Westin Resort & Spa, Cancun
Before my husband and I had kids, we vacationed for 10 days at the Westin Resort & Spa in Cancun in the summer of 1999. (Ten days was a little too long to stay in Mexico. Go for 4-7 cays.) The Westin was a very nice resort back then and looking at the website now, it looks like it has been even more updated and remodeled. When we took this vacation, it was actually our first time being out of the country. We liked Cancun, overall, but we always seemed to be a little on edge about the local people scamming us. I guess I wasn't found of the aggressive marketplaces and the constant plugs to join timeshares. At the Westin, you will be approached by timeshare sales people and you will receive phone messages to "come down to the front desk to receive your free gift" in order to talk you into attending a timeshare presentation. If you are not into this, then say no and walk away. If you are into timeshares, then go for it. The Westin was towards the end of the strip of hotels and it has a very polished atmosphere. The rooms were very spacious. Most of all the pool areas were beautiful. Plenty of room, wonderful view, and stunning blue pools. There is also plenty of drinks flowing and an MC that keeps the pool games moving. The beach by the resort was ok too. To snorkel, we walked over to the Club Med next door and jumped in the water there, because there was reef. This is where I saw my first and only barracuda. Eeeek! You aren't really supposed to be on the Club Med property, but back then most people were doing it and the security people didn't seem too aggressive at enforcing the rule. We saw one Club Med worker that tried to tell us in Spanish that we couldn't swim there. We just acted like we didn't understand, since we spook English. At the resort, we ate the breakfast buffet once at the El Palmar and ate dinner once at Arrecifes. I remember both places being good. I would recommend this resort for couples, singles, and families. Cancun offers lots of resorts with all inclusive. Now that I have 3 kids, I would recommend going somewhere that had many restaurant choices and offered all inclusive packages. It just makes things that much easier on you as a family. You then don't have to drag kids out of the resort for every single meal. When we were on our trip to Cancun we did several tours. At that time we were a couple and had nothing to slow us down. We did a tour to Chichen Itza. It was a super long bus ride that was like 4 hours. The tour bus showed up 30 minutes late and didn't extend the tour any longer at the end to compensate us. The tour guide also seemed to make some jokes about us Americans in Spanish to the other Spanish speaking people on board the bus. The whole time in Cancun, I just felt like the people just didn't really like us. Anyway, it is very hot at Chichen Itza, especially in the summer. Wear cool clothes, bring sunscreen, sunglasses, hats, and lots of water. In 1999 when we went, they still allowed people to climb up to the top of Chichen Itza. It was cool, but it seemed kind of unsafe. They no longer allow people to go to the top of Chichen Itza anymore. Our tour included a stop for lunch at Ik Kil and a swim in the blue cenote. Swimming in the cenote was the best part of our entire vacation. Eat lunch quickly so you can swim as long as you can. They only gave us about 15 minutes in the cenote. Remember to wear your swim suit under your clothes. Some people on our tour were not informed to bring their bathing suits and they missed out on the experience of swimming in the large sink hole. We also did a tour to X-Caret Archaeological Theme Park. This was also a nice place that we enjoyed. My husband and I did the swim with the dolphins package. I liked it more than my husband. You got to swim with the dolphins, get pictures taken, and have the dolphins jump over you. The coolest part was when each person swam out in the water by themselves and when the trainer blew the whistle, two dolphins swam up behind you and pushed on the bottoms of your feet as you flew like superman on your stomach across the pool. It makes great video to bring home. Swimming with the dolphins did take up a good chunk of time at X-Caret. During the rest of the day at X-Caret, we enjoyed the beach, snorkeled in a lagoon and the underground river, and saw many animals and butterflies. Looking at the website, it looks like there is even more to do at X-Caret than when we were there. I could have spent two days there. While in Cancun we also went to Xel-Ha. Xel-Ha is similar to X-Caret. I did prefer X-Caret better. We snorkeled most of the time and snorkeled down the Xel-Ha river with inner tubes. X-Caret also has a swim with the dolphins program. We spent a lot of time on tour buses getting to and from these attractions. We are glad we did it before we had kids. We would never be able to do that much tours now with our little kids. Almost every night we ventured out of the Westin and took the public buses down the strip. The buses weren't extremely bad, although I couldn't totally relax on them. If you like nightlife there is plenty to do. Lots of restaurants, bars, shopping, and the marketplaces. One night we went to Senor Frogs for dinner and we saw lots of cockroaches, which was kind of gross. Coming up this year in February of 2007 and again in June of 2007 we are going to be venturing back to Mexico with our three kids. We are going to be staying at two different all inclusive resorts, one in Cancun and one in the Mayan Riviera. Stay tuned for the future reviews.
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