<p>To celebrate our 20 years of marriage, we are taking a quick 7 days trip to cancun area. This will be our very first all inclusive trip.</p>
<p>The first question I had was about tipping. If it is all inclusive, do we still tip for good services? Based on what I read on line, I think $2 - 5/day tip to house keeper will get you extra attention. What about dinning at the resort’s restaurants?</p>
<p>We will be staying at the Iberostar Paraiso Lindo. </p>
<p>Please provide as much “you must know/do this”.</p>
<p>If it’s still possible, I would highly suggest vacationing somewhere in Mexico that’s not Cancun, if you want to experience Mexican culture.</p>
<p>I may be wrong on this, but I believe with all inclusive trips tipping may or may not be included. In group tours, it usually is, while in other packages it is not. This is something you should check on with the agency. </p>
<p>In terms of things to know, Cancun is basically English-speaking. It would be unusual if people in your hotel or restaurants didn’t speak English. In my understanding water in Cancun is essentially filtered, and there’s no real need to worry about not brushing your teeth with tap water or anything like that.</p>
<p>I agree with corranged - if you’re inclined to go to the Yucatan, you’d be much happier 30 miles to the south in the Playa Del Carmen area. It’s much more relaxed and beautiful there. </p>
<p>We are big fans of the Iberostar resorts down there, but there are lots of nice places to stay. Turquoise water, white sand beaches, palm trees . . . a slice of heaven.</p>
<p>I believe the resort is about 25 Km south of cancun. We have read about Cancun’s Hotel ring and decided to go some where else. But the transportation/availability etc provent us from going too far away. </p>
<p>I have visited several boarder towns in Mexico and got very sick only once. I will definitely use only bottle water for brushing etc. </p>
<p>what about those excusions to the ruins or forest etc? Any partccicular good ones?</p>
<p>We stayed at the Lindo last April. It is 30 minutes from Cancun, closer to Playa del Carmen. Not much in the way of culture, but a very nice stay. The beach is beautiful and the resort itself is very nice. We were there w/sr daughter and friends over Easter break, and it was still a very peaceful place. As for tipping, a few bucks here and there to the concierge (one is posted in each wing of the resort for more personalized service) gets you good dinner reservations and such. I would suggest calling ahead to book dinner at least for some of the nights within the resort, bc they sometimes fill up. As much as we liked the Lindo, and the fact that it had 5 or so different restaurants to choose from, the food was nothing to write home about. The food and drink throughout the day and evening is abundant.<br>
Another plus to leaving a few dollars for the maids and concierge…they tended to do a better job keeping your mini fridge filled with water, soda and cervezas. Everything is brought to the room warm, and the little fridges took some time chilling stuff. Room service is also included in the all inclusive price, so this was nice once in a while.
We really went just for R&R, beach time, etc., had no real interest in touristy excursions, so I can’t really tell you anything. H and some of the guys went deep sea fishing, (not so great) and we went to a dolphin place and swam with the dolphins. Now that was fun. You spend a lot of time in the water with the dolphins. We went into Playa del Carmen a few nights for dinner, (the Iberostars provide a shuttle), and had a nice meal there, although we mainly went bc the sr girls and boys were going to the clubs, and we wanted to make sure things didn’t get out of hand and that we were close by.<br>
But all in all, we had a very relaxing time at the Lindo. We’ve stayed in several other Iberostar resorts, and they are all nice.
I still prefer Cabo to Cancun/Playa del Carmen for the scenery and great food, but the Pacific isn’t conducive to swimming, snorkling, etc. in that part of Mexico. Enjoy your trip!</p>
<p>DAD II, DD and I went to Cancun 6 years ago on an all-inclusive package. All gratuities were covered, but we quickly found that a very minimal “extra” tip did get us better service. Most resorts will offer several restaurants on the property to choose from, and we quickly found one we liked along with a waiter that was excellent, so we did tip him extra as we ate most of our meals there. Also, if you plan on having any “tropical” alcholic drinks at the pool bars, you might want to tip the bar staff or you will find yourself drinking very very sweet drinks with virtually no alcohol in them.</p>
<p>When I visited Cancun years ago, I woundered if I truely was in Mexico or Anaheim, California. Even the street hawkers insisted on bellowing in English, rather than the native tongue. The trips to the local mall, full of chains like McDonalds or Miami Sub Sandwich, didn’t evoke a Latino culture of any interest either. If it must be Cancun, spend some time away from the Hotel Zone (the peninsula) by walking around Cancun City. The authentic restaurants are in the city. The drinking water is fine. Also, everyone is looking for a $$ tip. I must add that the Melia Hotel treated us quite well and was a very pretty property on the beach.</p>
<p>Go to tripadvisor. com and page throught their forums for Cancun. Tons of info. We went several years ago and enjoyed it. Took a few days trips. I was very uncomfortable with all the heavily armed soldiers at every intersection once we left the resort area but saw no problems.</p>
<p>We went a couple years ago and took a side trip to Chichen Itza to see the Mayan ruins. The pyramids were impressive. The one we visited had an inside passage with stairs to the top as well as “stairs” on the outside to the top. The top was very crowded and looked a lot higher from up there than it did from the ground. The stairs were very steep, which was only a problem on the way down. Some people walked down, but most came down one step at a time on their bottoms while clinging to a single rope down the middle of the steps. My husband found the inside steps worse than the outside–very close. Not something that would be fun for a claustrophobic (which he’s not). It was cool to see the ancient steambaths and the sport court and to hear the various guides telling slightly different versions of the place’s history. On the way there the bus stopped at a very primative little town where we toured a home that barely had electricity–one light bulb and a clothes washing machine. We also stopped at a rural restaurant/gift shop on the way back. All-in-all it was a memorable experience we were glad to have had. We also went deep sea fishing (son caught a 60" barracuda, which cost $1200 to mount :O), rode wave runners to and from a snorkeling area (THAT was fun!), took a short (two hour?) cruise and got the history spiel and parasailed in one of the seated contraptions (Yikes! Never again). Oh, and we waterskiied, which was great but kinda strange because it was done in the big lagoon along one shore. When we fell/stopped we found ourselves in about 3 feet of water. We didn’t tell the kids until after that there are crocs in the lagoon. We ate out at different ethnic restaurants every night and found none of it worth writing home about. My husband and son got sick on the trip home. Daughter and I were fine. (Funny thing is my husband was very careful to avoid ice and dairy while I was not. Go figure.)</p>
<p>Dad II, Congrats! Our family has stayed at the Lindo twice now and had a GREAT time. You’ll love it! NEMom is right, Xel-Ha is wonderful! The require people to wear only bio-degradable sun screen because the reg. stuff really clouds up the water, so be sure to bring some.</p>