AventuraSpa Palace Trip Report May 22 - May 31, 2003
This is our third time to stay at this Adults Only Resort, we were there for 4 nights in November 2000, stayed 7 nights in May 2002 and decided to stay 9 nights in May 2003. The resort is still awesome, each visit was wonderful, staff was great, food was good and resort was just beautiful. Once again I booked thru Global Discount Vacations.
Major improvements, since last year, have been made to the Cancun Airport and getting through customs and Immigrations was easy. Be sure to proceed thru the airport after passing customs/immigrations, do not stop and talk to those guys offering free information, you will be hooked up in a timeshare game. Exit the airport and look for your transportation company, all of them are holding up signs, so they are easy to spot. We found Royal Tours and within minutes we were off to the resort. From the airport, it is about a 45-50 minute trip to AventuraSpa.
Arriving, we were the only people checking in, you check in on the Spa side. Told the girl at front desk, our names, she proceeded to give us our room. She told me room 3512, since we have been there before, I knew that this room was on Spa side. I told her that I wanted Building 0,1, 2, or 3. She tried to convenience me that room 3512 had a beautiful ocean view.....I told her I didn't care, I wanted on Aventura side. After a few minutes, she gave in and showed me what was available on Aventura side. I took room 3217. We were issued two credit card swipe keys, and a lock/key for the safe in our room. I asked about the towel card, she told us they didn't use them any longer, that was great to hear. After that I proceeded over to the bar, got a frozen Margarita, found our bellboy, he put our luggage on his golf cart, we got on and away we went to our room. It was great room, walk down a flight of steps and you were at one of the entrances to the Aventura Lobby. The view from our room was so so, but we don't spend a lot of time in the room anyway.
A few highlights of changes from last year to this year at the resort: 1. No Towels cards used to obtain towels at pool. 2. Air Conditioned Shuttle buses every 15 min. between North and South Lobbies. 3. Liquor Cabinet Dispensers in all rooms. 4. Removal of Spanish MTV Video channel from TV. 5. All rooms are the same rate, last year you could book Aventura rooms at a lesser rate compared to the rooms on Spa side, so now when you book, there is one rate and you may be placed anywhere in the resort. 6. A new modern Disco has been added, second floor of Aventura Patio area.
Insight on how to distinguish where your room is before leaving front desk:
Aventura side consist of Buildings 0, 1, 2, and 3. (This side is more lively, but not wild or rowdy, all nightly shows take place in Aventura Patio area and disco is located on this side, so a lot of your time will spent at this lobby)
Spa side consist of Buildings 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9. (This side is more relaxed)
All room numbers consist of 4 digits. First digit is your floor level, second digit is your building number, and last two digits is your room number. The lower the room number, closer you are to the ocean. Try to stay away from floor level 1, as if it rains hard, there may be water standing outside your door, drainage is not too good at ground level during heavy downpours.
Room Description: All the rooms at AventuraSpa are identical, adequate in size. We got a room with a King size bed, while some rooms have two double beds. All rooms have a double Jacuzzi near the patio doors, mini refrigerator hidden behind cabinet doors, stocked with sodas, bottled water, Dos XX and Tecate Beer. A new touch they have added to all rooms this year is a liquor cabinet on the wall. The liquor cabinet has 4 liquor bottles in it, Jose Cuervo Tequila, Brandy, Scotch and Bacardi Rum. Each time you press the dispenser you get one ounce of liquor. They restock the liquor cabinet and refrigerator every other day. There is limited drawer space for storage of clothes. The satellite TV was disappointing this year, approximately 12 channels, 3 of them were dedicated to Palace resort information, others were in Spanish or English but they have removed the Spanish MTV video station. You have a coffee pot in your room, plus a hair dryer located on wall near sink. The shower is quite large, large enough for two people. The maid service is excellent, she leaves towels shaped like Swans on the bed or Jacuzzi w/flowers adorning the design. You have turn down service nightly. Also located near your telephone is a room service menu. Prior to 10 p.m., they have a very good selection of complete seven course meal, after 10 p.m. till 6 a.m., sandwiches and burgers are available. Room service comes very quickly, usually within 15 min. During your stay, usually on second day, they will leave a cheese tray and a bottle of red wine in your room. On most balconies, there is a hammock, and a couple plastic chairs.
