Wedding Cabo vs. Mexican Riviera

[MaggieB]

Thanks CDN! You are the best! Always so much help. Please let me know if I can ever return the favor. And please keep posting your wedding details! I want to see if you have any other ideas I can steal

 

[MaggieB]

Date: 8/28/2008 1:02:40 PM
Author: stone_seeker
Esperanza in Cabo is great. If you go to playa del carmen, this is where you want to stay. Not same as el dorado maroma mentioned above. very romantic.

http://www.maromahotel.com/web/ocan/ocan_a2a_home.jsp

I hope I don''t reply to this twice! My original response disappeared

Anyway, thanks stone seeker! Have you stayed at Esperanza and Maroma? Or know someone who did? How do they compare?

 

[stone_seeker]

Date: 8/28/2008 1:13:59 PM
Author: MaggieB

Date: 8/28/2008 1:02:40 PM
Author: stone_seeker
Esperanza in Cabo is great. If you go to playa del carmen, this is where you want to stay. Not same as el dorado maroma mentioned above. very romantic.

http://www.maromahotel.com/web/ocan/ocan_a2a_home.jsp

I hope I don''t reply to this twice! My original response disappeared

Anyway, thanks stone seeker! Have you stayed at Esperanza and Maroma? Or know someone who did? How do they compare?

I''ve been to Maroma and I know someone who stayed at Esperanza so I couldnt compare first hand. I hear Esperanza is beautiful. Very pricey but its very quiet and the food and beaches are great. If you get bored, there is always stuff to do in downtown Cabo which is a cab ride away.

As for Maroma, I think its amazing. Its probably the most secluded/high end resort down there with an incredible spa. So relaxing with great food and great service. I know people here complain about being sick but so long as you are careful and drink bottled water you will be fine. I am neurotic about stuff like that and never have gotten sick. The high end resorts go out of their way to be sure plenty of bottled water is around and that they have top flight filtration systems for guest water. So I wouldnt worry. I live in New York so the flight is evry quick and inexpensive (jet blue) so you can spend more money on massage, etc.

You cant go wrong with Hawaii but as you said flights are much more expensive and you lose a few days having to travel.

Take a look atEsperanza and Maroma on Tripadvisor for some first hand accounts and guest photos. Gives you a real sense.

 

[Aloros]

Cabo DOES have swimmable beaches. I was there last month on a cruise, and there was a nice beach a short jaunt from the docks. I went snorkeling there and a big ''ol tuna fish bumped into me!

Other than that, I found Cabo sort of "blah".

The port my FI and I liked best was Puerto Vallarta. It was prettier there, and the wildlife was amazing (dolphins and sea turtles and blue-footed boobies!).

 

[Diamond Confused]

Date: 8/28/2008 11:01:54 AM
Author:MaggieB
Hi everybody, my fiance and I were leaning towards going to Cabo San Lucas for our honeymoon. We were looking at staying at the Esperanza there, which was a big splurge, but we were figuring that we planned to start a family immediately and that it would be our last grand romantic vacation for a long, long time, so we were going to spend the money. Then I found out that the beaches at Cabo aren''t really swimmable. For me, what''s the point of all that gorgeous crystal blue water if you can''t get in it. So we started looking around a little. I''ve heard a lot lately about the Mexican Riviera, which I know nothing about. I went on Tripadvisor and chose one of the top rated resorts there at random, and it looks like it''s a lot less expensive. But it''s also near Cancun. I have NOTHING against Cancun, but living in Florida, Cancun has always been a party city to us. I know a bunch of kids that went for spring break, college break, etc. I do not want to go to a party city. I want to be someplace beautiful, quiet, relaxing, and with no college kids!

Has anybody been to either place? Should I just suck up not being able to swim and go to Cabo cause it''s worth it? Or is the Mexican Riviera just as nice?

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I think I saw people swimming when we were in Cabo too. We stayed at Riu Palace.

 

[diamondfan]

the one and only palmilla is supposed to be gorgeous. not sure if it is in san jose del cabo or cabo san lucas.

the whole area is called los cabos, which is the caves or capes? my spanish is not so great at the moment! anyway, since hubby was there, there is a lot of development and the one and only is just a stunning place.

never heard you cannot swim in the beaches there. certain places have beaches that are not swim safe but that is usually not ALL of the beaches.

 

[MaggieB]

Date: 8/28/2008 3:08:54 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
I think I saw people swimming when we were in Cabo too. We stayed at Riu Palace.

