Want to doze off in a swing cabana? Want to be welcomed to your hotel in Mayan? Want a red parrot to come when you call it?
Try Cancun's new Aqua Hotel & Resort which opened in February to pretty much instant acclaim.
It's outfitted with eight pools, three restaurants, and three kinds of cabanas (beach, pool, and swing). It's got a rockin' spa with all various offerings of massages, jacuzzis, sauna, and hydrotherapy. Still need to coddle your bod? there's a gym and yoga classes on the beach.
It turns out we have our own sort of "Gossip Girl", a fellow travel writer huffing around the Yucatan who has sent us some hotel gossip on Cancun and the Riviera Maya in Mexico. Our anonymous tipster can't be so scathing in the guidebook text. However, we at HotelChatter are not known for being diplomatic, so here's the straight scoop on a few hotels:
ME Melia Cancun "The doormats at ME say 'It's all about YOU!' Ack. Their signature thing seems to be heavily scented air. Someone had really gone nuts with the essential-oil-diffuser thing. They were also playing Foreigner at Volume 11 in the pool area."
Azul Blue "This resort is not 'Azul Blue' anymore, but just 'Blue.' It looks like it has been sold--already!--and there are also more than a few mentions of theft on TripAdvisor. Now it's run by Eurostars. The sign on the place looks awkward now because it used to say AZUL BLUE on the whole length of the wall. Now it says ______BLUE."
Sens Hotel Cancun "Oasis, the mega-resort group, is doing some hipster hotels called Sens. One's already in downtown Cancun, and they're building a 'Sens Del Mar' one in the hotel zone--I think wedged between Coco Bongo and the Bulldog if I got the spot right. I'm curious to see how the downtown one fares. It looks very out of its element, all covered in magenta LEDs and stuff." ("Sens Bed Lounge" at the downtown hotel pictured above.)
Unik "This Isla Mujeres luxe boutique hotel was originally supposed to be open by now but it looks to still be a loonnngg way off."
The New York Times ran an all-Caribbean section this week, but the paper singled out a hotel in Mexico for some serious scrutiny. The ME by Melia Cancun, complete with its Rande Gerber bar and Maxim Pool Bar, ends up sounding pretty good, if Cancun is your thing.
The hotel is a renovated property, says writer Michelle Higgins, but the conversion into trendy, Miami Beach-style hotel is complete. All the standard in-room electronics are in place, the three pools are "inviting" and the two restaurants do well both in the dining room and through room service. The reason to stay, though, is in the bathroom:
The highlight was the spacious shower, with a seat and two showerheads -- an oversize rainfall-type and a handheld nozzle -- both of which had great water pressure and worked simultaneously.
It is curious though, that the Times would hold this review for so long. Higgins says she stayed at the property in February, and we have a hard time thinking not a thing has changed since then.
The JW Marriott Cancun Resort & Spa is touting its new status as a five-star hotel. The hotel received the AAA 5-Diamond Awards while its restaurant, Gustino's, received four diamonds. The resort joins the less than one percent of the more than 60,000 AAA-approved properties to receive the five-star award. AAA judges make their determinations based on service, accommodations, amenities, and overall experience.
To earn the title, the complex piles on more indulgences than the average top-tier resort. The 35,000 square-foot spa has "Mayan-inspired" treatments and rituals, the hotel says. For relaxers-in-training, there's a kids spa that offers a "Mayan Princess for a Day." The two-hour pampering time involves a mani-pedi, a hair-styling session of either Cancun braids or a "fancy updo" along with glitter makeup, lipgloss and an SPF application.
Of course, the property has more "adult" things on site like a fitness center, an indoor pool, swim-up bar, a 20-foot dive pool with artificial reef, water sports, tennis, five restaurants and 20,300 square feet of meeting space. Hopefully, this place can stay Spring Breaker free.
