Gran Melia, CancunApril 30th to May 14th 2007


My wife and I stayed at the Gran Melia from April 30th to May 14th. We had booked a ‘lagoon’ view room but at check-in, upgraded this to an ocean view room with a jacuzzi. We think we paid less to do this at the hotel than had we booked the higher grade room initially. Check-in was smooth enough. We had read about predatory time-share vendors sanctioned by the hotel on the review websites and sure enough, were approached the instant check-in was complete. Our response was to politely rebuff any approach by them but we were surprised by their persistence and wondered after a while if a blunter statement of our disinterest may have been more effective. They did not give up on us until after our 8th day in the hotel.

Hotel architecture. The hotel is visually stunning! The central concourse rises 9-stories on vast columns. The tiered design produces a pyramid appearance from outside and optimizes the view from every room. The pyramid effect works from the inside too, so that at the base, oriental style indoor gardens merge with functional space (restaurants, spa, internet stations, etc.). Unlike many tropical hotels, the indoor areas are entirely enclosed: but the design uses natural light and hanging vines growing from each of the indoor ascending tiers to produce an outdoor ambience. The hotel is physically large and requires plenty of walking. For this reason, I would say it was not well suited to the elderly.

Rooms. Our room (suite) was not overly large for a hotel of this class but was functional, equipped with a king-sized bed, refrigerator, dining table and chairs, couch, and LCD television. There was the usual feed of international channels to the TV but none were HD: instead the source 4:3 aspect ratio was stretched to fit the 16:9 AR of the TV, so everything appeared somewhat fatter and wider than it should have. Our room was located in building One and overlooked a swimming pool area and the ocean. Had we not upgraded to the ocean view, we would have been facing a busy road on the main Cancun strip which itself runs alongside the lagoon. The balconies are cleverly designed to provide a great view of the ocean along with complete privacy: in fact, someone on a neighboring balcony would have had to have taken extraordinary and possibly dangerous measures to peak over into your balcony. For this reason, I had no problem bubbling away nude after a day on the beach in the balcony-located Jacuzzi, though my wife declined.

Beach. The Gran Melia occupies a greater length of beach than any other hotel we observed on the hotel strip. And it is without question, the best section of beach 30 minutes walk either side of the property. The best, because of greater width and lack of rocks. The sand is white, and the ocean not more than 20 feet deep up to a hundred yards out, so the color is exceptional. On most days the water was somewhat rough, but nothing that a five-year old capable of swimming could not handle. There was no noticeable rip and little undertow. The water was pristine clean with little seaweed. On the few days when the ocean was calmer, both my wife and I got occasionally stung by what felt like jellyfish though we could see nothing: uncharacteristic of jellyfish stings, the smarting quickly dissipated. When I asked one of the lifeguards what these might be, he informed me that they were ‘pulgas marineras’ and stated that they were too small to be seen. The Spanish word ‘pulga’ translates as flea. Whatever these creatures were, their ‘sting’ produced no residual affect and did not really bother us to the extent we would not go into the water because of them. The beach was equipped with more than enough palapas and comfortable, canvas-bed beach chairs rather than the more common plastic ones. There was efficient, waiter service on the beach.

Water sports. The usual range of water sports were provided, motorized for a fee, non-motorized included with an all-inclusive package. Unfortunately, these water sports were sub-contracted out and confined to the lagoon. The lagoon is shallow and fetid, producing a variety of unpleasant odors which intensify as you get closer to Punta Cancun. I enjoy sailing so I took a catamaran out on one day. The cats are jibbed Hobie 16s, a little beaten-up but fast and stable. Though the wind was good and there was an absence of swell and chop, sailing on the lagoon was ultimately boring – I could not help but think how much fun it would have been to have the use of these sailboats on the ocean side of the hotel. The company to which the non-motorized water sports are sub-contracted have personnel who aggressively solicit tips and make it plain that they would rather you use their more costly services such as jet skis and speedboats. For anyone thinking of venturing out into this filthy, festering lagoon, I would recommend that they do so in a craft that they were absolutely sure they would not spill: I was tempted to take a Sunfish sailboat out until I had first hand experienced the lagoon in the catamaran. An ecological swamp (mangla) adjoins the lagoon but whatever is living in the swamp (alligators??) is not going to be around for long unless they get serious about controlling the fuel, oil, and sewage that is dumped into it.

