Punta Cana or Riviera Maya

[Mercy]

Trying to decide on where to go for my 25th anniversary. I think I've narrowed it down to either PC or RM.

Anyone been to either that could shed some light and help me decide?

The beaches at PC look awesome!! The beaches in the Playacar area of RM look great too, but there seems to be more to do in the RM.
Can't decide

 

[shortbun]

Your perception that there is more to do in the RM is correct. We love it there. The ruins are amazing. We also love snorkeling and exploring the cenotes(caves). Depending on how far south you are, Cancun offers some activity but we never go there because we usually head for Akumal or further south. The beach is stellar. The service is great and the indigenous people are modest, sweet and kind. We prefer resorts where we can be guaranteed/choose an ocean front room. Find a travel agent who knows the area; there are so many new resorts, the expertise will come in handy.

 

[Iluvthemouse]

We have been to Punta Cana once and Riviera Maya 6 times. The beaches are exquisite at PC. The people are very nice at both. The problems (I dont consider problems but DH does) with PC are 1. huge language barrier. Luckily I had 5 years of Spanish in high school. 2. The food. This the only place that DH has ever gotten sick while we travel. The food just isnt that good and sickness is very common.

Also there isnt much to do outside of your resort in PC..

We just prefer RM. We have stayed at Iberostars, Rius and last month at Barcelo maya. The people are wonderful, the beaches are beautiful, the food is very good and you feel safe wherever you go.

With that being said I would go back to PC but DH probably wont. But we do do RM every year.

 

[Mercy]

We have been to Punta Cana once and Riviera Maya 6 times. The beaches are exquisite at PC. The people are very nice at both. The problems (I dont consider problems but DH does) with PC are 1. huge language barrier. Luckily I had 5 years of Spanish in high school. 2. The food. This the only place that DH has ever gotten sick while we travel. The food just isnt that good and sickness is very common.

Also there isnt much to do outside of your resort in PC..

We just prefer RM. We have stayed at Iberostars, Rius and last month at Barcelo maya. The people are wonderful, the beaches are beautiful, the food is very good and you feel safe wherever you go.

With that being said I would go back to PC but DH probably wont. But we do do RM every year.

Which Iberostar did you stay at and when? We are considering the IB Tucan for RM.

 

[wdwmom2]

Check out www.applevacations.com . They seem to have some good deals. My 2 DD's went with their dad to Riviera Maya through Apple Vacations this past February and had a blast.

 

[JMD]

I'll be making my third trip to Cancun next month, and have been to Cozumel 2 other times. In my trips to Cancun, I've visited several spots in the RM. The whole is area is beautiful, and there is tons of stuff to do. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

I've never been to PC, but friends of ours went recently. The resort they stayed at was beautiful as was the beach. But there really wasn't much to do outside the resort. In fact, there were armed guards on the beach at night patrolling the edge of the resort. They started to walk down the beach and were informed there was no protection for them if they continued out of the resort.

I guess it depends on what type of vacation you are looking for. If you looking at an All-Inclusive type place and just plan to lounge around and relax, then I don't think there would be a big difference with either place. If your a bit more adventurous and plan to get out of the resort then I would definitely pick RM.

 

[Beth76]

Which Iberostar did you stay at and when? We are considering the IB Tucan for RM.

We stayed at IB Del Mar/Beach which is in the same complex as IB Maya/Lindo. I would really recommend either of those and would love to go back to stay at the Lindo (a bit more upscale) except we were there during Wilma and I think I would have a panic attack if I actually found myself there again. If we do go back to RM we would probably stay at IB Tucan/Quetzal.

 

[debknight]

A good web site for reviews is: www.tripadvisor.com.

 

[Jennifer S]

I also went to RM (in June) and stayed at an Iberostar- the Del Mar. We absolutely loved it and thought it was our best vacation ever. Loved all-inclusive!! We are trying to plan when to go back.

