First, the summary:
Aventura Spa Palace (ASP) is a large resort located in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, not far from the Tulum area of the Mexican Riveria. ASP is one of eleven timeshare-hotels in the Palace Resorts chain, ten of which are located in Mexico. The eleventh is in the Dominican Republic. Like many hotels in the area, ASP operates as an all-inclusive outfit. Some of the resorts in the Palace chain cater to families with children; ASP is an adults-only resort. ASP does have a nice website extolling all of the property’s virtues. The link to their site is http://www.palaceresorts.com/Resorts/AventuraSpaPalace/Index.asp.
It is a nice enough resort, although it does have some drawbacks as well as benefits. On the positive side, the resort had beautiful facilities, provided a clean/quiet room with a wonderful Jacuzzi, good food and drinks, along with excellent service in the restaurants. In fact, the restaurant staff (especially Marcello at El Greco) were equal, if not better, than any of the restaurant staff at any resort I have ever previously stayed at. Aventura Spa Palace also had the best gym facilities of any resort we’ve stayed at.
On the negative side, our room was on the small side (think cozily cramped) and oddly shaped; the ocean view was a bit distant; the housekeeping service was lackluster at best; and having to sit outside for most meals (even in the rain) because of the resort’s smoking policy was a problem, since the individual I was traveling with insisted on being able to smoke during meals. I found it irritating that I rarely heard Mexican or Latin music; in fact, starting the day after Thanksgiving, the resort primarily played American Christmas music in the lobbies and by the main spa pool.
Depending on one’s point of view, the size of Aventura Spa Palace is either a pro or a con. It is a very large resort, and getting from one point to another point often involved some rather circuitous routes. The large size of the resort helps to increase the sense of peace and quiet. However, guests need to be prepared for a substantial amount of walking to get to restaurants at mealtimes, and the various pools and activity centers. When the weather is nice, the walks can be quite enjoyable. However, if it is raining, after dressing for dinner, you may find yourself getting soaked if you have a distance to walk, as much of the walking is outdoors and unprotected from the elements. A link to a map of the resort is found at http://www.palaceresorts.com/Resorts/AventuraSpaPalace/APMAP.pdf. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the map;
That’s the summary.
My companion and I arrived in Cancun airport and retrieved our luggage. Using Olympus Tours, we had a direct private transfer from the airport to the resort. I highly recommend spending the extra money for this transfer. The cost was approximately $100. Using the direct transfer, the drive to the resort was roughly 55 minutes each way. I spoke with other guests who had not opted for the private transfer but instead took a non-private shuttle. Most complained that their trip from the airport to the resort had taken as long as two hours, adding to an already lengthy travel day.
Upon arrival, our luggage was handled by Ernesto, one of the porters, while we checked in. Ernesto is a bit of a trip. My partner thought that Ernesto was perhaps slightly mentally ill, while I thought that he was just trying to be unique. We were not given a cool towel (it wasn’t necessary either – we arrived during an unusual cold spell), but we were given champagne. Check-in was relatively quick. We had requested a third floor corner room towards the ocean, but were given a second floor room (room 2827), at the rear corner three buildings from the ocean, in the trumpet block. I was told there was nothing better available, despite the resort not being heavily occupied. For those not yet familiar with the resort layout, this is the second-most northward building on the resort. We had a partial (and somewhat distant) ocean view from the balcony; the majority of our view, when looking out directly from the balcony, was to the Zen garden.
The room was clean, although there were several obvious patches of a slightly different color paint (presumably to cover stains). Surprisingly, we had a king bed, which is not always available when requested. The highlight of the room was the large double Jacuzzi tub, which worked very nicely. The hot water in our room was nearly scalding hot. The room was decidedly smaller than expected, and did not compare favorably to other Mexican resorts I have stayed at. There was ample closet space for hanging clothes (although not that many hangers), and just three drawers for us to unpack our belongings into. The closet contains a small safe, not large enough for a laptop, but large enough to put some money, jewelry, passports, and similar items into. It is an old-fashioned safe with a physical key, rather than the newer type I have seen elsewhere, where the guest can code a combination.
