Sunshinejk's Iberostar Quetzal/Tucan Trip Report - Page 2

sonofdob · 01-05-2009

nice report sunshinejk...looking forward to more...we are booked for Feb 20 through Mar 06...sonofdob.

Rissask · 01-05-2009

That resort looks perfect for us- I love the greenery and the monkeys

- what a bonus!

Where is it located from Playa?

UnoMasMezcal · 01-05-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rissask

That resort looks perfect for us- I love the greenery and the monkeys

- what a bonus!

Where is it located from Playa?

This is where we always stay. It's in Playacar next to the Sandos. Nice place. Love the jungle section. We've never been there and not seen the monkeys! On a negative note for some. The beach is now full of sand whales. And "the towel game" is the rule. But if you walk south on the beach past the Sandos there is a stretch of undeveloped beach hardly anyone goes to. The restaurants and bars are plentiful and good as well. Love the open air, palapa feel of the entire resort. $5.00 cab ride to town.

Rissask · 01-05-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnoMasMezcal

This is where we always stay. It's in Playacar next to the Sandos. Nice place. Love the jungle section. We've never been there and not seen the monkeys! On a negative note for some. The beach is now full of sand whales. And "the towel game" is the rule. But if you walk south on the beach past the Sandos there is a stretch of undeveloped beach hardly anyone goes to. The restaurants and bars are plentiful and good as well. Love the open air, palapa feel of the entire resort. $5.00 cab ride to town.

Thanks (man

).

That would be ideal if we were to do an AI our next trip. I wouldn't want to be too far from town. And I just love monkeys....Don would have a hard time dragging me away from them!

Are they caged in or wild?

As for the towel, oh well, most AIs have that issue and we don't travel high season weeks anyway, which helps.

Sorry for the highjack Sunshine, great report- more please!

UnoMasMezcal · 01-05-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rissask

Thanks (man

).

That would be ideal if we were to do an AI our next trip. I wouldn't want to be too far from town. And I just love monkeys....Don would have a hard time dragging me away from them!

Are they caged in or wild?

As for the towel, oh well, most AIs have that issue and we don't travel high season weeks anyway, which helps.

Sorry for the highjack Sunshine, great report- more please!

The monkeys are wild. Chance encounters only. (Sometimes right on the balcony.) They make a great alarm clock around sunrise.)

And yes Sunshine, keep reporting. I never get too much enjoyment from this place. Your report is awesome so far!

UnoMasMezcal · 01-05-2009

We stayed in the room right next door 2 trips ago. I LOVED sitting on the balcony and watching the birds and monkeys. Our friends stayed on the 3rd story room directly above. They had the monkeys right on the balcony one morning.

Timpete · 01-05-2009

Great report! We stayed at the Tucan last year and loved it. Keep the photos coming.

actran · 01-05-2009

Lovin' your report.

Chell962 · 01-06-2009

We just got back from the Quetzal side on Sunday night... the pictures remind me of our lovely vacation there. Everything was excellent.... except for the food. Mind you, I'm not a picky eater and we've stayed at other AIs and the food fell well short of the mark. Lukewarm, minimal variety, even the specialty restaurants were only mediocre. Very disappointing.

We did head into town for a couple meals at the end of the trip and we really enjoyed Alux -- good food and a great location (and a nice wine list). Very cool "must see" place to go!

My favorite part of our trip was taking the resort's catamaran out each day for a sail. Our weather was great and we sailed every day that we were at the resort! And the one day we didn't sail at the resort, we did the FatCat Catamaran -- and a good time was had by all!

lvprettyplcs · 01-06-2009

Great Report Sunshinejk! Can't wait to read the rest! Keep it coming!

booperinbham · 01-14-2009

Great trip report. I loved your trip report from last year so much that I chose the Grand Riviera Princess because of your report AND THE SWIM UP ROOM! Going back this year for another seven days. Can't beat that place. We still deciding on dates. Will either be the last week of April or mid-May. When we find a place we like we return. We went to the Crown Paradise in Cancun 14 times before venturing to Playa!

lvprettyplcs · 01-15-2009

booperinbham; when will you guys be going to GRP? We will be arriving June 19th & have yet to find anyone form this forum going at that time

mouse · 01-15-2009

Great report as always Sunshinejk...love the monkey pic's. Looks like this resort was right in the jungle. Was there alot of mosquito action?

sunshinejk · 01-16-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by mouse

Great report as always Sunshinejk...love the monkey pic's. Looks like this resort was right in the jungle. Was there alot of mosquito action?

the jungle was in the resort.

