We stayed at Rosewood Mayakoba in February 2008, and found it to be exceptional in terms of amenties and service. We stayed in a lagoon deluxe suite. The room was so nice we had room service for dinner each night. The suites are large with a separate bedroom that can be shut off from the rest of the suite. There are separate sitting and work areas, a covered deck on the lagoon with lounge chairs on a patio in the sun next to the plunge pool. There is a rooftop deck with a large day bed. The bathroom has a large soaking tub and both indoor and outdoor showers. The suites have two flat screen tvs - one in the sitting area and one in the bedroom - and satellite tv and pay per view movies. We want to the beach our first day there, and while the sand is nice, the area in the water is a bit rocky. An area that seemed clear of rocks is a bit south of the beach suites. Room service was great, as was the food. Rosewood Mayakoba was a great oasis for a few days together.

While in some ways this is a terrific resort, i.e. great location, great rooms etc., it doesn't quite hit the standards set by several other Rosewood properties at which we've stayed.

The main restaurant, Casa Del Lago, is a huge disappointment. It's actually a pretty restaurant but the service is flat out terrible. We were there for 6 days and the service there was consistently bad. Examples: non existent wait staff, constantly pouring cold coffee at breakfast, not seeing a waiter for 15 minutes at a time etc. We tried dinner there the 1st nite and it was disaster. Service was terrible, we ordered 2 items off the menu which 25 minutes later they tell us they didn't have. The menu itself was real sketchy. We enjoy a wide variety of food but the offerings on the menu were just odd, and not appealing. Contrast that to our visit to the Mandarin next door. We went there for dinner 2 nights and had fabulous service, food was outstanding and the wine list was awesome.

Service overall at Myokoba was always friendly but just not consistent in any other way. It just got old at every meal having to wait, and wait and wait for things. The food overall was pretty good, but I would say the menu for lunch and dinner is pretty limited.

The bright spots are the rooms. They are wonderful, nicely done and well appointed. The beach and pool area is nice although the pool area by the beach was a bit small and a bit cramped.

Overall, a nice resort but they still have some kinks to work out on the service and food front.

My boyfriend and I stayed at the Rosewood Mayakoba for 6 nights from June 14 thru June 20. We had a fabulous time there, and are definitely looking forward to going back.

Overall Resort:
The resort is absolutely beautiful and no detail is missed from the landscaping, to the amenities, to the decor, etc. The boat rides and golf carts are a fun way to get around the resort. The drivers of the boat even took us throughout the lagoon to give us a bit of a tour (e.g. meeting "Wally" the crocodile).

Suites:
We stayed in a Lagoon Suite (306) and were very pleased with it. We had debated choosing a larger Deluxe Lagoon Suite, but found the Lagoon Suite to be very spacious. As other reviewers have commented, the mix between modern amenities and natural decor helped make the suite perfect. The huge tub, outdoor shower, plunge pool, rooftop deck were all fantastic. We had requested a DVD player prior to arrival, and it was in the suite when we checked in. This was a great amenity, though I found their selection of DVDs to be limited, so you may want to bring a few along.

Food:
We enjoyed the restaurant at the beach the most. The food is primarily Mexican tapas and was fantastic. At lunch, there are more American options available. The prices for dinner at the beach restaurant were very reasonable, though be forewarned that your drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and your desserts will be the majority of your bill.

Our room rate included a fabulous breakfast at the main restaurant near the lobby. We took advantage of the option to have this served in our suite at no additional charge. When we asked for breakfast to be delivered at 7am, it arrived exactly at 7am. Just to give you an idea of the level of service, we found the staff literally standing outside our suite two minutes before 7am, but not ringing the doorbell until exactly 7am. There was no concern about cold food, etc. as they toasted the breads/bagels in our suite, and had the appropriate hot ovens for us, etc.

We had dinner at the main restaurant next to the lobby one evening, and like other reviewers didn't find it that appealing. We also did a tequila tasting at the tequila bar one evening which was good.

One evening we ate at an Argentinian steak restaurant in Playa del Carmen called Sur. It's right on 5th Avenue (the main pedestrian thoroughfare) and found it to be quite good. There's a Haagen Daaz on 5th Avenue as well, serving their always delicious ice cream.

Gym:
Though the gym is a bit small, it served its purposes. We went to the gym most days and found few other guests there, so no worries about not enough machines, etc.

Pools:
The main pool near the lobby is beautiful, and quieter than the beach pool. We did notice that it was significantly warmer at the main pool however, because it wasn't near the beach and didn't benefit from an ocean breeze. Having said that, the service, as always was great at the pool. While we spent a few hours at the main pool one afternoon, we were offered complimentary samples of gazpacho, fruit smoothies, etc.

