bathroom fixtures, but nothing that I couldn't live with. I thought the hotel was lovely, a good value.

The beach: I don't get what everyone has said about the rocks and surf. There is PLENTY of sand, PLENTY of beach. There are large rocks but they are nothing like the rocks in front of the hotels directly to the north of the Hilton (one of the Parnassus hotels, can't remember which, and so on). There is plenty of room to swim in the ocean without rocks interferring. Those hotels to the north have virtually no beach at all and the rocks butt up to the edge of the hotel terrace. I would have been pissed had we stayed at one of those places. The Hilton has the best beach and best beachfront. The waves were too rough the first sunday we were there but they really calmed down to the point where everyone was swimming and having a blast for 3-4 days of the week we were there. Seriously, don't fret about the beach.

I'd also like to add that we rode the bus all the way to Puerto Juarez and took the Ultramar ferry to Isla Mujeres. It cost us $7.50 pesos for the bus and something like 27 pesos for the ferry (maybe 30, but I can't remember). This is definitely the way to do Isla. Quick, and cheap. We weren't hassled by anyone and really, downtown cancun is filled with a lot of nice people. We also took a tour company to Chichen Itza and rode a deluxe bus with beer, tequilla, water, air conditioning, and stops in a mayan village and cenote in addition to the ruins. I highly recommend going this route if you can. Our guide was named Rex and he was outstanding in his knowledge of the area.

All in all, great visit to cancun and I can't wait to get back to the Hilton

We booked a night at the Hilton Cancun so that we could take an early flight back home without leaving Tulum ridiculously early. Rather than take a Sunday flight back, we took a Monday flight and saved mucho $$$ while squeezing an extra day out of our vacation. The hotel is among the closest to the airport.

Thanks to Tripadvisor, we knew to book an Oceanfront Villa Room and, with the complimentary breakfast and early evening cocktails in addition to the incredible location, was well worth the extra $60. Staff got is into the room quickly, via golf cart.

Existing tripavisor comments regarding cleanliness and attractiveness of facility are on the mark. To that i'd add the following:

Liked: Clean, minimalist design of the villa rooms. Some reviewers are probably disappointed at the lack of luxury fittings (moldings, marble floorings, ornate lighting fixtures) found at five-star hotels. That ain't our cup of tea. Room was spacious, clean, and in harmony with the beautiful ocean outside.
Disliked: Some bathroom fixtures were more motel-like than hilton-like.

Liked: Beautiful and innovative pool
Disliked: Loud smoking drinking people lounging around the pool, and beer cans in the pool. Hello Cancun!

Liked: Good fresh food at the pool bar.
Disliked: Cooked, slaughtered whole pig on display as part of buffy dinner in one of the lobby restaurants. Poor guy.

Liked: beautiful color of the ocean
Disliked: Rough surf (though the kids loved being knocked around by it, with me watching over them closely.


Some tips:
1) take a taxi to the airport.. not a transfer company. fixed taxi fare to airport is 270 pesos and they are always plentiful outside the front entrance.
2) Join Hilton HHonors online in advance. The checkin line was LONG, but HHOnors members can check in with the concierge, which had no line.
3) An oceanFRONT villa room is not the same as an oceanVIEW villa room. The former is worth the extra bucks.

Ultimately the place served its purpose with aplomb, and when the Mariachi band in the lobby began to play Hava Nagila, we knew that it was finally time to come home.

I was here for a conference.

Cancun is not my cup of tea, full stop. Prefab resort catering to mass hordes of holiday makers (almost exclusively US), with MacDonalds, Burger kings etc everywhere and all depressingly un-Mexican.
Added to this - huge international Hilton-type faceless hotels are not somewhere I would part with my own cash for.
However given those two dealbreakers, stay at the Hilton in Cancun I did, and it was ok given those limitations.
It's on a good stretch of (man-made) beach with a beautiful aquamarine sea in front of it.
The hotel is huge, seems to operate efficiently. Staff were generally very good with the exception of some silly waitress at reception who attempted to charge me for breakfast (already included in my package) as i was sitting at the wrong table.
Breakfasts were very good.
Food elsewhere in the hotel generally was shockingly bad. Only the grill restaurant near the beach served passable food.

Incredible network of swimming pools and mini-pools was impressive.

So the Hilton was fine in a way really and if you love places like Cancun and staying in monster international hotel chains then I'm sure you'll be happy here. If you don't then you've been warned.

I booked a 3 night stay (May 1-4, 2009) through Continental.com.
Apparently the hotel bookings at Continental.com go through Travelocity.com.
On April 27, 2009 (4 days before my arrival date) I decided to cancel because of the Swine Flu epidemic.
Continental Airlines allowed me to cancel the flight reservation to Cancun without penalty.
I contacted Continental.com who in turn called the Hilton Hotel Cancun and requested that they allow me to cancel my reservation without penalty. The hotel refused.
I then contacted Travelocity.com who in turn called the Hilton Hotel directly and again the Hilton Hotel Cancun refused to allow me to cancel the reservation without penalty.
I asked the hotel person to allow me to re-book for another date wthout penalty. Again the Hilton Hotel Cancun person refused.
I booked the Hilton because I thought that it was a classy and reasonable entity.
The Hotel and their policy is unfair and unreasonable. Management at the hotel should be embarassed by this policy. The Hilton Hotel Cancun should be sensitive to their travelers. The Airlines have ackowledged a Swine Flu epidemic. Hilton Hotel Cancun has not. If this is how Hilton Hotel management acts with this issue. I can't imagine them being reasonable in other customer relations aspects. Beware.