The Grand Mayan at Vidanta Riviera Maya

Top Ten List to Enjoy Your Stay at Grand Mayan, Riviera Maya.

1) Pre-arrange for the free Grand Mayan shuttle bus from the airport in Cancun. (By phone or via their web site). Then, look for the red-shirted Grand Mayan transportation folks outside. Don't get hooked by anyone else (like RCI), who will try to rope you into another resort's timeshare presentatiion.

2) Press hard for rooms in building 3 or 4 when you check in. This will give you a 3 minute walk to the Grand Mayan Pool, and a 6 minute walk to the enormous Mayan Palace Pool, beachand restaurants. Plus, you're right across the street from the golf course, and 19th hole restaurant. Building 1 or 2 are even closer to the pools and restaurants, but they were rebuilding the lobby right next door when we were there (in March of '08) , complete with construction noise.

3) It's not Kanapaali Beach - the shoreline IS rocky. But once you're out 30 yards into the ocean, it's refeshing and exhilirating! But a pair of Crocs for $20 bucks before you go, and walk right into the surf. Then, wear the same Crocs to dinner. They're the only shoes you need here!

4) Restaurants are very good, and reasonably priced. Havana Moon sits right on the ocean, with the ocean breeze wafting through the open doors at night. Good bands almost every night at 8:00 p.m. Delicious seafood at havana Moon - try the curry shrimp. Or, they have an evening buffet right on the beach! Dinner at upscale Tramonto was superb. Make a reservation for 8:00 p.m., and hit the Tramonto Bar at 7:00 p.m. for happy hour (2 for 1 drinks). One of the best kept secrets is the 19th hole restaurant - sitting right on the first tee: good breakfast buffet (try the huevos rancheros) and lunch (a tasty pannini), and its never crowded. If you choose to attend the timeshare presentation, you can stuff yourself at the awesome (and complimentary) breakfast buffet at Del Lago.

5) To stake out your cabana shade by the pool, rotate designated "towel placers" from your party to hit the pool every morning at 7:00 a.m. Find a cabana you like, and place your towels on lounge chairs to "hold your space". Then, go have breakfast. Splurge one day and rent a Palapa bed for $30 (reserve a day or two in advance, at 7:00 a.m. while you're on a morning towel placing run). Shade is very important - don't expect to find it at 10:30. Remember the sunscreen, and a good hat!

6) There is less traffic on the beach - you can usualy find a cabana or even palapa bed (no charge) on the beach even at 8:30 a.m. Spend a day people - watching at the beach! Rent a Wave Runner, parasail, or just chill.

7) If you want to take advantage of a $100 incentive and 10% off your entire bill (food, drinks), sign up for the timeshare presentation. If you keep saying "no" early and often, you can be in and out of the presentation in under 2 hours (including free breakfast). If you show them a glimmer of interest to the sales sharks, expect to be there 3.5 hours, or until you buy. If you don't want to attend the presentation, simply tell your Concierge very firmly at check-in. You are under no obligation to attend!

8) By all means, take a day trip into Playa del Carmen. If you have a party of 4 or more, it's more cost effective to take a taxi into PDC -- $20 each way, + tip. Our taxi driver dropped us off, then returned 4 hours later to pick us up, after we had dinner and hit the Mega grocery store to stock up on agua and cerveza. If you're a party of two, it's cheaper to take the shuttle, but you are at the mercy of scheduled departure and return times. Book the shuttle two days in advance.

9) If you like riding 2 hours in a crowded bus, and standing outside in the blazing sun - do the Chichen Itza tour. (For Chichen Itza, it's better to add a day onto the front end of your week, rent a car, drive there from the Cancun airport, spend the night in a local hotel, and be at Chichen Itza when they open at 8:00 a.m. Then, you can hike up to the top of the pyramid, take your photographs, be out of there before the heat and caravans of tour busses invade at 10:00.) If you want to see ruins, a shorter trip would be Tulum, which you can combine with a visit to Xel-Ha water park. If you like to snorkel, there's a day trip to Cozumel that's fantastic.

10) Check Out is slower than we're used to in the states, so allow some more time for that. Save some pesos to tip the maids who clean and tidy up your room TWICE a day. Book your return shuttle bus trip to the airport a few days early, for a small fee. Get to the cancun airport 2 hours early.

Enjoy!

