Can anyone offer me any location advice?

[MandaGracie]

Hello All!

 

I have spent the past few days waist deep in posts all over this forum. I have "narrowed" things down a bit... but I haven't managed to get it down to one yet. I just sent a letter to my TA and wondered if I could ask this board the same questions and see if anyone has any personal recommendations or advice. I realize that I will have to take the good with the bad wherever I end up, so I am not looking for perfection.

 

My current options are:

Grand Palladium

Moon Palace

Paradisus Riviera

Occidental Grand

The Barcelo Complex

The Iberostar Complex

 

I am looking for:

A great suite for Mitchell and I... something unique or special, not a normal room

A beautiful beach wedding structure or area on the beach

An option for a reception in an open air setting even if it is not private, a beautiful setting that shows off the surroundings

Good Food :-)

a great pool and a swimable beach

Some sort of WOW factor for the guest

 

Also... I expect a small group for the wedding... 20-30 (not sure yet)

And I am thinking March 2009

 

Thanks in Advance

-Amanda

[MrsV-to-be]

Hi! well I haven't been down to the area at all, so obviously I haven't been to any of these resorts. However, Paradisus was on my short list of resorts. I think it would meet all of your criteria. there are rooms that you can upgrade into, it has an open air concept area where you can have a reception. and from the pictures I have seen of it - the buildings look beautiful.

I'm sure youv'e seen Adam's girl's review of it and her pictures - but I thought it looked and sounded like an amazing place.

 

As for the rest - sorry I don't know too much about them!

[madenerg2]

I wrote a review on Moon Palace from my May '07 site Visit. If it's no longer on the forum, I can send you a copy with pictures. I eventually chose the Paradisus because it was great for my group of 80 people and it includes a lot of the activities that other resorts charged extra costs for. For a group of your size you should consider AZUL BEACH - I wrote a review on this site and have pictures on it that I can send you also. PM if you'd like me to send them to you! Best to you with your search -You'll find the best one.

[melglnh2o]

Picking the location is the hardest part, at least for me anyway. Will you be able to do a site visit?

 

I have been to the Moon Palace, Paradisus and OGX. I stayed at the Moon Palace for a friend's wedding and it was beautiful. I stayed at OGX for a site visit and also visited Paradisus on that same site visit. The OGX is a great hotel with a jungle like feel but if you are wanting a great beach, forget about this place. It has a man-made beach that is tiny. The Paradisus was beautiful and we loved the layout. It was amazing and I think the look would give your guests a WOW factor.

 

All of the hotels you have mentioned are all very large. Have you considered looking at smaller places so your guests will not seem so lost? An option that comes to mind is the Omni Puerto Aventuras.

 

Good luck!

[MandaGracie]

Thanks so much everyone The reason I have chosen larger resorts is because my group is small... but they are not all friends! I have divorced parents, and Mitchell has divorced parents... so we like the idea that everyone will be able to spread out and enjoy their time. That was really part of why we chose to have this type of a wedding in the first place. I just couldn't imagine everyone in one ROOM together

[MissyR]

I have visited the Grand Palladium and the Paradisus - of course I am a little bias but for me the reason I chose the Paradisus was that it was about 1/2 the size of the GP and the ceremony area was more private - the GP was beautiful - just a little too big for me!

[nylalany]

I've visited the Grand Palladium, Paradisus, and Barcelo. You can look up my review on all the places I visited - there were a ton and I was pretty detailed. Of these 3, I thought the Paradisus had better food and amazing pool and grounds were pretty, and the Barcelo had better beach, and the Palace had pretty nice grounds. Palladium felt too crowded.

[MelissaH]

Well if not everyone gets along the Barcelo is great because it's so huge that you can easily stay away from each other! There were 2 couples in our group that we only ran into on our wedding day and welcome breakfast - the rest of the week they were nowhere to be found! They were hanging out on the beach apparently, but there was so much space to cover that we never managed to run into them!

[TATrisha]

Alright, this is ONLY from friend's reviews that I know this... I have NEVER been to these places... but...

Moon Palace - if a good beach is what you are looking for, look elsewhere. Although some call it "swimable" it's really not a great beach.

Palladium - My friends that went weren't impressed at all. They hated the food and thought the resort was a little run down for what they paid.

[lambert13]

Dreams Tulum? I think that may fit some of your criteria too.

 

I would start by making a chart with different resorts and what your requirements are. Then you can see side-by-side how they compare to each other. Search around here, Flickr, Google images, etc for photos of weddings at the resorts. Read reviews here, Trip Advisor (take with a grain of salt), locogringo.com , playa.info , etc.