The Aquamarina Beach Hotel opened in 1986 and reveals its age through its architectural style.

The Hotel is built to an "open" design - the rooms are approached from open balconies to which
there is external access, there is no barrier between the Hotel patio and the beach (which is public)
and lobby area has no doors - it is, literally, open ... however Reception is staffed 24hrs and
there is a Security team at all times.

I was a little concerned about the security aspects of this, but I was assured that it is a safe
area and indeed we had no problems.

The Hotel was refurbished in 2006 and the rooms and public areas are in good decorative order if
somewhat plain in appearance, with polished marble floors throughout.

Our room was a good size and very clean, with effective air conditioning and a small balcony that
looked out over the Hotel's internal patio and pool bar to the sea beyond, a pleasant view.

During the check-in process the Reception clerk will fit a plastic band to your wrist, and you
must wear this at all times - indeed you have to, as you cannot remove it - it is cut off when
you check out.

This band has two functions: It indicates that you are a resident of the Hotel, and entitled
to be on the premises (because of the open nature of the site - see above) and the colour indicates
your entitlement - the Hotel offers three accommodation packages, WHITE is room only, YELLOW is
room and breakfast, BLUE is all-inclusive, this includes room, almost all food and most drinks
(including Mexican produced alcohol) at the bars - you pay extra for certain speciality dishes
and imported "Branded" alcoholic drinks.

There are two pools, three bars and two restaurants, and a pizza and burger bar on the patio.
There are also table-tennis tables and two hot tubs in a patio area on top of the "Las Perlas"
restaurant - these are not easy to find. The hot tubs are not large and the temperature (not
adjustable by the user) varied considerably from day to day !

The pools are flat floored and not deep - adequate for swimming but not diving.

The "old" pool is the original pool and is rectangular with a uniform depth of four feet.

The "new" pool is an interesting design of three interlocking circles, the main area is the
swimming area and has a uniform depth of four feet. This intersects with the bar area which
contains the swim up bar (with seats in the water) and has a uniform depth of three feet.
From the bar area, beyond a barrier, is the childrens' pool which has a uniform depth of two feet.

The bars are "El Timon" in the lobby, "El Ancla" which is the swim up pool bar and "La Brisa"
which is between the old pool and the beach. "El Ancla" and "La Brisa" open from around 1000
to 1800 and "El Timon" opens from 1700 to 0100 next day ...

The restaurants are "las Perlas" which is a buffet restaurant that is open for breakfast
and in the evening, and "El Ancla" which opens as a buffet for lunch and with table service
in the evening - this is included in the BLUE package although this may not be mentioned.
"El Ancla" is an attractive open fronted thatched building that is contiguous with the pool bar
of the same name - it seems that at some time in the past it has been known as "La Palapa" but
this name is no longer used.

To be honest, the food at the Aquamarina Beach is not the main attraction. The breakfast
buffet at "las Perlas" is impressively extensive if a little unexciting. The lunch buffet
at "El Ancla" is perfectly adequate but the evening Al La Carte service is a little disappointing
especially as it is such an attractive and romantic setting.

There is an events staff (somewhat alarmingly called the "Animation Team") who arrange
activities for children, and somewhat less successfully attempt to extract adults (especially
those on the BLUE package) from the bars for games of beach Volleyball and the like ...
There are also massage and beauty therapies available by the pool area and on the beach.

The Hotel opens onto a beach of fine white sand - excellent for sunbathing but not so good for
swimming as it is somewhat shallow and has a problem with seaweed.

The Hotel seems to be well staffed and run and we had no communication problems with customer-facing staff who were friendly and efficient.

There is a small but useful shop with internet cafe in the lobby.

Rooms on the street front of the Hotel may suffer from road noise and, on Sundays, music and singing from the Church opposite !

The Aquamarina Beach Hotel is not the newest or the most upmarket Hotel on the Strip but it is very clean and well maintained with efficient and helpful staff. It is in a good location on the main road through the Hotel Zone (Boulevard KuKulcan) with good access to buses, taxis and the beach.

We would recommend it as a place to stay, especially if you can get a good price for the inclusive package.

having been a late booking for another hotel where our friends were staying we were told that aquamarina would be sufficient for our needs.

the staff were great the cleaners were keen and always did your room everyday (sometimes a bit too early)

the main problem that having seen our friends hotel for £200 more we were slightly jealous.

they had 7 restaurants, we had one. they had a great beach view we had a seaweed jetty. thier pool was hot, ours was freezing cold even after midday.

the food wasnt that great, but there was a good selection. it all seemed a bit samey after a few days. the entertainment team was lively and enthusiastic to a diverse audience. and really did try hard.

all in all if you are looking for no frills this is the place. spend just a little bit more somewhere else and the experience is increased 20 fold.

We stayed in the hotel from 17 Dec 2008 to 1 Jan 2009.

The hotel was adequate and would be clasified 3* in South Africa where we travelled from. The rooms were clean, the staff went out of their way to be friendly, the outdoor facilities and activities were good for what we wanted to do and the food, although buffet style which I do not normally like, was OK and something could be found to eat no matter what your taste even if you are a vegetarian.

The only thing we didn't like was that the main bar is in the lobby and not very cosy and because there were activities every night you couldn't just sit and have a quiet drink. However that was a minor irritation and there are hundreds of bars a short and inexpensive bus ride away.

The beach area was clean but it was difficult to swim because of
the shallow water clogged with seaweed and the close proximity to several boat jetties.

I'd like to thanks Oscar and his staff at the Aquamarina Hotel for a
fantastic vacation home base while in Cancun.
I contacted the hotel prior to arrival to let them know we would be
celebrating our 11th anniversary and asked several questions regarding
restaurants, massages, and tours. Much to my surprise, each email was
answered in a timely manner.

When we checked in to the hotel Alex the bell boy helped us up to our
room which surprise! Had been upgraded for our anniversary and the
cutest kissing swans made from folded towels and flower petals awaited
us on the bed. I took many pictures. The room had a nice view of the
pool, activity area and blue Caribbean. The room was very clean and
AC had a handy remote control. The King size bed was nice and firm
and the sheets didn't have that funny hotel smell to them.

Later that night and throughout the weekend the bell boy Alex became
our go to man. Where to catch the bus downtown, how to get to Puerto
Juarez, drink coupons for various restaurants. I also had an 80
minute massage on the beach by a lovely woman from Columbia.
I'm from Northern California where every 6th person is a massage
therapist and I have to say she was one of the best I ever had.
Another great thing on staff were these women who worked the concierge
desk. They fully understood we were not the Senior Frog kinda
tourists and told us how to get to the Downtown Cancun Square near the
big church where we ate corn on the cob dipped in Parmesans cheese and
chili while watching the local talent show for the 8 year old set.
Charming.

The hotel fulfilled all our basic needs. Clean, moderately priced,
good service. 2 things that made this a 4 star and not a 5. We only
ate one meal at the hotel, breakfast. I didn't like it at all. And
second, the Jacuzzis were never warm while we were there. Someone
pointed out that you don't want to sit in a 110 degree jacuzzi in 90
degree weather, but on a 65 degree night in December after 3 days of
Scuba I sure wouldn't have minded a bit of heat.

Anyway, stay at the Aquamarina Hotel if your not looking for big party Cancun. I loved the place.