Wedding Forum - Honeymoon to Mexico?!...

I've been 3 times, and stayed at the Valentin Imperial Maya, the Excellence Riviera Cancun, and the Royal Playa del Carmen: all are 5* adult-only resorts, in the £1450 (if you get a good deal) to £1800+ price bracket.

If you give me your dates, departure airport and budget, as well as any essential criteria (beaches for example can be variable; so if you want a great beach, this will limit your options (the beaches are generally pretty to look at, but swimming isn't great)) I'll happily take a look for you, and give you my recommendations, as I'm familiar with most of the hotels offered by UK tour operators.

Yeah; I personally would not stay in Cancun; been once (for one night) and hated it (my only exception to that would be Le Blanc, but it costs a fortune lol)

Will have a look and get back to you! If you PM me your email address/facebook details it might be easier for me to contact you that way, as then I can provide links etc. :-)

OK, so far the cheapest departure dates with TC are 22nd Sept and 14th Oct, form London Gatwick. The below is based on the 14 Oct, but there's little difference between that and the 22nd Sept:

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: £2140. Modern resort, nice rooms, selection restaurants (reservations required). Beach is not good though; you have been warned.

Gran Porto Real: £2496. Nice resort, beach is OK (I've stayed at the Royal next door; there are sandbags, which make walking tough-going in parts, but it's nice to look at, and if you walk a couple minutes to the right it's better). Right in the heart of Playa del Carmen, fab location, nice rooms, decent food and drink.

Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya: £2328. Gets consistently good reviews, large choice of restaurants (reservations required, 3 per week). Good pool area.

If you can stretch the budget, look at the Select Club room at the Sandos Caracol Eco Resort and Spa (£2658): this is an adult only section with it's own pool and buffet, and a la cartes, as well as access to the family resort, and has perks inc better drinks, 24 hour room service, etc. Rooms are gorgeous. Well worth stretching to if you can.

Might I also suggest looking at the Gran Bahia Principe Esmeralda (£2460 dept 8th Oct with TC). My OH and I went in June and are hoping to go again next summer; we LOVED it. Beautiful rooms with 4-poster beds, 24 hour room service, mini-bar inc liquor, free wi-fi at the pool and bar, it's own buffet restaurant, plus access to over a dozen a la cartes (reservations required, but they can be booked before your stay, and are unlimited). The whole complex is huge, and has a karaoke bar, disco, shops, theatre etc as well as several pools. As an Esmeralda guest, you also get to use the facilities of the adult-only Ambar section inc their pool, bar, snack bar, and a la cartes. I would highly recommend it.

Will post Thomson/FC options in a minute :-)

We were very tempted by the Riu Tequila and my friend has stayed there and raved about it x

Sorry, forgot to say the the Bahia Principe Esmeralda is in Punta Cana Dom Rep, not Mexico!

Please what ever you do, please do not stay at blue bay we booked a few years ago and people where getting broken into and things being stolen so we moved and We stayed at grand Sirenis and it was amazing.

Also remember as its September your still in the raining season so you might have a few days of rain. If you want to see any pictures let me know also the beach is amazing and you can swim in the sea and there are loads of pools

Hope you find the one! Let us know where you decide to go :) x

mrs k2b and officially mrs mann - we're thinking of going to the grand sirenis for our honeymoon - u wud definately recommend it? is there much to do in mexico ie with trips n that? i really want to see the chich kan - SPELLING :S one of the seven wonders? but i duno if thats posible! Is that hotel ok being so far away from the resort centre?
Its definately our fav - and I think its hot in may which is when wed be aiming to go xx

nicola: there's loads to do. We've done the ruins at Tulum, Coba, and Chichen Itza, been to Selvatica (zip-line park), done ATVs, speedboats and parasailing, visited Crococun zoo (you can feed and interact with loads of different animals inc wild spider monkeys), done Coco Bongos (hated it!), done a dive, and snorkelled; and there's still things we'd like to do!

millz: give me a shout if you have any questions. The above are my recommendations for your budget; if you can stretch it, it would open up a lot more options eg £1450 pp would get you 2 weeks at the Valentin Imperial Maya, which is excellent. I'd also def look at the Bahia Principe Esmeralda in Punta Cana as well, as IMO, it offers the best value for money of all the ones I've given you :-)

Good thinking on Spring Break.... i will check the dates as we want peace hence going out of school holidays too as actually getting married in August but not going until September/October time.

Thanks for all your advice, there is just soooo much choice so tonight we are going to get laptop, pen and paper out and go through all your suggestions and all travel agents and whittle it down and get it booked then i cant change my mind anymore haha xxx

Thanks for goggling it.... it is couple hundred quid cheaper if we go first week of October as prices straight dropping so going to go for then i think. The more money we save the more we have as spending money xxx

I really want to go back now

Im going to have a look at prices now :) and we would be going around the same time as you as were getting married on the 28th September. What date are you looking for in October?

Yeah sure its Lorraine Smith and its the same picture as the one below or my H2B is Peter Kokas and he has the same picture :)

No problem :)

Are you both wearing sunglasses?

Yeah I didnt think you would find me :) there are too many of them in the world hehe

Found me !! xxx

my niece just got back an hour ago from Gran Bahia Principe Club Hacienda Tulum.......she is gutted to be back.....she is booking up again for next year this weekend.

Ooh, where?

If you go, you really must spend at least 2 nights in Havana, it's just amazing!

FYI if you book with thomson's there dreamliner is flying there from April next year and it is gorgeous!!!

TC is fine, don't worry :-) Flown with them, Thomson, First Choice and Virgin, and honestly, there's no real difference. The Dreamliner does look nice, but the seat pitch is the same, and the benefits IMPO are negligible; a few extras like being able to plug your iPod into the TV, quieter etc, which I'm not too fussed about personally :-)

Glad to hear you liked them :-) I think there's a bit of a snobbery thing about airlines lol; I hear loads of people rave about Virgin, and I found them AWFUL. Free drinks does not make up for poor customer service and dodgy IFE >-(

Oooh been looking at moon palace and that looks really nice. Considering grand palladium. We were considering Cuba originally as would love to go to Havana but the brochures made it look like you get so much more for your money in Mexico x