I recently took a weekend trip down to Mexico and stayed at the Fairmont Mayakoba, just north of Playa del Carmen. I went there with every intent of doing a massive review complete with drone shots and epic landscape shots of the beautiful property but unfortunately it rained the entire trip. Most of the review will unfortunately just be pictures of the room but you can see the rest of the video (as well as a long-winded rant about why we need to be bored better) in the YouTube video below:
How much did I pay?
I used the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts benefits from my Platinum card to book the hotel, which gave me $100 of food and beverage credits, a room upgrade (which ended up being a double upgrade!), and breakfast every morning. All told my room rate for three nights was around $700, which was a great rate for the Mayakoba neighborhood (in addition to the Fairmont there are quite a few other luxury resorts in the Mayakoba area).
And, before you ask, no I didn’t receive a blogger rate or any special consideration for my stay.
What very dumb mistake did I make?
In my rush to get out of town for the weekend, I booked the first cheap airfare I found, a $250 roundtrip on American to Cancun. On my way to the airport I checked the forecast and found out that it would be raining during the entirety of my trip. Had I used Patience I wouldn’t have made the big mistake I made, but alas I learned my lesson.
Ok I watched the video and all that, let’s see the pictures you took.
Ok fine. The Fairmont is an enormous property and they have a golf cart shuttle system that runs a route around the property. My block of rooms was about halfway between the beach and the main building of the property, so it didn’t really matter if I went with the shuttles or not, the main building was about a 15-20 minute walk, which wasn’t bad at all. The rooms were organized in blocks of 4, two each on the upper and ground floors. I had “casita” 637.
(apologies if these images look a little foggy, the humidity level was approximately eleventy-threeve% and my lens kept fogging up)
The room was nicely appointed and was a bit larger than I expected.
The bathroom was enormous, easily the same size as the room itself.
I was totally surprised when I saw Le Labo amenities in the bathroom! They’re by far my favorite brand of shampoo/conditioner/etc and although it was probably common knowledge that Fairmont hotels have the brand it was a lovely surprise for me!
What was the rest of the property like?
I fully intended to take my camera around the property to get some other pictures, in part for this review but mainly because it was so lush and beautiful. Unfortunately the rain was too strong and I didn’t want to risk any of my camera gear. If you watch the video at the beginning of the post I give a quick tour with my video camera so you can get a feel for the layout of the resort.
The main building was where I spent most of my time having margaritas eating, at least when I wasn’t driving into Playa del Carmen to get some street tacos. It was palatial, enormous, and well-decorated, one of the high marks of the resort.
Final thoughts
First off, I’m sorry if this review seems a bit incomplete. I really wanted to do a more comprehensive review but the weather just didn’t allow for it. But I was impressed with the resort and the staff were cheerful and happy and did the best they could to take care of everyone and keep their spirits up despite the weather.
I felt the Fairmont Mayakoba was a good value for the money but, as always, was incredibly angry that the management succumbed to the greedy temptation of charging customer-unfriendly “resort fees”. Garbage like that doesn’t belong at places like a Fairmont and they should know better. I definitely let it anger me more than it should’ve but I sincerely hate absolutely everything that the resort fee represents, it’s hostile to the customer experience and the reason people choose a brand like Fairmont is entirely because of the customer experience.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the amount of reviewing I was able to do despite the rain!
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
It’s a great property; I hope you get the chance to go back again. I’ve gone twice before in March for my wife and I’s Anniversary and the weather is always amazing. Each time I’ve used Fairmont cc free night certificates following a booking using Amex FHR when they run a promotion for buy two get the 3rd free; pretty solid paying 2 nights and getting 3 free. I apply the suite upgrade certificate with premier status to the Amex reservation and get a huge upgrade; pay for the basic room and both times upgraded at check in to a beach area casita suite that is two stories and a rooftop gazebo with a pool on top….really incredible room for $175 a night & paying only 2 nights.
I thought the value was great as well, can’t wait to go back when the weather is nicer!
Andy, bummer about the rain, that sucks. I’ve been there numerous times and love it each time, and since I work for the brand I get a decent discount – feel free to email me for friends and family rates, but usually the AmEx FHR rates are better value.
In regards to the resort fee, I’m with you – but it isn’t always up to the brand, sometimes it is the ownership group that requires the property to have a resort fee.
That’s the situation I am in at one of my properties – the owners are MAKING us charge a ‘destination fee’ of $15/nt for a downtown Chicago hotel.
Just like LCC’s and their nickle and dime tactics to charge for everything, it is allowing the legacies to charge extras – I hate it too!
Thanks for the info about the resort fee, that’s very interesting! Just trying to use my little slice of the internet to contest the nonsense, you know how it is, thanks for the comment and I’ll hit you up next time I go!