I just had a very nice 1 night stay here, ending a week's trip to the Yucatan. The primary purpose of our trip was to try several of Starwood's haciendas that are within a 2 hour drive of Merida. We spent one night at the Intercontinental Merida, then several nights at haciendas, finishing up with a night at the Hyatt. I had initially booked the Hyatt with points, just 5K, so a great value. However, I decided it would be nice to have a suite, so rebooked at a sub $100 rate and used a suite upgrade cert.

Airport to hotel
You buy a voucher for your taxi at a stand outside the terminal. It is a fixed price of $18 US. It was about a 15 minute ride to the hotel. The return was also a fixed price, this time in pesos. It was 1200 pesos, or roughly $10. The outbound cost was higher due to an airport tax.

Location
Merida has 3 large hotels on corners of the same intersection. This is where you'll find the Intercontinental, the Fiesta Americana, and the Hyatt. Most car rental firms can be found in one of these hotels or on the 4th street corner. We rented from Hertz, whose office is in the Fiesta Americana. It made it very easy to drop off the car on our arrival at the Hyatt. Others have spoken to the fact that the hotel is not in the center of sightseeing, but an inexpensive taxi ride away.

Hotel
The hotel decor is very fresh, very Hyatt. It has a much fresher feel to it than the Intercontinental. Our suite was on the 17th floor where the lounge is. We loved our suite. It was spacious and well laid out. The hotel had no DVD, but the rooms manager sent someone out to buy one and installed it in our room. We were extremely impressed needless to say. Every hotel of our trip had a DVD player to offer, and he was unaware that his competition had moved ahead in this one small area.

The lounge is open for a continental breakfast, then reopens at 5:30pm til 9 for drinks and appetizers. The spread is heavy on breads, crackers, and cheeses, but also has a couple desserts, nuts, and dried fruits. There is plenty of table seating, but just a couple sofas.

I was having computer problems, and was given free use of a computer in the business lounge.

There are two restaurants in the hotel, one for Italian, and the other Mexican/continental. They have a very well priced buffet for lunch, just $10. It was Asian the day we were there. The prior day was Mexican and the subsequent day was Italian. That restaurant seating had the feel of a large ballroom. While I didn't like that so much, it completely filled during lunch, so they knew their market.

My husband worked out, and thought that the workout equipment was very good.

We were very content with our stay, and recommend the hotel to anyone going to Merida.