AI's With the Best Beachfront

[sharkbait]

Originally Posted by realzed

To get good views of many of the resorts and what the their beaches look like from the air and to compare each, check out the link below - it lets you scan along the coastline from just South of Cozumel to Tulum - pretty interesting!
locogringo.com
Stayed at the El Dorado Spring of 2006 and the beach was pretty pitiful - but that was 6 months after the big hurricane which nearly wiped the place out.
Randy

Cool link. I stuck it in my favorites. We're aslo coming down for Christmas Week, staying in a condo in PDC. This link will be mucho helpful in figuring out where we are to where we are going. Thanks.

[realzed]

Originally Posted by sharkbait

Cool link. I stuck it in my favorites. We're aslo coming down for Christmas Week, staying in a condo in PDC. This link will be mucho helpful in figuring out where we are to where we are going. Thanks.

Yea it can be very handy especially when you hear "oh it's just a nice little walk down the beach" and you can see that in order to get 'there' you should really be packing a lunch...
It also shows good relavent distances so one can actually relate travelling between say Cancun to Tulum or Playa timewise. The beaches obviously change quite a bit over time (especially with hurricanes etc) so the link isn't likely to be very accurate to assess that sort of thing. - Randy

[gottagotropical]

You can also get a good idea of beach size and water conditions by going to Google Earth. They just updated the photo of the Playa area and you can see some of the serious beach erosion in the northern part of Playacar. Where the water is a bright blue its a nice sand bottom. Where it's dark, there's rock, coral and plants growing - bring your water shoes or mask and snorkel!
Locogringo is good and shows more detail, but the pictures are getting old and some of the newer resorts are not covered.

[MicheleR]

Just got back from the Iberostar Quetzal/Tucan on Sunday, would be happy to answer any questions you might have! Wonderful resort.

[swimmer1]

Does anyone know if the Reef Playacar's beach has improved any since Hurricane Dean?
Swimmer1

[swimmer1]

Does anyone know if the Reef Playacar's beach has improved any since Hurricane Dean?
Swimmer1

[sharkbait]

Originally Posted by MicheleR

Just got back from the Iberostar Quetzal/Tucan on Sunday, would be happy to answer any questions you might have! Wonderful resort.

Thanks Michelle. I may take you up on that. Looks like it is between the IB Queztal, Barcelo, and The Eldorado Royale. We are going to do a conference call this weekend with everyone involved to decide which one it is.

Shammy, I'll be PM'ing you once we figure out where we are going.

[angie_dpu]

We have stayed at the Eldorado Royale twice(2005 and 2007). The resort is beautiful, but the beach is just so so. The sandbags didn't bother us, but it is not the best beach to swim or snorkel off of. The food and service is awesome. We just did our snorkeling on a tour with Mitch and that was fine by us. We will go to the Barcelo next year for a different experience, though. Good luck on getting your decision made. Have fun!

[cuffedlinks]

True.
Spots of the beach can be rocky.
But plenty of access areas.
I think you can see some of them in my EDR Album in our Mexico Photos link.

What we LOVED about the beach and water at the EDR, is that due to the whale humps, which didn't bother me at all, we could take the loungers directly into the water a few inches and have the waves gently lap up around us while sunning...wonderful.

JoJo's by the beach is good for burgers and steaks...Kampei is good....the Martini Bar next to the lobby is great, good hot dogs and pizzas by the pool, but the best was the Smoothie Bar near the entrance to the Casita section, and very close to the beach area there.