Rental Car:
We decided to rent a car for the week we were there, and found this to be one of our best decisions. We rented online from Avis, got a great deal, and had no problems driving from the Cancun airport down to the resort. We went into Playa del Carmen a few times, and also drove to Tulum and Chichen Itza. We were able to hire tour guides on site at Tulum and Chichen Itza. Renting a car gave us the flexibility to do the activities we wanted to, when we wanted to. I also think it was far more cost effective than hiring tours or taxis anytime we wanted to leave the resort. The resort offers complimentary valet parking. It was easy to either call ahead and ask them to have the car ready (already air conditioned), or to just ask them when we arrived at the lobby. Driving in Mexico is very easy. It's a quick 40 - 45 minute drive from the Cancun airport to the resort down highway 307. It was also very easy for us to find Tulum and Chichen Itza. We were stopped at a military checkpoint on the way to Chichen Itza -- as all cars were -- but this proved to be no big deal. Lastly, we found parking in Playa del Carmen very easily each time we went into town.

Bugs:
We were a bit nervous about mosquitoes at the resort. We each got a few bug bites, but nothing drastic at all. The resort does a good job spraying plants, etc. on a daily basis to reduce the number of insects.

Activities:
We dove with Diversity Diving, a dive shop based in Playa del Carmen. You can search for them on Trip Advisor. They were a great dive shop. We also rented a jet ski from the Mandarin Oriental, which is just a 5-10 minute stroll down the beach. It's a bit pricey at $80 per half hour, but definitely worth it.

The Mayakoba resort shares a few tennis courts between the guests at the Rosewood, the Fairmont, and the other properties being built. We never did get around to playing any tennis, but they are available and complimentary for use.

Other Resorts:
We walked along the beach to visit the Fairmont Mayakoba and the Mandarin Oriental. The Fairmont looked particularly disappointing. It's definitely much more of a mass market hotel (e.g. they have a convention center), where the decor was not as nice, the staff were not as oriented torwards service, and the facilities were not as nice. The Mandarin Oriental has a more modern, sleeker look to it. But, it had an atmosphere that seemed a bit more uptight and not as relaxed. Having said that, the facilities at the Mandarin Oriental definitely looked nice.

We highly recommend the Rosewood Mayakoba, and are definitely looking forward to a return visit!

LONDON UK - JULY 08

We arrived late at the Rosewood so missed the boat ride to our room. We stayed in deluxe lagoon suite no. 424 which was lovely, very spacious with all mod cons except a DVD player.

We had been told a good time to visit would be May/June. not so, the weather was awful - it was windy and rained every day except two! But, it was still hot so we could sit aside on the shaded patio area and read and watch the birds.

The beach area is approx a 15 min walk from the room but there are buggies/carts whizzing around all the time and it seems most people use them all the time whereas we walked everywhere. In the end we got a little fed up with the buggies stopping every few minutes to ask if we wanted a ride, we felt as if we should be carrying around a sign that said 'no ride thank you we haven't lost the use of our legs'!!

The beach area is not that big, and it seems that all the families congregate there with noisy kids - the pool area outside the main restaurant is much nicer although we were more than happy to sunbathe on the deck where we had loungers, umbrella etc + roof deck.

The hotel is fabulous,very stylish, the rooms are located on a wandering lagoon, no wonder it attracts lots of honeymooners.

The room service is good, the ladies that clean are speedy and efficient, food good although vegetarians be warned not a whole lot of veggy options but the chef/s are more than happy to cook anything you want. Service in the main restaurant was a bit hit and miss in the evenings it was either great or very very slow, one evening we waited 20 mins before we managed to get menus and 45 minutes for a gin/tonic to arrive by which time my husband was about to keel over.!

The Mexican restaurant we didn't rate that much but I think that is because we are used to Tex/Mex food and were not familiar with a lot of the food - the portions are tiny more a Mexican tapas.

The last night we were there we dined in the main restaurant and were given free champagne and tequilla which was a nice touch. There is a free bottle of tequilla in the rooms.

My husband is a spa-aholic and said it was gorgeous and had only opened a few weeks before we arrived.

The gym is a little crampled but has all the latest equipment, so no complaints there.

I think there were all sorts of water sports available, but as we are not interested in that area, I can't elaborate.

There is also yoga but I didn't get up earlier enought to partake.

There is horse riding available but we saw the ponies on our way home and they looked unhealthy, unhappy, thin and unloved.

We didn't do any site seeing many because of the weather, Tullum is the nearest ruin which I googled but didn't seem that interesting. Chitzen Itza is about a 3 or 4 hour car drive away depending on who you talk to.

We didn't bother going to Playa del Carmen either, there are a couple of so so restaurants there but otherwise it is a tourist hell.

We had a lovely relaxing time but would we go back probably not but that is down to the local area which is a grotty. Cancun is vile!!!!!!

Mayakoba is like a 5 star luxury compound, there are other hotels in the area, Mandarin Oriental and Fairmount - there is a tendancy to feel a little isolated but very secure - there is nowhere to walk out to visit, only other hotels.

Next time I think we will try Las Ventanas on the West Coast which is also owned by Rosewood.