The Royal Cancun All Suites Resort – totally worth it.

01. Introduction: Risking life and limb on low-cost Mexican airlines
02. Interjet A321 main cabin Tijuana to Mexico City
03. VivaAerobus A320 Mexico City to Cancun
04. The Royal Cancun All Suites Resort
05. Cancun was nothing like I expected it would be. Let me explain…
06. VivaAerobus A320 Cancun to Mexico City
07. The Grand Lounge Elite, MEX
08. Volaris A321 main cabin Mexico City to Tijuana

Even though I had never been to Cancun before this trip, I had a pretty good feeling that it would be an easy place to choose a hotel. After all, I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who hasnt been there a time or two, and they all had to stay somewhere. So yeah – it goes without saying that I was feeling pretty confident when I first started browsing through the myriad of hotel choices available to me on hotels.com.

Unfortunately, that seemingly endless list of choices quickly proved to be challenging in the sense that nearly every hotel I looked in my price range looked to be really good. How the heck was I supposed to make a decision when there are so many good choices located in one condensed area? A few more minutes of browsing led me to stumble upon the Royal Cancun All Suites Resort – a nice looking property close to the beach with a name very fitting of what it offers : nothing but suites.

I’m not a rabid hotel points collector like many other travelers that I know, so choosing offbrand properties that look interesting is a bit fun for me. For the same price as a small non ocean-facing room in the Presidente Intercontinental just down the road, I could have a huge suite of my own which included a balcony overlooking a private beach. It was too tempting to resist, so I made the reservation with confidence and a whole heck of a lot of giddy anticipation.

I will admit that I was starting to second-guess my choice once I arrived in Cancun that evening and saw all those beautiful high-rise hotels strung along the beach. Some of those fancy big-name hotels looked really nice, putting the exterior of the Royal Cancun All Suite Resort to shame. It’s not this place looks bad from the outside, but those Hiltons and Intercontinental‘s just down the road looked really nice. Did I make a bad choice? Let’s step inside and find out.

The check-in process was quick and easy, but the task of actually finding my suite didn’t go as smoothly. This is not a high-rise hotel – nearly everything is ground level connected by a maze of sidewalks and little alleyways to each individual building. There’s no way I could’ve found my suite on my own, so I had to ask someone in the lobby for help. Yeah, I’m horrible with directions – enough so that I’m surprised I don’t get lost driving home from work every day.

Once I made it through the front door of my suite, all those feelings of doubt were quickly washed away. They weren’t kidding about these being suites. It was actually bigger than most apartments I’ve ever had in my life, with an ocean view to boot. The very first words out of my mouth were, and I quote, “are you freaking kidding me?!”

Now, I will fully admit that this suite was a tad bit overkill for just one person. This was an indulgence plain and simple, as I certainly didn’t need all that space for just myself. But wow – it was sure nice to have. I felt like a king in there, and it sure as heck beat any kind of small hotel room I could’ve got in one of those big high-rises just down the road.

I should note that there are two ways to book a reservation here at the Royal Cancun All Suites Resort. The first way is all-inclusive, which means that everything (including meals) are covered. The other way (the way I booked it) is to simply pay for the suite only. Everything else such as room service, and restaurant meals, must be paid for separately. This was perfectly ok by me though, as room service seemed to be a pretty good deal and there was actually a full grocery store in the main building next to the lobby. That grocery store made my stay here a lot more convenient than it could’ve been without it. I mean, what good is a full kitchen if there aren’t any stores nearby to fill it with?

I’ll wrap this up by telling you the best and worst things about this property. Starting off with the worst, it has to be the fact that the location of this place is a bit far away from the main section of Cancun with all the big hotels and tourist shops. It’s all within walking distance of course, but it does take some time to walk over there. In other words, it would be a bit of a bummer if you want to be in the center of all the action. However (and this is the best part), the Royal Cancun All Suite Resort is fully self-contained and you actually never have to leave if you don’t want to. Everything is here – the beach, the views, and even the grocery store. To be honest, by the end of my stay I was thinking that it would be really nice to come back just to stay here and relax for a week without going anywhere else around Cancun. It really felt like home to me, away from all the hustle and bustle of the tourist spots.