I read a lot of the reviews on here before I made my trip to the Avalon Grand, and I was a little nervous. I was traveling with my elderly parents, husband, and 22 month old daughter. We had the all-inclusive, whereas my parents did not. (I'll get to that later.) My parents were given a room in the main building, which had an elevator. It overlooked the lagoon and the strip, which was cool. My husband and I checked in, and tried to find out what would happen with a $20 handshake. The girl kind of giggled at us, and upgraded us without taking anything! That was a pleasant surprise. When I arrived at the hotel, I kept saying it's not that bad. This isn't so bad. There was a ramp for the stroller, which went up to the lobby. There wasn't one up to our 3rd floor room, so I left the stroller in my parents' room for the week. My mom (after reading about how many stairs there were) counted 41 stairs from the street to the lobby. I didn't really notice that too much. I never got around to counting the stairs going up to my room. However if that's an issue, I would request a room by one of the two elevators. The room was great! It overlooked the ocean, and you could hear the waves crashing from the balcony. We had a king bed, a fridge and microwave, kitchen table and sitting area. Our balcony was large, however my parents' balcony (who didn't try the $20 handshake) could probably on fit 2 chairs.

I really wanted to like the resort, and I thought the people on here were just complainers. However there was a lot of truth to what they had said. So by the second or third day, I was starting to get critical myself.

*Are there some cracks in the wall? Yeah probably, but who cares it's part of Mexico's charm.
*Is there a beach? NO, not even close. I don't know what the lady before me was talking about. The waves were even hitting the wall at high tide! I couldn't even see where you could get to the ocean. (I just hung out at the pool, which was great, instead.)
*Did the maids steal from me? I really don't think so. In fact, when I left money out as a tip, I had to write a note in spanish that it was for them. Otherwise they didn't take it. And I'm sorry, if you left your engagement ring out of a safe location, you pretty much deserve to have it stolen. Why would you take that off on your honeymoon anyway? DUH!!
Who would I recommend this resort to? That's a tough one. My parents aren't as limber as we are. There was ramps going up to the lobby, but not going down to the pool by the beach. And forget a room like ours, they'd never make it up all those steps. So I couldn't really say it was for the elderly. It was pretty okay for my 30-something age, who was looking to relax. However if you want to be entertained, you better get out of there. The resort was at 30% occupancy. So they may have had a guy trying to get people involved by the pool 15% of the time. However the 10 of us just kind of looked around at each other. Not many people got involved. A young traveler, again there's just not much action going on. So unless it's you and a loved one, you should go somewhere else. For children? NO, NO, and NO. This was my BIGGEST complaint about this resort. The main reason that we chose this resort over others is because of their Kids' Club. It looked nice from the outside. But that f***in' thing was NEVER open. Not one day, not one minute. We even asked at the front desk, and they looked at each other like "UH-OH!" Then told us it wasn't going to be open. That's crap.
*How is the food? The food is actually pretty good. They have a great breakfast buffet. Their food tastes great, and this is from two people who travel to Mexico a lot. If you get tired of it, just go to one of their other properties. I could see how someone might get sick of the same thing day after day, however there are some choices.
*Where can you eat? Before we even booked our trip, we actually called the Avalon to ask them which restaurants were going to be open. (The reason was we had been to a resort in the Dominican Republic, who only opened 2 out of their 5 restaurants.) They told us, Oh yes, ALL of our restaurants are open. WRONG, this was my other complaint. Not only was Kelly's Bar closed all week, they even took down the sign going down to it. I guess people must've been complaining, so they finally took down the sign! So there is food at the main restaurant, at the bar by the (beach) pool, and then there is room-service. The restaurant at the Baccara was great as well. We even went to the Isla Muheres resort on the last day. I would recommend going there as well. It was a little more relaxed there, but it was a nice change. Their food was great as well.
*The lighting in the room? It wasn't great.
*Do they nickel and dime? The coffe and water was included with our all-inclusive. We ordered a bunch of extra waters with room service, and gave them to my parents. They asked the maid for coffee, and she gave it to them free of charge! They didn't even tip her until the last day. I can't say that that's the norm, however you never know what a few bucks'll get you! Oh, and they claim they have FREE Internet. NO, it was $5 a day. However the second time I went to log on, I didn't have to pay. So I would check that out before you pay them. There is a water dispenser by the Gym (and I wouldn't look forward to an extravagant gym, the equipment was falling apart). So if you really wanted to save a couple of bucks, you could fill up your water bottle there!
*Would I recommend this resort to a friend? Yes and no. We were pretty aggravated with some of the mis-representations. However the staff made us forget our disgruntlement! So as long as my friend reads my entire review, and knows what to expect, I would recommend it. But don't expect a kid's club, or all of the restaurants to be open.

My parents got a little screwed with their booking, and was under the impression that they were paying for an all-inclusive package. So we were aggravated when we found out that wasn't the case. So what we did was we would eat in the restaurant, and then order food from room service afterwards for them to eat! It worked out really well, and they saved a lot of money that way. I know it sounds kind of shady, I apologize! However we did tip everyone REALLY well.

We tipped Yuri at the beach pool about $40 the first day. He took out a "Special" bottle of rum for us. We definitely overtipped everyone there, but we were treated like Kings and Queens. We kind of felt like it wasn't that much to us, but it would mean a LOT more to them. So we were happy to do it.

I would recommend the white wine, and this comes from a die hard red wine drinker. It was buttery and yummy, and a great compliment to any seafood dish. Their cerveche is awesome as well!

The hotel was pretty clean, there was people cleaning somewhere, almost at any given time.

Everyone is going to try to sell you something. Even before we left the airport, the "tourism department" was trying to sell us vacation packages (I forget the terminology they used, but it was time shares)! Next Best Day Tours, who was our shuttle from the airport to the Avalon, set up a meeting the day we arrived to confirm our departure shuttle. That was a bunch of crap. That was just a line so that they could sell us some tours. We did buy a few from them. I didn't compare the prices on all of the tours. However I did the swimming with the dolphin one, out of the aquarium. It would've been cheaper to go straight to the aquarium and book it. (And that was after we haggled down the price with Best Day.) By the way, haggle on everything once you get there. From the taxi ride to the chach-keys, almost everything is negotiable. For tours, I would probably recommend going to Downtown to try to book some. You should DEFINITELY go to Market 28 in downtown for shopping. Everything is cheaper there, because that's where the locals can afford to live is downtown. I would try to go there as early in your trip as possible.

Finally, if you are going to go to the ruins, I would recommend Chichen Itza. My husband has been to both there and Tulum. Chichen Itza is farther, but he said it was worth it.

I hope that you have a WONDERFUL trip!!!

My husband and I stayed at 5 hotels during our vacation. This was our first one and we stayed here one night, and actually we liked it very much. The whole hotel was kept very clean and seemed very modern and well kept. The staff was helpful also. We had the basic room which faced the lagoon and it was very large and clean. The bathroom was also huge and very modern with a bowl sink and large shower. Overall we were very satisfied with this hotel. While as many have said that there is not a beach, it didn't bother us very much because we could sit up on the patio in one of the chairs and we felt just like we were down on the sand. We would recommend this hotel if you are looking for a reasonably priced and clean hotel. It wasn't overly fancy or a partying kind of hotel but it was just fine for us.

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