We just got back from the Iberostar last night and I wanted to get a trip report in while everything was still fresh in my memory. The Iberostar is a really nice resort. I'll list the good and the bad here. We loved the quaint feeling the resort gives with its smaller thatch roofed units. It seems to blend in with the surrounding natural jungle area quite well. They left a lot of trees and vegetation and subsequently there is a lot of wildlife. There are beautiful flamingos around the property as well as huge iguanas, geckos, stange birds, etc. The bad was there are a LOT of mosquitoes. Especially at evening. I tried to use repellend but probably have over 25 bites on my body as I write this. They do spray some horrible smelling insecitide all over the resort about twice a week but we were terrified to think of what that does to all the little critters such as geckos, birds, etc. The beach was probably quite a bit better than we expected due to the previous trip reports that seem to bash it a bit. I think the people who complained about the beach went to the Iberostar and furthermore, Cozumel for the wrong reason. That being said, here is a bit on the beach. The beach is beautiful. Beautiful white sand, incredible contrast of different shades of blue due to the white sand and reef just offshore. It had the look of the classic Caribbean beach you see in magazines and calenders. The beach seemed to have more than plenty lounge chairs and areas to just lie around appease the skin cancer chasers. The beach was probably 250 yards long. Some might complain the beach was too narrow though. Personally, I thought it looked nicer to see the palm trees go right up close to the beach. The palm trees end and it is all beach for about 25 yards. The water right off the beach was crystal clear and you could see tons of aquatic wildlife if you walk out there a bit or from the pier. We snorkeled at the beach too. The snorkeling was not that good but we did see several interesting types of fish and a ray or two. If you want to get some good snorkeling in, try Dzul Ha or Chankanaab beach clubs. It was great at both but I don't think any of the hotels feature great snorkeling. Some people griped about the location of the Iberostar. This is where you have to define what you want in a vacation. The hotel is about a 15-20 minute drive to San Miguel. If you're going to Cozumel to hang out in San Miguel, don't stay at the Iberostar. On the other hand, it boasts the very best location on the island for scuba divers. The boat rides to the reefs are about 5-15 minutes from the Iberostar pier. At most of the other hotels, plan on that boat ride being around 45 minutes. The exception would be the Occidental Grande and the Occidental Allegro which are both pretty close. A quick note on San Miguel. Nightmare. The cruise ship industry has **** near ruined the city. It is absolutely jam packed with up to 13 cruise ships with each one's 3,000 passengers absolutely jamming all the streets, shops, restaurants, etc. The city has changed its complexion to cater to this. Everything is really expensive in San Miguel and the bartering is useless. The shopkeepers barely budge on prices. Quaint, quiet shops and restaurants have been replaced by the likes of Senor Frogs and jewelry stores. The shopkeepers are very aggressive as you pass by. The jewelry stores are flooded with cruisers. We rented a car from Avis for the whole trip. I would recommend doing this to check out the East side of the island and get around to San Miguel and all the neat little beach clubs. Driving in San Miguel is a disaster though. The taxi divers will try to run you off the road and the endless hoards on mopeds will try to kill themselves off the side or back of your car. Back to the Iberostar. The food was pretty good. They didn't have a "lobster night" during the 8 nights we were there. We ate at the steakhouse and the Mexican specialty restaurant. They are both pretty good, the Mexican restaurant being better. The vast majority of eating is done at the buffets. The food was fine at these. Plenty of variety. All in all, food was good but don't go to Iberostar looking for exquisite gourmet food. No room service. Cocktails were fine. They do seem to try to hide the brand name liquors at some of the bars a bit. Just ask for things by brand and they will try to accomodate. The bartenders definitely were hoping for tips. Best advice is to bring a $100 in ones and fives (at least). The lounges was a weak point. That was really notice more at night. If they had nice lounges, you wouldn't get so bored and end up crashing out at 9:00. The shows were either really lame and not funny or were funny because they were so lame.... The bars were all kind of small so they really only served as a place to get a cocktail and them go somewhere else to drink it. The bar / lounge scene was a weak point. the pools were a strong point. Huge, warm, nice pools . Although the people at the pool bar would sit and tend to rot there for hours and hours hogging up the 8 or 9 stools in the water at barside. This leads to the weakest point of the Iberostar. The guests. Most were pleasant enough with exception of two issues. First, the smoking. Be prepared to have a lot of people smoking around you. Particularly in the restaurants and bar areas. A LOT of people would sit down for breakfast and start smoking. This is pronounced by the lack of non-smoking section and how close the tables are. We tried to just get up and move but right after you sat down, someone else would sit at the table right next to you and light up. Paricularly the Europeans. There were a lot of Europeans there and they LOVE to smoke. Chain smoke. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, lounge, pool, shows - wherever! They just love to smoke! It seemed rather rude but maybe that was just us. That leads us to the second problem with the guests. Euorpeans. Maybe this sounds harsh but we decided we hate vacationing with Europeans. They love to smoke, seem to scowl at you, which you notice because they also seem to stare incessantly. They also loved to wear their Speedo swim shorts everywhere. In the restaurants, lounges, everywhere. It was harsh to see all these idiot men wearing them in the restaurants. I know it is typical where they live but it is not typical for Mexico. I didn't even want to sit in the chairs in the restaurants after they sat in them. Maybe I'm focusing on it too much but imagine this scene. It plays out A LOT at the Iberostar. You're at the buffet restaurant. There is some 60 year old European sitting 3 feet from your table with his wife or whatever, they are both chain smoking and blowing the smoke all over you, they are staring / scowling at you, and he is in his cute little Speedo...... The rooms. They were nice. Really firm beds but not so much it creates a problem. Room clean up service was once a day. There is a mini-fridge in your room. They kept in stocked with sodas, bottled water, and beers. I don't watch much TV on vacation so it didn't create a problem but there are only two channels in English. CNN world reports and the Hallmark Channel. Try to tip the poor room maid a few bucks a day. The air conditioner worked fine. We stayed on a second floor unit which I would recommend because it rains hard there and a lot of the first floor units seemed to flood. Moving along. We went to Cozumel for the diving, primarily. The diving in Cozumel is the very best. We saw sharks, many hawksbill turtles, rays, eels, endless beautiful technicolor fish, and endless beautiful colorful coral reefs. We dove with Scuba Du. I highly recommend that you not dive with Dressel Divers, the dive-op on the resort. They receive nothing but horrible reports, they accidentally left some divers in the water when their boat left, and we sure felt sorry to see the divers getting packed on their old boats with approx. 30 other divers. There are too many excellent dive-ops to go with to waste your time and money with those guys. We took the car over to the east side to check out the little bar/ beach clubs. That was really fun. Try to hit Coconuts. A very memorable beach scene there. This report got really long so I'll try to close. I would recommend the Iberostar. The staff was really friendly, the grounds were clean, the food was good, the beach was nice. Nothing there is absolutely spectacular but all-in-all it was really nice. This hotel was pretty reasonable, price wise, and I think you get what you pay for out of it. The next time we go to Cozumel, I think we will give the Occidental Grande a try. The Iberostar is worth returning to but we just like to try new places.......

