We love traveling to Mexico.  We go every Summer.  I have stayed at lots of different resorts and I definitely have my favorites.  I shared sneaks of our trip this summer on Instagram stories and yall had lots of questions so here is a recap of my favorite Mexico resorts.

Since we live in Texas traveling to Mexico is such an easy vacation.  It is so close, the beaches are amazing, the resorts are beautiful and the prices are great.  Growing up we would go here with my family every summer and that tradition has continued in my adult life.  Each summer we take a couples trip with some of our best friends the Tuckers.  I look forward to it every single year!  It is so much fun, so relaxing and I really wouldn’t change a thing.  Last year we did our annual couples trip and we all went back together with our kiddos as well.  We plan on doing something with both families every year, but not sure it will always be Mexico.

Just a little back story of how we ended up going on an annual couples trip with the Tuckers.  One night, many years ago we were all at dinner and Leslie and I were talking about how we love traveling to the beach, but we enjoy a very different beach vacation than our husbands.  We both like to lay out, read books, nap, drink way too many margaritas, enjoy the amazing food and pretty much just relax all day long.  Both of our husbands are the complete opposite.  They like to get the activity sheet in the morning and do activities ALL.DAY.LONG. . .NON-STOP!!  This led to both of us not living our best life on beach vacations with our hubbies because everyone was compromising and no one was really doing what they wanted to do.  Now, that life is busier and time away is more difficult we all want to do what we want to do on vacay. . .so the birth of a beautiful thing happened!  Annual couples trips!  It is seriously the best thing ever!!  Leslie and I lay out all day, the guys play all day and then we all get cleaned up for dinner and enjoy the entire evening together.  It is a total game changer.  We have now been on 6 Mexico trips together (lots of other trips as well. . .just not Mexico) and we are just getting started!  They are some of our closest friends. . . “framily”. . .we all travel together so well and our kids are close to the same age and all friends.  It is a dream situation.

Now that we have covered all of that. . . the number one question I get asked is what is my favorite Mexico resort?

FAVORITE MEXICO RESORTS

#1 SECRETS MAROMA BEACH

Via Secrets Maroma Beach Website

We have been to Secrets Maroma Beach 3 times now on our couples trip and will probably go back many many more times.  It is incredible and my number 1 pick.  All 4 of us agree it is the best place ever!  Now, for a disclaimer. . .everyone travels differently and has different interests, but for us. . .it is the best.  I have recommended this resort to many of you and several different friends and everyone who has gone has loved it.  The reviews online are also amazing.  It is located in Playa Del Carmen just about 20 minutes from the airport. You can read about our last trip there HERE

• ADULTS ONLY: This is important to me.  If I am traveling without my kids I want to be at a resort with no kids.
• ALL INCLUSIVE: I love an all inclusive resort.  It is just so easy.  You don’t have to walk around with money anywhere or even think about how much something costs.  It is totally stress free.  If a drink gets watery, order another one.  If you order something you don’t like, order something else.  It just makes the vacation even more relaxing because it is one less thing to think about
• RESORT: The resort is absolutely beautiful.  It is crisp white,  feels like you are on a tropical getaway, has a wonderful wide open layout, it smells amazing (they have a signature scent they release throughout the resort), they pay attention to every detail. . .for example when you arrive at the resort and before dinners they have amazing hand towels soaked in their signature scent for you to clean your hands, wipe your face, etc.  They even pass cold ones out around the pool while you are laying out.
• FOOD: The food is amazing.  There is a huge buffet restaurant and then there are 6 gourmet dining restaurants including sushi/hibachi, steak house, seafood restaurant, french restaurant, mexican restaurant and an Italian restaurant.  Every single one is incredible!!  There is also a pool side cafe and you can order food poolside that is delivered by waiters.  Also there is 24 hour room service to your room.
• ROOMS:  The rooms are incredible.  We always do the cheapest room and they are huge, beautiful, have a special door for room service to be delivered 24 hours without disturbing you, have a comfortable bed and a seating area.  There is a huge tub and lots of storage.
• CUSTOMER SERVICE:  Excellent.  They are there to help you every step of the way.  The staff is also amazing.
• BEACH: Hands down the best beach.  It is HUGE, clean, private, the water is crystal clear, tons of lounge chairs, they provide large thick towels and you can take as many as you want.  There is no card or anything you have to carry.  So many beaches in Mexico have lots of seaweed and this beach is completely clean!  See photo below.
• POOL:  They have 2 huge pools.  One has a swim up bar, the other is an infinity pool.  There are plenty of very comfortable lounge chairs all around the pool and plenty of umbrellas.  There are also swim up pools to the hotels if you choose that type of room.
• ENTERTAINMENT:  The entertainment staff does a great job.  There is a club (although we never go) and nightly shows.  There are also tons of activities all day long. They boys do these, the girls rest.  The shows are night are really good.  They have several cirque type shows.

Overall I literally don’t have one complaint about this hotel.  That is why it is hard for us to stay anywhere else because we like this one so much.  I will say, we never leave the resort.  Local attractions are not important to us, so if this is important to you you may want to research what is near by.  I am not familiar with the options. We have been other great places that I will mention below, but Secrets Maroma Beach is absolutely amazing. It has been awarded a 2018 Travelers’ Choice Award for being in the top 25 All-Inclusive Resorts Worldwide. This award is determined by the millions of personal reviews TripAdvisor receives each year.