 

[hydster]

We went to a wonderful All Inclusive in Feb of this year *in fact the pictures in my siggie are the resort* and it was amazing! It's in Riviera Maya which was about 30 min from the Cancun Int'l Airport. It's an adults only resort and it was nice because in all of the other AI's we've stayed at we had to wear a wristband for the week to show we had the AI plan and not the European plan which doesn't include anything. Riviera Maya is gorgeous and it's pretty close and cheap to get to Playa del Carmen. There is also a ferry that will take you to Cozumel if you are so inclined.

http://www.secretsresorts.com/capri/

 

[ckret01]

Warning -very long

OK I second looking at Apple Vacations to get the best deal. I have never had a problem with them. I always book thru them when going to the Caribbean.

I have been to both places and wish I were home to post pics but for now I will just write about it. Both places are fabulous and different in there own way.

Riviera Maya:
Hotel:
I stayed at the all-inclusive Viva Wyndham Maya Resort. I loved this resort. When we arrived we got put in a room on the first floor and it was kind of dark so we asked if there were any other rooms available and there were, so we moved to a 2nd floor room and had a small view of the ocean. The rooms at both reports in RM and PC were the same size and style. The food here was great. I especially loved the food at the buffet restaurant.

Excursions:
We went a more excursions here then we did in Punta Cana. We went to X-caret (LOVE this place and highly recommend going) Snorkeling in the underground cave was so cool. We went to Chintzintza (spelt wrong I'm sure) and got to swim in a cenote which was awesome. That trip was an all day trip. It took 3 hours to get their by tour bus. We also went to Coba ruins. Both days were extremely hot but enjoyed both. We did get a little sick from the water outside the hotels b/c they tell you not to drink the water. But on both excursions to the ruins we ate off hotel property b/c they provided lunch and we did get an upset stomach towards the end of the trip but wasn't bad enough they we had to stay inside (just had to run to the bathroom every so often )

Beach:
Now for the beach…….This beach was so beautiful. The color of the water was more "Blue" than the Bahamas or punta cana. It was just beautiful. The water was super warm and the sand was so soft. At my resort , they had palapalas (those little huts that look like umbrellas) on their beach. Those came in handy b/c it got real hot out there. I would definitely recommend a hotel that has them. I would also suggest getting up in the early morning and putting a towel on the chairs under the palapalas b/c by mid day they are all taken. I have got to post pics of the oceans for you to see the difference when I get home.

Pool:
Wasn't crazy about the pool. It was kind of small and the water was almost too warm to go in it. They also had a swim up bar.

Shopping:
There was lots of shopping in Playa Del Carmen. They saw is walking and the guys in the store yells out " oh look Americans, come in here and buy something" it was funny.


Punta Cana:
Hotel:
We stayed at the Ocean Bavaro Spa and beach Resort. This resort was really nice too. The grounds here were prettier than the resort at the Riviera Maya. When we got their we wanted a room close to the water so when we were checking in I gave the guy a 20 bill and asked for the best room and he gave us a great room with a nice view of the ocean. This was an all inclusive resort also. The food was good but I think I liked the food in Mexico better but that’s b/c I am a picky eater.

Excursions
There weren't many excursions but there were some. However, we only did 1 and that was a party boat ride to go out of the shore a bit and snorkel. I had the absolute best time on here and met some great people. The boat docked a little ways from our resort (we walked down the beach to where the boat was-maybe a 5 minute walk) and got on the boat there where we met everyone else. They provided these delicious fruit punch rum drinks so some people got a little tipsy. And the took us about a mile off shore where we jumped in and snorkeled. We did that for about 45 minutes, got back on the boat and danced to music…it was a lot of fun.

Beach:

The beach was beautiful. Not as blue as the Riviera Maya but still beautiful. There were palm trees everywhere and that worked great to help with the shade if you didn’t have any palapalas (this resort had them too) The only thing about this beach was every morning they clean the beach b/c of the seaweed that would wash up on shore. This resort did a great job at cleaning that.

Pool
Loved the pool here. It was huge and odd shaped and had a swim up bar. There were actually 2 pools at this resort. The other one was a quiet pool and pretty big too.

Shopping
We went to town to shop a bit…wasn't as big as Mexico.