July is the month that we traditionally take our family beach trip. Historically we have tagged along with Amy’s family to camp at Myrtle Beach then we tried various beach condos in Florida – Destin, Clearwater, and Anna Maria Island. Last year, Amy and I just went to Jamaica alone with no family because of conflicting schedules.
This year we struggled to decide what to do. We looked at resorts in Florida and even booked a cruise. We canceled the cruise after the frustration of trying to book excursions, get WiFi and drinks packages – we just got tired of all the extra charges. The solution? We booked an all inclusive resort. We wanted the kids and in-laws to experience the luxury of an all inclusive that Amy and I love so much.
The trip down wasn’t bad. We had a long layover at Dulles. Amy and I used our United Lounge passes for the first time that are included with our credit card. They had great areas to sit and relax. The breakfast was not great but lunch was quite amazing.
Arriving at Cancun airport we made it through customs and immigration without a hiccup, collected our luggage and on to our transfer to the hotel. On arrival at our room we were greeted by one of the hotel’s peacocks on our balcony. We made it just in time to enjoy the pool before dinner.
This resort is set up with nature as a feature. There is a rainforest area between the lobby area and pool/beach areas. There are peacocks, flamingos, turtles, lizards and other animals I couldn’t identify. Sounds neat but….. animals are noisy at sunrise – be warned if you sleep in on vacation.
The food at the buffet was of great quality and variety – something for everyone even the picky eaters. We also enjoyed the a-la-carte restaurants – BBQ, Italian, and Japanese. All great.
One of the highlights for me was diving. Almost everyone in the family did the pool trial where they try out diving in the pool. Gabriel decided he wanted to do a discovery dive. I signed up for 2 dives – one with him on his discovery dive and one with other certified divers.
I will say that the folks at Dressel Divers were all great. On the dives they were professional, courteous and safe but around the resort pools they were just great to interact with – just so friendly and welcoming. If we return to this resort, the dive group would be a major influence drawing us back.
A word of warning – Spring till fall – aka summer is the season of sargassum. The sargassum is a type of seaweed that washes up on the beaches. I’ve heard that it will smell awful if left out too long but there were people using tractors to scoop it up everyday. It really makes the first 50-100 feet of the ocean unpleasant to swim in. It didn’t stop me from diving as we went beyond the grass but we didn’t hang out in the surf like we normally like to do. We were warned about this in June from a travel agent we met while in Jamaica. Glad we knew about so we could adjust our expectations before arrival. We just decided we would spend more time by the pool this visit and not let it ruin our vacation.
In the end – we had a great time. I was happy that our kids got to experience an all inclusive resort. It brings me great joy to see Gabriel try out diving and like it. I was so proud as he was anxious about it but still managed to finish a dive down to 40 feet. The food was great – even the buffets. Our favorite was the smokehouse BBQ as we went 2 times during our short visit.
Would I recommend the hotel? tl:dr – yes but I will give details so you can decide for yourself:
Iberostar is an IGH hotel which greets you with much enthusiasm and tries to give you “free” credits for activities on arrival and seem quite pushy at the beginning. It seems they wanted to push the timeshare side of the business – I wasn’t a fan of this but once we said no thanks it was over. The resort is beautiful. The frozen drinks are just okay not the quality we have come to love at Sandals but they were still good. Food quality and variety was some of the best I’ve seen compared all other resorts and the cruise we’ve been to. The room is dated with no outlets near the bedside tables for phones, clocks etc. They don’t have plastic bottles for water only heavy glass bottles which you had to leave the room to fill. We had trouble with the fridge but we were not there long enough for me to complain about it. The resort has a lot animals – cute to see but if nature is not your thing you won’t like it here but if nature is your thing you will love it. One big annoyance to me is that the room power cuts off when you leave the room – fan cuts off, A/C cuts back and whatever you were charging won’t charge. While I know this saves them power costs and is the new “green” thing to do it was an annoyance vacation is expensive and I like a cool room and a charged phone. Our room never got below 76 degrees with the AC running. Kinda frustrating at night. In the end it was a great resort for the family to go to. I would go again to an Iberostar but I would now know what to look for and set boundaries early with the sales people when I arrived.
As always, it’s not the pampering of food, drinks and warm weather that all inclusive resorts provide that make these trips special. It’s always the people – the people we bring with us, the staff at the resort, the divers and other guests we meet that make travel special and keep us seeking more.
I have many more travels to go. Where will I be next?
Seek adventure and get busy living.
-Ben