Relaxing on the beach at Secrets Maroma Beach

#2 EXCELLENCE PLAYA MUJERES

Via the Excellence website

We have only been to Excellence Playa Mujeres once, but we all loved it!  Honestly, we liked it as much as Secrets Maroma Beach.  The reason I placed it at #2 is because I have only been 1 time so I don’t know it as well and Secrets has been amazing all 3 times we have been.  Having said all of that we are planning on going back here this upcoming summer.  We are all super excited to try it again.  I pretty much have all the same things to say about this resort that I said about Secrets Maroma Beach.   It is also adults only and all inclusive.  The resort beautiful, the food amazing (has tons of restaurants), the beach huge and clean, the pools fantastic. . .it was incredible!  The only thing is make sure you book transportation from the hotel.  At Secrets it is all included.  When we went here we though it was included and it wasn’t so we had to take a cab.  It was fine, but I am not thrilled about riding in a cab around Mexico.  I also highly, highly recommend this resort!

#3 SECRETS AKUMAL

via the Secrets website

This summer we went to Secrets Akumal.  Since we loved Secrets Maroma Beach so much we decided to try it out another Secrets property.  It is the newest Secrets resort.  We had an amazing time.  The resort was absolutely beautiful.  Here is my full review.  Secrets Maroma Beach is still my favorite over this one, however. . .this resort was incredible.  It is in Akumal which is about an hour and a half from the airport.

• ADULTS ONLY
• ALL INCLUSIVE
• RESORT: The resort is absolutely beautiful. The lobby is stunning.  It is elevated so when you walk in you have an amazing view in front of you.  You feel like you are in a jungle at this resort.  It felt hotter than Maroma Beach because there are trees everywhere so less breeze coming through however all the vegetation made it
• FOOD:  I am not even sure how this is possible, but I think the food was the best at this resort.  Secrets Maroma Beach is amazing food so it is very hard to top, and this resort did it.  The main way is because the buffet restaurant (where we eat breakfast every morning) had a huge assortment.  It had everything you could possibly think of.  It has all the same restaurants and everything as Maroma Beach
• ROOMS:  The rooms are incredible.  They decor is different than Maroma Beach, but just as amazing.
• CUSTOMER SERVICE:  Excellent.  They are there to help you every step of the way.  The staff is also amazing.
• BEACH: Ok, this is the part that made this resort not as great for me.  There was TONS of seaweed on the beach.  I asked the hotel about it and they said the tide has changed and the seaweed was worse than normal, but it was everywhere.  This was a huge bummer.  The water was not clear because of all of it and the beach had a huge border of seaweed you had to jump over to enter the water.  I did not like this.  Having said this, if you love to snorkel, this works out great for you.  This beach is known for its reef (which adds more seaweed) and amazing marine life.  They are famous for their sea turtles which you can see swimming just about 10 feet from the beach.  Brad, loved this part.  It was a plus for him.  The other thing I didn’t like about this beach is part of it is public.  I also asked the hotel about this and they said there is a law in Mexico that a certain portion of all the beaches have to be public.  Now, this doesn’t really come up that often at many resorts because they are so remote that the locals don’t go to the beach.  This one has easy access to locals so there were a bunch on the beach.  This includes kids which was a bummer because it felt less “adults only”.  Also the marine life and great snorkeling makes this a popular beach for locals.  Not that I have anything against locals, but I prefer a less crowded, adults only beach.
• POOL:  They have 2 huge pools.  One has a swim up bar, the other is an infinity pool.  There are plenty of very comfortable lounge chairs all around the pool and plenty of umbrellas.  There are also swim up pools to the hotels if you choose that type of room.
• ENTERTAINMENT:  The entertainment staff does a great job.  There is a club (although we never go) and nightly shows.  There are also tons of activities all day long. They boys do these, the girls rest.  The shows are night are really good.  They have several cirque type shows.

Overall I preferred Secrets Maroma due to the beach and Maroma is a much shorter drive from the airport.    Other than that, they were pretty much equal.

Secrets has several types of properties.  Here are the main 4 we are interested in trying.  I am going to categorize them to kind of help you understand each type.

ZOETRY: This is a more boutique type of  hotel.  It is the highest end resort out of this group.  It is more secluded and quiet.  For us personally, this seems more like a honeymoon type of hotel.  We may try it in the future, but we are more drawn to the environment of Secrets.  CATEGORY: COUPLES, HONEYMOON, FAMILY (however I don’t think many kids go)

SECRETS: This is our favorite level of hotel.  It is adults only.   It has some activity, but nothing crazy. It is very luxurious,  but not secluded.  We feel like this is our best fit. CATEGORY: COUPLES WITH ACTIVITY

BREATHLESS: We may try one of these in the future, but I think it is a little wilder than we prefer.  It is adults only with lots of singles, bachelorette parties, etc.  For example, they have a foam party :).  This group of resorts caters to nightlife.  I may have preferred this in my early 20s. CATEGORY: SINGLES, PARTY HOTEL

DREAMS: This is the family version of Secrets, but I would say it is a tad bit lower end.  We went to DREAMS Playa Mujeres last year with our families (you can read about that trip HERE & HERE).  The resort was absolutely beautiful, but the rooms and the food were not what we were used to compared to Secrets.  The food really wasn’t very good at all and the sheets in the room smelled mildewy.  We had heard this was the best of the DREAMS resorts and we weren’t in love with it.  The property itself was amazing and the kids had a blast, but not sure we would go back. CATEGORY: FAMILY

 

I hope learning about our favorite Mexico resorts has been helpful.  I am not a travel agent, I do not work with any hotels.  Just sharing our experience.  If you have a resort you love I would love to hear about it.  Always looking for new amazing places to try!  Let me know if you have any other questions I didn’t cover!