For our trip, we stayed at the Avalon Grand and had two rooms on the second level of the hotel, one facing the lagoon (with a perfect view of blvd and all of the other hotels and businesses) and one facing the ocean, both joined together. The rooms didn't need much improvement and were in good order. We had king beds and another bed, tons of room, and a large bathroom. Our only complaint was that the air conditioning left the room a little more musty than we would have preferred, but certainly not enough to ruin a trip. We felt that the rooms and restrooms were nicely appointed and included a refrigerator, television, and in-room safe. The location was ideal !!!! I can't stress enough how close this hotel is to everything that a tourist would want to see in cancun. There are two malls very close, with one across the street, convenience stores are easy to find, with one across the street as well and so are currency exchanges (avoid the airport ones, their rates are certainly in their favor!). Overall, for the package deal we got on travelocity, I couldn't have been more pleased with the quality and location for the money!

Here are some key points to our stay.

-Check-in was simple, quick, and easy.

-There are stairs in this hotel, but their burden, as described by other reviewers, seems to be overstated.

-The all-inclusive plan was great. The food isn't 5 star restaurant quality, but if you wanted that, you'd be staying at a different hotel. Overall, the options are abundant. At the grand, you can order food at the pool bar, kelly's sports bar, mi casa su casa, and the main buffet restaurant for lunch. At breakfast and dinner, the main restaurant simply has a buffet, but the lunch menu is pretty abundant and has good options! Oh, and don't forget roomservice, it is included with all-inclusive as well, and that option rocks at 2 am when you come back and are hungry. We ordered it 4 or 5 times and got a lot of food.... it was all good.

-There is a beach.....there is a beach...there is a beach! When we were there there was about 10 feet of beach in front of the grand but about 50 feet down you can lounge at the Avalon Baccarra's beach which is much larger.Either way, there is enough beach to be happy !

- Another beach alternative is to take the ferry over to the Avalon Reef at Isla Mujeras. There they have a cove that breaks the ocean current and is very calm for swimming. On top of that they have sand bars that go out a few hundred feet and will only get to 4 feet deep, it is really neat! You can literally walk to boats that look like you would have to swim to. The only thing to remember is that there are stingrays in this water, so keep your eyes open so you don't step on one and get barbed. Otherwise they are seemingly harmless and really cool to see!

- The staff at the hotel are all nice people and very helpful. All-inclusive package says that tips are included and we had no issues with poor service if a tip didn't seem imminent, and we sure got a lot of drinks from Victor at the kelly's sports bar and at the bacarra pool bar as a result of tipping the bartenders (which other people didn't seem to be doing) and both certainly remembered that we tipped! Never had an empty glass! With that said, these people all work for very little money and rely on tips to make a decent wage, so if you receive good service, tip!!! and your service will continue to be good, if not better. We tipped based on the service we got and always seemed to have someone to help us and prompt roomservice when we ordered.

-The concierge is helpful, we seemed to find slightly better deals with other vendors that we found in the malls and such. It is hard to believe that some of these people can be trusted, but we had no trouble and a great time at the activities we chose. Would certainly recommend hitting up AT LEAST one night club and the jungle boat tour is really cool too !

**A note about those who have had anything stolen and/or those who want to prevent it. The simple key to this is to be smart. Do not leave expensive items sitting throughout the room, put them in the safe!!! We had no problems whatsoever with theft, and used the safe to store our valuables. Although theft may seem to be a higher risk in Mexican hotels, If you leave a ring, cash, or other valuables sitting out in a hotel in the United States or anywhere else, it would have the same risk of being stolen.**

After reading the previously posted reviews we were a little worried about our five day four night stay at the Avalon but we were more than pleasently surprised when we arrived. We were greeted quickly and check in took only a few minutes. We were quickly escorted to our room and beyond surprised when we got there. We had a spacious room with a king and queen bed, large bathroom and ample storage space. The room was very clean and comfortabe but the view was beyond description. Sliding doors opened to a large ocean front balcony which looked over the pool area and provided a breath taking view of the ocean. It was amazing each night to leave the sliding door open (since we were not on the ground floor) and be rocked to sleep each night by the sound of the surf crashing less than 50 feet away.

