Im drving myself crazy trying to find a hotel in Riviera Maya, Please tell me where you stayed?

[ihatethecold]

We want to go next July.
There will be 4 of us including 2 teens, they love swimming, snorkling and eating.
We will get 2 rooms so the kids can have a bed each.
I don't want to stay in Cancun.
I have priced up the Occidental Excaret but im unsure whether to proceed. I think I'm only tempted because of the unlimited entry into the eco park next door.
I would also like to be able to get out of the resort easily to do some local sightseeing.
lots of pools that are fun is a must also.
Plus naice food.

Don't want much do I?

hopeful bump

We have just come back from Riviera Maya. I would suggest a hotel in Playacar as its a very safe 'gated' community and fine for teens to leave the hotel and go to Plaza on their own. It's a short taxi ride away from Playa Del Carmen. We went to Xcaret for a day with our teen and to be honest apart from the 3 underground rivers (which we swam in a day) there's not really much there. I think unlimited entry to Xcaret is extra and not part of the hotel package.

It's an extra ??700 to the hotel price.

Where did you stay?

Loved the Grand Bahia Prinicipe Coba. Akumal Bay, Tulum & the ruins, Xel-Ha a short ride on collectivo or taxi ride away.

My kids younger but your teens could go to the beach by themselves on the little trolley buses & do kayaking/paddle boarding. Can use facilities at sister hotel by the beach so more choice of pools & super easy to get to. Beach better/longer than Occidental. Lots of pool based activities but certainly not OTT.

We thought the food was really good and enjoyed the a la carte restaurants. The food at the Brazilian and non-show table Japanese especially. Not done AI before though.

Good luck!

Went grand Bahia Principe coba, absolutely loved it, fantastic for kids of all ages mine rate 5 9 13, and 15, totally agree with above posts, Brazilian, and Japanese restaurants a must, go to akumal for turtle swimming, and captain hook excursion was an excellent trip for all the kids, I'm booking for June next year and can't wait!
Enjoy your holiday

Ps the staff at the hotel are just excellent, can't do enough for you & shuttle buses to and from beach and other hotels so getting about is a breeze....x x

We stayed at the Catalonia Resort and Spa. . It was amazing, but probably a bit quiet for teens.

Grand Palladium - several hotels in one huge complex and you can use the facilities of all of them. My teens had a great time!!

I've stayed in Xcaret, twice. It's a beautiful hotel, lovely lobby to sit and have drinks before dinner, restaurants are a good variety and food was nice.

First time was perfect, was towards the end of the season so hotel was quieter and lots of space at the pools etc.
Second time was mid season and I found a bit of queing to get into breakfast, pool space a bit harder to come by butbtheybarenonly minor grumbles, it certainly wasn't a big issue.

We went to Xcaret both trips, but only once. The park is vast, and it was too hot to traipse about in the Mexican heat for too long- there were some nice evening shows in the park that you could go see.

I really liked the hotel but have never stayed anywhere else in the RM to compare.
It's about 1 hour into cancan if that makes any difference to you.

Aww, we were going to get married out there. Can't remember where we were going to stay but I do remember the absolute nightmare we had trying to rebook everything after two separate hurricanes wiped the place out.

Still determined to get there at some point. Want to see the pyramids. Have a lovely time!

Last year we took the family to the Bahia Principe Tulum. This is directly connected to BP Coba mentioned by several people above as it is part of the same huge complex. We were staying in the Hacienda Club section as we had a free upgrade and liked it very much. The food was very good and our area was quiet. The only problem we had was the vast amount of seaweed which prevented us enjoying sea swimming. Apparently this has been a problem in many parts of the Caribbean facing the Atlantic. It is washing in from the Sargasso Sea and was said to be even worse this year.

This summer we went to Dreams La Romana, Bayahibe, in the Dominican Republic and had a great time. It is on the south coast so it is not affected by the seaweed. The entire family, from 10 to 71, gave it top marks for accommodation, food and beach. Our lot particularly liked the free hobiecats and the good gym. You might find it worth considering.

We stayed in Playa Car - it was very nice but we preferred the atmosphere of Akumal although only took a day trip there.

Our hotel was the Iberostar Tucan which has fantastic reviews on Tripadvisor. The beach there is amazing and we did have lots of fun but the hotel was a bit big and commercial for us.