Pete Graves March 2008

We stayed at the Grand Mayan from June 10th through to the 17th. The reason for our trip was to find a wedding spot and resort for us and our 30 guests for February of 2007. I made appointments with tonz of resorts and there wedding coordinators. We took tours of about 8 resorts and were so happy that we did this and didn't just go by the pictures on the net or other peoples reviews. There beaches in the riviera are not very nice and are definitally not what someone is picturing in there head for a beach wedding.

As far as the resort we stayed at goes the only reason I gave this resort 2 stars instead of one is because it really is a beautiful resort. The rooms are very nice and everyone of them has a balcony. You can crank up the air conditioning so that when you get back to your room from tanning in the hot sun it's like, ahhhhhhhhh! They give you bath oil, bubble bath, and a cented candle as a gift so that you can enjoy the two person hot tub that is in the large bathroom but has doors that open up to the bedroom/livingroom so that you can watch TV or just see another person who may be on the bed or out on the balcony. I really did like the room and it was a very nice size.

Plus it has a great pool with cabana beds everyplace. It was nice laying on them and relaxing while you ordered your food and drinks from the waiters walking by (you have to wave them down or they won't stop to see if they can get you anything) Now for all of the stuff that made this resort a 2 star for me.

You literally have to walk a half mile to get anywhere in the resort (not dramatized at all). You will want to bring your own alcohol because the drinks are so watered down that even after drinking four drinks from the swim up bar for 6 dollars a piece all within about 1 hour I didn't even get a buzz (and I don't drink very often).

Even if you do bring your own alcohol and large thermal cups (we did) to keep your drinks from melting before you get the the pool or beach that is truly a half mile away you have to force yourself to walk all of the way back to your room to make another drink when you are done and this is such a hassel that you end up just not drinking at all. If you want to drink you would be better off going to Playadel.

There is a very good dinner buffet and breakfast buffet but they are so much money that it's reduculous in my opinion. $25 a person for the dinner and $17 a person for the breakfast.

There is entertainment in the evenings from 9 to 11 but when the shows stop there is no music and everyone is really bumbed out and they all go back to there rooms. It's like you are forced to stop having fun on your vacation. Who ever heard of time on vacation anyways? There was really no night life unless you left the resort. You can catch a van that says Playadel Express on the side of it for only $1 a person each way into Playadel Carmen and that is a lot of fun and feels safe. Taxis are outragious and are very negotiable so don't ever pay what they ask for the first or second time. Plus if you do take a taxi make sure you pay them right when you get into the car because otherwise when you get there they will tell you that you owe them something different that what you agreed on. Our favorite way to travel was bus. It's air conditioned, spacious, and only $2.50 a person.

The beach was horrable. There were rocks everywhere and if you wanted to go into the water to actually swim the waves threw you into the rocks and you got all cut up. Not good if you like swimming in the ocean!!!!

We disliked the resort so much (bored) that we left eveyday and so I wanted to tell about a beach that we found that was truly amazing!!!!!!! Free to get in and it was just like the corona commercials and I'm not kidding. I thought beaches only looked this way in pictures that had been messed with in photo shop but this was jaw dropping glorious. A hidden paradise that you have to go for the entire day and night. There are rooms there so if you wanted to stay for the entire week they are only $60 a night and this place was better than anything we saw our entire trip and we saw a lot! It's called Hotel Paraiso but you don't have to pay to get in to the beach if you don't stay at the hotel. The drinks weren't watered down and the food was good. Still on the spendy side but at least there was alcohol in the drinks. The night life goes until very late on Thursday through Saturday and on the other nights you can take a taxi for $5 into town and go to the bars there until whenever. The bar at the beach has swing chairs and normal tables and chairs. They have a huge bonfire at night and there are blue beds to match the ocean water during the days. To sum it up in a few words I would say it's a romantic, simple, intimate, rustic, tropical, hidden paradise.

The only other place that we went that I recommend definitally going to if you like to snorkel is a place called the Yal-Ku Lagoon in Akumal. You will have to take taxi there but it isn't that far away from the Paraiso so it should only cost you about $10 to get there or less. If you bring your own snorkeling gear it only cost $5 to get into the park and then you can snorkel as long as you want. There are NO WAVES at all and there are tonz of fish everywhere!!!!!!! You can't where sunscrean though so I recommend wearing a teeshirt to protect your back, shoulders, and neck. I don't know if there is anything you can do about your legs. Don't rent a life jacket because you can't sink even if you try to. We had the best time snorkeling here and truly saw hundreds of fish.

This is all I can say about our trip. If we were to do it all again we would stay at the Paraiso for the entire week and we would definitally go back to the Yal-Ku Lagoon!

Have a great trip! Lisa & Matt