I traveled with my manfriend to the adults-only, Sun Palace Resort in Cancun. . This was actually the first adults-only resort built in Cancun. It is located on the bottom of the “7” and was a quick and painless 10 minute drive from the Cancun Airport. This was my first trip to Cancun, so I was very excited, having been to Riviera Maya at least 6 times now. I have to say, after now being there, I honestly think the area gets too much of a bad rap for being a “Spring Break” destination. I absolutely loved the feel of the area and the beaches. I enjoyed looking up the coastline and seeing all of the resorts and having the freedom to literally walk until we couldn’t walk any more along the white sand beaches. There are so many resorts to choose from in that area (of all levels), and Cancun is definitely a vacation hot spot. I will be back!
The Sun Palace is an older resort, but they have certainly enhanced it and kept it well up-to-date. This is a smaller hotel, with around 250 rooms. Overall, I loved the level of service, quality of food and the cleanliness of the Palace Resorts I’ve stayed in.
The lobby has a modern, clean feel and as you walk in, the check-in desk is to your left and the “hospitality” desks are to your left. It’s at these desks that you get the details of what the resort has to offer, what your resort credits can be used for, which other resorts you can visit with your exchange privileges, etc. It is also in this area that they try and sell you a timeshare at the Palace Resorts. I enjoy visiting a different resort every time I vacation and getting the latest advice on the new hot spots from my travel agent Carri at Fox World Travel, so time shares are obviously not for me. This is the 2nd Palace Resort I've been too and I enjoyed both, but I've also been to other comparable/adults-only resorts that I have enjoyed (If you're looking for options in Riviera Maya, definitely check out the El Dorado Maroma or El Dorado Royale if you're looking for a romantic getaway!!)
But back to the Sun Palace :)
Dining and Room Service
The dining experience was very nice and the food was excellent, but definitely more laid back and slower service for dinner. For those who have a hard time adjusting to “relaxing” on their vacation, the overall experience and speed of service could get to them in some of the restaurants, but we only skipped dessert one night because of this. I enjoyed the experiences.
Located in the lobby area, El Alamo is their casual restaurant serving an international breakfast and lunch buffet and an a la carte Mexican menu for dinner. They had many more “made to order” options than I’ve seen at other resorts, including omelets, quesadillas, steak, stir-fry and more. They had options to sit inside or outside, but either way you had a beautiful view of the bright blue ocean. By far the brightest Caribbean waters I’ve seen yet. No matter where you sat in the restaurant you felt like you were in paradise.
Located inside near the lobby bar, La Tratto was the a la carte Italian Restaurant. It was the only restaurant requiring men wear nice pants. This was my favorite dining option for dinner and we ate there twice. Our last night we were there early and we had the most amazing table in an area where the walls were all glass. We had a romantic dinner with a view of Cancun’s shore and the other area where they were having the “romantic candlelight dinners” you could buy with your resort credits. It was so windy at night that we thought the beach dinner would have been more of a hassle than anything, but on a nice, calm night it could be a nice added value. It wasn’t a private dinner, but more or less tables set up on the beach, with the option for a higher quality steak and lobster.
They had The Steak restaurant for dinner, which they actually only set up at night near the pool area. It was a casual dinner option, where they served a small buffet of options and you ordered steak or seafood options individually.
Finally they had the ala carte Thai Lounge, with a sushi bar, which was located outside on level one. I did not go to this restaurant, but I did hear it was extremely slow service, even slower than the others.
Room Service was another option for dining and it was very quick, with a nice selection of options.
Room
Each room has a double Jacuzzi, and we had a king bed, full-size amenities, and a mini-bar. The rooms had a very modern feel as well, which is my style. We were on the eighth floor, with an oceanview. Our mini-bar was stocked daily and they had both a maid service and turn-down service.
The seventh and eighth floors are the top, deluxe floors with the smallest balconies, but a very nice view. Below us must have been the highest level of rooms, with massive balconies, lounge beds, etc. Then there were upgraded rooms with what seemed to be the standard, spacious balconies below that. Many travelers use part of their credits to upgrade their rooms.
Beach and Pool Area
Like I mentioned, this was definitely bright blue water… which I absolutely LOVE. There was one main infinity pool overlooking the ocean and beach, where most of the activity and the pool bar were, and then there was a quieter, smaller pool which seemed to be more for the concierge level. We spent most of our time at the activity pool and the beach. I enjoyed that they had the option to lay on beach chairs inside or outside of the pool, but that was definitely a busy area during the early to midafternoon. The service around the pool was top-notch. Jose at the pool bar new my “boss man” liked his Jim Beam Rye after the first day and that level of service really helps make a vacation that much more enjoyable. They had beach volleyball, water polo and water aerobics in this pool. There were also snacks served in that area during the lunch period.
As far as the beach goes, they would put up umbrellas for you as you requested throughout the day to provide some shade. We never had a problem getting a chair on the beach, but they did usually run out of umbrellas come about 1 p.m. But as people scattered and moved around it was fine. The ocean was naturally eroding and with the wind, the waves were massive, so the beach was constantly transforming. There were some rocky areas, but overall it’s a beautiful beach.
TIP: The sun did get very hot in the afternoon, so if you’d like shade, either set up your spot on the beach early with an umbrella or try to find a spot in the shade right away.
Concierge vs. Normal Room + Beach/Pool Chairs
One thing I didn’t really like was that the Palace Resorts have “levels of service”. If you had a concierge level or upgraded room you received a silver or black band. We had standard rooms and level of service, with our yellow bands. The only reason I didn’t really like it was when it came to the beach chairs. Throughout the beach and the pool area there was the nice comfy lounge chairs/beds, and then the standard beach chairs you would find at most any resort. We weren’t told this specifically at check-in, but other guests brought it up in conversation that the comfy beds were technically for concierge level service. Come the afternoon were given advice that no one really said anything if you sat in these, but you still felt like you were “breaking the rules” (at least I did, lol). Even with the resort at full occupancy like they were they had well enough of the comfy chairs that anyone could have sat on them at the beach level. The pool was another story, especially on the windy days we had where more travelers wanted to be up by the pool. I think the resort should have concierge level room service, etc, but as far as the beach and pool area, I think it was unnecessary to have the different levels of lounge chair service. Maybe I’m wrong and maybe we could totally sit in those, lol. Not sure!
All in all this was a relaxing getaway. You cannot beat the service level and quality of food we enjoyed. The surrounding area of Cancun and resorts near by were outdated, but we didn’t really feel that at our resort. I would go back to any of the Palace Resorts .