Cancun Stays and general recommandations
 

I am looking for some recommendations' as I am struggling to find answers reading within existing post.

Background: I will be in Cancun in few weeks time, as 5 nights couple short holiday, flying in from NLU (will be in CDMX before and after) and based on some advice by a Mexican friend of mine that has visited Cancun several times, I have been looking at the northern part of the Hotel zone. We would ideally be looking at 4 stars minimum, ocean side beach access as top priority, and maybe at least Breakfast included (some advice here about available outside local breakfast options in the area). AI would be an option if at comparable prices as B&B but it is likely that we will spend at least 2 of the 5 days there on all day trip (Chichen Itza and Isla Mujeres, again any recommendations about tours or for IM, self booking the ferry etc is very welcome). I have an Amex Platinum UK, so with Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton, Radisson (ex NA) and Melia statuses (not great benefits usually aside of the odd Marriott room upgrade and welcome gift) as well as access to FHR, THC and related benefits. I have also IHG Silver Elite (again I am guessing not great as I was Platinum before and never seen any benefit aside of the off welcome gift).

Current considerations:

I am currently pondering between the InterContinental Presidente (B&B) and Wyndham Allltra (All Inclusive) which have basically the same price (welcome comments about the hotels as well as the different beach locations) but I am open to different suggestions as well. I have been looking at the Kempinski as well but it would be £200 more and with no even Breakfast.

I do not recommend the IC Presidente. I was also Platinum when I stayed there. I believe I stayed on points, and immediately was given a hard sell to buy up over $100 a night to a "nice room." I have been with IHG for over 20 years, and I was always treated well. I am also not an resort type of person--and frankly, I am not a Cancun person. I was there at Christmas during Covid to deliver a full suitcase filled with brand new clothes to an orphanage in the city of Cancun, far removed from the Hotel Zone. But I needed a place to stay on points to afford this trip. I don't recall how I landed at this hotel, but that is why I was there. I figured I would head to Chichen Itza as well, and then head back. I fell for the upsell for a day, and it was nice enough, I guess, but the more I thought about it, the more it bugged me--a lot. I marched back down and said I wanted the room I had booked. So I was given a dreary and horrible room that had a window (maybe it was a door?) I could not see out. It was on the first floor. It was dark and depressing. It doesn't look like the pictures I see now, but I didn't take any because I remember I was posting pictures and I was embarrassed to show my friends. The whole experience left an ugly taste in my mouth. I absolutely made the decision, and probably was just taken aback by the whole thing. Rotten time, rotten experience. One of my three worst IHG stays in 20+ years. The other two were at Candlewoods. One has closed down completely and was taken over by a budget no-tell motel, and the other I left a month ago (and I am Diamond now--and this one was 4.5 stars though I usually don't choose that budget of a hotel) for a Marriott property where am writing this now (I live in hotels year round).

Also, note that the IC is NOT on the beach, though the map looks like it. It's across the road from the GoMart gas station/ Subway, which was actually convenient (and just down from that there is a great food stand area--cheap yummy street type food). Keep in mind that Cancun caters to Americans who like to think they are in "Mexico," but mostly are in American resorts in the Hotel Zone. So if you insist on AI or B&B you pay those prices. Find a nice room with access to a real Mexican restaurant and you will really eat well at good prices!

There is a concierge at the IC and probably most 4 and 5 star hotels, if you want to book a tour (as well as Viator type bookings, but they all are going to be upcharged, and you can do ut yourself too). Tours are bookable all over the HZ at little booths; remember, you are in a tourist area. They are all ready for you. Most tours were reruns of each other for Chichen Itza and way too long for me (I am sort of a party pooper!) 13 hours: Leave at 7, and always a cenote, a (famous area) buffet lunch, and Chichen Itza, then return at 8--something close to that (variations might be 11 or 12 hours).

Then I looked into renting a car. Very different cars and laws (I hate driving. I'm not bad at it; I just hate it!). You absolutely have to have the liability insurance per MX law, but many try to upsell the others too. I did a lot of reading on agencies and insurance. I have a Chase card that has primary coverage, which I verified covered me in MX, so I arranged a car drop off with a company that would sell me only what I was legally required to have. I rented it for 24 hours, drove out and back (skipped the cenote and buffet--a time change occurs on the drive, too). Then I also went to the orphanage while I had the car because that made the most sense. Then I texted the man who brought me the car and he picked it up. It was an old, very used car. The windows rolled down manually. It was a hoot! But it worked. And the guy and the agency were honest. It was cheaper and faster than a tour--and did not involved me spending a lot of hours packed on a bus.

