Aventura Spa Palace Adults Only All-Inclusive, Playa del Carmen

When we arrived, we were told that the whole facility would soon be renovated into a Hard Rock Hotels property. This is a shame, as I rather liked it the way it is/was. We played tag with Tropical Storm Ernesto on the flight in. After a quick trip through customs and immigration, we had a rather energetic van ride from the Cancun airport to the hotel. The Aventura managed to be impressive even in the rain. We quickly got settled. We had arrived hours before the rest of our party. When that room turned out to be way too far from the lobby and restaurants for my wife to handle (she's about to go in for Back Surgery #2), the bell staff moved us. The room hot tub is a real Jacuzzi, and I took full advantage. One reason the switch was so easily done was the Aventura Spa side was running about ten percent occupancy at the time. We were there in the perfect gap when all the adults were getting the kids back to school and it was too early for fall-winter crowds. Ernesto cancelled others. Their loss. The rain was over that night. Many people would consider this a problem. For my wife and I, it was a feature. I did not enjoy crowds even before a couple combat trips to the Middle East, and my wife REALLY dislikes noise and crowds after a Southern California childhood. To have a ghost town of a hotel that retained plenty of staff (by our standards, at least) was the best possible deal. My wife also swears the AC unit in that room didn't work as well, but I spent a lot more time outside and didn't notice. Still, pending renovation, a sharp eye can see where maintenance has been deferred. Yes, if you like extra-firm mattresses, you will love these. I do, I was happy. My sleep number is forty clicks higher than my wife's. She does not think of the mattresses as happily. Most of the US TV channels are Spanish-dubbed. Get over it. Wi-fi was flaky but fast. I cannot say enough nice things about the staff. Did a couple of them hustle for tips? Yes. The whole place was about to shut down for months. I cannot blame them for wanting an extra dollar if they busted their @$$ for it. Were the Aventura employees some of the nicest people I've ever met? Yes. I'd call for room service, be told 30-45 minutes, and they were never there in less than twenty. Do I wish their English was better? Yeah. Would it stop me from going back? No. Never had a problem getting my minibar refilled either. As would be expected for a place called the Aventura Spa Hotel, the spa is the attraction. My wife signed me up for an 80 min deep tissue, I told my tech up front that I am "impossible to work on too hard", and I ended up with a couple bruises to show for it. I've felt great for the two weeks since. Advice- if you get a massage appointment, go upstairs an hour early for the hydrotherapy. 10 min sauna, cold shower, 10 min steam room, cold shower, 20 of hot tub and cold "plunge pool". I liked the plunge pool so much I sketched it and measured it. I think I can build one in my back yard, it's only eight feet across. The pools are very nice, no deep spots or diving boards, and I never had to share one with more than 12 people on the Cove. Most also appeared to be enjoying the quiet. The main source of noise was the groundskeeping crew putting the place back together after Ernesto. I have no gripes with the food. Was the steakhouse on the Cove side overrated? Yes. I've had better rib eyes at Army formals. Did I eat more than enough helpings of the seafood mixed grill at the Italian place to come out even? Yes. The calamari too. And the beef teppanyaki at the Japanese place is GREAT, especially the serrano-pepper soy sauce. The sushi selection is very limited, but I expect the Hard Rock takeover will fix that. Now is the system gamed so you can never use all your gift shop credits? Yeah. Is the time-share presentation a waste? Didn't go. My mother-in-law fell on that grenade for the rest of our party. I miss it. I'd go back.

Liked how big the resort was and pool area. DISLIKED FOOD, SERVICE, HOUSE KEEPING FOOD- was absolutely horrible... the only thing good was the guacamole (lunch), fruit, and omlettes in morning. every restaurant and specialty restaurant was not good AT ALL SERVICE- Bartenders took forever as well as waiters/waitresses. Room service food was cold and gross. Dirty dishes took a long time outside the room to be taken. HOUSEKEEPING/BAR SERVICE- Room service was non existent! Beds were hard as rocks (receieved 2 mattress pillows (after 7 hours), but coulda used 5 mattress pads) . When the bar service did come to our room my wifes $100 bill was missing from her wallet and left the $10 bill (like we wouldnt notice!) I reccommend going anywhere besides this place. Save yor money!

We come back to Aventura at least once a year because this is a REAL vacation ! The resort, room, restaurants, activites, food & drink and guest services are the best of any where we have ever stayed. We think this is also our favorite place for romance after 32 years of marriage what a place to continue to reunite. Relaxing, fun, great food and beautiful views are just a few of what this resort has to offer.

