Apple Vacations & BlueBay Grand Esmeralda in Cancun’s Riviera Maya has announced specials available from now through the of the year! We have gotten a lot of questions on the resort. So I asked one of our Sales Managers, Gina West, who was there for a report. Here is her review:

The resort is located just north of Playa del Carmen , so the commute from the Cancun airport is only about 30 minutes which is especially great for short stays.

Each guest room building has it’s own concierge and each building also has an elevator with glass walls that with views of the outdoors. The guest rooms are really very nice and richly appointed with plush bedding (not the hard mattresses that are so typically are found in hotels). All of the guest rooms definitely have the feel of a luxury upscale resort – which surprised me for the price of this resort. For an upgrade, they offer swim out rooms with a large and rather deep (3′ – 4′) common plunge pool that is shared by everyone on the ground floor. These plunge pools do not connect with the resorts main pool. They also offer suites which are two rooms – a living room and a separate master bedroom with a king bed.

The very large main pool runs parallel to the coastline rather than perpendicular to it, which is always more pleasing and dramatic. The pool has a lot of character. They have a children’s area plus exercise bikes in the pool and built in lounging seats in the pool around the perimeter. Very nice for hot summer days!

The white sandy beach is very clean and spacious with ample lounge chairs for those who prefer to sit closer to the ocean. In this case, you can be close to both the pool and the ocean!

The specialty a la carte restaurants were completely renovated about 2 – 3 years ago and I was very impressed with them. The main buffet restaurant is located by the pool with great views of the ocean. It’s very spacious and the food was good.

Their spa is large with lots of open air areas and a water circuit program. At the time that it opened, I remember thinking it was larger than most spas and just really different since it was so open.

The theater area was okay. The hotel also have a few specialty shops for guests. The lobby is nice. It’s probably the highest point in the resort. One thing to point out at the resort is that there is a distance between the lobby, spa, theater and shops and the guest rooms. You have to walk over a long boardwalk that was built over the mangroves to get there. They do have shuttles available, but mostly people walked.

For the selling points of this hotel, it is definitely worth it!