We went on our first international trip together to Playa Mujeres in Cancun, Mexico! This was also our first all-inclusive trip and we intentionally wanted this because life has been pretty crazy lately and we typically plan our trips hour by hour. This was so different from any of our other trips and I’m excited to share my review of Finest Playa Mujeres resort. In full disclosure, this isn’t sponsored, and we paid for everything ourselves!
We chose Cancun because we wanted to go somewhere warm, and also because the flight was so short! Then we chose Finest because it seemed the most modern, but Finest is a part of a larger resort group called The Excellence Resorts, with properties in Playa Mujeres and Riviera Maya in Mexico, Punta Cana in Dominican Republic and 1 at Montego Bay in Jamaica. In narrowing down where exactly in Cancun we wanted to stay, I chose off of rates, available rooms and amenities.
Finest Playa Mujeres is a family resort, which means that there are kids there. But, we thought in October while most kids are in school, it wouldn’t be too terrible and we were right. There are also nearby resorts that are adults only, such as Beloved, Exellence, Atelier and Secrets. It was honestly super cool to see all these resorts so close together. Some are even walking distance so you can explore other resorts.
TRANSPORTATION
We arranged airport transfers through USA Transfers because of their great reviews on Google, and because trying to contact the resort via email or phone was nearly impossible to see what their airport transfer options were. This actually worked out SO well because our driver, Alfredo was the kindest human alive and told us so much about Cancun during our 45 minute drive from the airport to the resort. He was so great we even requested him to pick us up at the end of our stay. Both transfers cost us a total $70. Such a great price after our driver told us that the resort typically charges you $120 per trip.
They not only provide airport transfers, but also private rides + tours to the Chichen Itza pyramids, cenotes, Tulum and more.
Since we didn’t plan on going outside of the resort on excursions, renting a car was definitely not even in the radar, and even if we were planning on going elsewhere, I would have booked through transportation companies because 1. language barrier and 2. my cell service sucked.
AMENITIES
First of all, the service here was excellent. Everyone was overly nice, helpful and just excellent. The moment we got there, we were offered champagne and our luggage was taken to our room.
My favorite parts have to be the butler service on the beach and room service. I’ll share more about food later, but the room service meals were probably some of our favorite ones! Butler service is something that’s probably not too foreign to any of you who have been to other all-inclusive resorts, but having someone attend to your drinks and constantly come take your food/drink order was awesome.
I also highly recommend getting the Excellence Collections app that you can pair to your room. It has all the menus and hours for all restaurants and bars, exclusive offers, resort schedule, and more. With covid, all the restaurants had you reference the menu on the app.
Some basic amenities are as follows:
- Full bathroom with rain shower for two
- Garment steamer
- Private balcony with lounge furniture
- Flat screen TV
- Minibar stocked with beer, juice, soft drinks, water and snacks, replenished daily
- Wi-fi
- Turndown service
- 24 hour room service
- Oversized jacuzzi for two
- Gym
- Cigar Bar
ROOMS
We stayed in the Finest Club Two-Story Rooftop Terrace Suite w/ Plunge Pool and let me tell you. It was sooooo nice. Everything is so sleek and modern, and you have so much room to sprawl out. There’s a king sized bed and also a sofa bed, and it’s set up like a studio. Off the main entrance is a balcony with outdoor seating, and then just inside is a hot tub separated by glass. When you come back inside, you can go upstairs to your private rooftop terrace that over looks the resort pool and beach and we loved going up there to relax, nap and hang out in the plunge pool when we needed a break from the beach.
The rooms are divided in a confusing way. There’s standard “Finest Suites” rooms, which give you access to the majority of things/restaurants/beach areas on the resort. Then there are “Finest Club” rooms, and “Excellence Club” rooms. The size of the rooms don’t necessarily correlate with the exclusivity. For example, you can be in “Excellence Club” and have an “Ocean View Room,” which means that you don’t get a pool connected to your room at all. I learned the hard way, that you cannot purchase a standard room and then upgrade to Finest Club or Excellence Club or purchase it separately, but that when you book the room, you must book a room that is called “Finest Club,” or “Excellence Club” to be able to access these exclusive amenities.
