Looking to take a family trip around Christmas time - prob Mexico?

What resorts would one recommend that should be looked at that are kid friendly, nice and hopefully good value?

Have stayed at finest playa mujeres before. Just seeing if there are others we should look at…

Quick search I see others recommend
Selection Grand Palladium Costa Mujeres
Dreams Playa Mujeres
Hard Rock Riviera Maya
Hotel Xcaret
Hyatt Ziva Riviera

Also - if someone has other recommendations for kid friendly resorts outside of Mexico - please add your input.

Thanks!

we just went to Royalton splash cancun 2 weeks ago.

Easily the biggest water park in mexico. Great kids club with trampolines, bowling, laser tag. Their tot splash park is bigger than most as well, a few slides, huge water structure. Lazy river that goes through a building with a water fall and such.

We had a swim out for $3200, 6 nights, 4 people. Regular room was high $2ks if I remember?

How was the beach? Food? Have you been to finest to compare it to?

For me beach was about a 6. Wife would say maybe 7/8 because it was really calm and she likes that, but that took away from what I like.

Sand was A+.. really soft, clean, no seaweed at all. not super white though, more of the 'sandy' color.
Water was B+, it was clear and clean, but didn't have that blue hue that so many people like.
Waves... this opinion may vary, like I said, it was almost like a lake shore.. no breaking waves at all, just ripples coming in. I like to play in crashing waves.
Size A- for me. Not to big, not to small. From pool area to water edge, maybe 150-200'. You walk on a foot bridge for ~75' over some vegetation, then into the sand for another ~100.
Crowds A+ - We went out twice, both times, only a few people out there. No resorts on either side of the two royalton resorts, so it's pretty isolated.


2 of the days, the water turned a deep red.. have no idea what it was or why, but it was eery..
Also, 2 of the days (same days as red water) had purple flag = dangerous marine life. That would be the crocodiles that can be seen outside the perimeter of resort in the mangroves.

We theorize that they were doing some sort of flushing of that mangrove on those days that it was red water/purple flag.

Some pics we took (just realized we hardly took any at the beach!)



screenshot for google maps to show the size. Clearly there is seaweed shown here.. maybe we got lucky, we had literally none as shown in my first pic.

Food/drink;
I'm not a pretentious 'foodie'. I like good food, I get taken out by clients to nice restaurants/steakhouses, lunch, etc, but I'm not above some dominos pizza and beer.

So with that being said, I thought it was all fantastic. We did buffet a few nights and all breakfasts, for dinners we did the sports bar, adults only french place, the hibachi, the brazilian steakhouse and regular steakhouse. All were really good, no one in the party of 12 we were with were complaining.

Lunches, there are a few food trucks by the pools (pizzas, burgers, tacos) and also, they just set up a temp food station with sides/fruit and freshly cooked meats which was nice. Just go up grab a plate and fill up while barefoot in your swim suit. Otherwise, the buffet you need to be covered up.

Drinks.. luckily I really like vienna lagers, because they have dos equis amber all over. It's that or dos equis lager as far as draft beer is concerned. For cans I saw sol, heineken and Coors light. Mini fridge in the room is one of those 3.. too bad the amber wasn't in cans.
So that's it for beer.

Whiskey/bourbon, normally I drink especially with a nice dinner, but the included was jim beam which is vomit for me. So I didn't get my whiskey fix at all.
But plenty of reposado and anejo tequila is included, so I always asked for those specifically and wife asked for titos a few times and it was included.
Having said that, any cocktail I got, I enjoyed. Had several at the swim up bar and at one of the nicer bars before dinners. I also drank a lot of vodka/gingerale/grapefruits while at the pool. They are refreshing to me.

Wife also had wine at dinners, she's not very discerning, and it was fine for her, but if I had to guess, a wine person would be disappointed in the free stuff. You can always buy bottles at dinner though and take it with you. Bulleit bourbon, $75, bottles of wine in the $40-$80 range.

If you have not found a travel advisor that specializes in Mexico or the Caribbean I would love to assist you. Some great recommendations for sure here in the comments. As an agency owner I travel to Mexico and the Caribbean and have seen and stayed at 30+ resorts this year. My contact info is in my bio if you would like to work together.

My recommendation would varied based on budget, proximity to airport, proximity to excursions, resort
Activities

aggies4life said:

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Have you been to finest to compare it to?

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we've done a few over the years,
Hyatt ziva cancun (tourquoise tower)
westin lagunamar (not AI)
westin cabo (not AI)
hilton cabo (not AI)
villa del palmar cabo
royal plantation jamaica
Melia cozumel


palmar cabo we did just back in July. For all inclusive, we were really disappointed. There were no options for food at the pool to just get in your swim suit without ordering from waiter and it taking 30-45 min. Also, getting a beer would almost always be a 5 min affair.. wait in line, get beer, they print the receipt, you have to sign.. Really annoying. Heck, just to get a bottle of WATER, the same process.. wait several minutes, sign receipt.

I never waited more than about 1 min to get a drink at Royalton. And no receipts/room number inquiries. No matter where you were, there was a bar within a few hundred feet with multiple workers serving.

I'd rank this one near the top of the ones I've been to for an overall ranking.

We got a pool cabana that had it's own little private splash pool and small structure with a couch, tv, fridge.. really nice for only $200, which also came with a bottle of tequila or vodka to take with you, and very attentive waitstaff.. never had empty drinks.


Negatives - seemed old for only being 2 years. (mold in bathroom caulking, overall, just looked like an old building)
Not a lot of drawers in the room, and NO hooks at all to hang wet suits.
Our swim out faced the mangrove, would have much rather faced the pool area.. no option to choose (there is an option to choose your room online before checkin, but it said our room type didn't allow this)
The smell of sulpher seems to be everywhere. Not sure what this comes from, but in some areas, it's strong.
Wish they had something besides jim beam. Now that I think about it, I did have a few canadian club drinks.. so they did have another option.

I haven't been but a good friend and his family love the Nickelodeon Resort down in Mexico (Riviera Maya). There is another Nickelodeon resort in Punta Cana. This friend and his wife generally travel on the higher end so this was a surprise but after seeing some reviews it seems like a nice place with good amenities for kids.

We did Royalton Splash this summer with our kids + cousins and it was crowded. Our group felt like they couldn't decide if they wanted to cater to families or adults only. Service at the swim up bar was beyond poor. I could see how going during non-peak times it could be a better experience. Beach was awful in July.