Aventura Spa Palace vs. El Dorado Royale...we are looking for an adult only, all-inclusive vacation. Any suggestions on which resort would be better?

Don't know anything about Aventura Spa Palace, but we stayed at El Dorado Royale for our honeymoon. Overall, I was not impressed with the food. Although, the Mexican vanilla ice cream they had is one of the best things I have ever eaten.

http://www.realresorts.com/The_Royal_Playa_Carmen/

The Royal in Playa is an all inclusive adults only resort right in Playa. We stayed there last summer and had a great time.

When I was planning my honeymoon we heard good things about El Dorado Royale but ended up going with Iberostar Grand Hotel Paraiso. It was amazing and was the biggest bang for the buck. We got a honeymoon villa that was incredible. The food was REALLY good. Not just good for an all inclusive, but actually good. My wife and I are kind of foodies. They serve top shelf liquor as well which is a nice change from other all inclusives. The first day I had a bottle of Grey Goose, Crown, and Tanqueray brought to the room. Seriously one of the best vacations ever. Read about it on trip advisor.

Stay at the Excellence Playa Mujeres. It is hands down the best place I have ever been to. Look up its reviews on trip adviser as well. I would stay at any hotel owned by the Excellence Group.

There is also an Excellence Riviera-Cancun, look it to that one as well.

my wife and i loved excellence playa mujeres...the only thing we really wanted to see improved upon was the beach...so this spring, we'll likely go to secrets maroma beach. heard that the secrets brand is very comparable to the excellence one...and maroma beach is supposed to be of a higher quality...we shall see!

We’ve been to both the El Dorado Royal and The Royal Playa del Carmen. They are both wonderful. The El Dorado has 15 pools all together, although the majority are for “casita” guests. Definitely stay in a casita if you go there. It’s more of a honeymoon type resort and we loved the food, drinks, entertainment, etc. It was raining when we were there so we were somewhat limited, but the rooms are nice and overall it was a good experience.

We went to the Royal with a group of friends and had a blast. It’s right around the corner from downtown Playa which allowed us to do shopping and check out other areas, as well as go to Cozumel for a day on the ferry which is nearby. I thought the food was better there and the most basic room was exquisite.

Thanks for the input everyone, we'll check out some of these others as well.

Anybody ever stayed at the Riu Cancun?

I've seen mixed reviews, but most of the bad is from foodies.

I don't know about the Riu Cancun, but the Riu in Playa is awesome!
http://www.riu.com/en-us/Paises/mexico/playa-del-carmen/hotel-riu-palace-riviera-maya/hotel_fotos.jsp

I'll 3rd the Excellence Playa Mujeres! Great rooms, food, drinks, spa, and pools. The ONLY downside is the beach is just ok. But its nice that its very PRIVATE.

I'll 4th the excellence.

I have been to Excellence Playa Mujeres, Secrets Maroma Beach and th Royal in Cancun. Overall I would rate them like this:

1)SMB - The beach is unbelievable
2)EPM
3)RC

I think RC had the best food with excellence and secrets about the same. Property wise Excellence and Secrets were head and shoulders about the Royal. Management was the best at Excellence by far. The beach at Secrets blew everything else out of the water and the had better drinks.

good to hear, traditions...especially with my upcoming trip...any other details about smb, especially as compared to epm?

I like the pools better at EPM. They had a lazy river that was great. The SPA at SMB was a great experience that was beyond relaxing. They will run specials so watch for those.

Stayed at Aventura Spa Palace in '07. I did not like it. The beach is oversold in the literature - it is small, a long walk from the lodging areas, and man-made, so isn't a nice expansive sandy beach. It is really a dug-out cove. Food was not that great either, as the snack bars that were "24/7" were usually unmanned. I've been much better places down there, including the Gran Bahia Principe Akumal. It does allow kids, but is massive and has plenty of adult only stuff.

Well were booked at the Excellence Playa Mujeres...based on the excellent review online and here of course! Will be leaving Feb 10th.

We got an oceanfront, swim out Jr. Suite.

