Trip Report - Cozumel - 7/27-8/3 - Iberostar

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: Trip Report - Cozumel - 7/27-8/3 - Iberostar : We had a great trip to Cozumel. I'll kind of spell out the info I would like to have heard before we left. The short of it…I do recommend the Iberostar. It was very nice, very few problems. I stayed at the Paradisus about 4 years earlier and enjoyed it, but this was nicer. Keep in mind that this trip was myself, my wife, and my 2 y ear old son, for 7 nights. Please email questions to ecorder@austin.rr.com. : : FOOD : Buffet: Really good at the buffet most of the time. The key is to not try to eat a little of everything. Find a couple of things that look good. Grilled lobster was great on Thursday. Grilled prawns one night were awesome. Also had good Stone bass, roasted pig, desserts, empenadas, tacos. The ceviche was never that good (had lobster, shrimp, octopus). Some of the beef dishes weren't so good either. Get to breakfast on the early side (before 8:30) to avoid long lines. Only had lunch at the buffet once, and it wasn't very good. : Lunch/Pool Buffet-El Cedral: It was always o.k. Hamburgers, hot dogs, ceviche, salads, etc. Nothing to write home about, but quick and easy. : Dinner: Buffet: It was usually pretty good. That's where we ate most of the time. : Ate at the steak restaurant one night. The food was good, but my kid was sort of having a fit. It was really humid and hot. Do eat there one night. It's worth it. : Never ate at the Mexican restaurant. I heard it wasn't that great. : Snacks. You can eat something during most of the day and night. Breakfast at the buffet from 7a-10a. Then continental breakfast at pool from 10a-12p. Lunch at the pool 12p-3p, at the buffet 1p-4p. "Happy Hot Dog" snacks at pool at 4pm. Dinner starts at the buffet at 6:30p. Reservations at restaurants are at 7p and 9p. There are supposed to be late-night snacks at the buffet at about 11pm, but we checked twice and it was never happening. : Overall food rating on 1-10 scale…7.5. Sometimes great, usually o.k., no one got sick. : BOOZE : The complaints you hear about drinks being weak are not true. They'll poor you as much booze as you want. We had plenty of straight tequila…good tequila. And they'll add as much as you want to the frozen drinks. The beer is Corona. Beer in the rooms is Modelo. They serve drinks somewhere 24 hours a day. : DRESS CODES : There are no tanks allowed at the buffet. You can wear a dry bathing suit with a cover up to breakfast or lunch. Dinner is just about anything for women, "bermuda" type shorts for men (I saw plenty of men in blue-jean shorts). You can wear shorts to the steak restaurant. The Mexican restaurant requires long pants for men. You can wear you wet bathing suit at the pool restaurant for lunch. Some people dress up a bit at night to go to the shows…but you can where anything. : ROOMS. Ours was very nice. Rooms are about 8 to a building in bungalo style. Ours had a king bed. There was plenty of room for us. It would be tight with 2 adults and 2 older kids. Bathrooms are very nice. Our shower didn't drain well, and they never did fix it. But that could have just been our room. The hairdryer doesn't work that well. There are not irons in the room, but they'll bring one to you if you need it. There is laundry service. There is a safe in the room that doesn't require a key (you set the code), and a refrigerator stocked with water, sodas, and beer. Plus HBO, Cinemax, and Disney on satellite. Watch for frogs on the stairs at night. There's also a nice porch with hammock at every room. We asked to stay away from the theater, toward the pool/beach, and they had no problem accommodating us, even though we didn't arrive at the resort until 9pm. : THE RESORT. Very beautiful and lush. My kid loved the parrots, tucans, and flamingos. Lots of big iguanas running around. We never had a problem with mosquitoes. They spay the perimeter of the resort often. You keep hearing about the sewer smell, but it's really not that bad. It is the worst by the theater, but you don't want a room there anyway…it can be REALLY loud at night. Anyway, it's Mexico. Expect a smell every once in a while. The pools were great, with a swim-up-bar, 2 big pools, kid pool, and pool of laying out. There's a playground for kids, organized games (volleyball, etc), ping pong tables, tennis courts, etc. You can get new towels at the pool area anytime. Rental of snorkel gear, kawaks, and other sport gear is free for one hour. Snorkelling isn't real good at the resort. Go to the other side of the pier for better snorkelling. The water at the beach is full of rocks/coral. But it's easy to enter either with swim shoes or on sand bags they have in the water. The beach was