This September will be our first time to Mexico, specifically, Riveria Maya. Any advice on restaurants, must sees, and any "dos and don'ts"? I remember some Spanish, but will we require more than that? Thanks for any feedback/advice.

Riveria Maya is a large stretch, depends where exactly you are headed. You can get by without Spanish in Cancun, but more remote towns and villages, maybe less so.

Where exactly are you looking for restaurant recommendations?

The resort is approximately 20-30 minutes south of Cancun. I believe it is located between Puerto Morelos and Playa del Carmen.

We would like to venture beyond the resort to sample the local fare and visit the sites around this area.

Thanks!

What is the name of your resort and what type of activities interest you. The name of the resort would help us determine whether or not you will get by using only English, etc.

There's lots of fun restaurants in Playa del Carmen. You can check the PdC forum over at Trip Advisor (forums section, not hotel reviews).

In the most general terms people working in the tourist industry such as restaurants and hotel front desks likely will speak at least some English.

Those working regular jobs or behind the scenes like the clerk at a grocery store or the maid who cleans your room, will likely only speak Spanish.

Don't know how many days you have and what you like to do so here are ideas....

Tulum for the day. Ruins & beautiful water. Wonderful food at Nachos/Mayan Grill [it has 2 names]. You can either take an ADO bus to the ruins and then cab to beach and cab to town to take ADO bus back. Or hire driver or cab or just book a tour....
it would be a great relaxing day at a gorgeous beach...

Snorkel in a cenote [underground river]. So cool. We did Dos Ojos which was fantastic, half in a cave. Also Gran Cenote is an open cenote which is pretty.

AKUMAL.
You can swim with turtles. I never saw one but most peoplel see them quickly. Go early. Then you can spend the day at the beach there if you want or explore some more. There's Yal Ku lagoon right by there.

It's also on your way back from Tulum if you want to combine them.

You can do a day trip to Isla Mujeres or Cozumel fairly easily.


If you do a tour, www.edventuresmx.com is supposed to be fantastic. And NOT the run of the mill herd tour. It's family run and groups are small.

You can do the ruins, and cenotes and they take you to Akumal to swim with turtles and have lunch. Tons of good reviews all over tripadvisor, locogringo, cruisecritic, etc.

http://www.edventuretours.com.mx/Home/index.htm

Another tour which is also great is through playa.info. It's smaller also and they do a tulum and beyond where you do the ruins and then hang out at the stunning beach all day. They have another to Coba if interested in going farther.
www.playa.info

But really the ADO bus system is CHEAP and EASY to do. You can catch a bus from PDC to Tulum for $2 US each way!! The bus runs to some cenotes as well and to Akumal! So you could go on your time, spend a day at Tulum and a day at Akumal or do half and half even.

We were fine non-AI in Tulum and PDC with limited Spanish.

Authentic and Cheap in PDC El Fogon. Authentic and Romantic and medium price PDC Yaxche.
http://www.mayacuisine.com/

ooh...another idea for you is to get these awesome maps from 'mapchick' that give tons of to dos and restaurants...

http://www.cancunstore.com/

Oh and if you're there before season ends....swim with a WHALE SHARK. I was too early in May.
http://www.whalesharkexperience.com/

Go out and explore. Fantastic.

Trish