For a cousin’s upcoming wedding, Mrs. Meticulous and I had the chance to enjoy a relaxing long weekend at the Hard Rock Hotel in Cancun, Mexico.
It was the first Mexico visit for the Mrs. and the second for me. If you count a one-day trip across the land border when I was roughly ten to Tijuana. For the first time since our wedding seven years ago, she went +1 country over me. Closing the gap little by little…
PLANNING THE CANCUN TRIP
This will be a short post because the Hard Rock Hotel Cancun is an all-inclusive resort. Naturally, that leads to less intense planning and less logistic detail to cover.
All-inclusives aren’t usually our speed but I have to admit it is nice to occasionally have a relaxing trip with minimal detail work.
A company called Destination Weddings organized basically everything for us. They are a broker of sorts who partnered with a company called Lomas Travel while in-country.
Fun fact: Lomas is probably the shittiest travel organizer I’ve worked with in 10+ years of international travel. Be on the lookout for a series of “Lomas Sucks” callouts throughout the post. Can you find them all???
BOOKING FLIGHTS AND HOTEL FOR THE BELIZE TRIP
Although the hotel stay at Hard Rock Cancun was all-inclusive, we were responsible for flights.
I USED HOPPER TO TRACK FLIGHTS for a few months leading up to the trip before buying.
We arrived in Mexico on Wednesday and departed on Sunday. Understandably, the Wednesday was cheap and the Sunday was expensive, no matter which airline we booked.
I ended up booking two separate one-way tickets to minimize cost. $75 to get to Cancun on Sun Country, $550 to get home on Southwest.
I played around a bit with coming back on a different day, but extending the hotel stay canceled any savings from a cheaper flight, so we just ate the $550.
Because I’m some kind of masochist, I kept the Hopper tracker going even after we bought tickets. To my petty relief, any combo of air tickets never got cheaper, so I think we made the right call.
LOGISTICS: GETTING TO HARD ROCK HOTEL CANCUN
Fast forwarding to travel day…
Once we arrived in Cancun, we were to hook up with Lomas at the airport for private transportation. Cue Lomas Sucks #1!
We found them right away, that wasn’t the issue. Can’t miss them with their turquoise shirts and see through white pants (and I mean see through).
We thought we were in for smooth sailing, but waited for over an hour for our van to take off. We had my two young nieces with us, and I think there was a snafu with their car seats. My sister indicated we needed those when she booked the transportation, so the empathy was minimal.
After lingering in the Mexican heat for an hour, we finally took off toward the hotel on our roughly one-hour van ride.
ACTIVITIES IN AND AROUND HOTEL
The Hard Rock Hotel Cancun is a massive complex. Needing go-kart taxis to get around emphasizes this point.
There is the Hacienda side, which is geared more towards families, and the Heaven side for adults. The sides are color coded so you generally know where you are (we still got lost multiple times).
The resort does have a very relaxing vibe despite hoards of children running about and oversized patrons boxing you out of the buffet area.
There are numerous pools scattered throughout the entire campus. Some are more kid friendly, some have waterslides, and others are kid-free enforced on the weekends (we found these to be our pools of choice). It can be hard to snag a free pair of chairs, but the earlier you get there the better your chances.
Since drinks are included and the hotel staff is excellent, you do feel completely relaxed and cared for when lounging at the pools. We spent quite a bit of our time parked in lounge chairs and have no regrets about it.
Other activities are also scattered throughout the two lobbies. We saw a mariachi concert, witnessed some karaoke that was significantly less skilled, and played arcade games.
FOOD
I’d say the Food at the Hard Rock Cancun was about as expected for an all-inclusive touristy Mexican resort. It was fine, but you didn’t really complain because it’s “free.”
“The Market” in the Hacienda lobby was the default eatery. We usually had breakfast here, and lunch or dinner if we didn’t have any better plans.
There are fancier restaurants, but you need to reserve a day or two in advance to hold a spot there for dinner.
We frequented the coffee shop slash gelato dispensary next to The Market quite often… not ashamed. And I mean multiple times per day.
The resort included room service, which felt particularly luxurious. We dubbed our evening food-ventures as “Night Steak”, which as always I am not ashamed of. The ability to order a sirloin to your room at 10pm is a nice luxury.
EXCURSIONS
- Added Chichen Itza tour through DW website, was ~$40 cheaper than going through the hotel
- Chichen Itza; Lomas sucks again
- Was supposed to exchange voucher for actual ticket, no one to be seen
- Apparently only at the lobby from 11-3… wut
- Had to call around… didn’t feel like the customer
- Lomas sucks #3 – they went to the wrong side to pick us up despite confirmation. Would’ve actually been closer…
Our one off-property excursion was a day visit to Chichen Itza. Glad to finally have been able to check off this wonder of the world, which our guide in Peru in 2017 dubbed affectionately as “chicken pizza.”
We booked our excursion through Destination Travels before we left, since it was $40 cheaper than booking directly through the hotel. It’s all the same trip, so I’d recommend doing this planning beforehand.
Lomas Sucks #2: the voucher. Lomas told me to exchange this paper voucher we got in the mail for an actual excursion ticket when we arrived at the Hard Rock. I wanted to knock this errand out right away so I could get to relaxing, but it turned into an episode of Carmen Sandiego.
Allegedly, I should’ve found a Lomas agent in their turquoise/white at the lobby to make this exchange. But, we saw no agent. Asking around, staff told me that agents are only in the lobby from 11am-3pm. Wut… 1) that’s dumb, and 2) thanks for not telling me that at any point in the process.
I ended up calling different Lomas and hotel customer service numbers to try to organize the exchange and day-of logistics. Definitely didn’t feel like a customer at any point; it felt like I was organizing the trip.
Lomas Sucks #3: despite organizing said details myself, they tried to pick us up at the wrong spot in the morning. Classic. Don’t use Lomas if you can avoid it. They suck.
I will say, Chichen Itza is definitely worth the price of admission for the entire trip. It’s a very cool preserved Mayan City, highlighted by the iconic El Templo structure.
You feel more immersed here than at the one other Mayan ruins we’ve visited, Xunantunich. The only thing preferable for Xunantunich is that you can climb the actual structure, which you can’t at Chichen Itza.
Scorching weather aside, Chichen Itza was a spectacular experience and I’d encourage everyone to go with a guided tour to get the context and rich history.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS
- The clientele of an all-inclusive resort such as this is to be expected; a good exercise in patience in other tourists who have minimal spatial awareness
- The golf cart system is smooth; there is a circulating route between key points on the property, and you can call for an individual ride for things like luggage portering as well
- Despite the ocean views, this is more of a “sit in the pool and look at the ocean” vs. a beach, just so you’re aware
WRAPPING UP
Overall, the Hard Rock Hotel Cancun is a relaxing resort with a lot of nice amenities. Resorts like this aren’t my favorite style of travel but I relaxed and was glad to discover my love of night steak.
This is a great place to bring kids, host a wedding, etc. Maybe not the best place if you want to SEE Mexico.