The shower is roomy enough for two people in close quarters, but the design of the bathroom and vanity area is less than spacious. The sink and vanity area is approximately 45 inches or so in length combined. Much of this space is taken up by the toiletries, coffee maker, mugs, tea and various coffee-making supplies. Essential toiletries were supplied – two toothbrushes, toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, soap, shampoo, conditioner, bubble bath, body lotion, a couple of cotton balls and cotton-tipped swabs. However, the aisle between the vanity area and the wall is narrow – just about 24 inches wide, so if one person is at the vanity/sink area, it is difficult for another person to pass behind to get to the shower or toilet area. Because of the way the mirror is situated, it is difficult to use the mirror to see close ups well, such as if one needs to put contacts in.
The other slight difficulty I found was a lack of power outlets. There were only three outlets in the entire room, and none on the balcony. One was by one side of the bed, the other by the vanity/sink area (for the coffee-maker), and one last one was on the interior wall near the balcony sliding door. Those who need to recharge equipment (such as camera batteries), or plug in a laptop, might find it less than convenient.
The balcony was of a sufficient size to have two plastic chairs, a small table about 15″ square, and the hammock (rear corner rooms do have hammocks, but front corner rooms do not). Be aware that if you open up the screen door quickly, it may come off the track (this happened twice when during our stay).
When we arrived, our room had a small fruit platter (apple and grapes) already in it. The mini-bar was not always restocked, and sometimes we had to request restocking, particularly after it not being restocked three days in a row. There was a bottle of wine, and a plastic corkscrew to open the bottle; unfortunately, the corkscrew was cheaply made and the corkscrew broke, rendering us unable to open the wine.
Housekeeping service was spotty; several times we left the room before 10 am, returning at 3 or 4 pm and the room was still not made up, even though we had put the hang tag out to have the room cleaned. Worse, although there should always be two rolls of toilet paper in the room (the one on the roll and the one available as an extra), our maid did not replace the empty roll until the second roll was also nearly gone. Accordingly, it was several days before I decided to leave a tip for the housekeeping staff. Some folks get all excited about towel art (it’s cute but not essential to me), but up to that point in time, the staff did not leave any flowers or towel art. Once I left a $5 tip, we began to receive towel art daily, along with a few flowers. So if that’s important to you, leave a tip right off from the start. The housekeeping staff is very security-conscious, as we found out one afternoon when we returned and found the maid tidying the room. They use their housekeeping cart to block access to the room, and make you swipe your room key to gain entrance.
As far as television, of course, most of the channels are in Spanish (after all, you are in Mexico). There were perhaps two channels with English-speaking movies, several channels with music (70’s, 80’s, Latina, salsa), and three devoted to telling about the resort, the spa and the trips available through Chaza, the agency the Palace Resort chain uses for their free trips. The reception was not great, but okay. However, you couldn’t move the TV, not even to angle it differently (such as to watch it from the Jacuzzi). In comparison, at Secrets Excellence there was a DVD player, and we could check out DVD’s to watch if we were so inclined. Here, there was no such option.
The air conditioners are set to go no lower than 72 degrees. If you prefer the room colder, you need to call the front desk, ask for maintenance, and then they will come in, open up the thermostat, and remove a tiny piece of plastic that prevents guests from setting it lower than 72 degrees. Our call for maintenance had a very quick response. The layout of the room has the air from the air conditioner blowing straight across the lower half of the bed and straight over to the Jacuzzi. Don’t be too surprised if you get some water (condensation) leaking from the air conditioner right there in the middle of your room, as we found out. Likewise, there was a small and constant leakage from the toilet as well.
Turn down service was also spotty. Of the eight nights I was there, there was no turndown service three nights. (In comparison, when we stayed at Secrets Excellence, we had daily turndown service and received small Mexican figurines each night).
My guest and I were there for a special event, and were so informed by our travel agent. Having previously experienced special treatment at another resort for a similar event, I thought that ASP would also do something special, but they did not.
This trip occurred during the Thanksgiving holiday period, but ASP did not do anything special at any of the restaurants for the American guest. In contrast, when I stayed at the Iberostar Bavaro in Punta Cana during a previous Thanksgiving, the Iberostar especially invited American guests to a partake of a special Thanksgiving dinner buffet.
We knew going in that there was no “real” beach, and found we missed it only occasionally; the lagoons, with the fish and kayaks, more than compensated for it. We kayaked a few times. There are several (not many) varieties of fish in the lagoons. Fish were easy to spot, as well as crabs, and conch.