Oh, the kids got their new clothes, and I rented a car in Mexico and drove myself to Chichen Itza, and those were the best parts of the trip. The IC was the worst, and looking over the pictures on Google is a very different story than my experience. I guess I wasn't a big enough spender. So maybe your mileage will vary if you want to pay the price. The lobby and common areas were nice. So was the upsold room...

travelingdrsuz

many thanks for reporting your first hand experience, and I appreciate the recommendations (was hoping for more but none received). Whilst I have driven in virtually every continent, I was planning to avoid driving in Mexico, so the idea is to do one day organised tour to Chichen Itza and probably a self booked 1/2 day to Isla Mujeres.

we are a bit tight on budget on this trip as we are doing a long haul, main family (5 of us) holiday in August for 4 weeks, so most of the spend will be reserved for that.

For now I have booked a villa at the Westin Lagunamar, B&B, we probably will explore the various food outlets in the HZ the rest of the vacation. I like to always swim in the sea and I understand the sea is a bit rough where the Westin is but very calm where the IC is. I was looking at the three RUI hotels in the area, but these also do not look to have great beaches on site.

I thought was worth sharing my recent experience for the benefit of other and possible for others to add to this and build up a reference thread.

Getting there: We combined this Cancun trip with CDMX, flying into and out of CDMX from the UK. Flight from CDMX to Cancun where much cheaper from NLU (more info here ) , and as times of the flights worked best for us, we choose to fly Viva Aerobus. Outbound flight departed over 1 hr late and arrived over 50 minutes late, but the return flight was on time. We used USA Transfer for airport pick up and have mentioned the experience Here

Stay: After much research (part of it in post 1 here) about the ideal location within the Hotel Zone, considering rooms, luxury levels, quality of beach and roughness of the sea, we settled for the Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort and Vacation Club. This was listed a s a 4 star but it is not a typical hotel. Rooms are either studios or villas and include a kitchen and laundry "cabinet" with washer and dryer. The one thing that was missing and missed was a Nespresso machine which you can find everywhere nowadays (as indeed it was available at teh Sheraton CDMX). The room still get serviced everyday, with turndown upon request. We had never stayed in such a set up and would have benefited by a better check in experience in terms of explaining exactly the etiquette and what was on offer (we discovered on the last day that there were three grilling stations that could be freely used by guests, which in turn finally explained the provision of the BBQ tool kit in the room's kitchen cabinet. Our room was fairly new, very clean and everything worked as expected. We used the pool, the Oceano Restaurant (for breakfast and one dinner - more below), the Heavenly Spa (was great), and the Fitness centre, and overall we were quite happy about the service delivery. The hotel is across the road from La Isla open mall, with a mixture of luxury brands, fashion brands and various types of restaurants. The Kukulkan Plaza (indoor mall) is also about 10 minutes walk away and where we did most of our grocery shopping (Soriana Supermarket)

Breakfast and Dining: Our rate included breakfast and to be honest it was pretty solid every day, with a vast offer of Mexican food, continental options, pastries, fresh fruit etc. Espresso was chargeable though which has not been the case in many other hotels I stayed in in the past 4 years (in addition to a Nespresso machine being available in the room). We had a couple of dine-in with ingredients bought at the nearby (10 minutes walk) large supermarket, a fish buffet dinner at the Oceano restaurant (raw seafood was much better than the overcooked fish on offer), and we also had Dinner out few times. We really wanted to try the highly recommended (even by a couple of local Uber drivers) Kiosco Verde around Puerto Juarez but they closed very early and on the evening we were on our way, half of the Hotel Zone was flooded due to Storm Alberto and took us longer to get there. The owner then recommended for us to go to the Entremuelles Sky View Restaurant at the Ultramar Lighthouse. The location was very nice at the top of the lighthouse and if the weather had been better, probably even more enjoyable, but we were the only table there for the duration of our dinner and the food was really disappointing (including a super salty dish served to my wife). Considering the price charged and the quality of the food, I would avoid this place for anything other than perhaps a small bite and drinks to enjoy the view rather than the food. On the last night, we crossed the road to have a nice steak at the Argentinian steakhouse Cambalache, which I can recommend overall.

What to see/ where to visit: We were quite unlucky with the weather due to Storm Alberto and only got two days of ok weather (still cloudy, sun in and out, few drizzles) as most days was raining on and off and thus could not do much of the exploring we had planned to. Just next door to the Westin Lagunamar (there is a walking path starting by the main pool) you can find the ruins of the Templo Del Alacran, on a small hill overlooking the beach/ocean, which is worth a quick visit. We did book and went on a Cenote/Chichen Itza tour. We booked with GetYourGuide (tour by AmigoTour)as initially looked to be quite cheaper than what was offered by the Hotel Concierge as well as having great reviews, and it was a quite enjoyable tour indeed (both the Cenote swim and Chichen Itza tour were bucket list experiences), however my recommendation is to check closely what is actually included with the cost by both this external options as well as what the hotel offers. For instance, the one offered by the hotel, with pick up inside the hotel grounds, had a cost of $95 USD per person but I am fairly sure it included everything including taxes and life vest rental at the Cenote. With GetYourGuide /Amigo Tour the cost was just under $39 USD with an option of two pick up points within the hotel zone (the nearest to us was outside the Intercontinental, 5 minutes drive away, which we took an Uber to get to) but we later found out that this was to cover only the cost of the BUS, guide (additional tips expected) and buffet lunch at the Cenote/Maya Centre, and it did not include the Tourist tax ($39 USD pp) and Life vest/locker rental at the Cenote ($8.50 USD pp) plus CC fee of $5.70 USD, so it ended up being only about $3 cheaper excluding the cost of the Uber and the effort to get to the pick up point, I would have taken the Hotel tout at that point.

