This review is solely for the purposes of selling travel.  If any of these resorts in this Destination are of interest to you, I would appreciate that you contact me to help you book your wonderful beach vacation! 

I had the pleasure of taking a vacation/business trip to Cancun & the Riviera Maya in November of 2022.  

We flew out of SFO on United non-stop to Cancun and everything went very smoothly with our check-in, flight and our process through Immigration in Cancun.  In fact, it was extremely quick.  Our pre-arranged transfer was waiting for us when we got to the other side of Customs & Immigration and we were on our way to our 1st resort, Secrets Playa Mujeres.  

We have stayed at many Secrets resorts in the past and have to say that we were a little less than impressed with this location.   We still enjoyed ourselves but agreed it would not be a resort worth repeating.  Our room was good, the elevator to our room broke down several times, which ended up being OK because I wanted my steps and we would take the stairs for 4 floors (we were on the 5th floor).  Food overall was good, nothing over the top impressive and several times we felt rushed to get through dinner.   Masks were required in the buffet only when getting your food through the buffet and they had masks to give to you when you were being seated. 

The pool was nice but we could never get seats by the front of the pool that looks out at the ocean, the footprint of the resort is somewhat narrow and the early birds get those prime seats.  I did experience the salon for a blowdry and that went well.  We did catch a few musical acts in the lounge and did watch football in the Sports Bar one night and stayed for DJ dancing afterwards.  It was lively and we had a good time.  

We did take a tour of the neighboring Dreams Playa Mujeres, photos of our tour can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720306484096

Photos of Secrets Playa Mujeres here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720306484311

We stayed at Secrets for 3 nights before transferring to our timeshare resort, the Westin Lagunamar in Cancun.  However, on our way we visited 4 resorts and took tours of 4 resorts and their photo albums can be found here:

Atelier Playa Mujeres: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720306484845

Breathless Soul Cancun:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720306484630

Grand Fiesta Americana Coral Beach: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720306498869

LeBlanc Cancun:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720306498919

Our driver then took us grocery shopping, which was quite the adventure, but being that we were going to spend 7 nights at our timeshare with full kitchen facilities, we wanted to be prepared.  It never occured to me in advance that some things are packaged differently and that not all brands we use in the US sell the products in Mexico.  It was a tad stressful but we survived with the help of our driver! 

We then arrived at the Westin Lagunamar Resort & Spa, which is located in the Hotel Zone with a beautiful beach, nice pools and several towers with villas.  This was our first time at this resort and this is not typically something that I would or could sell to clients but we had a week to use and were longing for a beach vacation.  It served our purposes.   We did dine at all 3 venues the resort had to offer and the meals were good, not great.  We did venture off the property for a lovely Italian dinner at Cenacolo, probably our best meal on the entire vacation.  We enjoyed our time at the Sports Bar watching our 49ers play a regular season game in Mexico City and made some great friends with the staff.  We also treated ourselves to a couples massage one day and that was wonderful.  We had not had massages since pre-pandemic, heaven! 

While we stayed at the Westin, I had pre-arranged a hotel resort tour for the property located next door:

LIVE Aqua- photos can be found here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720306484770

I had also pre-arranged another full day to visit the Riviera Maya, Playa Del Carmen area and toured 4 more resorts!  I also had the opportunity to meet Lori Gold, who is a Golden Resource for Travel Professionals on all things Cancun/Riviera Maya.  She lives in the destination and has made it her life's work to offer educational opportunites and resources to Travel Advisors all over North America.

These are the properties that I toured:

Hotel Xcaret Mexico: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720306484535

Hotel Xcaret Arte:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720306484585

UNICO 2087:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720306484920

Iberostar Grand Paraiso:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720306484715

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Mexico, it is one of my favorite places to visit.  The people are so warm and welcoming, food and drinks are delicious and you can't beat the beautiful water!  With hundreds of hotels and resorts in this region, I felt it important to give it a good 10 days and experience/stay/visit a dozen properties so that I can match my clients to the best resort for their visit.