Drink service by the pool was generally good, and by the lagoons, it was adequate. No bartender had any issue making drinks as strong as you might want, or with bringing multiple shots if that was someone’s preference.
The restaurant staff was generally excellent – undoubtedly some of the best staff I have seen in quite awhile. I have also stayed at Secrets Excellence, three different Sandals resorts, and two Iberostar resorts, all well-known for their quality service levels, yet ASP did do better in the category of restaurant wait staff than all of the other resorts. We did tip sometimes. The food was generally quite good at most of the restaurants; El Greco was our favorite, closely followed by La Hacienda and La Trattoria. I was decidedly unimpressed at Ventanas, and we did not try La Huerta nor the Oriental for dinner. El Greco’s lunchtime buffet had an excellent variety of food, with a few items that stayed the same each day, and a few items that were rotated in on other days (octopus, rabbit, and so forth come to mind). We did visit the Thai Lounge; I found it overly loud, with no food or h’ors d’oeuvres, and left. The Tapas Bar was good, although there were only three types of snacks available.
One difficulty I had is that my travel companion preferred to be able to smoke at dinner. At several of the restaurants, smokers are relegated to outdoor seating only. In fact, the only restaurant that we ate at that had any indoor smoker’s seating at all was Mo Mo No Ha Na. The lack of indoor smoking seating was a particular problem at La Trattoria, and somewhat a problem one night at El Greco – because the policy is NOT relaxed when it rains. La Trattoria has no covered areas for smokers when it rains, and although El Greco does have several tables under awnings, the rain still was driving in and getting the dining area wet. It’s hard to have a pleasing, much less romantic, dinner in 65 degree weather while you are getting rained on at night. On the mention of cigarettes, a pack of Marlboro’s in the hotel’s gift shop cost approximately $2.65 USD – a bargain compared to the prices in our hometown.
The property does have a number of cats roaming the property. Fortunately for the cats, I like cats, and I occasionally slipped them some food. Some waiters and restaurant managers had no issue with this, while others did have an issue with it. I overheard one waiter say “he likes cats, grilled with butter”. Even if that was meant as a joke, I personally did not appreciate that sentiment or humor. In general, the cats did not bother people. A few were tame enough to reach out and accept a gentle pet or a scratching behind the ears; others were very timid. The resort has a “catch and release” program, in which cats are trapped, sterilized, given a marker necklace, and released; however, none of the cats we saw had the necklace.
The activities staff worked hard to engage guests in activities near the pool, and did a much better job of it than the staff at Secrets Excellence, and nearly as good a job as the Iberostar staff. A number of activities seem to be conducted or available only at a specific time of the day. For example, if you would like to try yoga in the yoga hut, that was only offered at 8 in the morning. I had thought to go try practicing a bit on my own, but the building was locked when staff wasn’t there. I only saw the rock-climbing wall attended twice in our nine days/eight nights.
We did play a few games of pool, but found that some of the cues were damaged or missing the tip to the cue. If you’re a short person, you may find the lack of a bridge stick to be an inconvenience.
The Palace Resorts usually has a promotion available at the time of booking a room. Sometimes it will be a special free tour, such as swimming with dolphins, or a room credit for purchases made on the resort, a credit towards greens fees, or a selection of other free tours, excluding the dolphin swim. Our package promotion was the latter – free tours, but not the dolphin swim. However, we did not avail ourselves of these tours. Most of the packages were designed so that we would need to be ready to leave the resort by 8 am, and we hadn’t wanted to have to rush around early in the morning on our vacation. It would be nice if ASP had a choice of at least a couple of the half-day tours to start after breakfast or lunch.
Regarding the time-share issue, we received a phone call that we needed to pick up “something very important to your stay here” that we “were supposed to have been given during our check-in. This was the packet telling us which restaurants were open which times, what activities were offered at which times, and information about the tours. It’s also their lead-in to try to convince you to take their “vacation membership” presentation. We firmly and politely declined. As a precaution, we unplugged our phone each night, and only plugged it back in when we were about to exit the room the following day.
Overall, we had an enjoyable time, but there was room for improvement in certain aspects of the trip. Some were within control of the resort (such as lackluster housekeeping), and other things were not. While the resort was reasonably enjoyable, Aventura Spa Palace definitely is not my favorite Caribbean or Mexican resort.
