I am planning a trip for 12/23- 12/30 to the Riviera Maya/Cancun area. We are taking our 12 yr. old daughter. We have never taken a family trip before so this has to be MEMORABLE.... As far as price is concerned, we are more VALUE oriented than BUDGET oriented. As I had posted in another forum, I simply want to feel that we got our monies worth... If anyone can help me with suggestions, I would be eternally grateful! My butt is on the line with this one since I'm the "booker" HELP!!!!!! Thanks in advance.

We loved the Barcelo Maya Tropical resort. This was our first trip to Mexico and I did a whoooole lot of research before deciding on Barcelo. For families it can't be beat. This resort has arguably the best beach in the Riviera Maya. I cannot compare to the others but we would go back here in a heartbeat and would highly recommend it. We felt that it was a great value for what it cost. (3 people, 5 nights, $2500 including air/transport everything). I would say your "butt" would be save choosing Barcelo. I too was the booker for 3 families and all was good.

Thanks for the quick response. I never even heard of that resort. I have been looking at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya and the RIU Palace Riviwera Maya. Unfortunately alot of the commentaries were not too good. Where is the Barcelo? And if you don't mind me asking....through what route did you book? Many seem to positively comment about Apple Vacations. Evidently, unless you go through a TA, you are fair game at the airport... Also, if anyone could comment about some of these airlines flying into Mexico? I generally stick with the big airlines and am somewhat qweezy about the lesser known lines. Thanks.

Yikes...NOT the Barcelo Maya. I hate to be the bearer of bad press, but I would not go there. An unsolved murder occurred there a year ago...
I think the Riviera Maya area is generally very safe, though, but would not choose that particular resort.

I am not an all inclusive fan (I like good food and good restaurants), but your best choices are an Iberostar resort -- check out the Lindo, or the Riu Palace Mexico in Playacar.
If it was me, for my 12 year old, I'd choose the Hilton Cancun.

PS, and dont worry about the airport. There are lots of people who will call to you as you walk out of the building, but just keep walking straight ahead outside to your driver outside. It's not a big deal, don't let it intimidate you. And if you do have a question and turn to one of these timeshare sales people, they are actually generally very helpful and would point you in the right direction...

Frankie, I was quite aware of the "incident" at the Barcelo. We felt extremely secure the whole time. This kind of thing could happen anywhere. I also looked at both the Riu Palace and all the Iberostars. The Riu Palace is more for adults and does not cater to children. Iberostars(Beach, Del Mar, Quetzel, Tucan) do not have AC restaurants. The Lindo was more expensive and the pool was to far from the beach. Basically I narrowed down to Barelo, Iberostar, and Palladium Grand. My main crieria were great beach and pool area, AC restaurants (we went in June), kids activities (Barcelo has a great kids water park that they loved).

Chefdarka, we did book through apple, and the flight was on USairways from Orlando. Barcelo is about 20 minutes south of Playa del Carmen. If I were doing an all adult trip I would probably go to Riu Palace as we really liked Playa del Carmen. Check these out:

http://www.unofficial-barcelo-maya.com/home.html

http://www.iberostar-board.com/boards/index.php

http://www.riubambu.com/RIU_WEB_PAGE...enu/mexico.htm

http://home.comcast.net/~duval2/wsb/...ces.html-.html

I have a daughter who is 12 1/2. We went to Cancun two winters ago with our daughter and were in PDC.

Here are my 2 cents.

I think you should determined whether your 12 year old daughter would rather spend a week in Cancun or PDC. I know that my daughter would rather spend a week in Cancun than a week in PDC. I think more kids your daughter's age will like the action and shopping in Cancun better than PDC. also, find out whether your daughter prefers a beach or the pool. I am surprised how many kids that age would rather go to the pool than the beach.

Second, I think it's a mistake to look at all inclusives. It's a lot of fun for families to try different restaurants at different locations. Also, your daughter will propbably want to wear good clothes to dinner and if you go to different restaurants she won't complain that people are only seeing her in the same clothes.

