Hyatt Zilara Cancun

Stayed here for the 2nd half of our Mexico trip; moved here after staying in Secrets Playa Blanca Costa Mujeres. We have been coming to Caribbean for many years in December and March and stayed at many AI resorts, but this was just our 2nd Zilara and 2nd Secrets (last year we split our December stay between Secrets Cap Cana and Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana, which were pretty good, so we decided to have the same approach here - split our time between recently opened Secrets Playa Blanca and Hyatt Zilara Cancun). We booked our transfers with USA Transfers, which went smoothly and took 40 min from the Secrets Playa Blanca to this resort and 25 min from this resort to the airport. We booked Ocean Front Luxury Suite King - it was very spacious (take a look at my pictures of the room) and kind of square rather than rectangular - I LOVE square rooms. The room can be perceived as a little dated, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with the room itself - very clean and functional, and everything was in good order in our room. The bathroom though was a different story - very old, tiles and grout look pretty bad in some places. I took some pictures to post in my review because I think this is completely unacceptable for a luxury resort like this, but then I found out that the resort will be closing for renovations on April 1st, 2025. So, the showers will definitely be renovated and there is no point in posting these pictures now. Of course, they are not doing any cosmetic improvements since it will be closing for a major renovation. On the bright side, the view of the turquoise sea was truly breathtaking! The great thing about our Luxury Ocean Front Suite as compared to Ocean Front Junior Suite is that it's 100 sq feet bigger, but it is also a corner room and has a side window and wraparound balcony. Our side view was towards north, and from our 5th floor we could see the beach all the way towards Hyatt Ziva at the punta Cancun. It is really amazing when you can see the sparkling sea not just from your balcony but even lying in bed! I think our 5th floor was perfect for this (there are 8 floors total). Unfortunately, when we were there, it was extremely windy, so we could not fully enjoy our very spacious balcony; I really could not stay there for more than a few minutes when taking pictures. It was also very windy on the beach. One of the best things about Cancun beach is that you can walk on a white powdery sand for miles in both directions. However, it was such a strong wind from the north, that some days we just could not walk on the beach and were just hiding in our 2nd row beach cabana. We could not swim in the sea either; we are pretty good swimmers, but the waves were SO big that we could not even get in the water knee high. Needless to say, that for us, since we really like swimming in the sea, not staying in the pool, it was a HUGE disappointment. The resort looks really great, it is on a smaller side as compared to Zilara Cap Cana for example, which has several big buildings. This one has just one very big building stretched along the beach. The lobby is gorgeous with great Christmas decorations. They have 2 pools - south pool is quiet and the other pool - activity - where they blast music too loud for our taste. The pools are heated and have pleasant warmish water. We do not like to sit around pools, we always seat at the beach. Unfortunately, they do not have any palapas with loungers (which we strongly prefer because of the flexibility they provide, as we always try to stay in shade), so, we were sitting in the free beach cabanas in front of the south quiet pool. Free cabanas are in the 2nd and 3rd rows (1st row is reserved for Presidential suites). We were not very comfortable, as we never sit directly in the sun and these cabanas did not provide a good protection from the sun. In our opinion, the food here was a notch below than Zilara Cap Cana (where we stayed last year) and definitely below Secrets Playa Blanca where we stayed for the first 5 days of this vacation. However, they are very friendly, and they do try to satisfy your requests. If you need something that you do not see, just be sure to ask and they will do their best to make this happen, I am speaking from my own experience. Their Maria Marie Mexican restaurant has good food and very beautifully decorated. Punta Vista, which is their completely outdoor restaurant, is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We only went there for dinner, which is when it turns into a Mediterranean restaurant, and liked it. The buffet Spice was good, but definitely not as much variety as in Zilara Cap Cana or Secrets Playa Blanca. I was very disappointed at first, but then somehow the food selection improved as the week went by. We enjoyed their White Sensation party - the buffet that they set up at the perimeter of their huge lobby was really good, desserts were great and entertainment did not disappoint either. All in all, I think the resort will be even more attractive after the renovations. Their ocean front setting and gorgeous views can't be beat. We, however, will not come back for the reasons stated above that are important for us: extremely strong winds making walking on the beach unpleasant, inability to swim in the sea because of the constant huge waves in this area of Cancun (I must say that this was the very first time in our 25 years going to the Caribbean, that we could not swim in the sea during the whole stay at a beach resort!!), and lack of good sunshade (no palapas).

Roberto was excellent!! He had our drinks flowing and was attentive to our every need!! I would highly recommend him to be your server!! We felt like we received special treatment and that was just his usual behaviour. If you are at the Hyatt Zilaria, give him a huge shout out!!