What are these exclusive amenities, you ask?
Finest Club:
- Private check in & check out
- Access to private pools and jacuzzi in pool area
- Bvlgari toiletries
- In-suite premium liquor and wine bottle selection
- One Aqua hydrotherapy treatment per person per stay (Unlimited hydrotherapy access for Imperial Suite guests)
- Access to private Finest Club Lounge (7A-11P) with concierge service, hors d’oeuvres and bar service
- Access to Finest Club Seaside restaurant
- Adults have access to exclusive Excellence Club areas
- Upgraded room service menu
- Nespresso machine
- Access to private beach area
- Complimentary beach bag for use during your stay
- Fresh flowers and sparkling wine in suite upon arrival
Excellence Club amenities are pretty much the same as Finest Club, but you are in a different building and have access to the Excellence Club beach area which is smaller and less crowded.
Is it worth it?
The price difference between a standard room and Finest Club room is only about $40-$50 USD more per night. I would definitely say it’s worth it, especially with the upgraded room service menu, full bottles of liquor, wine and champagne in our room and access to the Finest Club Lounge where we often went for drinks and snacks because it was close to our room and was quicker than waiting for room service or for a restaurant to open.
As I briefly mentioned before, I made the mistake of booking a standard room with flights, before realizing what the Finest/Excellence Club differences were. The first standard room that we picked, though, was the Pool Family Suite which was actually the most expensive because it’s the largest room available at 1750 square ft. We just really wanted a pool that was just for us, not connected with anyone else’s room, like the Junior Suite rooms have.
In a frantic check-out to make sure that the room we wanted at the rate we wanted didn’t get snatched up, I didn’t read the fine print to learn that yes, my room is refundable, but my direct flights with Delta were not. So I ended up on the phone with their customer service for about 2 hours total to figure out how to change our rooms and flights, because I not only wanted to upgrade to a Finest Club room, but also the room with Rooftop Terrace because we didn’t need 2 extra beds that the Pool Family Suite had. I ended up getting a Delta flight voucher that I can only use by calling Excellence Resorts customer service. And there’s no way to change your room, you can only cancel and rebook a new room.
It all pretty much worked out and we didn’t lose much money, but learn from my mistakes!
FOOD
Now, we typically plan our trips around our meals, and this means we really prioritize good food. So this was a total 180 for us because none of our meals were planned. There are lots of food options, and the first meal we had was the La Cocinita food truck that’s open everyday from 12p-10p.
As I mention later, it’s super helpful to get the Excellence Collections app to see how busy each restaurant is, what’s open when, and to see the menu for each restaurant and bar! None of the restaurants have reservations so it’s good to plan ahead. Here’s a brief synopsis of each restaurant/bar:
The Market Kitchen: Buffet style, good for kids or if you don’t want to wait around for a restaurant.
Insieme Trattoria: Italian food, located on the pool deck. We didn’t have it but it looked good!
Las Dunas Beach House: This was probably our 2nd favorite, especially for the days when you’re on the beach. There’s also a guy grilling every day so you know it’s gonna be really good, authentic food. For example, we had tacos on the beach one day with corn tortillas, and anything you order here can be brought to you by staff when you order drinks. We also had grilled chicken and beef with rice, and gyros. They also have a separate menu with quesadillas, pizza, ceviche, shrimp cocktail, etc. It’s a limited menu but it’s perfect for lunch.
Brass Steakhouse: We didn’t go here but I heard it’s decent. Typical steakhouse dishes.
Duke’s Lobster and Seafood: We came here for lunch and it’s on the other side of the Italian restaurant, on the pool deck, overlooking the pool and beach. We loved their ceviche, ahi tuna and squid salad so much! I had snapper and Caleb had a shrimp burrito and both were delicious.
Surf & Turf: This is a seafood & steakhouse and it is a “fancier” option. Caleb had lamb chops and lobster and I had the ribeye. Both were pretty good, but we had to wait about an hour for a table and were seated at 9. Kind of our fault for going late and not planning ahead.
Le Petit Plaisir: This is a French restaurant located in the main building. It looked super nice but didn’t appeal to us so we skipped it!