The food. The overall quality and selection of the food was good without approaching excellence. We frequented all of the restaurants during our stay and had no complaints. Best was the buffet restaurant. We ate breakfast on the patio of this restaurant each morning where the atmosphere was cheery. And experienced a very different ambience in the same location at dinner when a singer-guitarist entertained us along with the lapping of ocean waves. Fish and meat dishes were cooked to order. We went to the Mexican restaurant twice but this was disappointing: it is ironic that to experience the best in Mexican cooking, it seems you have to go to Mexican restaurants in the US. In our opinion, the best of the a la carte restaurants was the Mediterranean. Good atmosphere and food with an authenticity of cuisine that seemed to be absent in the Mexican, and notably attentive service. The seafood restaurant was only open at lunch. Here, there was a good selection of fish, all of it well prepared, not over-cooked as it so often is in North America. The seafood restaurant was woefully understaffed. One of the nicest waiters we encountered during our stay worked here and the poor guy was run off his feet. A real drawback of the seafood restaurant was the raucous, salsa type music piped into the dining room. This was against the grain: almost all of the music played elsewhere on the hotel premises was carefully and tastefully selected: new age electronic in the main concourses, light jazz everywhere else.

The drinks. A wide range of good quality liquor was available in the bars. There was also a broad range of wines available in the restaurants but these seemed to us to be of inferior quality. We tried several including some of the Mexican wines. Though Mexican vineyards have recently met with some world acclaim, the Mexican wines we sampled during our stay were pretty much undrinkable. If good Mexican wine was available, we did not know how to identify it. We did have a bottle of Chilean wine we were familiar with from the Santa Rita vineyard, but this wine was in the first stage of vinegarization, presumably due to high temperature exposure. In the bars, the quality of drink preparation was erratic to say the least. Attempting to be more specific about a drink request such as suggesting mix percentages made no difference to the drink that was actually delivered. A margarita could vary from a virgin-spritzer to almost pure alcohol.

Service. Our tour operator identified the Gran Melia as a 4 ½ star resort. This was an accurate assessment in our opinion. The shortfalls that hold this hotel back would be the absence of gourmet food …. And erratic service! The erratic service may be accounted for by the fact that there has been a labor shortage in the Cancun area since the 2005 hurricane: we learned that only 70% of the hotels have since re-opened and there is evidence of construction everywhere. The level of service at the Gran Melia can at its best be consistent with what you would expect in a 5-star hotel … and be apathetic and slovenly at its worst. This is a real shame because some of the hotel staff worked extremely hard and seemed so genuine in their efforts to please. Room chamber service was just OK.

Tipping. We tip in all-inclusive hotels. Our usual tip for daily room cleaning service was $2, a buck for bar service and up to $5 for good restaurant service. We did not get the impression that quality of service was driven by tips.

The gym. Both my wife and I use hotel gyms. The Gran Melia has a superbly equipped fitness facility. A full range of weight and aerobic equipment is available, most of it top-of-the-line, Life Fitness manufactured. The facility is kept clean and was never too busy. If you choose to work out in the mornings, you will be greeted by a warm smile from Maritza who ensures that ice cold jugs of mint tea and iced lime water are always available. From our point of view, this fitness facility was a powerful feature of making our stay in this hotel a pleasant one.

Music. The live music played around the Gran Melia was incidental with one possible exception. It is on the whole tasteful and designed to remain in the background. There are no ‘shows’. A couple of times a week, a flamenco-fusion trio played in the main lobby bar. This group featured some virtuoso guitar work by a young guy by the name of Juan D’anyelico that inevitably assembled an audience in a hurry – but even this was not designed to be show-stopping. There was no night club or disco on the premises: for this type of entertainment, you have to travel further down the strip toward Punta Cancun. This fact pretty much eliminated the late teenage and twenty-something age-ranges from the hotel, something that may or may not be a bonus to you, depending on who you are.

