Royal Hideaway OR Villa Rolandi?
 

My husband and I are FINALLY getting a break from our 20 month and 4 year old children. Anyone have experiences at these resorts? We are nervous about being captive to an all-inclusive but hear these places are great. Any help would be appreciated! We are traveling late Feb.

We loved the Royal Hideaway! I would suggest you do a search for all of the posts, as most of your questions will be answered. Feel free to e-mail me.

RH is wonderful. I don't know about the other one so I can't compare.

Villa Rolandi is on Isla Mujeeres. It's way beyond my price range, but looks gorgeous. It's small - I don't know Royal Hideaway, but I'm assuming it's much bigger. <BR><BR>You might want to check out www.isla-mujeres.net - there is a very active forum on that website and I'm sure you'll get info on Villa Rolandi.

Rh was great. I was apprehensive about the all inclusive, but it was great. The town is 5 minutes away so that is a nice diversion. We went to town for lunch and to hang out a few times. It was a nice vacation and we are going back in a few weeks.

Villa Rolandi will run about $320/night until May 15th, Royal Hideaway will be around $450/night. RH has 200 rooms, VR has 20 rooms. Villa Rolandi is sort of secluded and you would need a golf cart or taxi to tour around the island. We did it in 2 1/2 hours in a golf cart, very small. The north end of Isla Mujeres, where the town is, has a gorgeous beach but the hotels near there are, other than the Avalon timeshare, definitely not in the same category as RH and VR. Perhaps Isla Mujeres won't offer enough excitment for you, it's very low key.<BR><BR>There are advantages and disadvantages of both resorts. RH being close to Playa del Carmen is an advantage in case you get bored just vegging out. We really enjoyed the hot tub on the patio at Villa Rolandi and the heated infinity pool overlooking the sea was awesome.<BR><BR>By the way, we were in Villa 31 at RH and our room had such a musty smell I couldn't stand it. Don't know if this is the exception or the rule.<BR><BR>The beach at RH is definitely nicer than at Villa Rolandi but the pool at Villa Rolandi was nicer than at RH. See, this will make you nuts.<BR><BR>Do check out the www.isla-mujeres.net message board...I found it very helpful in planning our trip. Both these hotels are pretty expensive in high season. You might find cheaper deals with some of the others during high season.<BR><BR>Here's a some websites that might help. I spent hours researching our vacation:<BR><BR>http://www.travel-center.com/<BR>http://cancun.rezrez.com/index.htm<BR>http://www.cancunvista.com/<BR>http://www.debbiescaribbeanresortreviews.com/<BR>http://www.caribbean-on-line.com/cn/zhmap.shtml<BR>http://www.differentworld.com/<BR>http://www.isla-mujeres.tc/<BR>http://www.lostoasis.net/<BR>http://www.areatravelinc.com/mexico/playadelcarmen/<BR>http://www.playadelcarmeninfo.com/<BR>http://www.ramproductions.com/survey/topres.asp<BR>http://mytravelboard3.com/playa/<BR>http://playaguide.com/<BR>http://www.travelimpressions.com/<BR><BR>One note about booking thru the Mexico websites. If they charge your credit card in pesos, the exchange rate will show up different than the rate quoted in U.S. dollars. The peso was running about 9.90/$1 during the holidays. <BR><BR>You could also split up your stay. We did 3 nights at RH, 3 at VR and 3 in Cozumel. Good luck!<BR>