Excellence Playa Mujeres Resort - Cancun

In 2024, we were long overdue for a couples trip with some friends from college. Around Christmas 2023, we started discussion about what we wanted to do and an all inclusive quickly rose to the top of the list. A friend of ours suggested Excellence Playa Mujeres Resort in Cancun, Mexico. They had stayed there the year before and loved it. Neither of us had much experience with all inclusives in the past decade so we went for it.

The Excellence Playa Mujeres (EPM) is an adults only, all inclusive resort north of Cancun, Mexico. Below is a summary of what we basically did while there. For deeper thoughts and details of the day, more in depth write ups can be found for each day. I also included some lessons learned for if we do an inclusive again in the future, or even EPM again.

Day 1

• Travel to EPM.
• Seasons Transfer Service from airport to EPM
• The Kitchen Table (Italian) for Lunch while we waited for our rooms
• Hit the lazy river pool to unwind a bit before explore more of the resort.
• Hit the beach after exploring
• Chez Isabelle (French) for dinner
• Evening burlesque show

Day 2

• Morning Coffee at Aroma
• Breakfast at Lobster House (Sit Down)
• To Beach by mid-morning but couldn't find a chair
• Lunch at ____
• After lunch naps then pools rest of afternoon
• Dinner at Lobster House
• Walked the beach after and then hit the martini bar

Day 3

• Morning Coffee at Aroma
• Breakfast at The Kitchen Table (Buffet)
• Beach by 8:30 and got chairs
• Lunch at Los Olas on the beach
• Hobo Cat (catamaran) ride after lunch
• Back to the room for nap
• Pottery Painting mid afternoon
• Pools late afternoon
• Clean up then board games in the lobby / martini bar area
• Late hibachi reservation
• Ended the night with drinks at martini bar with new friends from hibachi

Day 4

• Sunrise on beach
• Grabbed chairs on beach
• Breakfast at The Kitchen Table (Buffet)
• Beach all morning
• Lunch at Las Olas
• Naps then pool all afternoon
• Dinner at The Grill (Steak House)
• Circus Ole Show after dinner
• Martini Bar after dinner

Day 5

• Lobster House (sit down) for breakfast
• Picked up pottery painted and had bags picked up
• Checked out and had Seasons Transfers take us back to airport
• Travel Back to Houston.

Lessons Learned:

• Hobo Cat is great and included with the resort!
• To get to buildings 3-5, the bridge by 5 isn’t the shortest way. Walking up through buildings 6 and 7 to get to the cockatoo are by aroma is actually quicker. 
• The chair game is crazy on the beach and by the main pool but the other pools are not that bad. 
• This is adults only so break out the nice clothes, outfits and bathing suits . Everyone dressed up which was nice to see. Embrace that aspect. The age is also on the younger side which was cool to see. 
• Bring a beach bag. I thought I read that the room had one but ours didn’t. Would make life a lot easier. 
• Bring a water proof bag for your phone and money or do what we did and just put your money in a ziplock for when you swim. It worked okay and only leaked big once. 
• Check the restaurant times. We were surprised that lobster house was closed for all meals on Wednesday. 
• Before 7:15 or so, you will be able to get seated right away, after that, might have to wait for a table at most restuarants.
• We did loose a nice pair of sunglasses. Could have of fallen off in the ocean or pool or couhave been picked up by house keeping. Not sure. 
• We brought yetis but didn’t use them. Other couples wished they had theirs…
• Mosquitos since this was after hurricane Beryl, made laying in the swim up beds not ideal. 
• AT&T worked great until we got to the resort and then basically no reception. Went air plane mode and just used the wifi. Cut Travis out of the group text and used iMessage.