Restaurants at Valentin Imperial Maya Resort
Just to give you an idea where we come from you read this review. We were a group of 15 adults, ranging from 20s-60s. We have been to Cancun many times before and love it. We like all inclusive when traveling with a big group. Cancun Palace, Beach Palace, Omni, The Royal, RIU Cancun, Fiesta Americana Grand Coral, and Dreams are some of the places that we had stayed at prior to this trip. We were really looking forward to staying at Valentin, because we heard many great things about it. However, our own experience turned out to be rather disappointing. And that was a census for all 15 of us. Let me tell you why.
All restaurants on site didn’t require reservations. And all dinners had wine pairing. However, the food left a lot to be desired.
Le Marche – International cuisine for breakfast and lunch, buffet breakfast daily 7 – 11am. Breakfast buffet here had more selections and food look fresher than Mar & Tierra. And they have AC, so it helps if you’re going during the very hot months.
Mar & Tierra – we had breakfast and lunch here most days due to its proximity to the beach. But it wasn’t breezy when we were there. There was no AC in the restaurant, so it was HOT. Some items on the lunch menu were pretty good. However, the service was slow. On certain nights, half of the restaurant (the Tierra part) becomes a Steak house, and the other half (the Mar part) is Lobster Pot. However, we didn’t have a chance to try either.
The restaurants below were only open for dinner:
Taman Sari – typical dishes from the Indonesian region, and flavors from India, Thailand and Vietnam. Food was B, but 2 people in our party got food poison after eating in this restaurant.
La Hacienda – Mexican restaurant. We didn’t try it so can’t say how good/bad it is.
Il Olivo – Italian restaurant, we had the best food in this trip here. We loved their traditional Roman pizzas. B+
L’Alsace – traditional French cuisine. Everyone in our party ordered a different dish to try, all but one was below average. Grade: C-
Ginger – Japanese and Peruvian cuisine. The sushi and sashimi was very chewy and not fresh, almost not edible. The chicken and pork were tough and not tasty at all. Fried ice cream had too much batter. Grade: F. However, the Hibachi grill (inside private rooms) was fun to watch and the food was decent. Grade: B
Lobster Pot was located in the Mar part of Mar & Tierra restaurant. It specialized in Seafood. There was additional charge for lobsters. However, it was open only 1 night when we were there (on the day of our arrival). Even though we had $200 resort credit for this restaurant, we didn’t have a chance to use it.
We had $400 resort credit to use on various restaurants and services. During the check-in process, we specifically requested to use $200 of our resort credit for Lobster Pot. We told the concierge that we loved lobsters and most likely would visit the restaurant a couple times. They gave us the vouchers for Lobster Pot, but did not inform us that the restaurant was open only ONE night (on the day of our arrival) in our entire trip. Had we known about it, we would’ve gone that night. Toward the last day of our trip, we asked to see if we could exchange our $200 Lobster Pot credit for something else, since Lobster Pot was closed most days. They refused. We were upset and very disappointed.
Overall, even though Valentin Imperial Maya has an awesome beach, we would not return here. Having good food really makes a big difference for us. There are so many better choices in the area and vicinity, and they cost less than what we’d paid for Valentin too.
Valentin Imperial Maya Resort
We went to Riviera Maya (Mexico) with both families in August. We had sunshine every day the entire trip. It was hot and humid, but expected, we went in mid-August after all.
I arranged our own private ground transfer with Cancun Transfers. They were on-time both ways and very professional. The van was new and comfortable. Booking with them was easy, we had an option to pay in advance by credit card, or pay cash when we got there.
Valentin Imperial Maya is an adult-only all-inclusive resort in Riviera Maya. We were greeted with cold towels and champagne upon our arrival. The resort was spread out and required some walking, which was good for us, but some people may not like it. Regardless you like to walk or not, ladies may want to leave the stilettos at home. The resort ground was beautiful, with lots of trees and ponds. The pool was huge and not crowded at all. The rooms were OK, typical for a Cancun resort, though not as nice as Cancun Palace. The beach was fantastic. Actually, the beach was the best part about this resort. Wide expansive beach. White soft powdery sand. Clear warm turquoise water. The waves were perfect to swim and play with.
