Xpu ha Palace
 

Has any one stayed here recently ?
Looks very unique - I want to know about the beaches - are they nice ???

If you are interested in an all-inclusive, I have heard nothing but good things about the Royal Hideaway.

I'd avoid Xpu Ha. I have seen Xpu Ha, and the whole complex is very large, garish and the beach is a long walk from many of the buildings there.

It was built on a turtle nesting grounds, so there are also sometimes environmental demonstrators and signs, but I don't know how frequent that is.

So many much nicer places to stay.

Don't know what Diana considers garish, but my family just returned from Xpu-Ha Palace (to the arctic temps of New England this past week...!) and, although we won't do an all-inclusive resort again, we loved the place. My two teens, 17 and almost 19, were on college break, and they loved the place, too. It's built on a failed eco-park, so yes, it is spread out, but we appreciated the privacy of our palapa-roofed cabana at the far end of the resort. No walk was longer than 8-10 minutes, through wide, lush vegetation-lined paths dotted with some eco-park remnants: local animals kept in huge open air habitat enclosures.( As a science educator who has taken courses at the Bronx Zoo, I was impressed by the attention paid to these animals, such as the many toys in the tree-packed howler monkey enclosure. ) If you're really unable to walk, there is also a tram service that operates continually during the day into the evening. The place is anything but garish, to my eyes, but instead attempts to blend into the landscape. The food was fine, some of it obviously catering to the less adventurous Americans. The staff, all young Mayan locals, were wonderful! They were patient with our fumbled Spanish, and even helped us learn new phrases. There was good snorkeling both in the ocean inlet and the fresh water estuary in the middle of the resort. On the property, we saw plenty of Mexican spiny-backed iguanas, an anhinga, Yucatan vireos, and the chatty grackles that greeted us on our porch each morning, in addition to the flamingos and other birds that were in the 3-story open aviary. The beaches are gorgeous, with a choice of sandy calm beach for swimming or wild, rocky beach for sitting and gazing.
As I said, this being our first all-inclusive resort, we realized we wanted more freedom in the future, but we all agreed that if Xpu-Ha Palace ever offered its rooms as regular hotel rooms, we'd book one in a minute.

Where is the Royal Hideaway located at ???

In about the same general area South of Cancun close to Playa del Carmen.

Here's the website:

http://www.royalhideaway.com/

This place is head and shoulders above Xpu Ha. Put Royal Hideaway in the search box above and check out the results - have never heard or seen one negative comment about the place.

I'd go myself, but we don't do AI's.

We stayed at Xpu Ha Nov 30 - Dec 14, 2003 and really enjoyed it. I have come across another site where there are tons of hotel reviews, including Xpu Ha. Our experience there was great, and I can relate to a lot of the comments at Trip Advisor. The beach is long, though crowded in front of this resort. People were great and food OK.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...Peninsula.html