Mexican Rivieria
 

Planning on taking 5 Year anniversary trip June 2011 to Mexican Riveria. We are in our early 50's and are looking for a nice AI with pretty, calm beach. I have heard about Ceiba Del Mar and Royal Hideaway Playacar. Most information I have found on forums are fairly old. Any suggestions would be great. Don't want to spend more than $3500 - $4000 for a week including airfare. Thank you.

Look into the Iberostar Paraiso Grand and Secrets Maroma. Both are adults only AI resorts and are wonderful.

Actually the Caribbean side is usually referred to as the Mayan Riviera.

The Mexicna Riveria is the Pacific coast side.

Opps, sorry my bad.

How are the beaches at Iberostar Paraiso Grand and Secrets Maroma? I am looking for calmer water. Also, do you know anything about Ceiba Del Mar or Royal Hideaway Playacar? We prefer smaller resorts. Really want to just relax and enjoy the beach.

no biggie, I mostly mentioned it in case you're doing Google searches and such.

Take a look at Zoetry Paraiso de la Bonita.
We're headed back for a second time as we really enjoyed it. Although initially their rates appear high they often run specials.

The IB Grand the Secrets are both large resorts.
Royal Hideaway just had their beach replenished and is a fantastic resort...superb service and good food. I don't know anthing about Ceiba Del Mar.
As mentioned above, Zoetry is a lovely resort. It does however allow children (not many go there though) and is VERY quiet at night...not much in the way of entertainment.

My husband and I (also in our 50's) just returned from Royal Hideaway (4th time). The restored beach is wonderful, great a la carte restaurants (usually 3 are open each evening out of 5 on property). Beware that men need pants in the evening for the restaurants. Very strict. Wonderful service. Beautiful property. Can get a little noisy on ocassion with some of the neighboring hotels but "partying" usually stops by 11. Quiet, upscale resort. No one under 16 allowed. Check out their website. We have also been to Zoetry (was Paraiso de la Bonita at the time). Beautiful as well but very, very quiet (which we actually like). Although everything shut at 11 pm. Only 2 restaurants then and very remote. It was about 4 years ago so things may have changed. Good luck.

Look at the ElDorada Maroma Beach Resort. It's a small resort sitting on a great stretch of beach.

Check TripAdvisor.com for consumer reviews, pictures and forums for more information.

dordorpep, Thanks for the info. What are the beaches like at Royal Hideaway. I read an old post somewhere that said they had quite a bit of seaweed. Also, any suggestions on what floor to stay on?

There was not a lot of seaweed as the beach was just restored and they rake daily, and I don't remember seaweed as a problem in the past. Beach is huge now so plenty of room for relaxing. There are also two pools (one infinity) and several jacuzzis. We stayed in a duplex suite, which is 2nd and 3rd floor of the villa (there are 3 floors per villa). I am not a fan of 1st floor rooms in any hotel. Obviously the higher the floor the better the view although there are not many rooms with ocean view, but grounds are very pretty with paths and bridges and small pools. Also, there are villas (22, 23 if I remember) that are more internal on the property and therefore further from neighboring hotels. Just let whomever you use to book your room mention that you want to be away from surround properties. Hope that helps. All in all, we loved it again.

Bookmarking. :)