Right in the middle. It was awesome. I wore mosquito spray every day because I got bit up so much last year at the Grand Sunset Princess. However, I got bit by SAND FLIES, so if you go, just make sure to bring your mosquito spray to the beach and spray down your legs when you get out of the water.

Sorry for the delay on the report. I hope to get going on it again this summer. We just bought a house, so I have been busy.

sunshinejk · 01-18-2009

I am fast asleep, and I hear, "Twee, Twee...Twee, Twee". Just as I am getting ready to yell at my son for whistling and waking me up, my eyes pop open and I realize I am not home...I am in Mexico and Quin is in Wisconsin with Grandma and Grandpa, and I am being awakened by some kind of bird at 6:15 a.m. I had gotten 9 hours of sleep and am ready to GET UP. I woke Korey up with my laughter of wanting to blame Quin for waking me up, and we both get up and start the day.

We got up and in our suits. I wanted to walk the beach. We get our stuff ready as we plan to sit on the beach and lounge after our walk. we were surprised to see quite a few out this early already. We found a great Palapa mid-resort and front row, stash our stuff on the chairs and head out on our walk. We walk North towards Playa and scope out the resorts next to ours as we walk. Nice resorts, but I like our beach the best.

After about a 20 minute walk we decide to get breakfast. It is cprettycloudy, so we decide NOT to come back to the beach afterwards and bring our stuff with us. While we are enjoying our delicious breakfast, the sun comes out. It is still a windy, red flag day, but we headed back to the beach.

We lounge and read and enjoy the view for an hour or so, but then we need to cool off. It is windy, but hot and muggy. We decide to go wave jumping. OMG, we had so much fun. We only lasted about 20 minutes, though. I was pooped and ready to rest. Believe it or not, wave jumping is a lot of work and GREAT exercize.

We head back to the beach and rest for about another hour. I saw a father and son playing in the waves and just had to get a picture. It was so cute.

I also had a Miami Vice for my friend Lori. It was VERY yummy.

We got cleaned up and decided to have lunch first. We made up a yummy plate of nachos, loaded with chips, spiced pork, sauteed onions and peppers, salsa verde, pico de gallo, guacamole and refried beans. O.K....so I think I have now found my lunch for the next week. it was so good, and it hit the spot. I also had their pollo soup (chicken and rice) with a coca cola light.

We eat and are ready to go to town. First we stop by the spa to see if Korey can get a haircut. The earliest we can get him in is 9 a.m. the following day. Scrubby will get his mop lopped and get all handsome again. wahoooo!!!! I thought the price was pretty reasonable, too, and comparable to a nice salon back home. Only $22 USD.

We are off on foot to Playa del Carmen. We knew it would be about 1/2 hour walk, but we were O.K. with that. We like to walk. HOWEVER, my sandals didn't agree with us. I love my sandals. They are NOT new...I got them last year, so they are broken in and usually very comfy. BUT my feet have swelled since we arrived, as well as my hands. Since my feet are swollen, they are now squishing my toes and I am developing blisters. So, after walking for 20 minutes, ALMOST making it to Playa, I remove my sandals and we turn around and head back to the resort. I considered just buying new shoes in playa and toughing it out, but who know if new shoes would prevent blisters. So, back to the Iberostar....

I remove my shoes and walk back to the hotel barefoot. We did stop in the hotel gift shop when we got back, and I tried on a pair of flip flops. 390 pesos....They are cute, but I am not sure if I want to pay $30 USD for a pair of flip flops. We'll see. They are cute, black and habe a big black beaded starfish on top.

We head up to the room so I can switch shoes and decide we need a nap. We have dinner at 7 tonight at the hacienda. On our way back to the room, we take a gander at the Koi in the pond....people must feed them a lot as, when we put our hands over the water, they followed the path of our hands.

Once back in our room, we found out the maid has already been there and we havenew towel art on the bed. Not sure WHAT it is...

...I think it is a flower of some sort, but the first thing that comes to mind is PENIS!!!!

After getting up from our 3 hour nap I went to the balcony to check out the wildlife. Sure enough, we see another monkey in the trees. I love thisresort. We already know we are coming back with the kids some day. We would also like to do a family trip with Korey's parents and his sister and her family. THANKS SHAMMY!!!

Dinner is at the Hacienda, and it is wonderful. I ordered Tacos el Pastor:

and Korey had Tacos especial:

We start our meal with a pre-selected appetizer of chicken wings. Not too bad!!

