Ocean Coral and Turquesa Riviera Maya Mexico
submitted by - Karen agent at Bursch Travel Fargo
This hotel is close to the airport (25 minute ride if you do the non-stop transfer) and is absolutely gorgeous! It's a larger resort, but laid out very well. There are 4 pools (kids pool, activities pool, swim up pool and the privilege pool) and a large beach. One of the cons is there is some seaweed,it's more like pieces of grass and wasn't anything to keep you out of the water. Also, the rooms did have the musty smell, but being as humid as it is there, that's almost to be expected. I only noticed the smell when we walked in the door. Within 5 seconds, I didn't even notice it. The rooms were very clean and the service was wonderful.
If it's in your budget, upgrade to the Privilege section. The privilege area has it's own pool and beach as well as an extra restaurant. They also have the prime room locations. Although we didn't have the privilege option booked, they did upgrade us to a privilege room so we had a wonderful ocean view room very close to the swim up pool.
This hotel is located near the second largest coral reef in the world and there are snorkeling and diving excursions right from the hotel. Definitely a great advantage. They also have shuttles that run into Cancun and Playa Del Carmen on schedules, but we found that if you have the concierge call a taxi for you, the driver will make a deal with you to just be at your disposal for the day. We paid $75 with tip for a 5 hour excursion into Playa Del Carmen.
The pool and the beach! Both were great. There were lots of activities throughout the day and it was fun to watch some of the competitions.
If you are looking for a huge night life, this isn't really the resort for you. Although they have things going on in the evening, it does not have a disco or anything like that on site. However, they do have an excursion each night into Playa for anyone who would like to partake in something of that nature.
Also, the shows aren't anything spectacular. We went to an impersonator show and were very sadly disappointed. But, they had a kids activity each night that was sort of a show in itself and a couple of those were very fun to watch!
Families, Honeymooners, Bride & groom (there was a wedding every day except Sunday while we were there!), singles, friends….this place has something for everyone.
If you want the good chairs at the pool or the lounging beds, you need to get up early! We went out at 9:30 and got fairly decent seats, but later than that and you were out of luck. Same for the beach.
Anali, the Delta Vacations Rep at the hotel, is AMAZING!!!! We loved her! She took very good care of us (like making sure that my back pack caught up with me on the way back to the airport because I forgot it on the sofa in the lobby!!!) and she is very good at her job. We did the Xel Ha-Tulum All-inclusive tour and I highly recommend booking it with Delta Vacations versus some of the other tour providers. Most other tour providers, we were told, go to Tulum first and then Xel-Ha. By doing that, you're actually at Tulum with all of the other tours, including cruise shore excursions, which makes it very busy. By going to Tulum last, you avoid some of the crowds. It was a nice option to not have to be herded through with a bunch of other tour groups.
Make sure that you are getting the non-stop transfers….that was the best $25 spent. It's very nice to not have to stop at every single hotel along the way!