We stayed for 5 nights for a relaxing, slow vacation. The hotel met our every expectation and provided us with exactly what we needed. I was a little hesitant to go with this hotel based upon the reviews, but after staying here I am a little more skeptical of the negative reviews.
First of all you get what you pay for. This is not a 5 star resort by any means, nor is it a dump. It is a nice hotel that is moderately priced with a good location (next to club areas) and good amenities. We felt very satisfied with what we got in return for what we paid for. If you want 5 star stuff, then expect to pay for it and book a room at the Ritz. There is no beach, duh, every other review mentions that. If you want the beach, don't stay here and then complain about not having it!
ROOM: We booked a ocean view king on the club level. Our room had a nice balcony with a nice view of the ocean on 12th floor (14 total floors). The view doesn't really extend in either direction without leaning over the railing due to building features, but the ocean view is very nice (see pics). The bed is very comfy and not the standard mexican rock mattress. The decor is very contemporary with a flat screen TV on wall with good channel selections (5 movie channels, HBO, MAX). The bathroom is nice with a large shower and nice loofah sponge, no tub. A good hair dryer is in the room already (not the cheap wall kind, a real one) so don't bring one. Nice robes are in the closet. The room has a mini bar and ice machines are on every floor. NEGATIVES: On our last night someone was staying the room next to us and was pretty loud. The walls don't hold back noise very well, so during the peak season, you could have some issues. Another noise issue comes from the building design. All noise in the lobby or outside of a room is channeled and amplified making the usual door slam or child crying heard in the entire hotel. Most of the times it was minor in nature, unless someone has their crying kid in the lobby for 30 minutes in the morning!
CLUB LEVEL:
We spent the extra money ($20 USD/day) to book a room on the club level. For this you get a room on the upper 3 floors and access to club lounge. In the morning they serve a free continental breakfast (ham, cheese, pineapple, melon, breads, yogurt, cereal, mini quiches with amazing green chili salsa, juices, coffee, soda). It is a nice breakfast and would end up getting charged $20 at any other restaurant for the same thing, so you already break even. The breakfast is served from 7am to 1030am. Other reviews slammed the breakfast saying it was never full, people lazy etc, we had no such experience. We usually shuffled in after 10am, everything was still there, service was fine. Perhaps they were in the peak season, we were there in off-peak season. At night (6pm to 8pm), they have cocktails (beer, wine, tequila, rum) and snacks (meat, cheese, bread, mini desserts). It is nothing amazing, but a good place to start the evening before dinner and dancing. We used the club concierge to obtain dinner reservations at various local restaurants. If you do so, the restaurants usually give you a something for making a reservation (free drink, free appetizer, or novelty gift).
POOL: There a two pools on the property. The main pool is has water loungers surrounding it and a pool bar on one end. The outside is surrounded with loungers with cushions which a very comfy. Contrary to the hotel photos there are only two of the circle covered loungers, and one sun covers is broken. About half the loungers have sun umbrellas, which you really need in the intense sun. Next to the main pool is a small kids pool only about 2 feet deep. The second smaller pool is located above the main pool and overflows into the main pool to make a nice water feature for the main pool. There are some more loungers around this pool but no umbrellas. Next to the ocean front there are about 8 cabanas with king size mattresses and pillows, this is were we spent most of our time. We would get there and read for an hour, get up and splash in the pool for an hour, repeat until about 6pm. Pool towels were easily available and easily returned, no hassles like others mentioned.
FOOD: We only ate at the beach grill for lunch and ate dinner in town. The food was good and pretty reasonable for a hotel. Lunch was about $10-15 pp and you can get it to go and eat it in the cabanas! Our main dinner spot was Paloma Bonita, next to the hotel. It is a mexican restaurant with great food, good drinks, good service, and nice music. Dinner for two (drinks, app, main course) was between $70 and $100. If you like good authentic food, go here. We also ate at Las Margaritas in the La Playa shopping center (nice area). Food here was very bland and made for the tourist taste bud. We like spicy food, so we were disappointed.
SPA: We got some spa treatments while there because they were running a special. We got a 30 minute reflexology massage, 50 minute seaweed wrap, and sauna for $130 pp. The spa treatments were nice and workers were very friendly.
MISCELLANEOUS: Others have talked about going to Walmart and stocking up on booze, which is an option. The bus stop is about a 5 minute walk from the hotel, so remember you have to carry it back! We decided to go to a local shop next to bus stop and pay a little more to save some time. A bottle of booze is about $20 here and is much cheaper than buying drinks at the pool.
Bus is easy to use, safe and clean. Each trip is 6.5 pesos, and it makes frequent stops next to all of the major shopping/restaurant areas. The bus pick up is just down from the Fiesta Americana.
The main club area is also about a 5 minute walk from the hotel down a nice sidewalk. The club area has a bunch of all you can drink nightclubs for the younger crowd which are packed until the sun comes up. There is also a shopping area with tourist stores, Hard Rock, Carlos and Charlies, Chilis, and HagenDaz. We also ate lunch at the Taco Shop which was good, they have a large variety of tacos to choose from. Senor Frogs is a little further down past the clubs, about another 5 minutes.
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