Riveria Maya

[ADs_Agent]

Wife and myself are going to the El Dorado Royale this summer for the 3 year anniversary, what is there to do out there?

[ADs_Agent]

no help from the masses?

[Tiptonsooner]

IF you need help from others on what to do with your wife, anywhere, on your anniversary, then there is not much chance we can be of meaningful assistance. And I stress meaningful.:D

[Condescending Sooner]

We stayed there a few years ago. The resort is nice, but the beach is a little rocky. We mostly just hung around the resort, but did do a couple of day trips. Xel-ha is a park where you snorkel down a river to the sea, they also have a place where you can swim with the dolphins. We also went to the ruins at Tulum, it's cool if you are into Mayan history, but really it got a little old after about 30 minutes. The beach there is beautiful so take your swim gear if you go.

[Partial Qualifier]

The Chichzen Itza ruins are near there too.

[M]

I stayed at this resort a few years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't have the best experience. Some tropical system decided to camp out on top of us, and it POURED rain nonstop the last three days I was there (I went in June). The way the resort is built, the rainwater didn't drain out into the ocean - it drained inland toward the resort. Maybe they have fixed it since, but it was like they had built a levy between the beach and the resort, pooling the rainwater near the rooms. Anyway, this caused a lot of the first floor rooms to flood, power (and AC) in nearly all rooms was out. The pools (including the pool-level bars) got flooded with mud. They had to pump water out into the ocean, which left a giant erosion "river" in the beach. After I got back home, I read reviews online that they didn't dispose of all the refrigerated food after the power outage, which caused a massive food poisoning outbreak. Again, this was in 2004, so hopefully they learned from their mistakes.

Other than that fiasco, it was nice. Chichen Itza (Mayan ruins) was pretty neat.

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but that's my experience...Hope your trip is better than mine!

[ric311]

I didn't stay at the same resort, but I did head down to Riviera Maya in Dec 06. The weather was bad - it rained a lot. We went to Chichen-Itza and that is definitely a trip worth taking. Some good shopping in Playa Del Carmen if you can deal with the hagglers. Word of caution - I got the feeling that I had a giant target on my forehead wherever I went. It was like "how much can we suck out of this gringo". I probably won't go back.

[ADs_Agent]

Thanks for the info guys, good stuff here. We were debating between X-Caret and Xel-Ha and looks like Xel-Ha it is. Hopefully it doesn't rain while we're there, but on our last 2 tropical trips we have been lucky something tells me it may switch this time, we're going in Late July so hopefully we miss out on the rain.

[Boarder]

El Dorado was the second worst place I have ever stayed at in my life. There is no circumstance possible in which I would go back unless very large sums of money were involved.

Now from what I have heard, the El Dorado I stayed at and The El Dorado Royale are two different places but there's no way I'd chance it.

[ADs_Agent]

The El Dorado is a HUGE resort. They have vans that take you to different spots on the resort. It's gourmet all inclusive so no buffets everything is a la carte (thank god, last resort there was guac and rice with every meal). We've heard from a lot of people that the resort is amazing. In 2006 it was voted the best all inclusive resort in the world, so we'll have to see.