Honeymoon Discussions

Advice please! Which would you choose?

My fiance and I are going on our honeymoon next May to the Riviera Maya. I've been reading reviews on theknot, trip advisor, and talking to a travel agent, trying to pick the perfect all-inclusive resort for us. I'm having trouble finding the balance between a clean, respectable resort and our price range. I've narrowed it down to the resorts that meet our price range, have decent reviews, and seem to be in a good location. Which would you choose?!?! The TA highly recommended Excellence Playa Mujeres and El Dorado Royale - The quotes for these two resorts for 8 nights, including airfare is between $4000-$5000. Is this reasonable? It seems others have mentioned on this board getting vacation packages to these resorts for less! Less expensive resorts I've found with decent reviews are the Valentin Imperial Maya and Aventura Spa Palace. Overall, these resorts are $1000+ less expensive than Excellence and El Dorado. Anyone have comments on either of these resorts? Things you liked or didn't like?

Re: Advice please! Which would you choose?

  • We just returned from the Valentin and I really couldn't have asked for anything more- it was great all around in my opinion.  Resturants were delicious, the resort itself was romantic and very pretty, I loved our room... etc.  Good luck!  Paid about 3500 I think from New York in oceanfront room for 8 nights.
  • who are you using for a TA? i called liberty travel and they quoted me so much less than our original TA (beachbumvacations) both reccomended those exact hotels! call different places, liberty travel does a price match garuntee.
  • Kel- Did you have any complaints about the beach, pool access, or location of the rooms? On many of the reviews that I've read about the Valentin, people complained that the beach was crowded and it was often hard to get a chair. I also read many reviews about the beach being extremely rocky and difficult to walk on. One concern that I have is that the resort does not include any excursions outside of the resort. Many of the other resorts, including Palace resorts, offer unlimited tours and excursions, like passes to wet n wild, zip lining, and tours of the ruins. Did you do any excursions away from the resort? We plan to spend most of the time at the resort, but would like to get out to see some of things the Riviera Maya has to offer! Tiana- The TA I checked with was Nancy Finn with My Island Getaways. I've also done my own research directly through the resorts, travelocity, orbitz, and apple vacations. I'll check with Liberty Travel. Thanks for the feedback!
  • We just returned on Tuesday from the Valentin Imperial and it was awesome!! I would be happy to send you pictures or answer any questions as well. The facility was beautiful, the rooms were really nice, staff was great and the price was amazing and almost too good to be true for what you got while there!  
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  • We stayed at El Dorado Royale. We fell in love with their brochure, but it was also the only place that the two TAs we talked to both recommended. I think it was about $4500 with flights for 6-7 nights in the Casita suites. Totally recommend staying in the casitas. Lots of perks. We didn't do the swim-up and at first I was kind of disappointed because we were on the second floor, but then I realized that we had way more privacy and a great view of the ocean. I know because occupancy was low, there were some people who were in the basic wuites who got free upgrades, but DH and I aren't gamblers and knew what we wanted. When you upgrade you also get a higher level of conceirge which means you get to make reservations at the restaurants instead of walking in. Though, when we went in May, it was only like 30% capacity so I don't think anyone was really waiting. They had practically shut down half of their resort to keep us in closer proximity. I loved the swim-up bar in front of our room. Most days there might have been 2-4 other people with us, though once or twice we had a bigger group of 10 or so. The food is amazing! If you put a lot of value on getting quality meals, then totally consider this place. The staff was uber-friendly and really tried to do everything to make your stay wonderful. We ended up getting two candlelight dinners on the beach (free). We went and listened to a 90 min promo and got free back massages out of the deal. You don't have to do this, but the massages were great! We really picked it because of the overall aesthetic of the resort. It didn't seem like a big hotel. I loved the thatched roofs. The one draw-back was the beach. There was plenty of space to lay out and if you stay in the casitas you get the fancy beds and not just chairs. But everyday we were there was a "red flag" day which warns you that it can be dangerous to swim. They have some large wave breaks that kind of mar the view. We asked about them and apparently their beach was really torn up in one of the hurricanes and the breaks are there to try and preserve it.  We went in the water probably three times over 7 days. If we had had water shoes, it probably would have been more. PP mentioned the water being murky, but I really didn't find it too bad. I could see fish occassionally and that was good enough for me. We just compensated by spending more time by the poolbar.Hope this helps!
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