Great, expensive. Boutique hotel with some small problems. We would go back again. We went low season, prices 1/2 of season but still highest price on island. We arranged for airport pickup to the hotel’s yacht to the hotels island dock, then walking into the hotel. We went back the same way. Expensive but a nice touch. (The yacht was ¼ the size of the pictures but it could really move. Coming back, we sat up on the bridge, which gave us a great view of the world.) We had booked a direct flight on Mexican and it went bankrupted so we flew American Airlines for 12 hours to Miami and then back across the gulf to Cancun. We had concerns about being in Mexico after all the drug war data. While we were there, six people were killed in a Cancun restaurant firebombing. The local newspaper had information about finding bodies in caves in the hillside. Although we were not touched by any of the local violence, it dispelled our illusion that Cancun was without problems because it was a tourist area. Travel knowing there is risk at this time.
I think the hotel had 30 rooms. Max occupancy when we were there was about six rooms. No children around anywhere. Isla Mujeres is very, very different from Cancun. Quiet, very, very peaceful, which also means that there is little to do there outside of enjoying the water, the hotel, the food, and each other’s company. The weather forecast was rain and thundershowers daily. It rained briefly 1 day in the 10 days we were there. It rained briefly and heavily some nights. That was a pleasant sound, clearing the air, lowering the temperature and providing a great view from inside the hotel room. We heard one crack of thunder. No lightening. The daytime temperature was in the high 80s. There were breezes most of the day. Warm, tropical nights. Great for swimming in wonderful pools. They will light the pools for you at night if requested. Humidity - high daily. It made us feel sticky until we acclimated in 2 – 3 days. We wore tropical tourist clothes = Shorts, skirts, no socks, light shirt button fronts rather than pull over/T shirt type work well. Casual dress everywhere. We slept in daily. We had breakfast at 10:00AM. Stayed out of the sun until 2:00PM. Used 30 block two days, got light tan. 15 block four days, more tan. Eight block 4 days tan just right. Came home with a great tan and no sunburn problems
There was an annoying problem in price variations depending on where the hotel advertised. We found two internet sites with differences in their American plan price for two of $30/day. It pays to shop the internet. You can do an American plan at the hotel on a day-by-day basis, which is what we did. We spoke to a desk clerk about the $30/day price differences (We ate out one night so it was an extra $270 for our 10 days.) She told us that different booking sites have different deals. We left it at that and paid +$30/day more for each dinner. Even with an $80/day, fixed dinner charge at the hotel dinner would have been more without the American plan, so the extra money was worth it. If you eat out at different places, you can arrange for the day if you do it before 5:00PM, which is very reasonable.
Advertising failed to show the best parts of the hotel. Advertising focused on the hotel’s Presidential Suite rather than its great rooms. We found standard rooms and regular Jr. Suites very small. Deluxe rooms have a great size. We travel with a lot of electronics that require recharging. Take an extension with multiple plugs if you have a lot of electronics. There were few unused outlets in our room.
We think all the rooms had great shower, as did ours - two separate showers setups in a single glass enclosure, with each size having an overhead shower, a hand held and 4 jets for your body. There were no instructions on how to turn on the different shower jets. We had to ask maintenance. The water pressure was constantly too low to make the great showers really great. When we asked on day two we were told the problem that day was with Cancun’s water pressure to the island. The pressure never got better. A real shame. No tub. Separate, enclosed toilet area. Great steam in shower, also stereo music, and a shaving mirror. The stereo in room runs off TV and goes into shower so wash with music or your favorite TV program. I am excellent with computers and electronics. I still found the TV remote very complicated to use with little explanation available. There was the same problem with in-room wireless phones. Great reading and romantic lighting in room. Great A/C + fan. We could, and did, freeze ourselves once or twice. Easy controls so it was our fault. Beautiful view, day and night, of Cancun across bay. All rooms had the same view. BUT, the view was blocked by trees on the first floor. There are three floors. The higher up the better the view. There is an elevator. The 2nd and 3rd floors rooms had very nice balcony for sitting and contemplating life. We had a table and two chairs for sitting or dining. Each room, except, I think, the Standard room had a Jacuzzi for two on the balcony. The seating in our Jacuzzi faced into our room. If we turned around against the jets we looked into a wall across the Jacuzzi part of the balcony. It was also difficult to stay on the balcony. It was too warm as there was no cross breeze unless the door to the room was left open. This could be cured by an overhead fan on the balcony. The room had a large, comfortable “L” shaped couch. The bed was firm and very comfortable. It was a great bed - somehow it was larger than a U.S. king size. The towels were changed and the room freshened twice a day. So we came up from the pool, showered, went to dinner and low and behold, fresh towels and a straightened room with a super sweet marzipan type of candy on the pills. The floors were all marble. They seemed coated with something to make them less slippery but still somewhat slippery to wet feet.
