Blog

Last month in July, my family and I went to Cancun, Mexico and stayed at the all-inclusive Finest Playa Mujeres for one week! It was hot and humid and I was in my bathing suit almost every day to cool down in the pool! I especially enjoyed seeing iguanas just roaming freely all over the resort!

It was a very wonderful vacation that we had and with the weather alway melting my make-up off, I opted to not wear foundation for most of my time there. There was only one night when I wore foundation and it was for the Fiesta night at the resort! While in Cancun, we also went on a tour bus to several xenotes (cenotes) on a Xenotes Tour and visited Xenses. It made this trip even more memorable as my kids were finally old enough to on adventures like this with us and it helped us bond in a different way!

Building 1 at Finest Mujeres

Our room at Finest Playa Mujeres was in Building #1 on the top floor! One quirk that I want to point out right off the bat is that the resort does not make the Ground Floor the first floor with the signage on the building. They label the 2nd floor the First Floor. So if you want to get to the second floor from the elevator, ignore the sign that is right outside the elevator to avoid confusion. I know that sounds weird. So, there was ground floor, then 1st floor, then 2nd floor, then 3rd floor, then 4th floor and lastly, 5th floor. So, at this building at the resort for this particular elevator, we had to get to the 5th floor so we pressed 5 on the elevator. Then, as soon as we got out of the elevator, we saw a sign that says 4th Floor, but it should have been labeled 5th Floor. At first I thought maybe this is how Mexico labeled their floors, but I stayed at Moon Palace The Grand in Cancun several months ago and the elevators were labeled "correctly". I'm not sure if the weird labeling was only for Building 1 of Finest Playa Mujeres but since we're staying at this particular building, we had to adjust pretty quickly.

Once we got to our room at Finest Playa Mujeres, I immediately knew the large balcony with the comfortable lounge beds were going to be my favorite spots. Here's the video that I captured of our balcony below. It had the view of the large pool! We selected the "Junior Suite Spa or Pool View" and it's the lowest tier room type that we could pick from. I was pretty impressed!

While walking around the balcony, I spotted a couple of iguanas here and there. See the video clip right above. I was definitely on a tropical vacation at a tropical destination!


There were many pools scattered around the resort but we mainly just hung out at this pool right by our building, Building 1. We got really lucky with the location off our room. The pool closest to us was also the longest pool among the property and located away from the main busy areas so we really enjoyed the somewhat isolation. My entire family liked seeing the iguanas that hung out around there.

Main Areas and Night Shows at Finest Playa Mujeres

There were several restaurants to pick from that were complimentary with our stay. I ate so much! The buffet, Asian restaurant, seafood restaurant and steak house were my favorites! However, there were a couple others that I didn't frequent as much while we stayed there for a week.

We didn't eat at Legends but there were free arcade games inside there. You could pick from thousands of games!

The resort is located at the Playa Mujeres beach ("playa" means beach in Spanish) so we could walk to the beach every day if we wanted to. At the main pool, there was a swim-up bar on the family-friendly side and another one on the adults only side. The separation is really nice. For exercise, there was a daily itinerary that included a fitness class in the morning. One of the mornings there, I attended a yoga class at the beach. I was a bit lost but found my way and joined in after being a minute late! The instructor was very cool about it. She taught in both Spanish and English.

I ate a lot during this vacation so I made sure that I also went to the fitness room that was located next to the lobby for a few days out of the week to get some cardio work outs in.

Finest Playa Mujeres is a large resort but not too large where we couldn't walk comfortable around as abled individuals. I was impressed by the nightly shows that they had there for the guests. All of the night shows were free at night. As an all inclusive resort, I didn't have to bring my wallet because all the food and drinks were free. However, every night at the shows, I brought my phone to take pictures with and my mosquito repellent spray! The spray had been my savior as the mosquitos like to get me and leave me with itchy and painful marks. I couldn't completely deter them, but this definitely protected me most of the time! I came home with just 10 red marks but it easily could have been 50 if I didn't bring the mosquito repellent spray.
There was only one night that Finest Playa Mujeres didn't have a show and that's because they had their weekly Fiesta night for guests to enjoy amazing authenic Mexican food with walking characters on stilts and fun activities at the fiesta area. I really loved this family-friendly party night!

Xenotes Tour as a Family

We left the Finest Playa Mujeres resort only twice during our entire week stay. The first time we left was for the Xenotes Tour where we traveled by bus to 4 different xenotes (cenotes) locations! This tour was definitely for the more adventurous and abled body. My father-in-law had a bad knee and even though we all had life jackets on, he didn't feel comfortable swimming at the xenotes with us so he stood on the sidelines and watched us ziplined, swam and snorkeled. They had a photographer come with us during the trip and we could choose to bring our water-proof phone, if we have one, or stow it away and have the photographer take the pictures from his professional camera. You just pay a photo package fee at the end if you choose to buy all of the digital pictures of your family from the photographer. I wanted to enjoy my hours there on this once in a lifetime adventure so I put my phone away and we purchased the pictures from the photograher at the end. It was worth it to me!

Xenses Park

Unfortunately, I didn't have any pictures at Xenses! I thought that I would have time to buy a photos package at the end and since we were going to get wet at the activities at half of the park there, I locked up my phone to keep it safe. I felt that the 3 hours there was not enough time to not feel rushed with our bus transporation. However, I do recommend coming here if you want to feel a bit of magic and have a sensory adventure with sound, textures, walking in the dark for 10 minutes and using your other senses to get you out of a jungle. 

Read About All of Our Travel Adventures and Reviews:

• Moon Palace The Grand Family Summer Vacation in Cancun for 5 Days


• Ensenada Cruise on Carnival Cruise for 3 Days


• Ensenada and Catalina Island Cruise on Royal Caribbean for 4 Days


• Alaska Cruise on Princess Cruise for 11 Days


• Cabin Trip in Monterey


• Birthday Weekend at LEGOLAND Castle Hotel Review and LEGOLAND California Amusement Park Review


• Birthday Celebration at Great Wolf Lodge in Southern California


• Universal Studios Hollywood Family Trip During Spring Break


• Staycations at the Iconic Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo on the Central Coast of California: Madonna Inn’s San Francisco Room Review OR Madonna Inn’s Antique Room Review


• Staycation at the Granada Hotel & Bistro in Downtown San Luis Obispo


• Staycation at La Quinta Inn in Downtown San Luis Obispo


• Staycation in Atascadero at The Carlton Review

What To Bring to Cancun:

• Bug Repellent Spray - Especially in the summer time, the mosquitos in Cancun can be bothersome. I didn't bring my wallet around the resort, but I definitely brought my bug spray. The exact kind that I use was the white OFF! Clean Feel Insect Repellent bottle. If you're not a fan of sprays, you can try the Mosquito Repellent Patch Sticks for Adults, Toddlers, Kids and Camping.


• Mineral Sunscreen for the Sensitive Skin for Kids - One of my kids have sensitive skin so I buy the sensitive-friendly kind that that is non-spray for kids and also use the same one for myself. 


• Waterproof Pouch for Phone - I bought waterproof pouch for my phone at the mall, but didn't end up using it. However, it is smart to have a waterproof pouch if you like to carry it around with you while you're in the water or you're a clumsy person.


• Hats for Shade - It's super sunny and hot in Cancun during the summer. Having a hat while I'm hanging out outside made it much more bearable and enjoyable for me.