ASSI - We were looking for some place warm to go for my life partner's birthday. I went to my favorite travel site skyauction.com to see what hot spots were available for a great price. We booked four days at Grand Oasis Playa in Cancun Mexico and had the best time. I was somewhat concerned about the quality of the resort due to the written reviews that I read. Especially since most reviews wrote that Grand Oasis Playa is a three star resort. We like to stay at four and five star resort; however, skyauction always have such great prices for lesser resorts that we have taken a chance at staying at under four star resorts, and to our surprise have been more than pleasantly pleased with our accommodations. I also realized that other resorts are probably writing negative resorts regarding their competitors. The food at Grand Oasis Playa was okay at the buffets but at the three other restaurants the food was delicious, the only thing that I did not care for was the house Red Vino it was tasteless. The resort recently up graded all of the rooms, the lobby is open and airy with plenty of seating, there are two pool areas one on the beach and one located in the front of the resort next to the sushi bar, there are outdoor Jacuzzis as well as suites with Jacuzzis, there is a spa and fitness room, and swinging beds outside next to the sushi bar. The resort is all inclusive, there are about four bars, and enough restaurants to satisfy your palate. The rooms are clean, spacious, has a safe for three dollars a day, some have balconies, plenty of towels, and flat screen televisions. We took a cold shower our first night because my partner thought there was not hot water. We reported the problem only to learn that we had not turned on the hot water. I didn't try it because I was told that it did not work but because my partner misread the knobs turned on what he thought was the hot water and when it didn't get warm, his brain did not inform him to try the cold water knob; therefore, we took cold showers that wasn't too bad but because we thought that there wasn't any hot water it seemed worse than it was. Caution, there are a number of peddlers walking the beach selling sterling silver jewelry but buyer beware do not buy any of the items sold on the beach. The items are cheap and not real.
I stayed away from Mexico because I had heard the water was undrinkable and will make you sick and that the State Department had put out a warning to all American citizens to stay away due to criminal activity, claims were made that there were gunmen in the hills waiting to rob Americans, and the Island was unsafe to visit. The band was lifted. Therefore, we decided to give Cancun a try and had the best time, we went to the Ancient Mayan Ruins at Chichen Itza, Tulum another Mayan Ruins tourist spot, went on two time share presentations, went on a Jungle Tour (in a two passenger boat) that was a snorkeling excursion to a beautiful coral reef and enjoyed a couples message that was absolutely fabulous. Our stay in Mexico literally flew by, we met some really nice people from the States, and visited other resorts where we had just as much fun for the day. As I see it, if you have yet to visit Cancun you must place it on your list of places to visit, take plenty of $2 dollar bills for tips, see as much as you can while your there, take the bus around town instead of a cab its less expensive at $1.50 a person, and the beach is really nice but I am unable to speak of the water. It is the only beach that we have visited that I did not get in the water, except for when I went snorkeling. I give Grand Oasis Playa three and a half blinks.