We brought some bread down to the beach to feed the fish and swim with them every day. Tons of them came, surrounded us and waited for food. There was a Kayak tour every day at 9:30am. Other non-motorized water sports were available free of charge. DH learned how to sail, and loved it. He took the Hobie cat out (and back!) without any help on the 2nd day. Too bad we were not allowed to walk on the beach after 8pm. It would’ve been awesome, because it was full moon when we were there.
For my review of the restaurants at Valentin, click here to read the next post.
Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Holistic Resort & Spa and its sisters
Our vacation in Cabo San Lucas had a rough start (see our experience at the airport), but we didn’t let any of that bother us. We were there to relax and enjoy ourselves, and we did exactly that. We stayed at Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Holistic and Spa Resort and loved it.
The resort was very serene, all adults, quiet, with soft music playing in the background and aromatherapy mist in the air. All toiletries were special ordered from Bath & Body Works. Everything was almost perfect, except…We found the maid service very lacking for a resort in this caliber. They did not refill/provide new shampoo, lotion and soaps. We accidently dropped the almost-completely-gone body soap to the drainage. We intentionally did not pick it up, wanted to see what the maids would do. To our surprise when we return to the room, they picked up that dirty tiny piece of soap that we dropped, put it back to the soap dish, and did NOT give us any new soap. We had to go ask for new soaps, shampoo and lotion. Also, the AC/Heat unit didn’t really work in our room. Maintenance came once, but they pretty much said that they couldn’t do any thing. From what they explained to me, the temperature was centrally controlled, we couldn’t change to our preferences. The thermostat was there to control the fan speed, but not the temp. Really? Seriously? At a resort in this caliber? Luckily, the temperature was so comfortable that we didn’t really need AC during the day or Heat at night.
Pacifica was located on the Pacific Ocean side. It had miles of private beach that we could walk on without being bothered by vendors.
The waves were big and currents were strong, swimming was strictly prohibited. But they provided free convenient shuttles to the sister resorts (Rose & Blanco), where you could swim. Another sister resort right next to Pacifica is Sunset Beach. Each resort has its own personality and design.
Pacifica, as mentioned above, is a meditation oasis in the desert.
Sunset Beach is lush and family oriented.
Rose is of course pink and fun.
Blanco is all white and hip.
Services at Pacifica and Sunset Beach were better in our opinion. With a few exceptions, most people worked hard and did not expect tips in return. They always greeted us with a smile, and they remembered our preferences. Rose and Blanco were fun to visit for couple hours, but we didn’t like the vibe there. It was more crowded, more happening, but the service was not as attentive. We found the food at these 2 resorts very disappointing too. On the other hand, the tuna tartar and Ceasar salad at Siempre (Pacifica), calamari and chicken mole at Bistro, and orange juice (Sunset Beach) were probably one of the best that we’ve had. The orange juice was freshly squeezed, so sweet, all natural, no sugar or water added. I had at least 6 glasses a day every day. Loved it! But it is quite expensive ($3.5/small glass) if you don’t have all inclusive. Breakfast at La Nao (Sunset Beach) has better selection than Pacifica. Ask for a table outside, the view was unbeatable!
You could either choose the all-inclusive package or go a la carte. All-inclusive package at Pacifica allows you to use the facilities and eat at all restaurants at their sister resorts (Sunset Beach, Rose and Blanco). They have free shuttles running every half hour between the resorts. Rose and Blanco are close to town, it is a 15-minute walk to the marina and downtown from there. It was very easy and convenient for us. To explore town, we chose a la carte the first 5 days. Then switched to all-inclusive the last 3. It worked out really well for us.
Our 7-night hotel was complimentary, courtesy of American Express when we booked our European Cruise through them. They gave us a choice of four 4-5 star resorts in Mexico. We were glad that we chose Pacifica; it fit our personality the most. Like always, we took lots of pictures. Let me know if you’re interested in seeing them. Feel free to leave your comments/questions. I’ll try my best to answer any question you may have.