Third, make sure you don't try so hard to make the vacation memorable that your daughter has no time to relax. That is always my problem. When we went to Cancun, we spent a day at Chitzen Itza, a day at Ek Balaam and zip lining, a day at Tulum and a bunch of other activities. None of those made the vacation memorable to my daughter. What she enjoyed was the relaxing things like painting pottery, going to the zoo south of Cancun whee the spider monkey tried to steal her sneaker and hat, going to the mall, riding the public buses in Cancun, playing board games and watching videos.

In short, none of what you are worried about is likely to make much of a difference to your daughter. Just relax and don't put so much pressure on yourself and your family.

Last thing is about the airport. Check out this website: http://www.entertainment-plus.net/index.cfm. His name is Brant and he has lots of positive comments on this forum. Ask Brant to arrange for transportation from the airport and check out the tours he offers. We used him for snorkeling, and a tour that combined ek balam/ziplining and exploring cenotes and enjoyed dealing with him.

My daughter is interested in getting her hair braided, coming back to school with an awesome tan and to have something to talk about before her ballet recital! The trips to the ruins would be more our style (parents) although my daughter would go for it if she knew she could pose in some great pics. I really want to find a hotel or AI that has great beaches. I also don't want to spend a whole heck of a time driving far from Cancun since that's where we will be flying into. Any suggestions out there for a really good resort/hotel in Cancun? I'm not necessarily set on Riviera Maya but I have heard some great things about the area. IOW - I'm game. My goal is a great vacation.... THANKS TO ALL OF YOU OUT THERE TRYING TO HELP ME!

2 very good hotels in Cancun, especially for families:
The Hilton (villa section) or
Casa Magna Marriott

check out tripadvisor.com for reviews

I agree with gmoney, the Barcelo Maya resorts are very good and the beach is beautiful and has on site snorkeling.

Check out the website she gave you for this resort.

I posted a reply to your question on the Caribbean board but basically the most useful thing I can say is I stayed at the Palladium Grand and really enjoyed it. If you want more opinions I posted a website that will give you plenty of opinions on their favorite resorts.
http://playaguide.com/
go to the web board
It also has a lot of info on the area and you can ask quite specific questions about the various resorts.
If you have any questions about the Palladium I will be glad to answer.

gmoney,
I agree. There was another unsolved murder a few years ago in Playacar just past the, what was then, Gala Resort. No matter what you do, everything doesn't always go as planned; this is Mexico. Flexibility is a must.

must just be me, then, but unsolved murders at a resort are kind of a little more important then, say, hey it's Mexico, ya gotta be flexible!

That's not what I meant by being flexible. Things like schedules and time frames don't always work the same way they do in the states. You may be waiting longer for some things than you're used to or the same services may not be available there than are here. As far as murders or other problems in the area. It's happened...people still stay in Playacar even though there was one there on the beach when a woman went walking down there alone at night past the resorts. Or so it seemed. There has also been many problems in the Cancun area just as there are here in Colorado. Tourists still come here even though they may be lost in the backcountry, become injured skiing, or meet up with some other unfortunate incident. No matter where you go problems occur.

Frankie, I thought long and hard about the murders. What I finally decided was that this could have happened at any resort, it just happened at the Barcelo. I figured that since this had happened here security is better here than anywhere else. The chances of it happening here again are very small. I was much more concerned about the incident that happened at the Occidental Grand Xcaret resort where a child was killed in their pool and the resort took no responsibility. All in all this area is very safe, and I felt safer here than in most American cities.

chef-

It really does sound like you should stay in Cancun - frankie has some good suggestions.
The Barcelo would be around an hour's drive from the airport and that's if you get a private, direct transfer.

Out of Cancun, look at the different tours available and see what your daughter likes.

I hope there's availability for you...things book up quickly around the holidays. And the holiday season the the highest season - not a lot of bargains out there.