Tinto & Tapas: We had tapas here for our first dinner and it was delicious. I kept saying to Caleb, though, that it felt like a simulation lol! It was so weird leaving without paying and it just felt weird to able to order anything and everything. The food was decent, and our sangrias were delicious. Iberico ham was scrumptious.
Legends: A sports bar located in the main building. Need I say more? We have plenty of those in Atlanta and we figured we could get burgers and beer when not in Mexico.
Dommo: This was our favorite restaurant! We had tried to come here the night before but the wait was about 1-2 hours. We went back right when they opened at 6PM and had excellent service. We both got Cabernet Sauvignon, and started with their rolls, marinated salmon with caviar and asparagus. Caleb then got the black ravioli with lobster and creamy fennel sauce and I got the 45 oz Tomahawk because why not!? Don’t worry, we shared 😉 We finished with the chocolate coulant and Baba au rhum which were both amazing. It was the perfect last dinner.
Shoji: This place was an experience. We went in with low expectations because we have amazing Japanese/Asian food in Atlanta. We wanted a bottle of sake, which we would have paid extra for, but they didn’t have any that weren’t for display. So they somehow convinced us that they had a similar type of sparkling wine, which ended up being a $50 bottle of moscato! They opened it, though, so we felt bad and just finished the bottle.
We started with hand rolls, Tataki and salad which were okay. We also had a rainbow roll, pictured below, that actually made just laugh out loud. They literally meant “rainbow” roll and didn’t use raw fish as typically made. Caleb got braised beef ribs with Thai sauce which was really well made and delicious, and I had the “Shoyu” ramen which was super disappointing. I don’t recommend this place, unless you go for the teppanyaki hibachi part, which is reservation only.
Lizo: Mexican food! Unfortunately we’d planned to go here one night but they were closed.
Seaside: This is the restaurant that’s exclusively available for Finest Club, but it seems to be similar to the Market Kitchen or room service. We didn’t even realize this place existed until our 3rd day. Oops!
Overall, room service meals were some of the best we had!
Oh! And I would highly recommend tapping into the full size bottles you have in your room if you book Finest or Excellence Club rooms. The drinks, like at many all-inclusive resorts, weren’t boozy, at all.
TIPS
I would recommend planning at least 1 excursion, even if you think that all you want to do is relax, read and drink on the beach. After 1 day of doing that, we were getting restless and so we booked 18 holes at Playa Mujeres Golf Club which was a difficult, yet fun course. It was the most expensive round of golf we’ve played but it was worth it. The Activities desk across from the tapas restaurant is super helpful and books everything for you, even last minute!
Don’t forget to contact your phone service company and see if Mexico is included in your data plan! I have service with Verizon and my plan technically included call + text in Canada and Mexico, but I could barely send a text and accessing data was out of the question.
Don’t forget to contact your credit card company so they don’t flag your card for fraud while you’re travelling.
Don’t forget to schedule your on-site covid test when you get there. They’ll let you know when the best time is to get tested, as the US requires a negative test within 72 hours of re-entry. As of when we went, antigen and PCR tests were free for those who stayed more than 3 nights.
Most restaurants require “causal elegance” dress code, aka collared shirt with closed toed shoes and long pants for men, and dresses or nice pants for women. We did see some people get turned down service for wearing tank tops/short and/or bathing suit cover ups for dinner.
There are ATMs available, so be sure to tip the staff!
WOULD WE GO BACK?
Overall, we had an amazing time. It was so beautiful and we made a lot of memories. I think we learned on this trip that we aren’t all-inclusive people. We loved Mexico and would love to visit, but next time we’d like to explore Tulum and its cenotes, or maybe even venture out to the east side to Oaxaca. If we were to return to Cancun, we’d probably try to stay at a different resort or even try Airbnb or a hotel so we can explore outside restaurants and eat some authentic Mexican food.
Cost-wise, it’s not cheap, but also at the same time, it’s pretty affordable considering flights and the amount of food and drink you can get. Our 4 night/5 day stay including round-trip, non-stop fights for the two of us totaled around $3k.
Have you been to Cancun? Where did you stay?
I hope you found this helpful, as I wish I had a resource like this before we went!
xo,
Clara