They were not spicy like the buffalo wings I was expecting. Then we help ourselves to the "salad bar" that had everything from salad to appetizers like mini chimmis, tamales, fried shrimp...if you look at the first picture below, you can see an odd looking salad. It was a cactus salad. A little slimy, but very tasty! We were NOT dissappointed at all.

We also enjoyed some marvelous margaritas...

After our appetizers, we got our tortilla soup.

Once again, this was tasty. I had to take a picture of the table decor. I liked the simplicity of it.

As we were eating our main meal, a different waiter started doing some kind of firey thing with someone's food. I have no idea what it was, but it looked cool.

Desert was a smorgasboard of goodies. I had some kind of coconut in a lime rind (yummo!!), a chocolate tart, tequila mousse, cheesecake...the corn husk thing was some kind of nutty caramel, and the red thing was sticky, chewy, and just plain ol good, but I can't remember what it was called. Our coffee and cappaccino were served in little terra cotta pitchers. It kept our coffee very hot, and Korey said his tasted like fire. LOL.

This wraps up day two. After dinner we went back to the room and crashed.

01-18-2009	#30 (permalink)
sunshinejk beachaholic Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 306	Day Two, Sunday I am fast asleep, and I hear, "Twee, Twee...Twee, Twee". Just as I am getting ready to yell at my son for whistling and waking me up, my eyes pop open and I realize I am not home...I am in Mexico and Quin is in Wisconsin with Grandma and Grandpa, and I am being awakened by some kind of bird at 6:15 a.m. I had gotten 9 hours of sleep and am ready to GET UP. I woke Korey up with my laughter of wanting to blame Quin for waking me up, and we both get up and start the day. We got up and in our suits. I wanted to walk the beach. We get our stuff ready as we plan to sit on the beach and lounge after our walk. we were surprised to see quite a few out this early already. We found a great Palapa mid-resort and front row, stash our stuff on the chairs and head out on our walk. We walk North towards Playa and scope out the resorts next to ours as we walk. Nice resorts, but I like our beach the best. After about a 20 minute walk we decide to get breakfast. It is cprettycloudy, so we decide NOT to come back to the beach afterwards and bring our stuff with us. While we are enjoying our delicious breakfast, the sun comes out. It is still a windy, red flag day, but we headed back to the beach. We lounge and read and enjoy the view for an hour or so, but then we need to cool off. It is windy, but hot and muggy. We decide to go wave jumping. OMG, we had so much fun. We only lasted about 20 minutes, though. I was pooped and ready to rest. Believe it or not, wave jumping is a lot of work and GREAT exercize. We head back to the beach and rest for about another hour. I saw a father and son playing in the waves and just had to get a picture. It was so cute. I also had a Miami Vice for my friend Lori. It was VERY yummy. We got cleaned up and decided to have lunch first. We made up a yummy plate of nachos, loaded with chips, spiced pork, sauteed onions and peppers, salsa verde, pico de gallo, guacamole and refried beans. O.K....so I think I have now found my lunch for the next week. it was so good, and it hit the spot. I also had their pollo soup (chicken and rice) with a coca cola light. We eat and are ready to go to town. First we stop by the spa to see if Korey can get a haircut. The earliest we can get him in is 9 a.m. the following day. Scrubby will get his mop lopped and get all handsome again. wahoooo!!!! I thought the price was pretty reasonable, too, and comparable to a nice salon back home. Only $22 USD. We are off on foot to Playa del Carmen. We knew it would be about 1/2 hour walk, but we were O.K. with that. We like to walk. HOWEVER, my sandals didn't agree with us. I love my sandals. They are NOT new...I got them last year, so they are broken in and usually very comfy. BUT my feet have swelled since we arrived, as well as my hands. Since my feet are swollen, they are now squishing my toes and I am developing blisters. So, after walking for 20 minutes, ALMOST making it to Playa, I remove my sandals and we turn around and head back to the resort. I considered just buying new shoes in playa and toughing it out, but who know if new shoes would prevent blisters. So, back to the Iberostar.... I remove my shoes and walk back to the hotel barefoot. We did stop in the hotel gift shop when we got back, and I tried on a pair of flip flops. 390 pesos....They are cute, but I am not sure if I want to pay $30 USD for a pair of flip flops. We'll see. They are cute, black and habe a big black beaded starfish on top. We head up to the room so I can switch shoes and decide we need a nap. We have dinner at 7 tonight at the hacienda. On our way back to the room, we take a gander at the Koi in the pond....people must feed them a lot as, when we put our hands over the water, they followed the path of our hands. Once back in our room, we found out the maid has already been there and we havenew towel art on the bed. Not sure WHAT it is......I think it is a flower of some sort, but the first thing that comes to mind is PENIS!!!! After getting up from our 3 hour nap I went to the balcony to check out the wildlife. Sure enough, we see another monkey in the trees. I love thisresort. We already know we are coming back with the kids some day. We would also like to do a family trip with Korey's parents and his sister and her family. THANKS SHAMMY!!! Dinner is at the Hacienda, and it is wonderful. I ordered Tacos el Pastor: and Korey had Tacos especial: We start our meal with a pre-selected appetizer of chicken wings. Not too bad!! They were not spicy like the buffalo wings I was expecting. Then we help ourselves to the "salad bar" that had everything from salad to appetizers like mini chimmis, tamales, fried shrimp...if you look at the first picture below, you can see an odd looking salad. It was a cactus salad. A little slimy, but very tasty! We were NOT dissappointed at all. We also enjoyed some marvelous margaritas... After our appetizers, we got our tortilla soup. Once again, this was tasty. I had to take a picture of the table decor. I liked the simplicity of it. As we were eating our main meal, a different waiter started doing some kind of firey thing with someone's food. I have no idea what it was, but it looked cool. Desert was a smorgasboard of goodies. I had some kind of coconut in a lime rind (yummo!!), a chocolate tart, tequila mousse, cheesecake...the corn husk thing was some kind of nutty caramel, and the red thing was sticky, chewy, and just plain ol good, but I can't remember what it was called. Our coffee and cappaccino were served in little terra cotta pitchers. It kept our coffee very hot, and Korey said his tasted like fire. LOL. This wraps up day two. After dinner we went back to the room and crashed. __________________ 2008 Grand Sunset Princess Trip Report