nice with plenty of lounge chairs and palapas. Walk down toward the Allegro for a little better beach and for picking up shells. I heard the beach at the allegro is really nice. The beach isn't anything like the north of the island, or Cancun or the coast, but it's because of all the reefs. The water was nice at the resort. Only had seaweed one day because of storms off the coast. The grounds are spread out, so be prepared to hike it a bit to the buffet if you are toward the pool. : THE STAFF. Great staff, with the adults and the kids. I'd give them a 10+ on a 1-10 scale. : THEATER. We went several nights…my kid loved the shows. They do a "Mini Disco" for kids at 8:30, couples dancing at 9:00 (wrong timing…it's mostly just kids dancing around). The show is at 9:45. Shows were "Cotton Club," "Mexican Dancing," "Horror," "Movie Night," "Iberogrammy," "Black Light Theater," etc. Don't expect too much and you'll enjoy it. Lots of audience participation stuff. Since we had our kid with us, we weren't going into town to party, so it gave us something to do. : CAR RENTAL. If you don't want a jeep or 4-wheel drive (you don't need it for the main roads), go to islacozumel (.net or .com, I don't remember), go to Smart Rental and print off their page. They give 50% off a VW bug for 3-day or more rental with it. We rented for 3 days for $75 total. Use your credit card in lieu of paying $10 daily for insurance, then pay in cash when you are done if you don't have an accident and save on the 6% charge for using a credit card. The rental place is right in town off the square. : TAXIS. It's $15 for two people one-way to go to town. Split the ride with another couple and save $6, then rent a car in town. The taxi drivers tried to rip us off almost every time we used them. Ask the staff at Iberostar what they should charge for certain trips, and refuse to pay anymore. They know they're trying to rip you off, so they take the lesser amount. : EXCURSIONS. We signed up for the glass bottom snorkel tour at the resort through Lomas travel. It took us to Columbia and Palancar reefs for $35 per person. Those are great reefs, but really too deep for snorkelling. We saw some barracuda, lots of fish, nothing to blow us away. Glass bottom is good for the kids. It only took 3 hours, so that's probably the way to go with kids. The best snorkeling (especially for beginners or with kids) is at Chankanaab and Dzel Ha. : Chankanaab. Costs $10 per person to get in. $5 to rent snorkel gear. The snorkelling is really nice, right on the coast. Lots of big fish. I saw a really nice eel. Try to get down the coast a little bit away from the people and you'll see more. It was really nice at the end of Chankanaab by the underground river. You have to swim all the way over to it, but I was the only one there. It is shallow enough to swim down and look in little caves, holes, etc. We did get hit that day by sanddollar-sized jellyfish…kind of hurts! Don't eat the food there. It's way too expensive, and I got sick off a hamburger. Eat at the resort, you don't get sick. : Dzul Ha. This is a great place to snorkel. It's free…snorkel gear rented for $7. Bring your own gear, buy their drinks or food, and you can hang out there for free. Some of the boat tours go to the reef, but you can swim out to it. It's real close. The best snorkelling we did was about 20 yards off the coast all the way down. Not as many fish as Chankanaab, but bigger variety. In 4 feet of water, I turned around and was maybe 7 feet away from the biggest barracuda I ever saw…probably 5 feet long, a foot tall and 9 inches wide. A little scary. Also saw lots of gar, schools of hundreds of fish, and a beautiful ray of some kind, all at your fingertips. : San Gervasio ruins. These were nice ruins to go to, because it's still kind of part of the jungle. No pyramids or anything, but I good diversion from the beach. Only cost $3. Don't bother with the guide, there were markers at all the ruins. The stores at the ruins actually charge less than those in town. : East Side. Go to the east side of the island. The surf was too rough to go in the water, but go to El Mirador, the Bob Marley bar, etc. It's a lot of fun and very different than the developed side. : Playa San Fransisco. We went there because I heard it was such a great beach. It's not. They must be paying FODOR's money. : SHOPPING. The prices are high in Cozumel. There is lots of nice silver. We bought a necklace for $100 that started at around $300. But t-shirts and touristy stuff are not great deals. Who needs a giant Mexican hat anyway? : BABYSITTING. Offered at the resort for $10 an hour. Forget it! : : I'm sure I forgot a lot, so email me with specific questions. : EC

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