Ava Resort Cancun

We had a great stay in spite of the weather! Best dinner was at the Mediterranean restaurant, Livo! Antonio was a very attentive waiter making great recommendations. He brought over each appetizer for us to try since we were a group of ten. Catch of the day was red grouper cooked perfectly! The food was delicious and this was our favorite restaurant and wait staff especially thanks to Antonio!!! Read less

we had a great time in Ava and each time we go there it gets better. This is the third time in four months. We were lucky enough to have a Butler whose his name is Tharvin! he is really good at what he does. he met us for check-in went to our room helped us whenever we needed something. The ocean view is spectacular and the decks, rooms are very nice. The pools were a little cool, but that was OK. We were lucky to be there on New Year's Eve and they had a great celebration. Our favorite bar is in the north tower and the bartender Louis and his rock it! another shout out to Louis the omelette maker at the market at the market he truly enjoys his job. We were able to golf a few times in the golf course is right there and it is fully open and it is no cost to for transportation. We loved the Chez Moi, we finally tried the Mediterranean and it is really good all restaurants for above average and maybe even five star. The spa there is something else and the hydrotherapy is the best I've ever had. It is my husband's favorite resort. We definitely will be back. Read less

The resort itself is beautiful. It spans over one kilometer in length, has eight restaurants all serving excellent food of many nationalities, has at least eight pools including one that is half a kilometer, filled with salt water, and boasts kayaking, paddleboarding and an inflatable obstacle course. There is something for everyone, whether you are there with children or only adults. All 1600 room face the ocean, although the room placement within the complex determines how much of a view you get. If at all possible, either in the north or south building, stay near the middle if you can. There are countless categories of rooms so you need to be sure of what you are getting when you book. The beach, unfortunately, still has a line of sargassum every day. The Mexican government has spent millions on this problem but it appears to be a losing battle at this time of year. Otherwise, the beach is lovely but because of the sargassum problem we spent very little time there and it looks like others avoided it as well because we saw very few people either on lounge chairs or in the water. Service is a bit spotty, possibly because they are not yet fully staffed. Some days there are 10 people at the pool asking to take an order; other days it's hard to find anyone. Housekeeping was the same: one day they didn't come at all; some days they filled the mini bar, some days not; some days they left extra toilet paper, other days not. It was like this for two weeks. Because many rooms and public spaces are not yet finished, there is construction noise to contend with. Although we didn't find it terrible, there are workmen everywhere, inside and out scrambling to finish the project. Some of the things we found were inexplicable. There are two large breakfast buffets, one in each of the two buildings. In the two weeks we spent at Ava, the south buffet was open only once. The hotel was not full by any means but the south closure meant that every guest was in the north building buffet virtually at the same time; we found it to be noisy and uncomfortable. There are not maps to show you where to find everything. Next to the elevators, there is a schematic to show you what is near which elevator bank, but for the outdoor facilities, you are on your own. If you are looking to participate in any of the posted activities, you really need to search and ask for directions. Hopefully they will develop an internal app like at others of their resorts. The staff we interacted with were generally very good. It is impossible to get every name in a place this size, but some stood out for their desire to go above and beyond what is strictly required: Legendary staff: our Butlers, Israel and Rafael, did everything they could for us within the limited scope of their influence. When they could not comply immediately with our requests it was because other departments were slow in cooperating. Axel, an intermediary between the arriving guest and the Legendary salespeople was delightful and possibly the most helpful. I had a few difficulties during our stay and he was the one most eager to help. (As an aside, it appears that there is poor coordination between the hotel management side and the Legendary side. As a result, you are shuffled from one to the other, each telling you 'we are working on it' and then nothing happens.) Resort staff, In no particular order: Jesus- Legendary restaurant manager Rodrigo - Legendary restaurant server Alexis- Reception Eduardo -Bellman Angel and Alejandro - servers at adult pool Overall, I think this will eventually be a five star experience to match it's five star rating. At present, I am only giving it 3٫5 Read less

