What about the Royal playa del Carmen? It's around 45 mins from Cancun, it's all inc,adults only, jacuzzi in bedroom, and just 5 mins walk from 5th ave!!
I haven't been yet - going in Sept 08. But it looks fantastic!!!
Booked through Thomas Cook. Cost us £1000 each for 2 weeks including insurance and premium cabin! Loads of info and reviews on TripAdvisor!!
Denny

Have a look through the reviews HERE and resort reports HERE

Pippy

defo check out playacar/playa del carmen Riu Tequila is my fav, but riu playcar and riu yucatan are also very very nice. Weather should be spot on maybe the odd shower but check out http://www.wunderground.com for a history.

Cancun is a bit of a Magaluf for the USA, as they cant drink till 21 in most states so they head for Mexico especially Cancun. Also check out the dom rep and Cuba threads.

Will definitely second the Riu Tequila. The town is just a 5 min taxi ride away, and has loads of bars and restaurants.

me and my family have been to cancun twice, first time we stayed at crown paradise, it was lovely, it was a taxi ride to downtown but this was not a problem
the second time we stayed at riu caribe, it was lovely,this was just a walk into downtown.
there was another riu hotel which was in the heart of cancun, this was riu cancun, you can visit this hotel if you stay at riu caribe

to be honest with you there did not look like there was any bad hotels and i think they have extras in the hotels

we would definetly go back to mexico, both times we went in January and it was red hot

hope this information helps you

hey everyone thanks for all your help....my friend works for first choice and he has found me a deal for barcelo costa cancun.....so maybe swaying towards that one now.....its so hard trying to pick a hotel esp when i want a low price!!! think barcelo took it over not long ago.

All I will say is AVOID THE CARIBBEAN PRINCESS - it's totally crap, not worth evening thinking about staying here. We relocated to the Barcelo Tucancun Beach Hotel and loved our holiday, after a disasterous start at the other "hole".

You are much better being in the actual straight bit of the Hotel Zone, beach side. Have agreat holiday.

think i will give the barcelo costa cancun a miss actually....found quite a few bad reports. been looking at the riu caribe which looks nice but the beach seems to be a bit strange in some pictures i looked at. anyone know a nice hotel with the best beach??!!!!

I would defo recommend the Barcelo Tucancun as its quite central to everything. Youv'e also got the Kulkucan Shopping mall opposite the front of the hotel!

yes the tucancun looked nice until first choice mentioned all the beach had been washed away by the hurricane!!! Can anyone confirm this??????

The beach is smalleer than it was but it is regaining itself again. Its a lovely beach. How much beach does anyone actually want to sit on?

Don't rule out A/I in the Caribbean.

If you research the hotels you will find that a lot of them have good food and the fact that you don't have to keep putting the hand in the pocket everytime you want a drink is a great bonus.

In our instance we went to the Grand Bahia Principe Coba down by XelHa basically because I wanted to go to XelHa, and we were intending to swim with turtles (free) off the beach in Akumel, a bus stop away, but we ran out of time. While we floated down the river at XelHa, a Giant Turtle stuck its head up a couple of feet away, so we didn't completely miss out. We also went to Xcarat which was also quite close and also does a good evening show for the same entrance price.

The GBP resort consists of 3 hotels and you can use the facilities from any one or all of them at any time. At 11pm or so the bars and nightlife transfer to their nightclub which is well out of earshot from the hotel rooms!
The plus side is that the entire complex is served by free golf cart style trains and buses, which you just hop onto as they come past (they do stop), so you can leave the room with just a cossie and towel and wander about all day, eating and drinking as and when, so it is just plain relaxing.
Playa del Carmen is a something like $2 bus ride away.

The extra you pay for AI if you can find a good deal at a good hotel can be negligable giving a nice relaxing holiday but also allowing the same budget to cover outside catering if you want to wander.