Description of resort:
Be sure to read my May 2002 trip report for more details of the resort.
The resort consist of 9 blocks of rooms (1266 rooms), 4 blocks located on Aventura side and 5 blocks on Spa side. All the buildings housing rooms are 3 stories tall, no elevators. All buildings are designed with a Mexican tile and decor. The lobbies are open-aired, beautiful stained glass ceilings, and are referred to as North Lobby (Spa side, where you checked in) and South Lobby (Aventura side). Each lobby contains gift shops, open-aired patio courtyards, exercise rooms (with modern equipment), bars and two air-conditioned restaurants, while each side has an open-aired restaurant located adjacent to the ocean. All nightly shows (some are good while others are cheesy) are held in Patio/courtyard area of South Lobby or Aventura side. There is a local band that plays before and after the shows. Upstairs of the South Lobby, is a Disco. It has techno lighting with excellent speakers, also it contains a bar. Just be careful, the Disco is dark and there is a lot of staggered platforms, very easy to step off wrong and fall. The North Lobby (Spa side) is very relaxed, they do have a classical piano player at night for background music. There is a shuttle bus that runs between both lobbies every 15 min., that is air-conditioned; this saves you a lot of walking between both sides of the resort.
Aventura side has a huge free form pool, only 4 foot deep, stretching the distance of Aventura side with swim-up bar. Plenty of lounge chairs everywhere and numerous shade huts. There is not a natural beach, they have built man-made lagoons with sand, palms, lounge chairs and shade huts. Water is calm, great for swimming and snorkeling. There is a seawall that separates the lagoons from the ocean, you can still hear the waves breaking against the seawall. You have drink service in this area, so you don't have to walk to the bar each time you want a drink. The animation staff does a good job to get folks to participate in activities in the pool. At the pool is a person to braid hair and apply temporary Henna tattoos, at a minimal charge. On the other side of the swim-up bar, is the pool grill. They serve sandwiches, chips/salsa, grilled hamburgers, grilled steak and chicken.
The Spa side also has a free form pool with swim-up bar and pool grill for lunch. The Spa side is beautiful, but very relaxed and toned down in activities. Also on this side you will find a cross current pool for exercising, a Simi-Olympic pool, yoga temple, athletic obstacle course, rock climbing wall, Japanese garden for exercise classes and exercise room as well as the Spa treatment section.
Restaurants and dress codes: North Lobby (Spa side)
La Huerta: Fine Vegetarian Dining with an upscale a la carte service. Open from Sunday to Friday from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Dress code: Elegant casual attire is required (long pants for men) - air conditioned
Mo Mo No Hana: Delicious Oriental Food in a exquisite and private setting. Open from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. (Dress shorts) - air conditioned
El Greco: Mediterranean cuisine in a casual atmosphere. Located outside Spa lobby, adjacent to Ocean. Breakfast-buffet: 7 am till 11 am Lunch buffet: International buffet from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Dinner: Mediterranean A la Carte from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. (Dress shorts) - open-aired
South Lobby ( Aventura side)
Ventanas: Exquisite Italian Buffet, Grilled steaks, shrimp etc. open from 6 p.m. till 11 p.m. (Dress shorts) - air conditioned
Mundaca: International Food. (Dress shorts) Located outside adjacent to the Ocean..Breakfast-buffet: 7 a.m. till 10 a.m. Lunch buffet: 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Dinner: A La Carte 6 p.m. till 11 p.m. - open-aired
La Hacienda: Simply the best of Mexico for you (not Mexican food), Open 6 p.m. till 11 p.m. Dress code: Elegant casual attire is required ( long pants for men) - air conditioned
No restaurants require reservations, at La Hacienda you did have to put your name of a waiting list. While you are waiting for your table, you can get a drink at the main bar, but just keep checking back on your table. You can eat as many times at any restaurant as you wish, and there are not seating times, like some resorts have.
COCKTAILS AND BARS: Pool Bars: Located at both main pools, open from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. Lobby Bars: Located at each lobby on both sides, on Aventura side there is an additional Bar set up in the Q-Bar section. Open from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. Snack Bar: Great snacks located behind the swim-up bars either side, and in Q-Bar of Aventura and next to the main lobby bar of Spa side, open 11 a.m to 6 p.m..
