Getting to the point in wedding planning where I can finally plan the honeymoon. From reviews online and on TA, I've seen excellent things about Le Blanc and Excellence.

Has anyone gone to those resorts located in Cancun? There seems to be more / better rooms available in Cancun for the dates we need. Even if it's Cabo, what do y'all recommend? Am I missing another amazing all-inclusive place here?

The thought of being on a beach for a week is occupying almost all my thoughts these days. Appreciate the advice

I've stayed at both and they are both great!
Le Blanc I felt was more of a luxury style resort and the price will show that. I really loved it though, I would pick it any day of the week if the budget is right. Food was amazing and service was top notch.

Excellence is a great resort, the food is great and I loved the Two-Story Rooftop rooms here with a private pool, perfect for a honeymoon. I did feel the rooms and resort could use a touch up with decor and maintenance. It is an older resort so it's just starting to show it's age.

I will mention Secrets Maroma and Secrets Akumal for two other great honeymoon options. The beach at Maroma is outstanding.
I loved UNICO too, I would pick UNICO over Excellence.

I could go on and on about these; it will all just depend on your preference and certain aspects that you have to have in a resort.

Le Blanc in Cabo is the BEST all-inclusive there....Secrets Puerto los Cabos is a close second. I have some friends that love Marquis Los Cabos too because they have villas with private pools.

breezecustomtravel said:

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I've stayed at both and they are both great!
Le Blanc I felt was more of a luxury style resort and the price will show that. I really loved it though, I would pick it any day of the week if the budget is right. Food was amazing and service was top notch.

Excellence is a great resort, the food is great and I loved the Two-Story Rooftop rooms here with a private pool, perfect for a honeymoon. I did feel the rooms and resort could use a touch up with decor and maintenance. It is an older resort so it's just starting to show it's age.

I will mention Secrets Maroma and Secrets Akumal for two other great honeymoon options. The beach at Maroma is outstanding.
I loved UNICO too, I would pick UNICO over Excellence.

I could go on and on about these; it will all just depend on your preference and certain aspects that you have to have in a resort.

Le Blanc in Cabo is the BEST all-inclusive there....Secrets Puerto los Cabos is a close second. I have some friends that love Marquis Los Cabos too because they have villas with private pools.

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Amazing insight! Thank you! Have you stayed at Le Blanc and Excellence at both Cabo and Cancun? I'm trying to compile what is a "must have". I think somewhat secluded rooms is a plus, great food, and then a "nice to have" would be beachfront, or private swimout pool / spa. Another must is what you included..amazing beaches.

Only reason I'm considering Cancun is due to more availability. Although that should speak volumes to how great Cabo is!

I have stayed at both Le Blanc Cancun and Le Blanc Los Cabos.

Some thoughts:
-Le Blanc Cancun is located in the Hotel Zone of Cancun, it won't be as secluded and will be in a row of other hotels and resorts.
-Neither LB Cancun or LB Los Cabos have swim out rooms or private pool rooms. This is probably one of the only drawbacks for these resorts.
-A drawback of Cabo is most of the beaches are not swimmable, meaning you cannot get in the water because it is too dangerous. Most will have very few beach chairs even. There are a handful of properties that have beach and ocean access but none that I would highly recommend.

Excellence is only in Cancun and Playa Mujeres - they also have some resorts in Jamaica and Dominican Republic. Actually, Excellence El Carmen in DR is one of my most favorite resorts - the beach front rooms are awesome.
EPM beach was nice, but I wasn't blown away by it. I liked the beach at Le Blanc better.

Secrets Maroma will have one of the best beaches as long as the seaweed isn't bad and that will depend on time of year you are going and how bad the season is.

I've stayed at Le Blanc Cabo and thought it was amazing. I plan on going back in February or so. I toured Le Blanc Cancun in October and it is stunning as well. As Breeze mentioned, I'll through in Unico and Secrets Maroma to the mix as well.

Traveling early June.. are these places a mistake at that time of year? And I really appreciate the recommendations y'all have given so far. Doing a lot more research now in every spot.

COAg15 said:

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Traveling early June.. are these places a mistake at that time of year? And I really appreciate the recommendations y'all have given so far. Doing a lot more research now in every spot.

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June is a great time. Summers are pretty hot - I remember baking in July if I wasn't in a pool or beach water. We prefer October/November but totally would go in June as well.

Good to hear. I figured it'd be hot, but bearable. I plan to have a cold drink in my hand and some part of my body in the water at all times.

Le Blanc Cabo last month. I traveled Mexico/PV/etc a lot. By far best hotel I have ever stayed at!

El Farallon- restaurant at the Waldorf. A must. Probably most beautiful setting for a restaurant

Agree with JMac - June is a great time. I really enjoy November and December there as well.

July was super HOT. We stayed at EPM the first time at the end of July and it was sweltering at night at the outdoor restaurants and entertainment pavilion.

We're headed to Le Blanc Cabo on Wednesday because of the recommendations on TexAgs. I can report back!

