Just returned from week in Cancun and south on Riviera Maya. Very good trip. Departed US on 4/05 with Allegra Airlines (charter line used by Funjet vacations) non-stop into Cancun. Arrived at Cancun, transferred to hotel arriving about 7:15 pm at hotel. Stayed at Marriott Casa Magna in Cancun. Very nice hotel, great rooms, but expensive. However we had a good rate so it was OK for a quick taste of Cancun. Ate in hotel that night as it was late. Sunday used city bus and went into downtown Cancun for shopping and lunch. Downtown Cancun is decent, some pretty good shopping and a great lunch at La Parilla. Highly suggest that if you go to Cancun use the bus system. 6 Pesos a ride and that will get you from hotel zone all the way downtown (60 cents vs many dollars for a cab). Bus is clean, easy to use, and best bet for cheap transport. Afternoon at beach, then dinner at OK Magueys. Good food there. Note that food prices in hotel zone are at least as costly as US prices if not more. We used the Cancun Entertainment card for the 2 for 1 deals and it was worth the $15 cost. Paid for itself first meal and also got us discounts on the one tour we did (Chichen Itza - more on that later).<BR><BR>Sea was very rough all the time we were in Cancun (left there on Tuesday morning) with the red flags up on beach. We did go in the water and let the waves knock us about, but only out to waist level. Huge waves were crashing in. Not good for ocean time at all.<BR><BR>Monday we did the Chichen Itza tour, booked with Cancun Entertainment Card but it was still the Gray Line tour - cost $46 with card per person, instead of $60. Included bus transport (good tour type bus), lunch at Mayanland Hotel at the ruins, admission to ruins, and of course the mandatory stop at a craft market. Long day, left hotel at 7:30am and dropped off at 7:15pm, but worth it. The site is well worth visiting. <BR><BR>Left Cancun Tuesday morning and went to our next location, the ElDorado Royale Spa and Resort at Punta Brava just north of Playa Del Carmen, where we spent the rest of the week. Part 2 will discuss this hotel.

PART 2 OF REPORT<BR><BR>Arrived at ElDorado Resort on Tuesday morning. We used a cab from Cancun and it cost $30 for trip. ElDorado is a wonderful resort, and we enjoyed it much more than Cancun. The rooms are excellent, very large and all rooms have a jacuzzi big enough for two people. Great marble bathrooms, king size beds, very nice decor. We had the standard room, which is the Junior Suite, and it was very nice. The resort offers a variety of dining options, and all but one is ala carte. The only buffet offered is at breakfast but you can also do breakfast ala carte. There are four reservation only dining options which are quite popular and have to be booked early. These include Italian, Oriental, Mexican, and a Steak House. We did the Italian (excellent) and the Steak House (very good). The non-reservation dining options are very good as well. Drinks are top notch, not watered down at all, and good brand name liquors. The beach is rocky in places but overall pretty good. The only thing the resort was short on was water sports, offering kayaks and paddle boats, but no sail boats. The kayaks were quite fun. The resort has built some break waters out from the beach so that makes the water smoother, much better than Cancun. The resort has a main pool and several smaller ones. All but one have swim up bars. A variety of activities are offered during the day by the very good activity staff (Fernando the director is very good). Overall an excellent resort and one that we would return to without hesitation.<BR><BR>We went off the resort one day for snorkeling at the Maromar Beach Club which was OK - not too many fish out that day. We also took a taxi into Playa Del Carmen for some shopping. PDC is very nice town and lots of shopping - many chances to spend your money. ElDorado does offer free bus into PDC in the evenings, leaving at 6 and returning at 10, but we wanted to go in during the day so had to use taxi at cost of about $15 each way.

PART 3 OF TRIP REPORT<BR><BR>We stayed at ElDorado until Saturday when we sadly had to return to the real world. We had a wonderful time. I would recommend ElDorado without hesitation to anyone heading to this part of Mexico. We would not go back to Cancun except to use the airport. Cancun to us was just another big string of hotels and we might as well have been in Miami or anyplace else. Never felt like we had left the US until we went downtown and then further south.

Looking at the cost of taxis I think that next time I might rent a car for a few days to use to get around. The roads are quite good and the traffic was not heavy at all. I think the use of a car would have been very nice as we could have come and gone as we wanted. The money we spent on taxi fare would have paid for at least one day car rental.

I have a question regarding the Chichen Itza Tour. I have seen a website of the area, and it mentions a Cenote East of the ruins. Is this accessible from the ruins (part of the tour?) I would love to see it!<BR>I am also planning on taking the same tour through the EPlus Card.<BR>Thanks!<BR>Cindy

Cindy<BR>there are two cenotes that you can get too. One is just as you start walking through the ruins. This is the one that served as the source of drinking water. The other is just north of the ball court a walk of a few hundred meters and that is the one used as a sacrifice cenote. I did not see others but there may be. The north one is the prettiest of the two and the largest. I has also read in guide books how hard it was to get to &quot;old Chichen Itza&quot; and be sure to wear lots of bug spray etc...was not like that at all. Everything was clear over to the old part and is was easy walk there. Did not encounter any bugs whole visit, but it was hot - take water and cover your head and use lots of sun screen.

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