Other guests. The hotel was said to be 70% occupied during our stay. Except for three days during which the beach segments of the 2007 Miss Universe pageant were taking place in the hotel and on its beach, the services of the hotel were never taxed. The hotel guests appeared to be largely from Mexico and North America. This imparted a pleasant, laid back atmosphere to the hotel. Notably absent was the European fervor for commanding possession of every beach and pool chair in sight at the crack of dawn, only to leave them occupied by only a towel for most of the day. We observed that a majority of guests were not staying ‘all inclusive’. In our opinion, this would only make sense if you planned to spend most of your time off the hotel premises. If you opted to pay for meals and drinks as you required them, prices would be equivalent to those in Canada or the US – perhaps a little on the high side for Mexico.

Overall We both felt that the Gran Melia was excellent value for money. This hotel suits families and most adults. It is laid back without the ambience of a very large hotel. It least suits those who want a bit of a wild time and mobility-restricted older people. The pools are great but the beach is outstanding. Our tour operator was Air Transat. The outbound flight from Toronto was on a Westjet 737 and the return flight on a Sunquest 757 (Skyservice). The Westjet aircraft was new and clean …. and passenger handling was cheerful and efficient. The Sunquest aircraft (Skyservice) and their personnel were the exact opposite. This generation of Sunquest 757s (Skyservice) must now be more than 20 years old and apart from its tired appearance, the plane was dirty and the hydraulic controls tended to make disconcerting noises that reverberated through the frame. Sunquest, Air Transat, and other budget carriers should get Westjet to train them how to run their operations!

I really don't understand what some of these folks are talking about. We stayed at the Gran Melia for four days and it was outstanding. We did not take the all inclusive deal, we never do. There are too many options in Cancun that are wonderful. We had a delux ocean view room. It had plenty of hot water and everything worked in the bathroom. Beach and water were beautiful. Pool is knocked out and both places had terrific wait service. Food was very average but what you would expect at a hotel like this.

Wonderful private balconies that you will enjoy. Flat screen televisions, nice furnishings and comfortable bed is what we found in the room. Great maid service and turn down service as well.

Terrific service, friendly staff and overall an outstanding experience. Some practical advice: Buy your bottled water across the street to save some $$$ and avoid talking to anyone about time shares. We just turned and walked away. If you want to avoid all of that, pay three times the price and book at the Ritz Carlton down the street!

I stayed at the gran nelia in the beggining of may and my stay was really good. Thay have great restaurants and a good little market place to buy snacks. I would highly reccomend the restaureant I think its called veranda or something, its all grilled meats. Our meal was the best in cancun!the quazatal restaurant if you are going for breakfast, all I have to say is don't expect good service. we went there every day for breakfast, and we were not all inclusive so we ordered off the menu, but the mix of buffet people and al a carte people must make them confused because they never came around to help us.And a word of advice for those of you staying in the main pyramid, if your a light sleeper bring earplugs! They have this cheesy show in the main pyramid at night and its really loud!I remember someone else mentioning this as well, and they were right! Its was hard to hear the t.v. and besides the fact our toliet didnt work, everything else was fine. beach is nice. view is great. not sure if I would stay again.would try something else.oh and there seemed to be only one way out of the hotel and that was the front lobby, which I thought was weird!

Gran Melia Cancun was perfect! We stayed in one of the deluxe oceanview rooms in tower 3. Comfy bed, flat screen tv, large patio. The only thing that stressed me out was the constant hounding of people trying to set up timeshare appts.

As far as location, across the street from the hotel you'll find McDonald's and 7 eleven. If you want bottled water (for cheap) just buy a bunch from 7 eleven and stock up. Cancun is pretty pricey. My husband and I used Balam Transfers and was very pleased with their promptness. It was private ( no sharing with other passengers) and in an Expedition. If you want to get around ... the bus is a great option. it was $.65 and it will take you down the hotel zone into the downtown area.

People speak english very well over there so I don't understand why people say there's a language barrier. Besides, you are in Mexico! try to say some simple words in spanish and the locals will appreciate your efforts and will treat you with respect. If you come out abrasive and expect them to understand every word you say, they won't help you with open arms. Saying gracias and por favor will help a lot!