Iberostar Tucan / Quetzal Reviews

Having stayed in an Iberostar Hotel before we chose this one for our holiday to Mexico and was not disappointed. On arrival we were welcomed with a cocktail and our luggage taken to our rooms for us. The rooms are quite spacious with a kingsize bed and lounge area. There is also a mini fridge that is well stocked with free beer, pop and water. The bathroom is ok with a large walk in shower and you get the usual shampoo, shower gel etc.

We woke up early on a morning to the sound of peacocks squawking outside our room when we opened the curtains they were stood on our terrace.

The food is good especially breakfast with a good selection hot and cold food. The restaurants are good with the japanese being the best. A must for anyone.

Lovely beach with plenty of sunbeds but if you prefer the pool then expect to be up EARLY to get a good space. The swim up bar in the adults only pool was great to sip a cocktail while cooling down with no kids running about.

The staff are realy great and work really hard and will do anything for you. The star friends entertained you all day long and did fantastic shows in the evening especially Eduardo (the italian stalion- hey Eduardo)also a mention to Roberto and Gabriel.

All in all a really great holiday with our daughter just returning from another holiday there. A tip don't fly on a Tuesday mexico airport BUSY.

We all would definatley go back to Tucan and Playacar.

We went back to Mexico for our wedding anniversary, having been married in Cancun (at the Riu Cancun Hotel) 2 years ago. If my review of the Riu is still included in this site, you will see that we found it superb in every respect, so it was inevitable that our opinion of the Tucan would be coloured by comparison with this.

They are however very different in style. The layout of the Tucan is an absolute triumph for the architect. A distinctly Mayan theme, with copious areas of jungle-like grounds containing an almost endless variety of wildlife. There are monkeys, coatimundis, iguanas, peacocks, a few small snakes (which keep strictly to the bushes so are no problem)and numerous other fauna which I've no idea of the names of. All these are free to roam wild around the extensive grounds, and indeed the monkeys take this to extremes by the occasional raid upon the balconies of the upper apartments to steal anything available, so strict attention to door-locking is advisible! A stroll through the jungle-path on the way to the beach is therefore a constant adventure if you like wildlife, and the camera should be kept in hand and ready to click. There are also giant tortoises, parrots and toucans which are kept in some degree of confinement for their own protection, but are clearly well cared-for.

The beach is wide and well-kept with fine sand and shallow water to a good distance out. However, waves can be pretty severe with a strong undertow, so care needs to be exercised particularly with children. Although we scarcely used the large pool, as it's only about 30 yards from the sea, I did notice that there might be a problem for children of say 6 or 7 years old, as there's a pool about 12 inches deep for infants, then the main pool of 5.5 feet depth, but nothing in between. There is an area of the main pool which slopes down quite quickly to the full depth, but it's not large in area and to my mind doesn't constitute a ";shallow end";.

On the subject of water, don't be fooled by any mention of free windsurfing...that's only for the Riu hotel next door. Also, despite numerous notices banning the reservation of sunbeds, there is no attempt to enforce this, so unless you are down by the beach or pool by about 8.30 you can kiss goodbye to any chance of a sunbed with any shade (which is essential I think).

Our only real quibble was with the standard of the food. We were expecting much the same high standard as at the Riu Cancun, but after two weeks the same endless repetition of a fairly limited range of standard dishes got a bit tedious. Today's lunch seemed to be based on yesterday's leftovers from dinner...ice crystals in the middle of a dish of ";fresh"; guacamole was a bit of a giveaway. On the plus side, there was usually a ";daily special"; which was generally pretty good, and there are 4 speciality restaurants of different cuisines which were of a better standard, although you're limited to 5 bookings in these for a 2-week stay.

We never saw the Mytravel rep, who evidently couldn't be bothered to turn up for the introductory meeting despite the guests all being there, but you can't blame the hotel for that.

I wouldn't want to exaggerate the few problems mentioned here, as we had a great time, and the hotel is in a beautiful setting with efficient, friendly and hard-working staff, and certainly adequate catering.

But 5-star it ain't.

IBEROSTAR QUETZAL
what a fantastic hotel. couldnt fault it in any way. had so much fun looking for animals. spotting lots of iguanas ,different birds, monkeys, these giant guinea pig things, which were very amusing. however if prone to mosi bites , make sure you are proteced as they love feasting on you. lots of exciting walkways around grounds with pretty scenery
FOOD
food was excellent. eat in all four restaurants except for tropical due to lack of time. service was superb, waiters couldnt do enough for you, italian had to be the best with best chocolate deserts ive ever tasted. very impreesed with service in japanese where food was cooked in front of you.
However if you didnt want a la carte service buffet was awesome. with everything you could think of cooked to perfection.

