All Inclusive Resort, Mexico
 

Hey,

Looking to book a week long vacation in the Mexico area some time in October/November. Anyone have any recommendations on resorts. Thinking about heading to Puerto Vallarta, but I'm flexible as it'll be either myself or one other friend.

Same question, who can share experience?

Imo outside of Cabo when it's nice the pacific side kinda sucks imo

I've stayed at the Riu in cabo, Riu in Vallarta, a few other ones I forget the name of. Basically you want a 5 star or nothing. We went as a family to most of those places then my parents went with some friends of theirs to Barcello in Cancun, they said of the 5-6 places they've been that was head and shoulders the best. Food, the resort, etc they said everything was the best they've seen there

We stayed at Barcello in Cancun and that was nice. Two hotels and we were able to eat lunch at their other location.

If you wanna stay on the west coast for direct flights, Riu Palace in Cabo is nice. Barcelo in Cabo is as well, but their service sucks balls compared to Riu. Don't expect to do much ocean swimming in Cabo though.

PV is just ok IMO... for my money and ease of travel, Cabo is best bet. Also cooler there temperature wise compared to PV.

If you don't mind connecting flights, Mayan Riviera has the best beaches for swimming. Grande Paladium Kantenah is a nice one.. hot as shit over there though.

went to puerto vallarta last year we stayed at the sheraton. it was good but the water was meh. im actually heading up to Maya Riviera this year in december and we are staying at the Gran Bahia Principe Tulum, its like 3 hotels in one resort and you can go to any of them for bfast/lunch/dinner! and the water has that tropical look.

my friends parent own a travel agency so i just usually ask him for deals. we booked this in advance and for two weeks its 2.3k$ , which isnt much of a deal i guess but more of the normal? haha i always see him post like last minute deals( as in you flight 1-2 days from when he posted it) for a week for like 800-1k$ which seems good but obviously choices are limited. check up VIPtravel.ca

if i cant give this advice because it may be considered advertising, mods go ahead and delete or w/e. this is just the only place i know so im sharing my insight. And im not giving out any names or anything so take it as you please :P

As XplicitLuder mentioned if you are fortunate enough to be one of those rare people who can wait till the last minute to book something, then just hop on a plane and go, you can find incredible deals for mexico.

I personally have been to cancun, mazatlan, and manzanillo.

Only one I have been to more than once was mazatlan, and honestly its fine, unless you go during jellyfish season which is brutal, cause then you can't go in the water.

FYI jellfish season is 8 months out of the year...lol

For price reference we stayed at Riu palace cabo during american spring break (late April/may) all in flights and everything 4 of us paid $1200 each.

And Cabo for swimming, yea you're gonna drown if you can't swim lol. If youre a strong swimmer you can easily swim out past the break but if you're not, you're not swimming in the ocean.

Mayan Riviera was awesome. Never tried anywhere else, but I did hear that the pacific side sucks in comparison.

Also, I've found that travelbestbets.com is a good resource for Mexican vacations.

Been to Riu Vallarta in PV. (8 days for $1100/person w/ travel insurance)

I went with the expectation to sit for 8 days by the pool/ocean and eat & drink. Keeping that in mind, it was great. Service was excellent.

Only cons for this particular hotel was:

-Pool was all ages.. so trying to relax having kids jump around was abit annoying.
-24/7 bar was crap just because you didn't have any decent food.
-1 elevator in center of hotel (Hotels in a U, we were on the tip of 1 wing with ocean view, so either go to the elevator or climb 7 flights of stairs drunk...)

Has anyone been to one where the 24/7 bar food was actually good? Or they have 24/7 room service etc?

Riu palace promotes itself as a 5 star and their 24/7 food bar was fucking terrible, gross looking hot dogs/burgers and your typical radioactive Nacho cheese

Trying to go during first week of January. Trying to decide between the following:

• Hilton Puerto Vallarta (Decent Location [PV]Good rating[5stars], Good price [$1500/7 days])
• Hotel Riu Cancun (Good location [Cancun], Decent Rating[4star?], Decent Price [$1700/7 days])
• Krystal Cancun (Good location [Cancun], Decent Rating[4star?], Decent Price [$1700/7 days])

Any thoughts? I keep looking at the beach/scenery difference and Cancun>PV hands down...

Anyone else have any locations that were pretty good in Cancun/Mayan area? I am pretty convinced that the Gulf Side is way better than the Pacific Side...

IMO all the Riu's just kind feel cookie cutter

^Care to explain a little more?

I dunno compared to the other resorts I've been to all the Riu's I've been/seen just seem like they all follow a similar formula, layout, the staff were mostly good but since the two Riu's I've been to are kind of known as "party" spots sometimes it seemed like staff treated anyone under 50 like they were kids.

I dunno it may be for you so don't rule it out, but now that I've stayed at the Riu I don't think I'd ever go again just on the basis of trying somthing different

Everything was okay though? The beaches just look so much better than the Pacific side... Or is it not that big of a difference?

I recently came back from PV and stayed at Riu Jalisco. The "all you can eat and drink" mentality is great but it's kinda similar to what you would expect at an AYCE sushi restaurant in terms of quality. I cant speak for the other resorts but the food at Riu Jalisco was nasty, i almost had to go out into the city every night to grab food which was way better. The flea market(Bucereas) had some of the best tacos i've had in my entire life. The water in PV was quite rough when i went in September, people had to get out of the water way before dark because it got too violent(then again, its storm season).

Overall, i had a great time, only paid $770(flight included) for 7 nights. But if had to pick again, i would probably go to Cancun or Cabos.

Going to NOW Sapphire in Cancun for my destination wedding. Anyone been there?

Huge difference. If you enjoy ocean swimming and hanging in the water for hours, go to Cancun/Riviera Maya. South of Cancun, Cozumel basically does what Vancouver Island does for us and reduces the waves. Very comfortable swimming around there.

Cabo will suck you right in if you're not strong.

Riu Cancun > Riu Cabo

better, bigger resort, better food, better experience, more to do "within" the resort IMO

Anyone have experience with the Oasis resorts?

anyone with experience on El Dorado Seaside Suites?
How's the food?

make sure to get cheap hookers

Anyone had any experience booking through AMEX website for car rental? I found some crazy deals for car rental in Cancun for a week for as little as $5 for not so known rental company or $45 for Nationals or Thrift. It looks too good to be true, and I know they will try to force me to buy CDW which should already be covered by my credit card company, but other than that, would there be anything else I need to watch out for?
I did rent car in Cancun before.. and I guess I was lucky enough to not have any bad experiences in the past.. I am just worried that $5 to $45 per week deal is too good to be true..