Beach Palace Cancun

As we flew over Isla Mujeres and into Cancun, we got our first glimpse of that spectacular blue water, a dozen shades of turquoise dotted with tiny white boats. I couldn’t wait to get to the beach! We would be spending the next five days at Beach Palace, an all-inclusive resort on the north end of the Hotel Zone, across from La Isla Mall and the new ferris wheel. We’d stayed at Beach Palace in 2013, and I still remembered how we'd loved the beautiful beach, our huge balcony, and the rooftop bar.

After a long wait for our luggage and an even longer wait for our Jet Blue transfer, we finally made it to the hotel around 2 o’clock where the staff greeted us with cool washcloths and a carnation. Our room was ready, so we headed straight up to the 8th floor to freshen up.

We had booked a Superior Honeymoon Suite, mostly because those rooms are located on the higher floors and have king beds. (We had two double beds on our last trip.) The bed was soft and comfortable, and there were robes in the closet, Chi shampoo and conditioner dispensers in the shower and a complimentary beach bag. There was also a two-person jacuzzi tub, which we never used because it seemed like it would take hours to fill. The hotel is scheduled for a major remodel at the end of this year, and I wondered if the tubs would be replaced with something smaller. The suite also included access to a VIP area on the beach, which I thought would be handy if we had trouble finding shaded chairs by the pool.

My favorite part of the room was the balcony with a double-wide padded lounge chair and an amazing view of the ocean. We ended up spending a lot of hours out there, watching the sunrise or relaxing on the lounge chair with a drink from the minibar before dinner.

It didn’t take long to find our way around the resort because Beach Palace was small and looked almost exactly the same as it had in 2013. Only the names of the restaurants had changed and there were two new eateries, a pizza and pasta restaurant called Tavola and a sweet shop that served coffees, chocolates, ice cream and crepes.Two great additions!

The original restaurants were Tequilla, the buffet, Smokehouse, an outdoor grill, Momo, which served Asian fusion food, and Gondola, the Italian restaurant. We ate at every restaurant at least once. You could make reservations up to three days in advance, which was easy to do using the Palace Resorts app.

The first night we ate at the Smokehouse because we wanted something casual after a long day of traveling. The weather was perfect for eating on the terrace under the stars, and the food was good, but our waiter disappeared after he served our entrees. We finally gave up and went to the sweet shop for dessert, the first of many visits. :-)

I’m always a fan of Italian food, so we ate at Gondola twice, but my favorite meal was at Momo. Our waiter, Christian, was super sweet. We ordered the sushi special with beef, avocado and cucumber, which was prepared tableside by the chef and was topped with a teriyaki glaze. Ron enjoyed his Korean BBQ short ribs, although he said they weren’t very Korean, and I had Pad Thai and ginger ice cream for dessert. Yum!

the lobby

Gondola

Momo

Tavola, the new pizza/pasta restaurant, was the biggest surprise. We had dinner there the night after our snorkeling tour. I wasn’t sure what time we’d get back to the hotel, so I thought we’d eat at Tequila that night. But when we got back, I decided I wasn’t in the mood for a buffet, so we took a chance on getting into Tavola without reservations. It wasn’t a problem at all. Actually, the restaurant was mostly empty. Tavola was on the mezzanine level where we could see the water and watch a cruise ship passing by in the early evening light. We started at the small antipasti bar and then Ron ordered pepperoni pizza while I had the seafood risotto. For dessert, we had cappuccinos and tiramisu ice cream. It was the perfect choice for the night.

Tavola

This was a pretty chill vacation. We only went on one tour, the Mayan Adventure tour where we snorkeled in a lagoon and two different cenotes and even got to zipline into the water. It was such a fun day that it deserved its own review (which you can read here). The rest of the time we spent by the pools. Beach Palace had two small pools on the roof and one large main pool with a swim-up bar on one end and a kids’ area with a pool slide on the other. The roof was a great place to see the sunset or have a mojito while watching the frigatebirds soaring overhead. But it could get hot up there, so we mostly hung out at the main pool. We didn’t even use the VIP beach chairs because we were always able to find a shady spot close to the pool. I guess early May is a good time to visit Cancun. The crowds were gone but the heat and humidity hadn’t really kicked in yet. The weather was perfect. We didn’t even have to leave our lounge chairs for lunch because we could order food from the bar waiters – tacos, fish ceviche or guacamole. Ron did play pool volleyball one day though, and we walked on the beach or played in the waves. Unfortunately, there was a lot of sargassum seaweed this year, which marred the pristine white sand. But the water was just as blue as always.

rooftop pool

main pool

poolside lunch

My one complaint about the resort was that there wasn’t much in the way of nighttime activities. I’d looked at the app before the trip and saw a Michael Jackson show, a fire show and a “glow show” that sounded intriguing. But none of those shows took place while we were there. The only show we saw was a comedy/acrobatic/magic act. I wouldn’t have minded the lack of entertainment except that there was only one English-speaking channel on TV, a weird weather channel that played videos of weather disasters and funny animals. So anyway, I got a lot of reading done this trip. :-)

We did enjoy going to the Stadium Bar in the evenings though, because the bartenders there made the best cocktails. One night, I asked Zacarias for something refreshing and he made up a delicious drink with vodka, mint, bitters and club soda with a sprig of fresh rosemary.

Stadium Bar

By our last day, we were ready for a change of scenery, but we weren’t sure what to do. I wanted to go for a boat ride, but all the boat tours were all-day tours with a stop at Isla Mujeres, which we’d just gone to last year. We ended up taking the bus to Sun Palace, Beach Palace’s sister resort on the south end of the Hotel Zone, where we spent the day at the quiet infinity pool overlooking the beach. Sun Palace’s beach was ridiculously beautiful! There was less seaweed than at Beach Palace, maybe because it was protected by the curve of Punta Nizuc. I went for one last swim in the ocean, and the water was just as clear as it is in the Bahamas. Maybe on our next Cancun trip, we’ll stay at Sun Palace but spend a day at Beach Palace so we can see it fresh from the remodel.

Why did the iguana cross the road?

Sun Palace

The next morning before leaving for the airport, we ate at Tavola, which had an à la carte breakfast menu. Ron ordered Eggs Benedict and I had the French toast with a berry compote. While we were eating, the wait staff and hostess gathered around our table with a big sign saying “Have a nice trip back home.” What a sweet send off and the perfect end to a great vacation.