El Dorado Resorts - Riviera Maya Mexico

When you think of All Inclusive Resorts, what is your first impression? Cafeteria food and watered down drinks? Expensive spa treatments? El Dorado Resorts in the Riviera Maya certainly breaks away from those impressions of an All Inclusive resort.

We recently had the pleasure of staying at the El Dorado Royale in Riviera Maya and visited their other properties (El Dorado Seaside, El Dorado Maroma and the family friendly Azul resorts. El Dorado Resorts are adult only and so very romantic. El Dorado Resorts were rated by Conde Nast as one of the top 100 resorts in the world and are rated 4 Diamonds by AAA.

The El Dorado Royale Spa Resort is situated about 20 minutes from the Cancun airport. Upon arrival, you are greeted with a welcome drink and cool towels, just a preview of the great attention you will receive during your stay.

Some information on this particular property - there are 639 suites and next door another 169 Casita Suites, which are just gorgeous. There are five different room categories in the suite side, starting at the Jr. Jacuzzi suite which we stayed in up to Presidential Suites. On the more upscale Casita side, there are six categories of rooms. Both sides have interesting swim up suites. You can walk out onto your patio and there is a meandering "river". You'll have your own private lounge chairs and you can swim right outside your rooms. In addition, these "rivers" lead to a large pool with swim up bar, so you can swim from your room to the swim up bar without getting out of the water!

There are 11 pools with a natural salt water pool on the beach. There is a full service spa, beachfront wedding chapel, full concierge service, beach waiter service, 10 restaurants (7 are gourmet) plus 24 hour room service, two tennis courts, non-motorized water sports - paddleboats, kayaks and snorkeling gear, bicyles, nightly entertainment and daily activities, such as volleyball, water aerobics, Salsa lessons and much more. You will receive nightly turn down service and a mini bar in your room.

The exquisite lobby features a large fountain, shops, an internet cafe, and a Martini Bar, where we spent lots of time trying fabulous martinis! Our check in was swift and after check in, we walked out the rear doors to a tram cart that drove us to our jr. jacuzzi suite
in building #54.

When we entered our room, the bathroom was to our immediate left. It features a gorgeous and huge marble shower, and separate toilet area and double sinks with plenty of storage room. The bathroom also had a hair dryer and magnifying mirror.

Going into the room, we had a king sized bed, plenty of closet space, a breakfront with the t.v. and plenty of drawer space, a desk, table and chairs for eating and the best - a jacuzzi tub that looked out over the balcony. The balcony had two chairs, a table and a hammock to relax in. Being on the third floor, we had a fantastic view of the ocean and the activity pool.

(See our pictures here - http://travel.webshots.com/album/574438371Lalpad )

After arrival, we took a walk around the large property. Near each group of rooms is a concierge booth that anyone can use. You can book spa treatments, get information on the resort, information on things to do in the area, etc. We used it to chat with the employees on occasion while waiting for the tram, which runs about every 10 - 15 minutes and will take you back to the lobby. If you wish to go to the Casitas side, where there are several restaurants and the spa is located, you can grab the Casitas tram from the lobby as well. However, we opted to walk as much as we could, given the fact that I can stand to use a few pounds. It is about a 5 minute walk from our room to the lobby.

On the very clean beach are beach beds for your use (these are around the pools as well and more than once did we use them and fall asleep!). Closest to our room was the Activities pool, with a swim up bar. Volleyball, water aerobics, kayak races and more took place during the day at this pool. There are also bicycles you can use to ride around the resort.

Walking further were several restaurants - JoJo's Caribbean Seaside Grill, La Cabana Pizzeria, La Isla for international cuisine and Las Fuentes, right near the Activities pool. Las Fuentes was closed when we were there in August, but when it is open it is a totally unique concept. It is a culinary theater that has five open kitchens and screens on the walls. You can actually watch your food being prepared on the big screens!

The food we ate here is truly gourmet food. It is cooked to order and a la carte - no buffets! The only buffet we found during our stay was at El Cocotel, where we had breakfast daily. While you can order off a great menu, there is also a breakfast bar. And at La Isla, there was a salad bar during lunch, but again your main course is ordered a la carte. Our first meal was lunch at La Isla and I had a fabulous steak while one of my friends had some fish.