For Excellence, Playa Majeures is newer/slightly nicer than Rivera Cancun. Both are incredible though. Book your excursions through the resort. It guarantees that everyone else on the trip stays at the Excellence hotel chain, which is nice for making friends and also you're not stuck with a bunch of kids. There is a marina right next to Playa Majeures. The best excursion is taking the catamaran to Isla Norte. Thats a fun day trip and the beach out there is incredible. Neither of the resorts have what I would call incredible beaches, but Isla Norte is awesome. If you stay in Rivera Cancun, its an hour private shuttle to the marina vs just waking up and walking downstairs.

You don't need Excellence Club level suites at Excellence to enjoy the place. The party happens at all the common pools, not the private Excellence Club pools. You don't need your own private lounge either.

Here's how my wife and I do Excellence resorts.

If dollars are short, get the cheapest room that just has a garden view. Still an incredible experience.
If you want the best room experience for your buck, get a two story terrace that is not excellence club level. It'll be garden view.
If you want the best experience, get the two story terrace with ocean front view. This is basically 2x the base rate.

Don't feel like you aren't getting an incredible experience if you don't 'upgrade' your room. But those two story terraces are awesome. Especially if y'all are the type to be happy to just lounge around. My wife and I spent a lot of time out of the room so it wasn't a big deal to not splurge on the room one year.

Really appreciate everyones responses. It's all been great to read and help formulate best options.

Side question: Is getting a swim-up suite a mistake? I don't want random ass people floating in my zone especially later at night.

Unico 20 87 or Secrets Akumal?

I don't think it's a mistake necessarily, but you will need to think about other guests possibly in the same pool at the same time just like you said.

Every time we've had a swim out room; we have never had an encounter with neighbors or anything and everyone has kept to their own little area if we didn't know them or they weren't part of our group.

I think most would feel the same way and there would be respect across the board. I know there will be outliers and people who party too hard and other stories so don't exactly count it out.

Have you stayed at an adults-only, all-inclusive resort before?

Having most recently stayed at UNICO I will give it more props, mainly because it is fresh on my mind and newer-ish.

Akumal is further from the airport and had more of a jungle feel to me. I liked the swim out rooms here, they seemed more private than at UNICO.
Beach at Akumal was beautiful and seeing the sea turtles was a very neat experience.

UNICO rooms were very nice - I would go Ocean Front room category here. Food at UNICO was better, not that Secrets food was bad - it was still very good I just thought UNICO's restaurants were better.

UNICO has a smaller, boutique feel but the beach area was smaller and no cabanas. Water and seaweed here can be hit or miss too.

They are both great resorts - I don't think you could go wrong choosing either, depends on what is your must haves with a resort.

Yes- Excellence Riviera, Hard Rock Haven for adults. Royalton Cancun for family stay.

Spouse wants to be able to snorkel off the beach. We have done an excursion from Cozumel near Akumal 10+ years ago and even though we've been to Mexico several times we've never done the Cenotes. We'd typically choose closer to airport but no kids in tow so we don't mind a further resort. We aren't fancy by any means, but love a good swim up bar and nice beach.

Unico is awesome. Food and service is top notch. The swim up bars are closed bc of Covid and the beach is small. It's nice I suppose but it is small. Enough for 2 rows of chairs.

For snorkeling Akumal will be the far better choice.

For snorkeling off the beach, Akumal will be a great choice.

And the cenotes near Tulum are close so that will be a great day excursion from Akumal.

And confirmed, UNICO swim up bar has been closed due to Covid restrictions.
I think the Secrets swim up bars were closed back in the fall when they first opened back up, not sure if they still are closed or not.

Thanks all for the info. Seems like you can't go wrong with either. Hopefully by an October visit swim ups will be open.

I recently returned from Le Blanc.

While on the property, I purchased a coupon code which includes:

- 5 days/4nights, $750 resort credit for spa or excursions, one way transportation
- Valid for all palace resorts
- Two guest or two guests and two children for $2,400 total
- Can book additional rooms at the same rate

I am willing to sale the coupon if any of you are interested. I paid $300. The coupon is fully transferable and valid for 18 months.

It's essentially half price, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to use it.

I'm potentially interested.

cmatm14@vwco.net

Thank you.

Not to be a Debbie but it's important to note that these vouchers typically come with a lot of blackout date restrictions. For example, for the month of April - the only thing that wasn't blacked out was three days that happened to be some random Monday through Wednesday. Unless you have a ton of flexibility, it'd be good to verify what's available with the resort ahead of time.

Sounds strange. Le Blanc is adults only

CaptnCarl said:

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I recently returned from Le Blanc.

While on the property, I purchased a coupon code which includes:

- 5 days/4nights, $750 resort credit for spa or excursions, one way transportation
- Valid for all palace resorts
- Two guest or two guests and two children for $2,400 total
- Can book additional rooms at the same rate

I am willing to sale the coupon if any of you are interested. I paid $300. The coupon is fully transferable and valid for 18 months.

It's essentially half price, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to use it.

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I thought Le Blanc was adults only. I certainly didn't see any kids last June.

Le Blanc Cancun or Secrets Marona Beach; both essentially same price for Ocean room

I am interested. jon.kolmetz@outlook.com