WARNING: If you are the type to complain about a spot of rust on one of the legs of the ironing board in your room… then I’m not like you and you can move on to the next review.
If stuff like that doesn’t bother you and you're just going to Cancun to relax and don’t really sweat the small stuff … then read on!
Let me first apologize for the lengthy review that will follow, but I feel it is necessary to give Beach Palace and its potential patrons(you) a raw, uninfluenced review of this fine resort....
So here goes ...
After coming home this week and hopping back into the daily work grind, I would catch myself drifting away in a daydream, thinking of ways to make my millions so I can plan early retirement in Mexico!
If you’re like me, you have read dozens and dozens of reviews on TA and the opinions are so unalike, sometimes it seems one reviewer stayed in an entirely different hotel than the other reviewer! I am here to try and clear things up.
Let me first state that I am no expert on world travel, but I have been to Mexico – particularly Cancun – several times in the last decade. We have stayed in the hotel zone in various all-inclusives, from adults only to family resorts with 500 rooms.
I usually travel to Cancun with my fiancé, but this time we decided to share our south-of-the-border experiences with 3 other family members (five total travelers).
Four of us are 29-32 years old and the eldest is my mother at 61.
I searched and searched through numerous reviews, always watching the top 30 resorts on this site… really just looking for the best value, good restaurants, and excellent service. Kids don’t bother us because we usually don’t go in the summer months when there are a lot of them. My recommendation to you is don’t limit your choices to adults-only resorts… there’s not enough of them. Instead, just avoid places with slides and water parks tailored to kids, and you won’t see too many.
We always look for rooms with ocean views, not a ton of kids running around, not spring-break party loudness, and small/medium sized resorts (250-400 rooms). We have been at bigger resorts and were not fond of having to take 5-10 minutes just to get from your room to the breakfast buffet.
We also don’t like making reservations for dinner. We have done it here in Cancun before and it becomes an annoyance when you have to go to your room to call on the phone in between a certain time frame to book the reservation, then having to be there on time! It sounds like a small gripe, but trust me, when you don’t have to get up from a beach nap or swimming in the pool, it’s worth it. Plus you’re on vacation. The less planning the better!
However , it takes a well staffed resort to be able to take a large dinner rush crowd at once without the need for reservations , so not all non-reservation resorts are equal . Finally, there needs to be some type of nightlife. The last resort we stayed at practically shut down at 10pm, with no bar or lounges to hang out at, and when you’re with a group of people this is kind of a must for after dinner nightcap.
…Just some things to think about.
SO… We traveled from 5-5 to 5-12, one week. We always go in May since we feel it’s a sweet spot between the spring breakers leaving and the summer breakers about to invade.
The reason why I picked beach palace was the overwhelming consensus of reviewers that posted how friendly and accommodating the staff was at the resort. THIS is why it’s a top 10 resort (as most palace resorts are).
When you reduce all the top 30 hotels down to their bare bones….. The food is roughly the same (maybe a fancy garnish here and there), the ocean view is very similar, the pools are alike…. But you can’t get excellent well-trained staff anywhere. If that’s what you want, then look no further than Beach Palace!
From the front desk people (Carlos is the best) to the activity coordinators lined up waiting to help you out, this place is top notch. Everyone remembers your name, how you like your coffee in the breakfast area (Ernesto is great), how you like your eggs, what drink you like on the beach (Alfonso is very attentive), etc etc . With only 287 rooms, they have the ability to do that. It seemed at times there was one employee per 5-10 guests.
One thing to note: The hotel is very compact so please don’t expect every restaurant to have their own separate buildings somewhere quiet and tranquil on the campus or other amenities you might find at other ‘megaplex’ resorts I have been to. Beach Palace has done their best to section off dining, shopping, checking in, etc. in one single building. Though they do have a conference room building that is on the other side of the private entranceway that doesn’t seem to be used too much.
OK, enough blabber, let’s get to the details!
Resort credits – this is another thing that sets them apart from other hotels on the strip. Currently you get $1500 in resort credits if you stay from 5-7 days at any palace resort. There is a bunch of information on what you can use your credits on online, so I will just let you know what I learned about them.
We took a tour to Chichen Itza (worth it just to see once but it takes all day), rode a boat to Isla Mujeres, went to the wet n wild water park, swam with the dolphins, got a deep tissue back massage, had a lobster dinner right on the beach, had a 5-course private dinner with an executive chef preparing the food in front of us, and spent the resort on upgraded wine list.
Now let me explain the restrictions.