I have basically given you an quick over view of AventuraSpa Palace.
Ok, lets get to the actual report and our opinions of the resort.
We found the staff as wonderful, polite and gracious, just like in the previous visits. The front desk check-in staff were not all that friendly and didn't really want to please you on your room request.
Upon checking in, you will be asked to meet with guest relations to receive your welcome package. It consist of information concerning the free excursions that are offered, Tours to Chichen Itza, Xpu-ha/Tulum, Coba, Ex-Balam, and Isla Mujeres..A $50 voucher for golf, $15 voucher for Spa treatments, and $25 voucher for rental of a car. Plus information on activities and shuttle service to Playa and Cancun. They will ask you to take a VIP Tour of the Spa side, don't do this, it is a time share gimmick. It will waist about 4 hrs of your valuable time at the resort and high pressure selling for memberships.
The food in our opinion, was good but not as good as last year, but we never went hungry either. We ate at all the restaurants except for the La Huerta (vegetarian). Service at all restaurants was excellent. Mundaca restaurant, shrimp cocktails were less this year, the fresh asparagus soup was great and they still had the desert called cup-o-chocolate (which was shaped like a coffee cup made our of chocolate ,filled with mocha cream filling with a cake under the filling). Just remember to ask for your steaks, medium rare. They seem to over cook their meat, so done is too done. We ate at the Oriental restaurant, the menu had at least 12 main entrees, found the sushi very good. Ventantas, the Italian restaurant, we found to be very good. It is not ala carte, you serve yourself. Some of the food is buffet, but over on the side, is the grill where they will fix pastas with great sauces, or they will grill you fillet mignons, fish, shrimp, lamp chops. Most of the restaurants have ice cream, you scoop it out of containers, usually around 6 varieties. It is some of the best ice cream that I have found. La Hacienda was good, we got the feature meal of the day, fillet mignons with shrimp. Very tasty. The also made Mayan Coffee for us at the table, it is a must to try and see the show the waiter puts on while preparing the coffee. Breakfast, mostly ate at Mundaca, since it was on the side we were staying on. They had a good variety on the buffet, from scramble eggs, french toast, cereals, breads, meats and freshly made fruit smoothies. If you wanted an omelet, you get a bowl, put your choice of ingredients in it, hand it to the cook and within minutes you have a fantastic omelet.
The wait staff did a great job at all the restaurants, tipping is not required, but they do work hard to please ....if you were satisfied, you might leave a couple dollars.
Annoying room noises: If you are light sleeper, you will hear the a/c cut on and off through out the night, it kinda raddles. You might hear metal carts transporting stuff though out the night on the ground side walks. Early in the mornings, it may be possible to hear the yard staff cutting grass or trimming the sidewalks. If you are a heavy sleeper, you won't have any problems hearing these noises.
The pool on Aventura side was lively, animation staff does a good job to try to get folks involved in water activites. No pressure to participate or not. The pool is huge free formed, only 4 ft. deep, with several walkovers to get from side to side, there are several jacuzzi's located in the pool. The pool is open from early in the morning till 8 p.m., at night the pool is lighted with underwater lighting. We did not see anyone swimming at night. During the day, waiters and waitresses do a good job of walking around the pool and lagoon areas, taking drink orders. On the other side of the swim-up bar is a snack area, which serves lunch. Variety of sandwiches, an open grill where they cook hamburgers, chicken or steaks for the guest. The lagoon area was very nice, Aventura lagoon was more used compared to Spa lagoons. I heard comments that the Spa side lagoons smelled, this was not the case of Aventura side lagoons. The water was calm and simi-clear, good for snorkeling or swimming. One good thing about the lagoon, you will not have red flags flying indicating bad undertow. ( We found several beaches in Cancun, red flags were flying, nobody in the water.)