What we truly liked about all El Dorado resorts is that you do not have to make reservations for dinner. The restaurants are first come, first served. This is very different from many All Inclusive resorts in which you have to either go or call at certain times each day to make reservations for dinner at night. It does not make for a relax vacation having to decide each morning what time you want to eat dinner and where. At El Dorado, you decide when you want to eat and where.

Some of the other restaurants we sampled - Kampai, with Pacific Rim cuisine for breakfast, believe it or not. The thought of oriental food for breakfast turned my stomach, but what we found was great food served beautifully. I had macadamia nut and coconut pancakes, one of my friends had poached eggs served on a tower of rice with spinach, and another had waffles with cream cheese and fruit compote. The Healthy Bar had juices, smoothies and fruit and we ate at JoJo's several times, sitting at tables on the beach which was very relaxing. We had breakfast several times at El Cocotal as well. The food was magnificent at all the restaurants. Unfortunately, we were off the property for dinner each night, but I would have loved to sample the food at D'Italia Restaurant, the Italian restaurant. The restaurant was absolutely beautiful, with private tables on out of the way places.

On the two nights we were back from visiting other resorts early enough, we did partake in some of the entertainment. There was the usual karaoke, plus some fun games and lots of dancing. One night, a Casino Night was held. We were given $3,000 in play money to gamble with at blackjack and craps tables. The object was to make enough money to buy prizes at an auction later on that night. We played for quite a while but got tired so we gave our money to a couple from Australia that were at our blackjack table.

The Spa: First of all, the spa is beautiful. It is located on the Casitas side. They offer a full array of products at reasonable prices - I am used to cruise ship prices for spa treatments, was pleasantly surprised to get a 50 minute back massage on the beach for $90 plus tip. It was one of the most relaxing experiences I've ever had - laying down and listening to the wave hitting the sand underneath a beachside cabana. A great treat.

The bars - there are plenty. We spent a lot of time at the Martini Bar. The waiters were great - they would make up martinis for us as well as the ones that were on the large Martini Menu. And no watered down drinks! I was recently at a resort in Jamaica that not only had the most terribly watered down drinks ever, but the worst wine in the world. Wine Spectator gave El Dorado Resorts an Award of Excellence in 2008, so you can be sure that you will have excellent wine selections.

We did tour the Casitas Suites as well as the Presidential Suites. The Casitas are perfect for honeymooners. Many had either swim up suites or infinity pool suites. The Presidential Casitas Suites were magnificent and my favorite of all the room categories. These suites are raised and have a walkout from the suite to the beach. There is a private dining area on the beach, as well as beds on the porch outside the suites with tables and chairs. Take a look at our pictures and you will see just how beautiful all the rooms are.

Weddings - El Dorado does weddings. We spoke to some of the honeymooners who were married at the resort and they raved about the experience from beginning to end. Prices start at $2500 and there is even a free package if you stay in certain room categories.

We loved the location on the Riviera Maya. The beaches are not crowded as they are in Cancun, yet the location is close enough that you can do option tours to Tulum and other areas. There is an onsight tour company you can book optional tours through in the lobby.They also run a shuttle to Cancun for shopping. It was very relaxing.

If the size of this resort is a little too large, El Dorado also has El Dorado Seaside, which has a great beach, all jacuzzi suites and is a bit smaller with 280 suites. El Dorado Maroma is even more intimate with only 72 suites and the best beach. It is closer to Playa del Carmen and is a lovely boutique resort. Theri family friendly resorts are AZUL resorts, which has a partnership with Fischer Price. They even offer Gourmet Gerber baby food and have essentialsls like strollers, cribs, bottle warmers, bottle sterilizes, pack and plays, games and toys you can request to have in the room and more.

One thing I need to mention - unless you are staying in a Casita, don't bring your laptop. There is no internet access in your room. There is an internet cafe in the lobby with three computers for use. You can purchase time for use. This is the only thing I would change at the resort, as some of the smaller resorts had only one computer in the lobby for public use. Because I was working, I had no choice but to purchase time. Several times, all the computers were in use. When I was on, I noticed that many of the other people were posting to Facebook or checking in online for their flights home. Since Facebook is free advertising for the resort, it would be wise for them to have access in every room for a laptop, even if they need to charge for it. It is a must to check in online for your return flights (or you risk being bumped when you don't check in early!).

If you are looking for a romantic place for a honeymoon or anniversary - contact us, this is the place to go. We can offer you a free massage or candelit beach dinner by booking with us!

---

---