Wonderful Week in Cancun

The Beach Palace is the oldest of the Palace Resorts chain. However, we found it to be a wonderful resort. The room in which we stayed was on the 8th floor. The seventh and eighth floors of the Beach Palace were added more recently than the rest of the hotel and are extremely nice.

The room was quite large with marble floors, columns, a king-sized bed, and an in-room, two-person Jacuzzi. Everything was immaculate and the bed was very comfortable, as were the water jets in the Jacuzzi after a long day of activities.

The resort staff left fruit and/or chocolates every day and they also created animals out of the towels and left them on the bed, which my girlfriend loved. Views from all the rooms are great, as you face over the lagoon or the beach and each view is picturesque. The hotel staff members were friendly and courteous and everyone spoke English, which was helpful given our limited knowledge of Spanish.

By staying at this Palace resort, we had access to all other Palace resorts in the area (Sun Palace, Cancun Palace, Moon Palace). We also had all-inclusive access to all restaurants, bars, and activities at each of the resorts. That was a great benefit that we didn't fully appreciate until we experienced it for a full week. Some of the other palaces had mini golf, scuba, and snorkeling lessons, and the list goes on and on. Our resort hotel was closer to the downtown area and clubs than the others and it had a perfect beach. There were several nice pools there as well and volleyball could be played in the pool or on the beach. The restaurants and waiters were excellent and the service in general was of the highest order. Activities (such as tours to Chichen Itza or Isla Mujeres) could be scheduled in the lobby of each hotel, which was very convenient. The gym at the Beach Palace was quite rudimentary, but some of the other Palace resorts had more extensive offerings.

Having been to all four Palace resorts in the Cancun area, I would only recommend the Sun Palace over the Beach Palace, and that is a close call in terms of restaurants and accomodations. All in all, we were totally satisfied with the accommodations at the Palace Resorts and we are thinking about going back next year or the year after.

The tour is great. First, you get to drive your own small speed boat through the Mangroves and under a bridge out into the sea. Then you open up the engine, following the tour leader out into the open sea. When you reach the reef, you tie the boats together and then spend about 45 minutes snorkeling in the area. The quality of the coral, tropical fish, etc is quite high and there is a lot to see. When you're done, you get back in the speed boat and head back to the dock, this time on a more circuitous rout through the Mangrove Jungle. All in all, it was a great activity and took only about 2.5 hours.

This was a joint tour offered by Aqua World and Palace Resorts. The tour boat took us to Isla Mujeres to an all inclusive beach resort on the southeast end of the island with lunch included, a small swimming area with kayaks, floating mattresses, etc. a volleyball court, and lots of chairs and places to sit and relax. There was also an area where you could swim with a shark, although it was quite tame. After the first part of the day on this secluded beach, the boat took us to the west end of the island for shopping and a look at the North Beach area. There were many great shops and the beach was very nice looking. After a few hours, the boat picked us up again and we headed back to Cancun. On the way back, the crew did all kinds of performances for us, including stuff from Bob Marley, The Village People, Batman, and more. They were hilarious. There was also a lot of beer and soda on the "party boat" and some of the jokes made, while quite funny, might be a little much for young children. However, I thought it was definitely a great experience for teenagers and up.