ROOMS
Excellent room. very very clean. bed was hard as people have stated but soon got use to them. fridge was stocked up nearly on a daily basis. left i dollar tip for maid. also 5 litre bottle of water left frequently in room which was very useful.did have a problem with toilet blocking in room which was rectified straight away. stayed in room 2241 which had a partial sea view and was near pool and beach. e mailed hotel a week prior to travelling to request a room near pool. did have sun beds when we were getting to pool by about 9.00 am. pool very clean. and good depth didnt go deeper than about 5 foot 2 .

ENTERTAINMENT.
Entertainment crew all very friendly, worked very hard , and always had time to speak to you. spent time in lobby bar most nights with fiends we met (julie, griff and jim and his wife from colarado) . drinks very good especially cocktails and my husband discovered dark beer which he thouroughly enjoyed. As shows not our thing, sometimes went into playa del carmen about 5 mins in taxi had option of travelling here in nights, where plenty of bars ,shops and restaurants were. Was however a bit fed up with very persistent shopkeepers who on many times who really nagged you to go into shops. also you really need to barter as prices can be knocked down quite dramatically.

Beach
absolutely beautiful. very clean and powdery white sand. be careful though as sometimes sea and waves quite rough. Been to cuba previously and didnt find sea good for snorkelling. however went to iberostar cozumel for day hiring a jeep. snorkelling on beach in cozumel excellent, all facilities hear can be used for free, with identification of a grop member. cozumel a beautiful island with some remote beaches found if you drive right around island.

TRIPS
went to xel ha, excellent snorkelling here in this large lagoon, enjoyed jumping off cliff of courage here and floating down lazy river on ring. also swam with dolphins in dolphinus which was superb. husband went to chincha itza which he enjoyed, but six hours return on bus. went on shopping trip through thomas cook to cancun . very dissapointing. he told us there was a replay jeans shop in cancun shopping centre. when we got there no replay shop there, my daughter very dissapointed after spending a 3 hour round trip on bus. felt we wasted a day.

All in all felt this was an excellent holiday. best hotel we have ever stayed in. would not hesitate to return. keep up with good work iberostar

Have just returned from 2 lovely weeks at the Iberostar Tucan. We have been to Mexico before so had a rough idea of what to expect but found this hotel to be one of the best we have ever stayed in.
The service from everyone in the hotel was excellent they really couldn't do enough to help (big thank you to the lady in the hotel shop for her help with a particularly tricky phone card).

Things to note:

When you land in Cancun airport and have collected your luggage you are swamped by ";bag helpers";!!! they grab your luggage and take you to the transfer coach but they do expect a payment for this and if you have no loose mexican money to hand thay can be quite intimidating, best to keep hold of your luggage say NO as its only a very short walk to the coach (this also happens on the way back).

Do not accept any torn bank notes as change, either dollars or pesos, as when you try to use this money people are very reluctant to accept it as the bank may not we ended up giving ours to the maid.

Don't be afraid to go outside the hotel to book your trips we booked 3 trips with a very nice man in Playacar Plaza and saved us approx £150.00 (50%)and the trips were the same as offered by the reps.

All in all it was an absolutely lovely holiday rooms were clean, staff friendly (whether you tipped or not)this is quite possibly the only hotel I would return to again as we do like to try new places

We have just returned from our holiday at the Tucan and it was brilliant. We have read so many reviews before we went and wanted to share our views as well. We stayed in block 19 which for us was perfect most people suggest block 11 but for us we preferred to walk to the beach/pool in the morning and back in the afternoon than to walk to and from the restaurants through the mangrove during the evening as it is full of animals and we didnt want any unexpected surprises!

My teenagers made loads of friends from all different nationalitys and came back with lots of email addresses. We hardly ever saw them during the day as there was so much for them to do. We also met some great people and that included the staff. I cannot speak highly enough of the entertainment team they do a brilliant job and certainly enhanced our holiday! You did not have to take part in the activities and were left alone if you chose not to but my lot love to get involved ! The evening shows were also very entertaining and Wiliam as Michael Jackson is a must see !!

The restaurants are good but not great ..after two weeks it gets to be much of the same but there was a lot of different choices. Drinks as well are the local brands in the beach bars but you can get the international versions in the lobby bars etc . The kids loved the fact they could get non alcoholic versions of the cocktails.

Just a few pointers if there have to be some minor negatives ..there are no irons in the rooms( we bought one really cheap and left it for the maid) and you will struggle if you wear high heels as some of the walk ways have gaps that they get stuck in .
The beds are hard but it wasnt an issue for me and the fridges dont get really cold .

The beach was white sand and blue sea with plenty of beds and the pool was large

We have visted Mexico before and stayed in Cancun at the Moon Palace but if you are travelling with your family this is the place to be .

We are very tempted to return next year but there is so much more of the world we need to get through first .
If money was no object we would !
Unless you are really fussy you are going to have a brilliant time .. we are jealous