Thanks Tacori and Aloros - I double checked and it''s just that some of the resorts I was looking at didn''t have swimmable beaches.

 

[stone_seeker]

Date: 8/28/2008 3:13:12 PM
Author: diamondfan
the one and only palmilla is supposed to be gorgeous. not sure if it is in san jose del cabo or cabo san lucas.

the whole area is called los cabos, which is the caves or capes? my spanish is not so great at the moment! anyway, since hubby was there, there is a lot of development and the one and only is just a stunning place.

never heard you cannot swim in the beaches there. certain places have beaches that are not swim safe but that is usually not ALL of the beaches.

I agree - had some friends stay there recently and said its incredible.

I love Mexico

 

[Diamond Confused]

Date: 8/28/2008 11:01:54 AM
Author:MaggieB
Hi everybody, my fiance and I were leaning towards going to Cabo San Lucas for our honeymoon. We were looking at staying at the Esperanza there, which was a big splurge, but we were figuring that we planned to start a family immediately and that it would be our last grand romantic vacation for a long, long time, so we were going to spend the money. Then I found out that the beaches at Cabo aren't really swimmable. For me, what's the point of all that gorgeous crystal blue water if you can't get in it. So we started looking around a little. I've heard a lot lately about the Mexican Riviera, which I know nothing about. I went on Tripadvisor and chose one of the top rated resorts there at random, and it looks like it's a lot less expensive. But it's also near Cancun. I have NOTHING against Cancun, but living in Florida, Cancun has always been a party city to us. I know a bunch of kids that went for spring break, college break, etc. I do not want to go to a party city. I want to be someplace beautiful, quiet, relaxing, and with no college kids!

Has anybody been to either place? Should I just suck up not being able to swim and go to Cabo cause it's worth it? Or is the Mexican Riviera just as nice?

I've been to both and Cancun is much more beautifulk than Cabo. The water and sand in cancun is breath taking (second whitest sand in the world). Cabo is on the pacific and so lthe water and sand are just... well very pacific ocean looking. It's still very pretty and clean but not breathtaking.

As far as cacun being a party town... depends where you stay. There is a region where all the really exclusive hotels are and it is far from a party area . There are no clubs or malls in that area, only pricey restaurants. People who want to "party" do not stay in that part of Cancun because it's about a $30 cab ride each way to the nearest club (25 min cab ride). It's really just people who want to relax on the beach. It is located in one of the nicer parts of the beach which makes it even better. Young college kids don't stay there because as I said it's far from the action and significantly pricier. I stayed at Le Meridian the first time and the JW marriott the last time I went. I Loved the JW!!!!!! It's gorgeous and one of the nicest hotels of stayed in. The staff is great and SO helpful.

Oh one more thing. THere is a company that does island tours, scuba, snorkling etc. within walking distance form all the hotels. As far as swimming is concerned, it depends on the time of year. The end of the summer(august, sept) tends to have strong currents.

 

[happy in love]

Sounds like you''re getting some good advice, I thought I''d add my .02 in too.
We honeymooned in the Mayan Riviera, we stayed at both Aventura and the Playacar Palace resorts. DH and I preferred the Playacar, but really enjoyed both. Playacar is a little newer, and right at the end of the "strip" in Playa del Carmen. It was really convenient, we walked around the town quite a bit from there and never had to pay cab fare like we did from Aventura. There are more restaurants and more pools at Aventura, but a beach at Playacar... Really they are both nice, but if you are looking for more low key and relaxing I would suggest Playacar Palace. The nice thing about the Palace resorts is that there are quite a few different ones in the area and you can go to any of them and hang out there/ eat there. We stopped by the one on Cozumel when we were exploring the island so we didn''t have to spend $ and take a chance on other food. And we went to Xpu-ha just to see what it was like too. (that one''s pretty cool, but I don''t think I''d have liked to honeymoon there)

I have also heard great things about the Barcelo resorts in the same area. We have a friend who is from there and he and his wife stayed there for their wedding. It sounded great from what they were saying.

Good luck!

 

[CDNinNYC]

Date: 8/28/2008 1:07:39 PM
Author: MaggieB
Thanks CDN! You are the best! Always so much help. Please let me know if I can ever return the favor. And please keep posting your wedding details! I want to see if you have any other ideas I can steal

LOL! You''re welcome.

I don''t know if I have much more details for you to steal

; you''re wedding is coming up so much faster than mine. I''m excited to see all your plans come together!