Hotel Review- Dos Playas, Cancun, Mexico

We arrived into Cancun's international airport on a domestic flight from the countries capital city at around midnight local time. It had taken us around 24 hours to arrive there after our three flights from London's Heathrow airport.

We were held up for a little while at customs, as a female agent checked our bags, 'phoned her boss' and informed us that we would have to pay an extortionate fee for bringing our computer into the country as it was a piece of professional equipment. After a few minutes we didn't have to pay a penny and were able to continue on our way. It was our first attempt at a shakedown Mexican style and we had passed with flying colors. We agreed a price before hand with the taxi and were soon seated comfortably and heading towards our prepaid hotel. Because Mexico was still in the middle of the swine flu outbreak our hotel was closed and we were shown a nearby one that took us on our booking, they were both part of the same hotel group.

The next morning we were woken by a telephone call by the receptionist welcoming us to their hotel. This call woke us from the deep slumber that we had both fallen into as soon as our heads had hit the pillows on the spacious king sized bed a few hours previously. On our venturing outside and into the daylight for the first time, our balcony gave us a very impressive ocean view we found our way towards the restaurant for our first meal in this all inclusive resort hotel.

Our very cheerful waiter (all the staff here were impeccably well behaved) offered us a choice of tea, coffee, juice, water or tequila. This was followed by an impressive range of cereals, fresh fruit and a choice of breads. We were eating our way through a selection of this breakfast buffet when our waiter arrived with a plate of scrambled eggs and ham, chilli nachos and fried potatoes. This was certainly not a haven for the diet conscious; it appeared we would not be allowed to go hungry during our short stay in this hotel.

It was quickly evident to us that the tourism industry had taken a big hit in Mexico. This hotel though not large by local standards had fewer than a dozen guests, well under 10% occupancy with many choosing not to travel to this part of the world. We took a stroll along the private beach, with the warm water of the Caribbean cooling our feet before relaxing beside the pool. Most of our time here we would have the pool all to ourselves.

The hotels tour representative had asked us to stop in and see her and was soon offering us a choice of the many trips available at a price. As an incentive we were offered a free trip on a boat through the nearby lagoon which we agreed to attend the next morning. We completed our first day in the resort with a local bus into Cancun itself and a walk around Walmart for a few essential supplies.

Our second full day in Cancun began with a short ride to a nearby hotel complex and the promised boat ride. Before we could get onto the boat we would have to endure a presentation of some 90 minutes. We had been informed that it was not time share but something worded differently but the same product only more expensive. We only went along because we had been offered the sum of $100US for attending. So we sat through all that was offered us, asking on several occasions what the final price would be, only to be informed that they would get to the prices later. The whole package on offer was way beyond our budget, and after almost 4 hours of listening to their very polished performance we were given the price. $129,000US, we looked at each other and laughed. The next few minutes were a succession of ever decreasing prices offered to us until they finally relented and gave us the dollars for attending and we could return to our hotel and continue with our relaxing beside the pool. The next morning we checked out of the hotel to continue on with our journey southwards and into Belize.

The hotel had a program of activities that had been suspended due to the low number of guests because of the swine flu scare that had gripped the world; unfortunately we were not able to participate in any of these for that reason. Prior to travelling to Mexico we had read some previous comments left by guests staying at this hotel, a mixture of some good and others not so, all I can say for my experience of staying at this hotel that it was an excellent few days break for us and that we would not hesitate to return there again.