Our trip was Nov. 9th - 16th and we had a wonderful time at the Iberostar Cozumel. The food was very good, along with the selection, at the buffets and the ala carte restaurants. The staff was friendly and the diving was teriffic. We didn't have the "smell" you hear about at some of the resorts, but we did have air freshener with us just in case. Our roof did leak when it rained hard, but it was the only thing wrong with the room. They actually have towels at this resort! (Beach or otherwise.)The entertainment is just okay, but the staff tries hard to entertain. The Mexican show is really good.The beach is narrow but you can walk for miles. It is not a good swimming beach and snorkeling is just okay, but keep in mind, this is a diving location. If you want the sand bottom swimming areas and wider beaches, head to Cancun or Riviera Maya.We would recommend this resort, especially to divers. The majority of dive sites are on the southern side of the island so the boat rides are fairly short. (About 2 - 15 min.)It is far from town and cab fare was about $17.00 each way, but renting a car is easy and driving around the island is easy as well. Airport shuttle was $10.50 p/p each way, but it was hard to get a shuttle going back to the airport, many people were taking taxi's back.Hope this helps...

My husband and I went on our honeymoon in the middle of August. First we went to cancun and stayed in the Cancun Palace (Wonderful!). We were treated like royalty there... we got a different colored bracelet, free champagne, a fruit basket, and a candelight dinner for two. Everyone there treated us wonderfully. Then, on day 7, we arrived in Cozumel.
When we first got to the Iberostar we realized how far it was away from everything. This can be good and bad. It was 14 dollars EACH WAY to take the taxi into town. Ridiculous. No tours included either, unlike in Cancun. The staff was nice enough, but not very talkative. HOWEVER, they treated us like regular guests. No special services. This really annoyed me because in the brochure they were supposed to give us champagne, etc. When we talked with them, they seemed like they didn't even care, and they asked us if we brought our marriage license with us to prove that we were married!!! Yeah, right! The beds WERE very hard, and there was a sewer smell beside the tennis courts (not too bad, though). The wildlife was nice. Also, we did enjoy the food. The Mexican restaurant was very good. Also, the pool was nice.. lots of places to lie in the sun. Last thing... the beach was absolutely HORRIBLE! Where we stayed in Cancun, the beach had no rocks and it was so clear that we could see our feet in it! NOT the case here. It was so rocky that you couldn't even get out very far at all (up to the ankles). My husband cut his foot and it was bleeding. Overall, the hotel is secluded with beautiful wildlife, but there are too many other things that are disappointments for me to recommend this to anyone..
especially for honeymooners. Feel free to email me if you have any further questions.

My wife and I just returned from a week at Iberostar in Cozumel. It was our first time to Mexico and the first away vacation we have had in over 5 years. Needless to say, our expectations we high as we really need this time away. Our experience was pretty much outstanding from the time we checked in until we left. We were in one of the upper floor units- #3314 for the first 2 days but had to relocate to a lower unit #3304 as the sliding glass patio door broke in two. The front desk immediately got us into another room that night. Would reccomend the lower unit as it just felt more comfortable for us. Beds are very firm but after first night we never even noticed and I think we actually slept better on them than on our own at home! Maids did a great job each day. Air conditioning works great as it comes on when you enter room and it stays on all the time that you are in there. Pool is amazing. Food is great with excellent service from hotel staff in the restaurants. Make sure that you book the steak and mexican dinners which have to be done by reservation only as we did both and they were among the best meals we have ever had. Activities staff were great and they also did most of the nightime shows. They got the audience involved a lot which really made for some memorable and hilarious shows. Hats off to Louis, Nico, Natalie,Rosie,Eduardo,Ramondo,and Arno.
Only negatives we found were with a few of our things stolen from the pool chairs and we're pretty sure it was a guest stealing and not a staff member. We also did a few of the tours,ATV tour and the Tulum & Ex-HLA tour. The ATV tour was great and a lot of fun for the money- definately recommend it. The tour to Tulum&Ex-Hla was terrible and a complete waste of money. Other than that,an incredible time. We will definately go back again next year.

Ray