01-05-2009	#16 (permalink)
sonofdob beachaholic Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: White Rock, B.C. Posts: 335	nice report sunshinejk...looking forward to more...we are booked for Feb 20 through Mar 06...sonofdob.

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01-05-2009	#17 (permalink)
Rissask Canada Dry Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada Posts: 27,151	That resort looks perfect for us- I love the greenery and the monkeys - what a bonus! Where is it located from Playa?

01-05-2009	#21 (permalink)
UnoMasMezcal PROUD RANDOMITE Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Oregon Posts: 5,844	We stayed in the room right next door 2 trips ago. I LOVED sitting on the balcony and watching the birds and monkeys. Our friends stayed on the 3rd story room directly above. They had the monkeys right on the balcony one morning.

01-05-2009	#22 (permalink)
Timpete way into it Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Virginia, Minnesota Posts: 200	Great report! We stayed at the Tucan last year and loved it. Keep the photos coming.

01-05-2009	#23 (permalink)
actran reposado Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Colorado Posts: 1,047	Lovin' your report.

01-06-2009	#24 (permalink)
Chell962 lost on fifth Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 22	We just got back from the Quetzal side on Sunday night... the pictures remind me of our lovely vacation there. Everything was excellent.... except for the food. Mind you, I'm not a picky eater and we've stayed at other AIs and the food fell well short of the mark. Lukewarm, minimal variety, even the specialty restaurants were only mediocre. Very disappointing. We did head into town for a couple meals at the end of the trip and we really enjoyed Alux -- good food and a great location (and a nice wine list). Very cool "must see" place to go! My favorite part of our trip was taking the resort's catamaran out each day for a sail. Our weather was great and we sailed every day that we were at the resort! And the one day we didn't sail at the resort, we did the FatCat Catamaran -- and a good time was had by all!

01-06-2009	#25 (permalink)
lvprettyplcs way into it Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Atlanta, Ga Posts: 187	Great Report Sunshinejk! Can't wait to read the rest! Keep it coming!

01-14-2009	#26 (permalink)
booperinbham toe in water Join Date: May 2008 Location: Bham, AL Posts: 53	Great trip report. I loved your trip report from last year so much that I chose the Grand Riviera Princess because of your report AND THE SWIM UP ROOM! Going back this year for another seven days. Can't beat that place. We still deciding on dates. Will either be the last week of April or mid-May. When we find a place we like we return. We went to the Crown Paradise in Cancun 14 times before venturing to Playa!

01-15-2009	#27 (permalink)
lvprettyplcs way into it Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Atlanta, Ga Posts: 187	booperinbham; when will you guys be going to GRP? We will be arriving June 19th & have yet to find anyone form this forum going at that time

01-15-2009	#28 (permalink)
mouse way into it Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: White Rock, B.C. Posts: 171	Great report as always Sunshinejk...love the monkey pic's. Looks like this resort was right in the jungle. Was there alot of mosquito action?