Will give y'all an update when we get back.

[This message has been edited by schmiddy94 (edited 1/15/2010 4:56p).]

I too stayed at the Iberostar Grand and can't say enough good things about it. I have stayed at some really nice hotels and this one is at the top. I just returned from a week in St Thomas at the Ritz and the Grand in Playa has it beat hands down! Check it out on trip advisor...you won't be disappointed.

Look for Angel in the grill at EPM. Service is top notch!

[This message has been edited by Hincemm (edited 1/15/2010 9:50p).]

For EPM, when do you actually pay for the room? I'm planning on making honeymoon reservations, but my cash flow is limited until around the wedding (I'm ready to get to work on my job).

we booked on expedia and paid in full...not sure about going direct thru resort...

I emailed the resort and found out...one HUGE advantage to making reservations through the resort is payment at check in (I had suspected this before talking to them, but it was good for confirmation). I hope all you guys are right about EPM, because I'm about to make the reservations and hope to have a great honeymoon (I can believe it based on the website though!).

I usually go through my travel agent whom I have I have been using since my Honeymoon. Megan at honeymoonsinc.com is great. They get special rates and it is well worth it. They are based out of Atlanta and have always found better deals than I can on the internet. Last year they re-booked my vacation 3 times to the same resort and saved me about $700.00. If you want her contact info just shoot me a pm.

Traditions- I am interested in getting her contact info but cant PM. Could you email it to me? Beckdiesel03 at yahoo dot com.

ttt- for agent contact info

I just sent you an email.

Just looked at EPM. Is it worth the extra $ for the club rooms?

We went to the El Dorado Royale for our honeymoon in Aug '08.

1) Thought the food food was great, but only one of the restaurants really overlooked the ocean which was a little disappointing. And as mentioned above, the ice cream is very good.

2) Stayed in a casita and it was worth it. In the "normal" area, all the beach and pool chairs were taken early but by the casitas there was always an open place and the staff seemed to treat those in casitas a little better.

3) The beach sucked. I didn't believe it when I read the reviews, but there are giant sandbags (40'long x 20'wide x 5'above the water) that line the entire beach about ~25 yards out. They weren't pleasing to the eye and it was weird to swim out beyond them as you felt all alone. The sand was nice until you went in the water where it was really rocky. I thought it was a little weird but it seemed like not many people at the resort, at least not near the casitas, really did much swimming in the ocean.

4) There really wasn't anything else in the resort to do that was free. They had a few games and such during the day but to go snorkeling/para-sailing we had to pay more than I would have wanted and had leave the resort and kinda felt like we were being herded like cattle. We didn't go to whatever entertainment they had at night though so I don't know if it was any good.

It was fun, especially for it being the first time for both of us to go to a resort, and it is really nice, but it is overpriced and I wouldn't go back after having been to better places.

Oops, didn't see you had picked a place already. Have fun.

tabasco,

everything i've read seems to indicate that the excellence club is not worth...there's booze, i think, in the room as opposed to just beer, but that wasn't worth it to my party.

it all depends on the premium you place on that it would seem. that's the one big extra that i heard.

At EPM I would go with the standard room. All the rooms massive, have their own jacuzzi, and a large balcony. Swim Out is way overpriced and overrated in my opinion. The rooms with the outdoor area on the roof are only good if they are facing the beach, or for entertaining a group of people. I heard that the little pool up there isn't heated.

I think the building location is more important to me. I wouldn't want one way in the back by the spa...

Yeah, I was looking at the two story thing, and one other upgrade looks to be placement (beachfront vs far back), but for a four night trip, it would be 4K instead of 3k.

We stayed at EPM for our honeymoon and had the rooftop terrace with oceanview. It was worth it for the honeymoon because the view was fantastic. But if this is just a regular vacation I wouldn't do it. Some of the extras are nice, but not worth 1k. You should enjoy, EPM was fantastic.

Well we are checked in at EPM...wife got drunk before we got our room key! Lunch was great. Looking like it is going to be a good weekend.