Swimsuits ranged from women wearing one piece suits, tank-kini's, bikini's, string bikini's and rio cut suits. You found men wearing the traditional boxer style suits, speedo's, or bikini's. Wear what ever you feel comfortable in, it is your vacation. This year I noticed more women going topless around the pool, which is allowed, nudity is not allowed. Toplessness is very common around the lagoon and beach area too. Of course this changes from week to week, all depending on crowd at resort. You will find this (going topless at pool) common with European's, seems that some Americans are more self-conscience about this. Ages of guest ranged from twenties, and on up, a very good mix for the resort.
Last year we meet BL and KL from Houston, Texas ... we both decided to re-book AventuraSpa, since we had both enjoyed it so much before....also I had been corresponding with TC and BC from Raliegh, North Carolina....they decided to book with us also. All three couples had fun, hanging out together, meeting at the bar each night for drinks, ate most dinners together and went on excursions together. It was great to know someone before getting to resort.
We all decided to take the free shuttle to Cancun one day for shopping. The shuttle leaves daily from AventuraSpa lobby at 8:30 am, it stopped at LAPIS jewelry factory for about 45 minutes, then proceeded to Playa del Carmen, left some people off there, next stop was the Moon Palace and then last stop was Beach Palace in Cancun. The shuttle does not get to Beach Palace until 12 noon. We ate lunch at the Beach Palace pool grill. Then we all got a taxi and went shopping at KuKulCan Mall. Each couple went their own way, shopping there and going to Isla mall and Flamingo Mall. Found some shop owners willing to lower their prices while others would tell you sticker price only. We all finally made it back to the Beach Palace to have a few drinks and waited for the shuttle to return us to AventuraSpa, which left at 6 p.m. from Beach Palace.
Xpu-Ha Palace Resort. We all decided to get a couple taxis and visit Xpu-Ha for the day. We knew that it was a family resort as well as a lot of honeymooners were staying there. Let me say, this resort is not for everyone, a lot of walking, very hot and resort spread out more than AvenuturaSpa. They do have a golf cart service that will pick you up at various points in the resort, but you have to wait in the hot sun. The resort does have paved roads with mangroves on each side of the road (about 7 feet tall) which cuts out a lot of the gulf breeze, so very hot walking. The rooms are built in groups of huts scattered throughout the resort, looks like 4 sets of rooms per hut. The majority of balconies, seems to look into the mangroves, very few ocean or pool views. The beach is very beautiful but was roped off so you could not swim far out. Our wives; KL, TC and Deborah decided that it was too hot to go on the nature hike, so they all wandered off to find the main pool. The husbands; BL, BC and myself took to guided nature hike and found a lot of interesting facts concerning trees and vegetation growth, saw plenty of Iguanas running around, along with a deer preserve. After the nature hike, we decided to try to find our wives at the main pool, we walked a good distance, found one pool which was closed, finally found a golf cart transportaion and asked the driver to take us to the main pool. He drove about 30 feet and stopped, told us to walk down this path on the left. Well this turned into another very hot hike thru the jungle, we came across two beautiful cenotes, asked another couple directions again, and they told us to follow the path. Finally made it out of the jungle and found the main pool located between some huts. The pool was very disappointing, it as nothing compared to the pools at AventuraSpa, it was a large oval pool 4 ft deep without a swimup bar. The bar was located on dry ground about 20 feet away from the pool. We decided to go back to the beach buffet restaurant for lunch as they did not have anything good to eat at the pool-bar and leave after we ate. We did find two other restaurants near the main pool but were closed for lunch, so you were limited to only the restaurant at the beach. We finally found golf cart transportation, which took us back to the main beach restaurant. The restaurant had decent food, and was open-aired. We ate and found transportation back to main entrance. You can say, we saw, we did Xpu-Ha Resort and that was enough, don't want to go back there again, too much walking, spread out and too hot.