Cancun gets a bad rap. Since MTV started featuring coeds' vacation habits on the manmade islet on the tip of the Yucatan, the city has attracted a specific crowd - those looking to take advantage of Mexico's 18-plus drinking age.
But there's another side to Cancun. The city features some of the whitest sand and bluest waters of the Caribbean. Lining these beaches are some pretty nice resorts, like the Hilton Cancun Golf & Spa Resort.
Right now, the hotel is offering a 20 percent discount for those who book before Oct. 23. The hotel is also offering two packages aimed at rejuvination and romance -- the last two priorities on a Spring Breaker's itinerary. The "bounceback" package includes guest room accommodations and breakfast for two. Rates begin at $149.00 per room. For an extra $10 per night, the "romance" package throws in a bottle of sparking wine.
The Hilton Cancun Golf & Spa resort has 462 rooms with balconies, including 23 suites and 82 private villas. The complex is family friendly. Parents can drop the kids off at the "Iguana Club" (read: daycare center) and spend the afternoon at the 18-hole par-72 golf course. And with all-things-Green these days, guests visiting during the months of September or October can participate in the turtle release program.
A tipster let us know that there is a controversy brewing on TripAdvisor over the managment at the Le Blanc Resort and Spa in Cancun.
We're still piecing everything together but it looks like the hotel has signed a deal with a Jewish group for three years to celebrate Pesach at the hotel. Which normally should not be a problem but the agreement includes "an entirely kosher arrangement" throughout the hotel during their stay, ranging from food to the silverware and cooking utensils to a "No Alcohol" policy and to accommodations for children at this "adults-only" hotel.
All of which is not good if you aren't in the group and you don't keep kosher. And if you are a kid-hating alcoholic.
MORE on the Cancun Kosher Hotel Hell after the jump.
Out of destruction comes construction, which in some cases can mean the aftermath is better than the pre-disaster days. This has certainly been the case with many Cancun-area hotels in Mexico, including Ceiba del Mar in Puerto Morelos.
Low-key hideaway Ceiba del Mar rebuilt like everyone else after Hurricane Wilma, but it decided to use the downtime and construction needs to expand the size of its rooms, adding more suites. The room count went down by more than 20 percent--to 88--so the resort could make 37 of them suites and another 7 of them swank penthouses with huge terraces and a whirlpool tub (pictured here). The spa is more than an afterthought and was expanded to almost 9,000 square feet.
We like the fact that Cieba del Mar is separated from Cancun both figuratively and literally. There's no annoying activity director by the pretty pool, which flows in front of all the villa buildings, and you can walk out the front door to a town with real locals--people that don't just serve tourists all day. This is an upscale place to unwind and relax without the aid of artificial merriment.
This doesn't mean the hotel is rustic, however. The suites all have wide plasma TVs and everybody gets a CD player and free wi-fi access: the latter a real rarity in these parts.
Those with an early flight can catch a few extra winks here too: it's one of the closest area hotels to the airport.
Sometimes the view from your room is a killer view: dramatic mountains, city lights, or crashing waves on a beach. Sometimes it's an anti-view: a parking lot, heating ducts, a wall, or construction. But at times the view can be either good or bad depending on which direction you look out the window.
When you're staying at a beach resort, it's always nice to actually see the beach from your room. This fine view is from room 2264 at the Royal Solaris in Cancun. Not a bad way to start or end the day, with some palm trees a beach, and the sea.
The problem is, if you look down at what's under that big triangular palapa structure on the right side of the photo above, you get the view below instead: a pair of portly legs splayed out on a massage table.
Now you could argue that if there were a finely sculpted bod of either sex on the table, you'd have a killer/killer view instead of a killer/anti-view, but in a place like Cancun we'd be inclined to put odds on getting the latter. We've always kind of wondered about these very public massage tables at beach resorts anyway. Does being in the patron's shoes, er--towel, seem like a good way to relax, being on display for the rooms with the right beeline above?
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by annie0007
A tipster let us know that there is a controversy brewing on TripAdvisor over the managment at the 
