Best AI resort for family of 4 w/ 9 year old and 3 year old?
 

Hi guys/gals,
My wife and I are planning a trip to Riviera Maya for a 6 night stay in April or May of this year. This would be our first trip to Mexico (or out of the country, for that matter). We are looking to spend about $3500 for the flight/AI stay and have found a few prospective places online, but we're really wanting to get the best we can for the money. We are pretty confident about the safety of the Riviera Maya resorts, but are less sure about the resorts being nice with plenty of food, kid friendly and within a reasonable distance to attractions (Mayan ruins, etc.). We were also a little concerned about the weather in mid May, since it seems it rains a bit that time of year...

Any feedback/suggestions are greatly appreciated!! Thanks :)

It might be easier to list the resorts you're considering and then get feedback on those specifically. There are so many AI resorts in the area to choose from! I have stayed at Dreams Riviera Cancun, which is in Riviera Maya, and while on the trip there I didn't have my kids with me, it seemed to be a huge family destination. There were several restaurants to choose from and the property was nice. In general the "Dreams" resorts seem to be decent. We didn't have any issues while there.

We also have stayed at the Grand Palladium Riviera. This is actually a resort complex that is four different Grand Palladium resorts combined together. So if you search you will see Grand Palladium Colonial, Grand Palladium, Riviera, and two others which I can't recall right now. My kids loved it there and so did my husband and I. I'm not sure what the pricing would be. It's a huge complex though because you have use to all for resorts. But there are several pools and many restaurants to choose from. You can snorkel right from their beach, which is great. It seemed to be very family friendly. My kids were 10 and 12 at the time, but there were definitely younger kids there as well.

I haven't stayed at the Iberostar resorts or the Barcelo resorts, but both get great reviews and I wouldn't hesitate to stay at either if I got the right deal. But each has multiple properties, so you need to research what property you would want. Especially the Iberostar - some are much more expensive and offer much more than the others.

I wouldn't worry about the weather in May. I've often been to the area at that time, and if it does rain, it's not usually for long. It's much better than traveling during hurricane season!

Weather is great in May, this year it only rained once my entire ten days for 1 hour and since we were enjoying Happy Hour at Lol-Ha beach bar in Akumal, we just all stayed put.
Only stayed AI once in 2009 after my husband passed away so cannot really help you much there, sorry.

Thank you two so much for the informative responses :)

We were looking at the Royal Haciendas AI in Playa del Carmen. It looks like it would be right around $850 each person with resort and flight included. I'm hoping we can work out a way to stay at the Grand Palladium for a similar price. I have two friends that have both went there and swear by it.

If you can get to the Grand Palladium, I would definitely do it. What we found so unique was the jungle setting. Also the variety in the restaurants was pretty good too. They had so many pools, including a pretty cool salt water pool. If you can find decent airfare, that would bring your costs down. We always find that's where the costs really add up. Good luck!