The “Free Minibar” felt like a ripoff which was such a different feeling than anything else in the hotel. It was at least misleading in that “Free Minibar” meant free sodas and water, not free alcohol. We got free small beers twice. Given the daily price of the hotel this just felt wrong. Okay, back to the good stuff. There were three large, infinity pools. They don’t advertise orshow them clearly enough on their websites. The middle pool is a huge salt water Jacuzzi. It would have held 50 - 75 people without crowding. There were jets underwater and two large streams of water that were strong enough to use as massage jets. All the water was apparently filtered. With temperature at night in 70's it was perfect for night swims. One of the freshwater pools had a waterfall that fell down to the small, perfect beach. Under coconut palms were beach chairs facing the bay and Cancun. Into the ocean and then under the waterfall, there was a shower and foot wash for the timid, to clean off the salt.
Breakfast is included. There is one dinning room. The dining room is open to the breezes and has both overhead and floor fans if needed. No A/C. All meals were individually ordered and served. There was a vast difference between breakfast, lunch and dinner. We tried to explain ‘fluffy’ omelets. We never got that concept across. We were more successful with banana pancakes, which were not listed on the menu. They served fruit that was essentially tasteless for breakfast, although for dinner they served wonderful, tasty fruit, as witnessed by their great and plentiful prosciutto and melon (cantaloupe). Coffee was good, strong and fresh. Orange juice, which we were told was freshly squeezed, was weak in strength, taste and color, although we had great fresh squeezed orange juice in a tequila sunrise at Zama beach club just down the road – great place for lunch. The basket of pastries was hot and fresh but the buttery little croissant things lacked enough chocolates, or jam to be great. Next trip we will try to get chocolates and pecans for the pancakes through customs. Lunch is limited and we only had it one day. They have a wood burning oven and we had a really good pizza. Other people said the ceviche was very good and praised their other lunch dishes. Now dinner was a whole different matter. Every night we thought it was the best dinner around. They stopped serving and thus no room service, after 10:00PM. The setting was incredible, - a tropical night looking into the bay, the North Star, a waning moon, warm breezes, waiters crisply dressed, a tank of fresh lobsters that the hotel kept in reserve so they could serve outside of the lobster season, a huge bar stocked with anything you wanted (there were extra charges for alcoholic drinks, were expensive and not part of the American plan, but well made, bottled water – which was again strange in such an expensive place, and coffee, again strange. They charged additonal for lobster for anything over a pound/0.45 kilos again strange and out of place). The kitchen had glass windows so you could watch your meal being prepared if you walked over to it (this is the dining room so it served breakfast, lunch and dinner, but, again, dinner was so different it looked like a different place), hangers for purses and shoulder bags, crisp white linen on the tables, as were the napkins, solid silverware, plates and silverware refreshed for each course – a fine, fine restaurant. And the food, tuna carpaccio, giant shrimps, fresh fish, (the steak was okay but had a taste as if it were poorly frozen and thawed) fresh baked wheat or white bread sliced at the table with black olives, balsamic, fresh olive oil, or butter. The deserts were excellent, except the Swiss Chocolate cake which we could never seem to get fresh on the day it was baked. Go and discover the dinner menu for yourself. It is a treat. Now, desert. I got captured by the huge scoops of coconut ice cream floating in a sea of Kalua. One coconut-kalua desert was finished by sucking up the mixture with a straw; tiramisu, banana ice cream cake with flaming Gran Marnier, etc, etc. The service was a good as the food. Entrees presented with cover service removed simultaneously to reveal the excellent presentations.
There is a separate bar area which is shown on the internet so that it looks four times as large as it is. It was pleasant, but we were there once. The bartender put on an Eagles concert on the 50 inch plasma/LCD for us.
We hope this helps you get a balanced picture of the hotel.
Barry & Suzie