Vacaciones Excelente : Cancun, Mexico
Feeling blessed at the opportunity of enjoying another great vacation this year. This time to Cancun, Mexico. It was a perfect get-away from the unusually cold & freezing Chicago weather.
One of the reasons for choosing Cancun was that AA has a direct 3.5 hr flight out of O'Hare. Its quicker than flying to Vegas !!!
We wanted to take it easy and relax so we chose to stay in an all-inclusive resort. This was our second time in an all-inclusive, the first being in Sandals, Bahamas. Our home in Cancun was the all-inclusive Excellence Playa Mujeres. The resort is located 30 minutes north of CUN airport. Transportation to / from airport was arranged by the hotel for an additional charge.
Both Sandals and the Exellence Playa Mujeres are adults-only resorts giving you the peace and quiet you need to unwind, relax, rejuvenate and come back relaxed from a vacation. Compared to Sandals the Excellence is much bigger and has lot more amenities. The all-inclusive deal includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, unlimited drinks, 24-hr room service, snacks and mini bar in room restocked daily with juices, beer and snacks. We paid a little extra to stay at the Excellence Club swim-up suite which give us direct access to the pool right from our patio. It also included private check-in/check-out, access to a private lounge, upgraded in-room premium liquor restocked daily and many other facilities. The property is huge with 8 buildings, each having its own pool area, a lazy river that you can walk in and travel the whole property, 3 main bars and several mini bars.
The vacation was all about relaxing, eating & drinking and most importantly working out hard every day to make space for all the delicious meals. Excellence had nine international restaurants of which at least 8 were open for dinner daily as opposed to Sandals which also had 9 restaurants but only 3 of them are open on any given day. The food portions at all the restaurants are pretty small, which I like. Also, the ingredients are fresh and the food is cooked healthy.
I worked out hard every morning and ate a healthy breakfast of Papaya (my favorite fruit), a variety of flavored yogurts and fresh vegetable juices.
Restaurants on the property
Agave : Authentic Mexican. I recommend ‘Atlixco’ which is Poblano chili pepper stuffed with ground pork, beef and dried fruits, and walnuts
Barcelona : Mediterranean. I wasn’t crazy about the food here. The mixed paella was ok. My favorite was the yogurt raspberry cake (had texture of pan cotta) and a turquoise colored Mayan cocktail made from Xtabentún which is an anise liqueur made from anise seeds and fermented honey. Rum is then added to the anise and honey mixture. Its an excellent after dinner digestive.
Spice : pan-Asian cuisine. Had the chilli-basil grouper. Was ok
Toscana : Italian. This was my favorite restaurant. Had breakfast here everyday. It was buffet style with a huge selection of fresh fruits, juices, raw and cooked meat, eggs made to order etc etc. I feasted on the Papaya and the spinach & celery juice every day. They also had different flavors of yogurt & toppings in small shooter glasses. They also had fresh Sangria every day and all the necessary ingredients and recipes to make mimosa and other cocktails.
The Grill & Lobster House : They are two different restaurants located on top of the lazy river & swim-up bar but they have the same menu.
Basmati : Indian. This was pretty good. I recommend Dal Tadka & Paneer Tikka.
Chez Isabella : French. The food was good but the wait was a little too long. I took an hr long nap on the couch outside the restaurant.
The Flavor market : International. Passed on this. The menu wasn't very appealing
In addition to the restaurants, theres also a pizza & burger station or you can order room-service (all included int he price).
My favorite after dinner drink was a shot of Licor43. Its a Spanish Liqueur made from citrus and fruit juices, flavored with vanilla and other aromatic herbs and spices, for a total 43 different ingredients.
Spent time at the beach (the beach is not as good as Bahamas). The resort management had plenty of activities planned for guests every day including cooking and cocktail making classes, bingo, Spanish speaking, fruit carving and dance lessons etc. No need to step out of the resort. Night entertainment included fire show, cultural dances and music shows.
Spent couple of hours at the Miile Spa. The hydrotherapy area of the spa is the great. Its a walking pool with various water jets positioned at different angles to massage and loosen muscles before a hand massage.
Travelled to state of Yucatan to see the Mayan ruins. The drive was pretty long (5 hrs round trip) and there was not much to see. I would not recommend it. We visited the the archaeological site of Chichen Itza where we saw the Pyramid of Kukulcan. Our tour guide explained the math and thought behind the construction of the monuments and it was pretty mind blowing. Also visited the cenote (sinkhole) where you can refresh yourself from the heat by jumping into the pool (jump at your own risk).
Our taxi driver took us to a local Yucatecan restaurant (Las Mestizas) and helped picked out the best dishes from the menu. We ate the Cochinita Pibil which is a traditional Mexican slow-roasted pork dish and is delicious. The other item we ate was Lomitos which was also a pork dish with egg & beans. The guacamole was made with local avocados (not haas) and was just out of the world. We also tried the Panuchos which was corn tortilla topped with refried beans, chicken breast and achiote paste.
All good things come to an end and it was time to say good-bye to Cancun and return back to reality and cold weather. It was a truly relaxing vacation and was made memorable and enjoyable by the people and resort management who treated us very well and took great care of us. We came back fully recharged and look forward to our next visit.