We went here for a wedding and it was our first all-inclusive experience. The resort is huge and offers many things to keep you occupied (other than eating and drinking that is). The spa is really nice with the hydrotherapy room and services they provide. The resort allows you to use the resort credits really easily for things like the spa, wine upgrades (I recommend this if you want wine that is actually drinkable, the free wine is swill), golf...it's great. I took a yoga class there and it was a really great class, surprisingly so. We also did the water aerobics which we thought was a lot of fun and a good way to work out a bit while in the pool. The instructor didn't take it too seriously and made it fun even for us young folks! The grounds are super clean and all the lawns and plants are well manicured. I never saw trash, used plates or finished drinks laying around anywhere. The staff is well mannered and pleasant. The rooms are nice and our concierge room had a nice ocean view, with BioSilk bath products, a jacuzzi spa facing the ocean and a ton of free liquor. The bed was comfy and I slept well. The food I give a 3 out of 5 stars. We found that our meals were much better at the buffet places rather than at the menu-style restaurants on the property.

I can not speak for the Spa side, but we stayed on the Cove side. We are Palace Premier members(another mistake but that's another story). The hotel was understaffed. The service was substandard. The hotel was NOT crowded, which I could understand if this was the case. The pool bar had one bartender most of the time. Waiting for a drink was the norm, not the exception. The bartenders did not know how to make a lot of the requested drinks. Come lunch time, one restaurant only, but a nice buffet. But the hotel decided to bring bus loads of people from other resorts at lunch time. So no seats, long lines, totally unacceptable. Room service was ordered most evenings. They would leave the dirty plates, cups, trays etc outside the room until morning. Of course the birds loved this in the early morning. They would rattle the trays and plates and have their own buffet. They had a cell phone convention with lots of models. They had a VIP party on the family side, not the adult side????? Bottle caps were left all over the place and our son stepped on one and cut his foot. The pool tables had no 8 balls. I asked and was told they didn't have any. Hard to play without an 8 ball. We had an 8 day stay. They automatically checked us out on day 7. We were locked out of our room, no maid service that day either. No explanation or apology given. The resort planner was rude and was acting as if were bothering him so we went to Hugo, who was very helpful. Then of course there was a wedding and the guests who were showing up got the red carpet rolled out. We , as members just stood by and waited for them to call us a taxi while the bellhops ignored us. I did write a complaint when we got home. We did get a reply acknowledging the problems with this resort and how they were going to fix them. And to come on back and we will show you. That will be the day!!! There was a lot more issues with this place. I am not the type who usually complains. I can let a lot of things go. But this place was just awful. No mas! If you are traveling as couples only, we recommend Secrets Capri. Even though we had a great stay at Cancun Palace a year ago, Palace Resorts do not come close. Plus Secrets will not try and ram a membership down your throat. Anybody want to buy a Palace Resort membership, don't. You can have mine!

This was the worst vacation we have ever had. We went with two other couples, all experienced travelers, and we all felt the same way. The Hotel has no beach, just a small rock-barrier lagoon. The rooms are old and tired, as are the bathrooms with a bath tub/jacuzzi in the middle of each room, taking up alot of space and serving no purpose. The food was uniformly bad ( this was supposed to be a high end all-inclusive resort for adults-only) from the buffet restaurant to the "specialty" restaurants. Service was deplorable, and many servers understood almost no english. Fast food would have been better than the food served at this resort! The place had no entertainment in the evening beyond a short show featuring a third-rate comedian or magician and bar service was worse than extremely slow. Most importantly, the staff's primary goal was to sell time -shares and they spent virtually the whole week attempting to get us to meet with the sales staff. Our private concierge was useless, took care of none of our complaints, even when dragged to our table to see the 17 incorrect drinks that were brough to our table before a correct drink order was delivered (no exaggeration), and was basically a shill for the time share sales staff. Other tha the weather, which the hotel had nothing to do with, this vacation was without any redeeming value

