Cancun Mexico - Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar

submitted by Sarah - Bursch Travel Fargo
The resort is very handicapped accessible, with 2 platforms on the beach for wheelchairs. You can drink all of the water at the resort besides from the sink or bath tub. Each room has a mini fridge stocked every other day with bottled water, beer and soda. The staff was very helpful and friendly. There is a free safe in your room which I recommend to use! You will see every sort of Mexican wildlife you can imagine at this resort such as wild turkeys, Mexican Raccoons, Pink Flamingos, Geese, Lizards, Iguanas, and turtles. The pool is huge and is a lazy river as well. You can stay and one Iberostar and play at them all.
Gift shop is VERY expensive! A 4oz bottle of sun block was $15.00 USD and an 8oz was $25.00 USD! The property is huge, so don't plan on just running somewhere really quick to get something. The resort faces open water so the ocean was very wavy every day. The mosquitoes were HORRIBLE! Depending on the number of nights you stay you get to eat in the restaurants, so for our 4 night stay we got to eat at 2 of the restaurants. I suggest right when you arrive to make your dinner reservations, we ate at the Italian and Japanese Restaurants which were very good. We did not get the night or times that we wanted but it ended up being fine. Do NOT use the ATMS when you are in Mexico! I took out $100.00 and I ended up paying $115.50! They charge you a $6.00 processing fee and $9.50 Mexican tax fee!!!
There is one entrance to all of the Iberostars, and there is a shopping mall that is in the middle of all of them, and trolleys that will take you from place to place.
We enjoyed taking the day tours to other islands
Keep EVERYTHING of value in the safe! We heard a lot of complaints about people missing things. We locked everything up so we were fine.
All travelers would enjoy this resort with the varieties of activities to offer. It would be difficult for elders just because of all the walking, and time consuming waiting for the trolley to come around, which is about every 20 minutes.
Exchange your money in the US before you leave, you will get a better exchange rate. Look at all tour options the Tour Operator offers and the hotel offers-they are in competition with each other and will not tell you what other companies have to offer as we unfortunately found out.
I would strongly recommend taking a day trip to Isla Mujeras! We took a day trip to Garrafon Park and it was very enjoyable. For about $80.00 USD it included: Roundtrip car, taxi, and ferry transfers, full buffet breakfast, full buffet lunch, all drinks, unlimited snacks, reef snorkeling, kayaking, and a climbing tower. Included in this price you could also take a Isla Mujeras Downtown tour, Bicycle tour, fantasy snorkel with sharks and stingrays. Dolphin Discovery is an additional cost, and you can zip line for $5.00 USD per person.
We also went to Cozumel for a day which was a great time! I would love to go back and stay there, it was hard to leave. We left our hotel about 1130am and took a cab to Playa Del Carmen for $22.00 USD, then the Cozumel Ferry which leaves every hour on the hour for $14.00 USD per person each way. When we arrived in Cozumel we took cab from the port to the Iberostar Cozumel were we ate the buffet lunch and snorkeled for a couple hours right in front of the hotel for $2.00 USD per person which is a Mexican non-refundable tax.
I went to Mexico with my boyfriend Jeff, and he really enjoyed it! Cozumel as a whole was defiantly his favorite and he really liked the Dreams Cancun.
Dreams Cancun
The hotel is AMAZING! They have 2 private beaches, and one of the beaches only goes up to 3 feet , so it is great for kids! The property is very clean and no wrist bands are required. They do have dolphins, but what you see in pictures is the only room that they get, which was disappointing to see since there are 4 dolphins in that little area. The view is spectacular from the resort as well since you are at the tip of the "7” you can see the whole line of hotels each way.
Iberostar Cozumel
Divers Haven! This property is very large as well but the building are little huts which were very neat. There are a lot of American and Canadians workers at this resort so it was kind of nice to hear clear English when talking about activities and tours. We snorkeled right in front of the hotel, and were really impressed with the fish we saw and even a stingray.
Riu Palace Las Americas
Beautiful property but we did not like the beach and pool area just because it is the only location everyone can go. So it was very crowded, and looked like you might have to get up at 8am for a chair.