The pool area was also very clean and well kept, and too offered an amazing view. There we're plenty of chairs, thought during the busier times of the year that might be an issue but for our trip we had plenty of room, and the staff at the pool bar really took great care of us. If you do take advantage of the pool area make an effort to meet Yury, at the bar. He was poliet, respectful and to be honest I almost felt like we were leaving a new friend when we packed up and headed home.

They did offer activities around the pool and again they could greatly have been affected by the time of our trip which we just returned from yesterday. They offered water volleyball, arobic's, ping pong, and bingo, but to be honest it was the lack of constent activities that made the trip so enjoyable. I would suspect that during busier times of the year that there are more activities but for us, just being able to kick back and relax and forget the stresses of work was far better than playing water volleyball or anything else offered.

I'd read the previous reviews and didn't expect much beach related when we arrived but again I found that while the beach was narrow directly in front of the hotel it was a short walk (maybe a quarter mile) to a public beach which provided anyting beach related you could want. In addition the area offered plenty of water related activities such as parasailing and jet skis. The water as a beautiful as you might expect, however during our finaly day heavy surf resulted in a red flag being put out and thus meant the stairs from the resort to the beach were removed as a safety issue. However like I said before the walk to the public beach was easy so we really couldn't complain too much.

The Avalon offers two resturants and to be honest this was the only thing on our trip that may not have lived up to our expecations. The quality of the food was good, we just found the selection to be a little lacking. The buffet was small and offered few choices but what they did offer was tasty and provided enought varity to keep us full for the entire trip. The quailty of food at the ''sit down'' resturant was also very good but again there wasn't a hugh selection, I think they had 6-7 items to choose from. My only warning with this resturant would be some green hot sauce that's served.......Be careful.......They warned that it was very hot, but loving spicy food I quickly dove in. What I learned is that in mexico really hot, really means liquid hell. The flavor was great but it will set you on fire and you'll be remembering that sauce hours later if you over do it. So please don't misunderstand me the food was really good but I would have loved to have seen a little more selection.

Kelly's bar was a nice place to escape with pool tables and some really cool sports memoribilia to look at. It didn't seem to draw much in the line of crowds but due to the location of the Avalon this wasn't a real big issue either.

If the view and service wasn't enough the location was also great. Shopping was located just across the road (watch for the crazy mexican drivers and becareful corssing the street) and there were several resturants located within a five minute walk. We really enjoyed being able to walk to Bubba Gumps for dinner or Jimmy Buffett's Magaritaville for a few drinks.

Transportation was easy also, the public bus stops just feet from the front door and for .60 cents you could hope on and ride all over Cancun. A five minute bus ride got you to Senior Frogs, which provied to be a total blast and a don't miss location if your staying at the avalon.

So to sum up our expereince at the Avalon the hotel was wonderful, the view breathtaking and the location was simply perfect. If your looking for a peaceful escape the Avalon offers that with plenty of comforts. If you want to sneak away for a little parting, (which Cancun is famous for) then it's just a few minutes walk away. We felt very safe in this area of Cancun and despite our reservations before the trip we had a wonderful time and really enjoyed our stay

The location is great, the view is wonderful... and you could get that at any other hotel in Cancun. The first time our room got cleaned, the maid stole my engagement ring (we were on our honeymoon). The worst part about the whole thing is how the hotel did NOTHING about it when we reported it to them. They had us fill out a form and did not question the maid until the next day. No apologies, no compensation. If you stay there, lock everything you can in the safe.

We just returned from our first vacation in Cancun. We had traded our time share in Maine for Christmas vacation week at the Avalon Grand.

Our family of four (kids ages 19 and 21) had a great time. The room was very spacious with a king size bed and a full bed. We were thrilled to have two full baths with large showers. Our room was on the lowest level facing the ocean with a great patio. The staff was very friendly; the kids enjoyed the pool area personnel. We did not do the all inclusive. There are so many restaurants within walking distance. Next time I will inquire about adding on the breakfast buffet but we enjoyed going out for dinner. The location of this hotel is perfect. Two shopping malls within an easy 10 minute walk. We booked two excursions through the hotel. We received great discounts to ChickenItza and XCaret by listening to their time share pitch. We already own one time share so did not wish to purchase another one.
Overall the room was clean, the staff was pleasant, the smaller size of the hotel was much more inviting. You do need to walk down the street about 100 yards for beach access. But this was not too inconvenient.

We would stay at this hotel again.