I don’t usually write reviews as experience is often extremely subjective and personal to the individual. The critique of a completely discretionary vacation is clearly a high class/ first world problem to have. In this case, I feel compelled to put a warning out there to anyone thinking of visiting this poorly run and conceived resort. Are you looking for a tropical retreat? This is not the resort for you. Located adjacent to the airport does provide a quick transport upon arrival, but also mean giant passenger jets flying overhead constantly and at all hours. While the drive up to the resort is tropical with lush vegetation surrounding the roadway, all that ends upon arrival. The vegetation is replaced by barren, massive white walls and concrete. We could have just as easily been pulling up to the loading dock of a large hospital built in the 1980’s. The feeling continues throughout the resort with minimal landscaping or views of the ocean / tropical environment. Just the tip of the iceberg. Are you looking for attentive, friendly, easy to acquire service? This is not the resort for you. It is clear from arrival through departure that this resort is woefully understaffed. Being short handed can be alleviated to an extent by enacting sound processes to assist in the flow of service. Unfortunately, zero processes appear to exist. Check in is a cluster with no clear process of queueing and limited check in desk terminals despite an enormous lobby and other desks available – this led to shouting by others in the line, not a great way to arrive. Where Ava Cancun excels is in coverage of the Legendary Club and Paradise Pass people ready to pounce on every schmuck that strolls through. The front desk was just the start. Room service was quoted at a minimum of 90 minutes up to 3 hours – why offer it at all? There is minimal wayfinding throughout the massive resort and not a map to be found – come on – this is easy stuff. The worst, most frustrating area, has to be the pool area where the few servers in pink t-shirts wander aimlessly with no clear area they are working. As they move, they are attacked by group after group trying to order food or drinks. If you are lucky enough to catch the attention of one – usually took $$$ - you might be able to get them to taker your order. We had many timers where they just threw up their hands in exasperation saying they couldn’t taker an order. If the order was taken, then you may get part of your order at some point in the future, but it was not consistent at all. Ability to get food was far more difficult at the pool than drinks. Felt at times like we were begging for food – again, $$$ helped here, but only to a certain extent. Our group was game to try to make the best of it and reasoned that possible we needed to reserve a Bali Bed / Cabana to make sure we could get an umbrella (a struggle that required $$$) and more attentive service. On our second night, we booked two of the Bali Beds at the north end of the furthest pool which we were more than happy to pay for. Our high hopes for a better day were not to be as when we arrived, the end beds had been sold. The alternative presented was infested with bees as a daiquiri had spilled the day before with little interest shown in cleaning it up. The wives were not happy and the basic answer we received was too bad. They tried to apply the charge for the Bali Beds at check out. We pushed back and got it taken off after some time and back and forth. By check out, I was not surprised. Are you looking to lounge by a pool and gaze out at the ocean? This is not the resort for you. Ava Cancun talks a good amount about the advanced pool technology they have installed. While this may be entirely captivating from a civil engineering or hydro dynamic perspective, it comes off otherwise as a big white pool. Shrug. So taken were the designers of this resort that they decided to orient all attention to wonders of their “magic” pool. In prioritizing the pool, views of the ocean (major draw of any oceanside resort) and landscaping (non existent) were thrown out. Are you looking to breathe in the ocean air as you wander the resort or enjoy a meal? This is not the resort for you. If you love the experience of strolling a crowded airport terminal that is currently being remodeled, you’ll love the never ending enclosed hallway of random retail that constitutes the main circulatory route through the hotel. Moreover, the fact that many of the food and beverage options are never open, it is like landing at the airport after 10 pm where you are starving and completely stuck with no options. While the closed outlets taunt you in silence, the few that are open are overrun and undermanned. We had one breakfast at the Market MX outlet that reminded us of something closer to the Hunger Games than a relaxing vacation. It is clear that whoever designed the common space and food and beverage outlets at this resort did not see the value in experiencing the indoor / outdoor mix of being in a tropical climate adjacent to an ocean. Everything is closed in. There is no outdoor dining (other than a couple of buried seating areas in the pool area) or bars with any kind of view of the water. Big miss. On the never ending corridor - Punctuated by brief glimpses of sunlight, the feel for us was reminiscent of a Las Vegas resort trying to pretend it’s not in the middle of the desert. If you are lucky enough to be in a room on the far north end of the property like we were, the barren wasteland journey to get to anywhere is particularly stark with several of the closed bars and restaurants a reminder of horrible decision we made in coming to the Ava Cancun Resort. Are you looking for nicely appointed restaurants? This may be the place for you. It is clear that a good amount of attention and funding were applied to the interiors of the guest rooms and restaurants as they are relatively nice. The restaurants exhibited the largest spectrum of service across any area of the resort ranging from exceptional (Rojelio and team at Bao Kitchen was the pinnacle of our experience) to overwhelmed and absent (the Italian and Teppanyaki restaurants). All of this is not to say that we didn’t see people that seemed to be having the time of their lives. There definitely was a segment that appeared content – mostly the Legendary Club members who may have gotten access to some level of expedited service or amenities that the rest of the guests did not. What was also clear was they we were not alone in our frustrations. It is non atypical to see an unhappy guest especially in a larger resort – it is just the law of large numbers that someone is going to be pissed. What was different here was that the frustrated group was everywhere you looked. In some ways it was reassuring (misery loves company), in others ways it just made the whole thing that much more frustrating as in how do the leaders of this business not see how badly they are setting their teams up for failure. The owners appear to have invested a significant amount of capital into this resort. The design issues will be expensive to correct. The good news is that the issues on their staffing, training and processes will be more impactful and not nearly as expensive. Let’s hope they find their way so that those that make the mistake of booking their vacation at Ava Cancun do not regret the decision as deeply as our group does. Read less