After Puerto Morelos we weren’t exactly sure where we wanted to go.  We had the Jewel Resorts is Jamaica in our sights but weren’t quite sure.  We had never been to Jamaica before and were a little nervous.  We also looked at the Bahama’s but weather wise we weren’t sure it would be any better than going to Florida or Cuba.

We decided to head to a travel show that is held annually in Halifax by one of the bigger travel providers.

We talked to an agent there who we had booked many trip with in the past, but there really weren’t any good deals or attractive offers.  We had pretty much decided to book the Jewel Dunn’s River when friends of ours walked by.  We decided to check out what they were looking at.

Their agent found a smokin’ good deal at the Iberostar in Playa Paraiso.  The Iberostar (along with the Riu) had been on my list of resorts to try for years.  I had hoped it would be the Iberostar in Jamaica that we did first, but hey Mexico suited us just fine as well.  The four of us booked it and two other friends joined us the next day.

The Iberostar resort has five different levels of booking and basically you can use the services of what you book and any of the other resorts with fall in a similar or lower category.  You cannot use those at a ‘higher’ level, basically those that are more expensive.

The complex was massive, but where we had booked the Paraiso Beach section and only had privileges there and at the Del Mar, we didn’t even bother looking at the rest of it.  We could have visited the one in Cozumel as well.

By sticking to just those areas we had privileges at, it wasn’t that big when compared with a Palladium or the Bahia.  And it was nicer than either of those.  Of course when this is what you are leaving behind, not too much won’t be better!

Arriving in Cancun this time was cool.  Got to see as we drove over the highway while still on the plane!

It always amazes me the condition of the roads down there.  Puts ours to shame!

The resort was very nice, not as great a location as the Ocean’s but still nice.

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There was a shopping complex with restaurants that were included as part of the all inclusive, lots of wild life and very pretty foliage.

For a big resort, the service was excellent.  While we were there one of our party celebrated a birthday.  When we arrived I asked the supervisor for our building if we could do something special.  He was awesome.  I met him while they were all busy doing other activities and we set this up.

He also gave us a few extra beers so we could celebrate with the very fancy decorations!

The beach crew was always busy.  My hubby loves horseshoes so he jumped at the chance to play on the beach!

They did paella on the beach, which is always a hit with guests!

The beach was nice, we have been to nicer and bigger but you know it’s a beach in March.  For those of us from Eastern Canada, doesn’t matter – white sand is better than white snow!

Because our friends had never been to Cozumel, we did an afternoon there.  They were all too chicken to rent a car.  So we did lunch and Margaritaville.  We went on a cruise ship day. Crazy busy!

We also took them to the reef in Puerto Morelos.  This time we rented loungers at a beach bar and made a day of it.  We took a taxi into town, walked to the beach, found a beach bar hired a boat, did the snorkeling and planted ourselves in paradise!

The pool at this resort was excellent.  You could walk almost the full length of the resort in it.   There were both deep and shallow sections.  There were quiet spots and noisy spots.  Really just a pool for everyone.

Regretfully, this would be our last trip to Mexico for a few years.  We are really hoping to return this year if circumstances permit.

If we do go we want to do some of the other less visited ruins like Muyil or  Ek Balam.  Someday we will do Chichen Itza.

The beauty of visiting this area is that there is so much to see and do!

The one thing about staying here is now I really want to go to the Iberostar in Jamaica!  I saw it on the Amazing Race years ago and it looked amazing.  After staying at this one, which was really good, I can only imagine how great that one is!