We all decided to take the free off site excursion to Isla Mujeres. It is well worth taking. Bus left resort at 8:50 am, arrived at Aqua World in Cancun around 10 am. We got our ID bracelets for boarding the ferry. The ferry ride takes about 35 minutes to reach the Island.During the ferry ride, they passed out cold beers, the staff members on the ferry called it the Party Boat. They docked at a private beach, where you can pay extra to swim with the dolphins or you can just go find yourself a lounge chair on the beach and sun. Also they furnished a free/open bar too. Around 12 noon, they had a free lunch for the guest, available buffet type foods or you could go to the grill and get shrimp, beef, or chicken tacos. Around 2 p.m., they loaded up the ferry and took you to the town of Isla, there you can shop or stop in at some local cantinas for 2 for 1 drinks. The six of us, all walked around looking for a few minutes, then we found this Cantina that had 2 for 1 drinks. That is where we remained, talking and watching people. Had the waiter take a few group pictures of all of us with every one's camera. Got back on the Party Boat by 5 p.m., headed back to the mainland. Well the party began on the boat again, passing out beers and the staff dressed up and put on a show for us. We all had a great time, this is something everyone needs to do while at AventuraSpa, it was fun.
One night all three couples, decided to take a couple taxis into Playa del Carmen. Taxis were $12 one way, so we split the cost between us. We asked the taxi driver where was a good place to eat lobster and some local foods. He took us to Poncho Villa restaurant. When we all got out of the taxis, we were greeted by the staff who works there. They showed us to a table for 6, put sombreros on us, handed us rifles we felt like banditos. Everyone was taking pictures. The a waiter came out, holding a large wooded menu, he told us it was the special for the day. Lobster and shrimp for 2 people 340 pesos and a Mexican meal for 2 people 190 pesos. We thought that was good, so one couple ordered the Lobster for 2 and the other two couples got the Mexican meal for 2. We all had Margaritas, wine or beer with our meal. The food was good and plenty of it. When we finished, a little boy about 6 years old came up, trying to sell us bracelets out of leather. All he wanted was 20 pesos, he was cute, so each couple told him to keep his bracelets and gave him $2 each.
We asked the waiter for the checks..........the Mexican meal that was advertised for 190 pesos on the board became 250 pesos, while the drinks were 45 pesos. I questioned a waiter about the price.....he told me that 190 pesos price was lunch price not dinner price. I told him that the other waiter showed us the sign and he still said no lunch price, 250 pesos dinner price. Well we all paid and left.....so watch your prices on your checks.
We all walked down 5th Avenue, it was lit up at night, all shops were open. We found at a drugstore, a bottle of Kuluha in the shape of a Mayan God. It was only $8.50 US money, in Cancun and at he resort, it sold for $10 to $13. One couple had already bought some in Cancun for $10 each, so we got one each for $8.50. We found a 3 dimensional picture with frame for $68, it was a fantastic buy, for those pictures usually go for $100 or more. He taped/wrapped it up in cardboard, put heavy string around it, and put a handle on it, to carry it by. We felt very safe walking around Playa at night. By that time we all decided to head back to the resort. Back at the resort, the Deborah talked KL and TC into taking off their shoes and stepping into the fountain in the Aventura Patio area for some pictures. I guess to many Margaritas.
One day we walked to Puertos Aventuras, a small town about 10 minute walk south of the resort. Find the tennis courts at the resort and just follow the road, which leads to the town. Very safe to walk it. Puertos Aventuras, originally was a small fishing village, it now has large charter fishing boats, condos, a couple hotels, a public beach. There are small restaurants and shops located around swim with the dolphins area. We shopped for a little while, some prices were cheaper there compared to Playa and Cancun, there were signs stating prices fixed, no bartering.
We bought a brilliant colored Mexican blanket for 200 pesos and several ceramic Iguanas. We sat at a local cantina, had a corona beer and watched the dolphins interact with people. We decided it was too hot to walk back, so we got a taxi for $6, to take us back to the resort. We told our friends TC and BC about the town, and they decided to go and see it.
If you care to see the pictures and read the other trip reports, please go to http://www.geocities.com/bismith39056/mypage1.html
We enjoyed meeting our old friends BL and KL from last year, along with meeting our new friends TC and BC this year. We all enjoyed each others company and had fun talking and doing stuff together. Also due to my participation on message boards, several people came up to me and asked if I was Bill Smith from the message board, made me feel good to see people read my web site and hope that they enjoyed my opinions on resorts that we have stayed at.
Once again, I would highly recommend going to this Adult Only Resort, for a honeymoon or just a relaxing vacation. You could not ask for a better staff of employees that are eager and willing to make your vacation enjoyable.
Bill and Deborah Smith bills52@bellsouth.net