My husband and I decided to come here for our honeymoon based on a recommendation from some friends. We are so happy we came and our expectations have been exceeded! We were greeted with drinks at the door, welcomed with smiles from everyone, treated like kings and queens! We paid for the concierge level, had a beautiful room with a jacuzzi, ocean view, and even services that included selecting the aromatherapy scents in our room daily along with a menu to select special pillows: aromatherapy, water, tempurpedic etc. We also received a $1500 resort credit which we have used to indulge in two 25 minute back massages, a couples 80 minute massage and we still have a day at the spa which includes a 50 minute massage, facials, a manicure for my guy and a pedicure for me. We also used our credit to buy a 3-pack of tequila, and a day trip to Coba an ancient Mayan ruin. The property is pristine, the bars are wonderful, activities have been fun! We rented kayaks and snorkels free of charge, found the perfect drink to order: the ceperina (sp?) white rum, lime, sparkling soda, and sugar. So refreshing! The food has been great too! We thought it would suck (mainly because I have been to an all-inclusive before and it did) but it's yummy! They have Italian, greek, Mexican, Asian etc! The only complaint I have is the room service for breakfast-not great, but that's okay, because the breakfast buffet is awesome, as long as we wake up and head over! We have been very impressed by the hospitality, service, and friendliness of the staff. They even leave towels in your room in the shapes of animals when they clean it! Swans, rabbits etc. Too cute. The attention to detail here is top notch. We are so happy we came here. Tomorrow we are checking out Xplor (a day trip down the road where you can zipline, drive amphibious vehicles (they go in water and on land), and snorkel in caves! We plan on spending one more day at the luxurious spa on Sunday and taking a trip in to Playa del Carmen at one of the other palace resorts (Playacar). This has been the most incredible honeymoon!!! No need to look elsewhere!

My husband and I went to Aventura Spa Palace for our honeymoon and fell in love with it! In fact, We went back the following year and in 2 months, will be there again! There literally isn't one negative thing I can think of in all of our time there that would make me ever want to go anywhere else! Definitely well worth the money..

Went there in Nov 2008 after paying several thousand dollars for the all-inclusive, full-service treatment. We were treated like a king and queen for the first day at which time we were told we had to attend their timeshare presentation. I refused as I did not go there on a discount but paid full price for the relaxation (as I was on RnR from Iraq at the time). On the second day, I was told that I had to fill out a form declining the timeshare offer. The form stated that the Adventura could charge me any additional charges they saw fit and that I assumed responsibility for anything and everything that happened from that point forward. I noted this halfway through filling it out so I refused to sign it and pocketed it. I walked away from the attendant who ran after me and physically grabbed me. He threatened me and demanded that I return the form, which I refused as it had my information filled on it. I broke contact and he grabbed me again, which caused a stand-off in the lobby. When the manager finally arrived, he asked if I would walk to his office and shred the form, which I agreed to do. I inquired if it was the hotel policy to have his staff physically mishandle the guests. He apologized and offered us a free visit to the spa, which I eventually accepted under my fiancee's guidiance. The spa was very nice and the staff there was very good. The following day, the staff indicated that we were being downgraded and were to move to their alternate facility which is where those who didn't accept the timeshare are sent upon declining the offer. I refused to move and had another meeting with the manager, during which I reminded him that I didn't come on a timeshare offer but paid full price. He first said I had no choice but when I threatened to sue, he agreed to let us stay. Ironically, another man was arguing with a different staff member about the same thing when I left the office. Two days later, I learned that those who bought the timeshares discovered afterwards that their purchases weren't for the Spa Palace as they believed but were for the alternate location at Playa Del Carmel. That location is on the beach but is equal to a moderately priced/low grade apartment not a luxury resort. The staff presents the luxury resort as the timeshare when in fact, they sell a different location. I consider this fraud but apparently it was legal but BUYER BEWARE IN THIS CASE! The included daytrips take an average of 8-10 hours, of which only 2 hours are allowed to see the Mayan ruins, etc. At least 3-4 hours is spent holding the patrons hostage at gift shops where you are stressed to buy "their friends" merchandise and show your appreciation. The rest is traveling and moving from place to place to pick up everyone. I personally rented a car the 2nd day and ignored the included trips, even though we'd paid for them. Tickets to enter the various ruins are about $3-$4 each. A word of warning here is that you must be comfortable being out and about on your own and beware of the many, many speed traps which are often before the speed signs. The grounds themselves at the Spa Palace are incredible! The dinners were also outstanding. The staff is generally very pleasant but those involved in the timeshare and management leave much to be desired. As noted, at one point I was threatened and physically grabbed. Also, at one point in my negotiations, the manager threatened that he already had my credit card info and would make whatever charges he wished. That is when I threatened to sue him. Unless you go under their timeshare offer, I would pick another hotel. If you go as the timeshare, its a great deal but beware of the bait and switch if you consider buying. The same trips package is used by several of the hotels. The resort itself is absolutely gorgeous and the staff was initially ideal. The lower-level staff was excellent the entire time.

The hotel staff were remarkable. Most gracious, cheerful, helpful and always available when you needed help. I can not say enough about the splendid customer service we received. I can hardly wait to go back. Philomena