hi! my fiance and i went to cancun for a few days for our site visit and i feel like now i need to go on vacation!! it was so much work and we only got an hour on the beach...but we found our hotel!
initially i wanted a resort on the riviera maya, but they were all all-inclusive which doesn't work for me or they were super expensive, so we decided to try out cancun and i loved it! they just built a new terminal at the airport and it is gorgeous. the rates around cancun are really reasonable. it is easy to get around the hotel zone for our guests and there is so much to do in cancun.
we toured 7 different hotels, went to the costco (yes!), walmart, and market 28 (huge flea market down town), went to aquaworld for activity ideas and checked out some restaurants for a rehearsal dinner.
here is the summary of our hotel experience:
westin: far away from everything (at the end of the hotel zone), really nice beach, typical mexican style rooms, event planner there is not a wc so you have to bring in someone else, nice wedding areas and nice lagoon area for wedding
gran melia: we loved! huge property with incredible pool, glass pyramids on top of the hotel so when it is hot...it gets really hot inside, the rooms were the biggest we saw and had great decor, the spa was the nicest i have seen (maybe ever), the wc there was great and they had beautiful places for a wedding and were very willing to negotiate. hotel is next to fiesta americana and marriott...great location with 7 eleven and a few restaurants within walking distance but not near the club zone.
me: owned by same company as gran melia, very modern and beautiful, neat artwork around lobby, loud music playing by pool
hyatt caribe: beautiful! all the rooms face the ocean, the most expensive hotel we looked at, great wedding areas, not a big lobby, neat restaurants and bar, very helpful wc
hyatt regency: much more modern and sleek, near clubs, no beach but awesome view
intercontinental presidente: best beach we looked at (huge) and best rates, the beach had the calmest waters because it is on another size of the hotel zone where the road turns, older hotel but great job remodeling, nice basic rooms, cool lobby
our choice.........marriott casa magna!! i fell in love with this hotel and their wedding gazebo, more american than some of the other hotels, cozy rooms with comfy beds, soft sheets and towels, water you can drink, beautiful locations for weddings and parties, great event sales and wedding planning team, great location and connected to the jw marriott, we saw several weddings there during our visit and they were beautiful (except it rained!)
if you go on a site visit, a few tips:
~things look different on the website...check out
Reviews of vacations, hotels, resorts, vacation and travel packages - TripAdvisor to see guests pics of hotels and reviews...although i didn't agree with some of the reviews
~2 hotels gave us free rooms for our site visit
~ask if they have an onsite wedding coordinator
~ask about charge for delivering gift baskets
~ask to see rooms
~ask if there is a wedding going on while you are in cancun
~ask if there is a byob option...several of the places offer a corkage fee instead of an open bar per person and with costco and another huge liquor store this might be a good deal for you, depending on if you have big drinkers (some of the stores let you return unopened and not cooled alcohol)
~most of the tours took us 2 hours to tour and discuss details, quicker ones took 30 min.
let me know if you have any questions about our trip or hotel details.
i hope this helps!
~lauren
back from site visit...exhausted and relieved 
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