We have just returned from The Aventura, and overall, we were very pleased. I would actually give this resort a four and a half star rating if I could. The food at this resort was very good, especially the steak, pork chops and sausage from the BBQ grill just outside the buffet restaurant at lunchtime. There was a good variety with very good flavors at the buffet, and the a la carte restaurants were all very good. The only small criticism about the a la carte restaurants is that you can't reserve a time or table, which means that if you go at peak times, you have to wait anywhere from 20-60 minutes for a table, depending upon the size of your group. According to our friends, the room service is pretty good (we never used it). The drinks are very good, and there is a large variety of them to choose from.
As part of our booking, we had $1500 worth of resort credits, which I believe all guests receive. You simply have to pay 11% tax on the portion of the $1500 you use. I went for two spa treatments (one solo and one with my wife) and they were both excellent! It cost me $44 in "tax" for my wife and I to get an 80 minute relaxing couples massage, which was preceded by a hour hour visit to the hydrotherapy center, where you can go in a steam room, sauna, hot and cold tubs and showers. What a great deal!
The pools were very nice, with a choice of going to the very busy and louder main pool, or the somewhat quieter pool just around the corner. The only other small criticism I have concerns the pools. You have to get up very early in the morning (think 5-6 a.m.) to reserve a spot at the pool. What we noticed was that some people put their towels down, but don't show up for hours (if at all) to the spots they reserved. The hotel should either monitor this more closely, or have some kind of card system for towels so that people don't just leave their towels unattended for hours.
There is a sheltered lagoon with a man-made beach built around it. The water is very calm in this lagoon, and this was a good thing, as it was windy virtually our whole week there, so the lagoon was quite appreciated, as the waves crashing on the beach would have been pretty rough. If you are the beach type, then I would not recommend this resort. We knew this going in, and we were fine with this.
The rooms are fairly large, and have two person jetted bathtubs in them. The beds are fairly comfortable, the closet is large enough, and the safe is easy to use. The bathroom a good size and the shower is easily large enough for two people. The mini fridge is stocked with beer, pop and water, and there are four bottles of alcohol with dispensers in a cupboard. There is also a bottle of red wine provided in your room.
We went to this resort with two other couples, and we all agreed that we very much liked the resort and would probably return. For what we paid, this was an excellent value for an adults only resort with the services available. Apparently the Aventura will become part of the Hardrock chain, so I hope they don't change it too much, as a few minor tweaks would make this place worthy of a 5 "bubble" rating.

We just finished 10 days at Aventura and had a GREAT trip. They have added a wine guy -- Edgar led a wine tasting and helped us with pairing at dinner and we used the funny money to pay for the wine upgrades. It made the meals spectactular. Another new feature was a Tequila tasting and Aldo did a magnificient job on this -- and introduced us to a chocholate tequila that was similiar to Baileys but with a litte more kick! Also also tended a pool bar and did some great drinks -- try a Butterfly to end the day after starting with a Sunrise!! Both have great personalities and know their stuff -- makes for great vacations! There was some construction going on on the Cove side, but did not interfere with our enjoying the entire facility. We have been to this resort before, but thought the food was even better this time around. The activities person, Jay, always has a smile on his face and leads the fun. Oh, one more item, the Chefs table -- it is an upgrade but you can use the funny money -- and this is a really special meal. Very well done -- and it came with wine pairing by Edgar!! Looking forward to going back to Aventura again. Understand it will be a Hard Rock once the renovation is complete. Evenings at the Martini bar out on the water seemed to always find people having fun.

Good points - Matusalem rum, Mayan coffee/show and deep fried ice cream. Bad points - non-working rum dispenser for 24 hours, blinding sun in east window at sunrise, aggressive merchants on craft night, absentee Sun Wing employees when you need them and unhappy wife because of issues with the resort. If wifey unhappy, then hubby unhappy!

I enjoyed being with my friends at this resort but the battle to get a chair outside was ridiculous. We were fortunate that two of our party of eight were early risers and had to grab chairs prior to 6am and still didn't get first choice on a place to enjoy the day. We only put our belongings on a couple of chairs and rotated them on who wanted to sit there. The mexican restaurant was lovely, definitely try the flaming coffee; the asian restaurant had crazy slow service. It took hours to get fed, but I did enjoy the food. The italian restaurant I would recommend just stay away from completely. The bartendars were good and the drinks were also good. The grounds are lovely. The housekeeping had difficulty with consistency, sometimes you got wash cloths ... and sometimes you didn't. A few of my group ended up with some nasty respiratory virus which was disappointing. The housekeeping cleaning for our room was not sufficient.