First, everything that you can buy with palace bucks is inflated but that’s expected, so don’t be surprised. It’s all for free anyways so I didn’t complain. That being said, there are only two real rules:
1. You can only spend $300 in resort credit on spa treatments. Ok this really sucks since they just made this rule, but it’s ok. Me and my fiancé were in one room and were able to get a deep tissue couples massage for 50 minutes. That’s enough for me. That right there came to $270 so it used most of the $300 up right there. You can always get more, but you have to pay with your own money, and I wasn’t about to do that.
2. You can purchase several things to take home from the gift shop (tequila gift set) and from the spa (lotions and creams) but you have to pay 11% tax out of your own pocket. Just for a heads up.
Now you have to pay tax on using the upgraded wine list at dinner or to order a bottle up to your room, but you can use the resort credit to pay for the bottle tax (which doesn’t make sense). We didn’t know this until we got home and had a zero balance on our credit cards which is good! It seems that you have to pay tax on anything you can take home with you (gift set, lotion, jewelery, etc).
If you plan on just loafing around at the pool, drinking and people watching, then the resort credit isn’t for you … but we sure liked it! Beware, the week FLIES by when you are doing so many activities if your used to just loafing on the sand like us.
FOOD:
The restaurants are –as some reviewers put it- an intricate part of the main floor hotel layout. While I like my restaurants to have nice themes and be in separate buildings from the hotel altogether, I appreciate how beach palace organized their 4 eateries to be as exclusive as they possibly could in such a compact open floor-plan hotel.
The Asian restaurant was great (I got the Teppanyacki), and my favorite was the steakhouse (outside so wear long sleeves if need be). Get the flank steak there. Our group got the t-bone, rib eye, and flank … the flank’s seasoning beat them all out. If you are a red wine drinker, order the Maucho Caranet from Mendoza … it was the best bang for your palace buck (I think $55 in resort credits) and trust me, we had about a dozen bottles of red wine during the 7 day stay. The Italian restaurant lacked in complexity. I ordered a fusili pasta with marinara and –while tasty- it was very plain looking without even a garnish or meatball. Though my brother had the Carpaccio there and liked it. The Italian restaurant just wasn’t as good as the others I thought. .. Just my opinion though.
The fourth eatery is the buffet, which is me and my fiancés favorite at any all inclusive because we can pick at what we want and go when we please. The buffet was very good, though it needs to be expanded a little. I only say that since this is a top 10 resort and I have had a better selection at some resorts ranked in the 20s and 30s. Again, I think having the space really comes into play here.
We also used room service to order snacks and breakfast a few times here and there. The food was good and delivery was always within 20 minutes.
POOLS:
Let me first say we never set foot in the pools here. We are not pool people. We can get a pool anywhere in the states… but we can’t get that gorgeous ocean! So we loafed around on beach chairs and swam in the turquoise water in front of us. The waves aren’t that rough at all. My 61 year old mother was out there without a problem at all!
Now what I can tell you about the pool is this: since the resort is so small, the pool-while being spacious- is one of the smallest pools I have seen. Plus from about 11am till about 3pm there are activities with music playing pretty loud. Hey we didn’t mind because we were in the ocean. There was a pretty big crowd at the pool too, with most congregating by the swim up bar on the left. There was a nice quiet area of the pool opposite of the bar on the far right, and that seemed nice, just small.
ROOMS:
The rooms are some of the best you will find in Cancun. We had the concierge room so we were spoiled with a Jacuzzi tub, snacks and a pillow menu. I did get to see other standard rooms though and they were quite large in size compared to other resorts which are very plain and outdated. We stayed on the 7th floor which was a nice sweet spot. My mother was on the 12th and that was nice but people below you looked like tiny ants!
NIGHTLIFE:
The sky bar (good hot snacks by the way) on the rooftop is open till 1am(see Alfredo and Daniel at night time), and so is the sports bar located on the mezzanine level (2nd floor). The sports bar has a ton of TVs on the wall where you can watch all your basketball and football games. I can’t tell you how many times we wanted to see the end of a ball game while down here and couldn’t unless we watch ESPN highlights in our room. They have karaoke night and other fun and games at the sports bar as well.
All in all, this was the best place I have ever been to in Cancun and we are already planning our next vacation. While the Mexican people are well mannered at most resorts as a whole, the workers at beach palace are a step above the competition, always making you feel like you’re their #1 priority!
Room Tip: i would suggest 5th-8th floors. not too low so the large screen/sound bar isnt in the way of your vi...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
