So what if weather.com says it's going to be a sweltering 90 degrees in Cancun today? If you were staying at the Aqua Cancun, you'd be lolling in one of their eight pools, cocktail in hand, thinking about your pending massage.
Indulge in one of the Aqua's cleverly named four-day, three night packages. Each US$1605 package (based on double occupancy) gets you a Deluxe Ocean Front Suite, and airport transfers, but there the extras diverge.
It won't be ready until fall of 2009 (at the earliest, we guess) but the Nizuc resort on the Riviera Maya in Mexico sounds like it's going to be pretty fancy.
The resort will end up with a combination of properties for sale--about 150 one and two bedroom places and a few larger beachfront villas--and hotel resort style accommodation, including 16 one-bedroom condos and 45 hotel rooms.
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.
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
The beauty that is the Hyatt Regency Cancun has graced our pages before as a luxury hotel that is quieter than nearby hotels along the spring break strip.
Thanks to holidaymaker and Flickr-lover Chor Ip we now have the romantic vacation version of the Cancun Hyatt. This is the view from their balcony where they also got to devour a delicious-looking breakfast. Unfortunately they say that they never took a dip in this inviting Caribbean Sea but who needs to go swimming when you can stare at views like this.
The Hyatt Regency Cancun offers quite a few interesting packages for vacationers, and our favorite is the "Balance" Relaxation package which includes a full breakfast and a $100 massage credit; the package price varies but with a minimum two-night stay we found deals starting from $337 as a total; but if you want to be sure of an ocean view you'll be starting from $377.
The Aqua Hotel Cancun is the newest hotel to open on Cancun but instead of waiting for guests to check the place out, Aqua brought the hotel to the guests in New York City on Feb. 6th.
The hotel's celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein cooked up haute cuisine from her new restaurant MB. Steve Olson, a wine and spirits guru (what, is mixologist so last year?) created signature cocktails from his resort lounge, AKA Wine & Mezcal Bar; and DJs Sky Nellor and Gotardo spun some tunes.
Also on hand were some VIP celeb guests like Kim Cattrall along with Neil Patrick Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Alan Cumming, fellow SATC-er Mario Cantone and some Top Chef alums like Sam Talbot, Dave Martin and Lee Anne Wong.
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same region and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quoted here were captured on January 15, 2008 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
If you're looking for some room rate love around Valentine's Day, avoid the romance packages and just search for a good deal instead. As opposed to this week's Amour Package, the NH Krystal in Cancun offers up lots of goodies for a price that doesn't leave us bewildered.
Renovated this past summer, the NH Krystal gives you a refreshed room on the 7th or 8th floor and throws a lot into its $191 Club Room deal over Valentine's Day, including a biggie that you rarely see in large hotels here: complimentary wireless Internet access!
The club level includes upgraded amenities, access to an exclusive rooftop terrace, and a concierge-staffed lounge with Continental breakfast, coffee and pastries during the day, and "evening appetizers and house wine."
We're not sure if Mexican "house wine" and V-day romance mix very well together, but for only a $33 a night premium over the lowest standard room rate, this is an attractive deal. (If you want a few days of debauchery, you can double down and go all-inclusive.)
We found this $191 deal on Expedia and Travelocity, but not on the company's own site. Like your momma always said, shop around.
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same region and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quoted here were captured on January 15, 2008 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
We've said it before and we'll say it again: any hotel package featuring the words "romance," "honeymoon," "lovers," or "amour" is likely to be a raw deal. This is especially true with the big corporate chains run by accountants. Pull out a calculator and you find that you are paying a serious premium for those extra chocolates or that bottle of bubbly.
Take the current "Amour" package currently being pushed hard by the Hyatt chain. At their Hyatt Cancun Caribe resort the French word for love means paying $42 to $61 extra per night, mostly just for breakfast.
The screen shot here was taken from the Hyatt site's rate details when we went to book a 3-night stay around Valentine's Day. At every room category, the Amour Package added $125 to $183 over the cost of just a regular room with no extras: starting at $264 a night.
For that amount you get an unspecified bottle of sparkling wine, some strawberries, and daily breakfast. Ouch. Book a regular room instead and put that $42 to $61 a night toward some nice romantic dinners. Make your own amour and you'll be better off.
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.
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by annie0007