Glad it worked out well for you! Thanks for sharing all this too!

What do you experienced travlers say? Rent a car vs. public transport or buses?

Staying at Beachscape Kin Ha with public parking. Really only want one day at Chiten Itza, grocery shopping, and transport from/to airport.

Normally would use taxis and a bus tour - just keep hearing bad experiences.

Thanks

I recommend using the local city buses and private shuttles/buses. I avoid all local taxis throughout Mexico, personally. I recommend a tourist bus to touristy venues. I don't recommend driving as many times protestors block roads and you'll be on your own to avoid them in the middle of nowhere.

Solo female, limited Spanish, but I rented a car for a day. I researched like crazy. Which insurance did I have to buy (some is mandatory, but not all) vs. what was covered by my various policies? I mean, this old beater car had manual windows. Definitely no cruise control. My biggest concern was checkpoints, but no issues. Contract was clear, people honest. See post above under the OP on this thread, where I include that.

Account for the time change. I HATE driving, but what sounded worse to me than open highway driving (mostly) was a bus for 10 hours with strangers, a required cenote visit and buffet (I never eat midday). Took me fewer than 10 hours, did all I wanted, made a stop I needed to in the city area (delivering a ton of clothes to an orphanage, so that made it simpler). Then I called the rental guy on WhatsApp and he came and got it at the hotel.

Forget which company, but I went through all of them carefully (tried to choose a major one, if I recall), and made the guy walk around for videos/photos with me (not sure how much that thing could be damaged, sans a major wreck!) Most interesting rental experience ever. Not one I would embrace, but in that case, worth it. Could probably find the company (again, nothing fancy, but honest, and probably still there, as a starting point to compare. Who knows if 2-3 years later they are still as they were but solo female tourists can seem the easiest to upsell, etc. Probably helped I knew exactly what I wanted and what the regulations were. I was firm but also friendly. Zero issues. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be now, but I'd probably do a car rental again vs. 10 hours and closed in space with strangers. But I did use a shuttle from the airport (USA--good job there too) and walked, taxis anywhere else local.

Reporting back from our trip. We booked a taxi from airport through the same site that we booked the hotel. They were late but by texting them we did get picked up (our flight was 30m late which they said caused the problem). Nice van and driver so took his info to book return which worked well. Prepaid on cc $26. Going back he charged $35 since he picked us up on time at 7am we were OK with it.

Used a small tour company for Chichen itza. Van for 12 but only 8 traveled. Long day would not do that trip in bus. Oceantours.

Did not ride the bus. The price was low. But most stops had lots of people waiting not sure they would all make it into one bus.
we opted to go to place that were about 30m walks.

Thanks for the update!

Thanks for reporting back.

I am sorry but this is false, there is no road to cross to get to the beach from the Intercontinental Cancun. You exit the back of the hotel, go through the pool area and you are on the beach, just like the other resorts. Currently there on a stay (and I do not share your observations at all, but that is personal preference so won't get into it here) and am very puzzled by this sentence. Possibly the nicest beach in the hotel zone as well.

While I could maybe have missed a back way out, it was not something I saw even when I could get past the drunk partiers outside one night, and I was in two rooms, and I did walk to the beach a different way. It's not far no matter what, but the room you have, price you pay, and other factors sure play in. I was actually disgusted by some of it--and certainly met some nice people too. (At the hotel, I mean--everyone outside of the hotel was great, but I don't like manipulative upsells and lies, so I was gone from that point.) I can absolutely concede that I missed a back way due to the crowds (and maybe Covid having some parts closed??), but no way I would return there for any reason. One of my poorer IHG stays and I am Diamond. But I am happy you are happy. Enjoy!

When did you stay there?

It just sounds like you were in a different hotel, the IC is not know for drunk partiers, it is a family oriented and couples hotel mostly, not much partying of any kind going on. Here is a view from the Club lounge (in main building) over the past weekend, you can see the beach from it, and as you can see it is pretty chill. No road or anything to cross and the doors are kind of hard to miss (you enter from one side, the beach is on the other side of the main lobby, cannot miss).

As you stated things may have been very different during COVID re: guests but they didn't reconfigure the building...


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