We normally go FC but last year I used the Caribbean Warehouse and although I wasn't trying to, I saved a significant three figure sum per person. The website has some good pictures and info on several hotels, but you have to phone for the real price as they buy accomodation locally and then use whatever plane best suits you, so the prices vary. I think in our case we could have flown the FC plane but chose MyTravel as it was, in that instance, over £150 cheaper per person. At least that is how they worked last year. It was slightly embarassing as we made friends with a family on an FC holiday same dates, and they were telling of their great deal with room upgrades etc. They arrived later than us, had the same rooms, had to sit around the hotel longer at the end waiting to go back etc, or in other words had exacty the same holiday as us but with slightly more inconvenient times to us and the airfare saving was only half the story! I did not tell them how much we paid as they thoroughly enjoyed their holiday for the price they paid, but I did suggest they shopped around next time in case they could save couple of quid. If they do and can do better they will be pleased, if not they still had a good holiday last time.

There are several similar hotel complexes in the area from Cancun down so there is plenty to research.

As you only intend a week holiday there will not be a lot of time to do things so not having to think about food and drink constantly is quite a bonus we found, but bear in mind the major part of the cost is the travel so you can often get the second week for only a small amount more. although you will have to go the week before!

Unless there is something specific to mexico, you should also check out the bayahibe region in the DR where the beaches are nice soft sand, and the playa pesquero region of Cuba, you will have a good relaxing holiday in any of those locations if you check the reviews before booking!

Last year the Hurricane did damage the beaches in Mexico but we went in late september and they were already repairing the damage so you should be fine by december.
If you decide the flight is too long for a week, check out the AI luxury hotels in Sharm which can be good at Christmas, although the 17th is in the Xmas period and hence prices start to rise up from that week.

thanks for that. im looking at going to the royal cancun by real. It is a five star with a la carte meals and you dont have to make reservations for the restaurants. ive read lots of reviews, there are only a few bad ones but nothing that was major. Found some recent pictures too and although the beach isnt what i had in mind for a caribbean beach i appreciate that a lot was swept away with the hurricane and its being rebuilt. Has anyone been here that can give me any tips?? Is room service included? Was the food nice and are there more 'normal' choices for fussy eaters ie me!! Hope anyone can help me!!

By the way flying with first choice....got to cos its only day we can fly. other than that its thomson but prices are wayyyyyy higher with them even though they do some great looking hotels :O( :O)

Yes, room service (24hr) is included. We are going to the sister hotel -The Royal Playa Del Carmen in September. Loads of wonderful reviews and a much larger beach than Royal Cancun.!
Denny

As I mentioned, we could have used the FC flight with the agent we used, it was our choice not to. A bonus was we didn't have to walk to the Caribbean and Back from the North terminal at Gatwick!

Once you decide on your destination and have a price it would still be worth phoning them and checking before making the final booking just in case.

In my instance, I could not get a holiday at the right time or price using the FC/Eclipse/Thomson/Thomascook websites so I phoned the Caribbean Warehouse people, as mentioned above, out of desperation for an alternative take or suggestion.

Turned out we had better service than we have had with the main players, they did not mind me making many enquiries changing my mind on hotels and countries and using their advice to research locations etc.
In the end their quote was a lot lower than Eclipsedirect which itself was well over £100 plus cheaper than FC and that was before we took the different plane option.

If you have a route for cheap holiday discounts, all's well and good, but I personally will definitely get a quote from them for my next holiday if they do the destination as we had no problems last time. We also got a slightly more personal service as we were not in a group of hundreds. For some strange reason we had the only named meals on the plane in both directions!

cool i will take a look at caribbean warehouse.its always good to have a recommendation from someone.
To be honest i know wherever i go i will have a good time im just being fussy arent i??!!

Anyone swim with dolphins at aquaworld???

or submarine?

or lobster dinner on queens boat?

jungle tour?

so many things to do so little time! (only going for a week :OI )

I went to Cancun a few years ago with a company named The Holiday Place.
We stayed at the Club Las Velas and met guests who were there with Virgin,Cosmos and Airtours who had paid double what we paid.
I dont know if this hotel is still available to the UK market as it has been renovated and turned into a spa resort but I would certainly contact the Holiday place to see if they can beat First Choice prices.