For my 40th birthday I was lucky enough to spend 2 weeks in Mexico – 1 week at El Dorado Casitas Royale and 1 week at Excellence Riviera Cancun – and wow what an experience! It was to be my first time to Mexico and I was very excited!
We drove down to Gatwick the day before and stayed in an airport hotel the night before the flight. The next morning we got a shuttle transfer to Gatwick where we checked in and relaxed in the No1 Gatwick lounge. This was a great start to the holiday as we had comfy sofas, a complimentary breakfast, and drinks, and we could see all the planes taking off and landing with mounting excitement!
It was soon time to board the plane and we had a long but comfortable journey with British Airways, thanks to the on board entertainment and complimentary drinks! We filled in a tourist card on the plane ready for when we landed, and although there is a departure tax when leaving Mexico this was included in our ticket costs because we flew with BA.
Walking outside at Cancun airport was certainly an interesting experience with all the taxi drivers touting for business, and the heat was a glorious 31 Degrees! In fact, the weather was between 27 and 32 degrees throughout our holiday, so every day was warm and welcoming. We soon found our Jumbo rep and were on our way to El Dorado Casitas Royale. Once we arrived we were greeted with a cold towel and a glass of sparkling wine and transferred on one of their golf buggies to the Casitas Reception where we were made very welcome and given lots of information about our stay. We were allocated a gorgeous first floor Casitas Suite with a giant bed, an outside shower, and an in-room Jacuzzi, and were greeted in our room with a bottle of sparkling wine, fresh fruit, and a beautiful flower arrangement. A very fine welcome indeed.
We soon familiarised ourselves with the huge resort and spent our time either by our Casita block’s own pool which had a swim up bar (great cocktails Nadal!) or on the beach. All the resort restaurants were fantastic and we had breakfast at Cocotal most mornings (apart from the morning that we missed breakfast due to ‘sampling’ too many of the cocktails!), and our favourite restaurant was Jojo’s Seaside Grill where the Caribbean fish and chips were to die for! One night we took advantage of the hotel’s excursion to Playa Del Carmen. Playa is a very vibrant place with loads of bars and restaurants to choose from, and we had a great night sampling the Tequila Barrel and others, so much so that we decided not to catch the transfer back to the hotel and caught a local taxi (which was very reasonably priced!) in order to spend as much time as we could in this wonderful city.
2 days into our week at El Dorado was my 40th Birthday, so we dined that evening at D’Italia Casitas restaurant (yummy!) and strolled back to our room. We let ourselves in to find that the maid had decorated the room with balloons, rose petals, and a towel swan, and had even run a Jacuzzi bath for us. My partner seemed to take this as his cue, and proposed to me! I of course said yes, and he put a beautiful diamond ring on my finger! Wow, what an amazing day!
All too soon it was time to check out and catch our transfer to Excellence Riviera Cancun.
After a short air-conditioned transfer with Jumbo we were greeted at Excellence Riviera Cancun like old friends, with cold towels and sparkling wine. We were allocated a Junior Suite with a pool view and the room was lovely, and after unpacking we went for a walk around. We dined that evening in Basmati, the Indian restaurant, and the food was delicious. All the restaurants at Excellence were excellent (as the name would suggest!) but our favourites were Chez Isabelle (French) and The Grill, as the food and service in both was fantastic. All the resort staff were exceptionally thoughtful and always greeted us with a ‘Hola’ and a smile.
I awoke one morning to find a couple of insect bites, so I would suggest taking some insect repellent if you’re planning a holiday to Mexico. Nevertheless, we decided it would be nice to walk along the beach to Puerto Morelos which was around 2.5 miles from Excellence. It was a lovely walk passing other hotels on the way but I was ready for a cold drink when I got there! We browsed around the little shops and bought some glazed terracotta bowls and gifts for family back home.
Overall my 2 weeks in Mexico were the best 2 weeks of my life and I didn’t want to leave. I chose El Dorado Royale and Excellence Riviera Cancun for our holiday because I had heard fantastic reports about both, and we weren’t disappointed!
I would recommend both hotels to anyone (they are both adults only) as they are amazing and the standard of service, food, and cleanliness could not be faulted. We now have the ‘long haul’ travel bug and are very much looking forward to our next Caribbean holiday!
