Hotel
We stayed at the all inclusive El Cid resort with our first week at the Hotel Marina El Cid Spa and Beach Resort where we had a two bedroom unit that faced the main pool of this phase of the resort. The decor was older than the rest of the resort but the rooms were large and clean.
 |
| View from room at Ventus |
The second week we stayed at Ventus at El Cid Marina where we had another two bedroom - this time on the top floor overlooking the main pool of this phase of the resort as well as overlooking the ocean. The rooms were more modern with one bedroom (where John and JoAnna stayed) and common room being very large. The second bedroom (where we stayed) had two double beds and was small. But overall still a very nice place.
We were able to use all of the pools across the resorts as well as dine in any of the restaurants. Overall, the food and the service were pretty good. The only downside to this resort was the beach - the view was not the best and there was quite a bit of seaweed washing up ashore.
 |
| One of the many pools - this one was the adults only pool |
Restaurants
We tried every restaurant across the three phases of the resort. Our favorite restaurants were:
- Mercado for lunch as you can try different cuisines buffet style. There was also a small cafe attached to this that had lots of desserts at lunch time but also a few grab and go items for breakfast.
- Italian for dinner - went here twice. We really liked one of the fish dishes. The second time was not as good as the first but still pretty good.
- French for dinner (surprisingly as we usually don't care for French restaurants) - had a yummy pork dish here. We went back two more times - the second time we got the pork again and the third time we had a fish dish which we did not like as much.
- Aakat for dinner which is an Iberio American - mainly lots of grilled dishes. We really liked this one the most. They have really good bread and the entrees were very tasty. Our first time there we split the hangar steak, duck enchiladas and a pasta dish. The second time there we had the steak again but then tried two new dishes - shrimp curry and a fish dish - all very tasty.
The buffet restaurant was pretty decent - what you would expect. We also had dinner at Kobo which is a hibachi place - food was tasty. Our least favorite restaurants were the Mediterranean (did not really offer much Mediterranean) and the Seafood places (located next to the marina - was not the nicest of the restaurants and food was just OK).
 |
| Dinner at Aakat |
Activities
Each day, for the most part, consisted of working out for two hours followed by a relaxing afternoon at the pool. Our favorite pools were the pools at the Ventus Ha resort across the street as well as the main pool and the adult only pool at the Ventus Marina. While the main pool at the Marina El Cid had the only swim up bar, we did not like this pool as it was filled with kids!
 |
| Enjoying the resort life! |
While there, we celebrated John's 55th birthday! They brought out a cake at dinner and we all sang while he had to wear this goofy napkin hat. And then our butler decorated the room as a surprise when we returned from dinner.
 |
| Birthday decorations in the room |
We also enjoyed some of the resort activities such as the bike tour into town (Porto Morales) which is a small, but cute (up and coming) town. We biked around the town stopping twice to walk around a bit. We went to a few of the evening activities including the magic show, the broadway show and the retro show, the latter two being pretty good. We also watched one duet band at the Waves bar. And when we had some downtime, we played cards either in the room or at one of the bars.
 |
| Bike ride into town |
We did manage to go a few excursions off property:
Tulum Tour - This tour included going to Tulum, swimming with turtles and swimming in a cenote. The tour company was great - picked us up on time, great communications beforehand and the guide was fun and super nice. Tulum was interesting with a beautiful setting on the ocean and swimming with the turtles was fun but the best part (albeit short) was swimming in the underground cenote. The water was cold but you got used to it - it was very cool to see the stalactites and stalagmites! We also got tacos for lunch which were pretty tasty. The only downside is that both Tulum and swimming with turtles were quite crowded - way too many people!!
 |
| Tulum |
 |
| Swimming in the cenote - album cover |
 |
| Snorkeling with sea turtles |
Boat Tour to Isla Mujeres - We were picked up at hour hotel at 7am and rode to Cancun (stopping at one other resort to pick up more people). We then boarded a catamaran and sailed to Isla Mujeres stopping twice to snorkel and swim. We did not snorkel at the first stop as the water was pretty choppy but we did swim and the second spot which was just off one of the beaches at Isla Mujeres. They served us lunch on the boat very early (it was around 9am) and lunch consisted of several cold items on a bento box - nothing spectacular. We also had drinks included while on the boat but since it was early we only had a couple of drinks before we docked and one on the way back to Cancun. The boat docked at Isla Mujeres and we got off the boat, having three hours to do what we wanted on the island. We chose to walk to the beach and hang out in the water as the water was beautiful. We had a few beers from the nearby beach club - Mayan Beach Club. We then walked back to the meeting point and had some fish tacos before boarding the boat to sail back to Cancun. We arrived back at our hotel around 4pm. Overall, it was fun but would have preferred a trip where we spent more time on the boat.
 |
| Isla Mujeres |
Xcaret - Really cool park with lots of activities. Everyone told us there is so much to do that it would take a whole day but we did everything we wanted in a little over four hours. We did not buy the transportation option as we wanted freedom to arrive and leave when we wanted which worked out in our favor as the taxi cost was the same and it allowed us to leave when we were done. When we first arrived, we put our stuff in lockers and then swam one of the underground rivers - the green one as we were told it was the prettiest. We had read to do the rivers early as they get crowded later in the day - great advice as when we went later on to do the second river, it was super crowded!! We walked most of the park, stopping to see the aquarium, sharks, manatees, sea turtles (which were really cute), butterfly garden and the aviary (which was the best part of all -- so many birds). There was an area to see pumas and jaguars but we never spotted any. While walking around, we did see a spider monkey, a tapir, and a coati. Towards the end, we also walked around the 'Discover Mexico' which has small replicas of many of the famous sites across Mexico.
 |
| Xcaret |
We all flew back together on Southwest and stayed at John and JoAnna's for another week to continue our road trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment