Just returned from a week at the Gran Melia Cancun and I must say it was incredible. The hotel is beautiful and had a wonderful international feel. The staff was friendly and accomodating. I thought the beach area was great, but as others have mentioned it was rocky. We swam and boogie boarded anyway but if you are not a strong swimmer or a good sport about a little "rock rash" you may want to stick with the pools....which are completely amazing, you won't miss the beach!

We booked an ocean view room which I highly recommend. The view was just too good for words. There is something about hearing the waves crash from your own private balcony that just screams "you are on vacation!" The room was beautiful. It was spacious, clean and had a modern feel.

We ate breakfast at the buffet each morning. Food quality was good and the selection was great. We ate at Nami Sushi Lounge one night, we are sushi fans and unfortunetely Nami did not meet our standards, but the atmosphere could not be beat!

This resort excels at creating an upscale and trendy, yet relaxing and laid back atmosphere. Yes the lobby was warm and humid and the stairs out front could be a problem if you are out of shape. Neither of these issues were enough to spoil our trip but I have to say this hotel is not for everyone. It's probably a bit better suited for the under 50 crowd. I would absoluteley go back again and would recommend it to my friends.

Just returned from a 5 night stay at the Gran Melia. We booked through Costco and got a really good deal. Overall, I have to say it was good. The hotel is architecturally interesting with lots of nice touches and the staff is attentive and professional. We decided to add on the Royal Service with an ocean view. We thought the nicest thing about the service was the separate pool area and the ability to reserve the palapas. Even though the occupancy rate was low for the Royal Service section during our stay, there were families with kids using the pool area which did cause some noise. The ocean views from some of the palapas with the breezes are so incredible. We did order drinks and food from the pool restaurant. The food prices were reasonalbe but the drinks are another story. The drinks were really weak so we had to order doubles and of course they charged a double price which is outrageous (2 drinks $37.00)! Also, we are not accustomed to not swimming in the ocean at the beach but the hurricane has really affected the beach so that there are rocks instead of sand which makes swimming more dangerous.

As for the rest of the Royal Service which includes the breakfast buffet and evening appetizers and cocktails, it was ok with some minor adjustments. First of all, the breakfast does not offer ANY hot entrees. Standard fare is little breakfast pastries which are good, fruit, juices, boxed cereals, bread, cheese, cold meat and salmon and yogurt. The Nepresso coffee machine they have is great. Afternoon snacks and drinks are minimal with nuts and soft drinks. In the evening, they do offer appetizers. At the beginning of the week, they were not great (dried-up chicken nuggets) but as it got closer to the weekend, they got better (except for the cold snail salad they served one night)! They did offer shrimp tempura one evening. As for the cocktails, they have bottles of alcohol out so you can pour a drink or wine and champagne. There were not any mixers available to make drinks so we asked the waiters to make drinks for us and they did. They will have it made the way you like it if you let them know.

In the hotel, watch-out buying anything in the deli/market downstairs. My son bought a 1.5L of water, a can of Pringles and another bag of chips and it was $16.00! Go across the street to the 7-11 and buy your water/drinks and snacks. Also, food in the hotel restaurants is ok but not great. If you want good, reasonable, authentic Mexican fare, take a cab and go to La Parrilla in town. Their mole is excellent and it was under $8.00. Also, for shopping, you can find some good bargains at Market 28 but I found some items in the hotel gift shop and in the jewelry shop that were cheaper. I did not even bother to look in those shops first thinking they were going to be over-priced. Instead, I found out they had a selection more to my taste and less expensive. During the day, you can easily take the bus to town since the hotel is a distance from shopping. It's cheap and a good, safe way to see things at the same time.

As for the hotel, the rooms were nice and clean. Some of the woodwork is showing its age but it's Mexico. Our maid was wonderful and ready to do whatever was needed. One of our rooms had a problem with not getting hot water. It took forever to get it. I had to finally complain about it and they offered to fix it or give us another room. Since we wanted our rooms next to each other, I decided to let them see if they could repair it. It seemed repaired on one day and then back to the same issue again. Also, some of the plumbing fixtures in the bathrooms are old and difficult to work. Also, only the hotel rooms are air conditioned. The main areas of the hotel itself are not air-conditioned. It does get hot there with the glass pyramids in each building. After a day of heat, the common areas can be stifling. It was hard sometimes to sit in an area for a long period of time because of the heat.

Lastly, I want to say the staff we encountered was wonderful. They were warm and friendly and willing to go out of their way to help us in any way needed. In summing things up, all in all we enjoyed our stay. Things were not as consistent as they could be in some areas. I wouldn’t not recommend this hotel but if I ever returned again, I would want to try a different one.

Neither my wife or I had been to Cancun before. We researched online, at various travel sites, and TripAdvisor, picking the Gran Melia, hoping for the best. We purchased our accommodations, and travel arrangements through American Express.

The hotel is magnificent, inside and out. We had ocean view accommodations, the room was a mini-suite, and very comfortable. We sampled the restaurants at the hotel, and the food was excellent. The value for the money was excellent, but being in the Hotel Zone led to higher cab fares, and high in-room mini-bar prices.

The hotel is elevated above the hotel zone road level. Since we are seniors this presented a problem. Two tours we booked had picked us up at the front door, and transferred us to a large tour bus in the AM, but each evening on return we were let out at the foot of a high stairway in front of the hotel, and had to climb up the stairs. This situation did not make it conducive to go down to street level and catch a bus to the local Wal-Mart for supplies.

I stayed in this hotel with my family fro 7 days and this was my 3 visit to cacun, i had been at the casamagna and fiesta americana condesa, and either one can't compare with the GM.
let me start with the lobby is just beautiful, open lots of greens, the decoration is very pretty, and the lavander smell as soon as you get there if give you peace and relaxtation, and this is all about went you are on vacations.

the rooms:
the size of the rooms were perfect, the balcony is pretty big and have 2 chairs so you can see the sunset!
the beds are really confortable!! the have plama TV with a lots of channels, cnn,BBC, NBC ectr.
the bathrooms are big, and with european style showes,
the closet are big and the security box works great.

The pool and Beach
the pool is the best feauture of this hotel is HUGE! and is so beautiful, lost of chairs, "palapas" and beds to choose from.
is nice that the have 2 pools one for kids and one for adults, and the one in the royal service area wich is very pretty too.
the beach is still small but nice, the views of the pool are espectacular!

Service and staff
averybody seen to be very nice, and helpfull, our fligth got there early and they let us in the room with out a problem.
the service in the pool/beach is great there is always waitress asking you if you need a drink.
we never wait more t for a table to have breakfast.
the turdown service is always great. (tip you maid 2$ per day)

The restaurants
we just tryed cafe quetzal for breakfast the buffet is very good a lost of opcions to choose from, and we order from the menu and was very good too.
we had some snacks at the pool and it was litte bit pricy but good.

we always got water and sodas from the market across the street (oxxo)

i will just tell you to book this hotel without thinking twice, is a very relaxing and beautiful atmosfere.
i can't imagine how people can leave a bad review for this hotel!!
everything was GREAT and beutiful! it was a great vacation!!