Neither my wife or I had been to Cancun before. We researched online, at various travel sites, and TripAdvisor, picking the Gran Melia, hoping for the best. We purchased our accommodations, and travel arrangements through American Express.

The hotel is magnificent, inside and out. We had ocean view accommodations, the room was a mini-suite, and very comfortable. We sampled the restaurants at the hotel, and the food was excellent. The value for the money was excellent, but being in the Hotel Zone led to higher cab fares, and high in-room mini-bar prices.

The hotel is elevated above the hotel zone road level. Since we are seniors this presented a problem. Two tours we booked had picked us up at the front door, and transferred us to a large tour bus in the AM, but each evening on return we were let out at the foot of a high stairway in front of the hotel, and had to climb up the stairs. This situation did not make it conducive to go down to street level and catch a bus to the local Wal-Mart for supplies.

I stayed in this hotel with my family fro 7 days and this was my 3 visit to cacun, i had been at the casamagna and fiesta americana condesa, and either one can't compare with the GM.
let me start with the lobby is just beautiful, open lots of greens, the decoration is very pretty, and the lavander smell as soon as you get there if give you peace and relaxtation, and this is all about went you are on vacations.

the rooms:
the size of the rooms were perfect, the balcony is pretty big and have 2 chairs so you can see the sunset!
the beds are really confortable!! the have plama TV with a lots of channels, cnn,BBC, NBC ectr.
the bathrooms are big, and with european style showes,
the closet are big and the security box works great.

The pool and Beach
the pool is the best feauture of this hotel is HUGE! and is so beautiful, lost of chairs, "palapas" and beds to choose from.
is nice that the have 2 pools one for kids and one for adults, and the one in the royal service area wich is very pretty too.
the beach is still small but nice, the views of the pool are espectacular!

Service and staff
averybody seen to be very nice, and helpfull, our fligth got there early and they let us in the room with out a problem.
the service in the pool/beach is great there is always waitress asking you if you need a drink.
we never wait more t for a table to have breakfast.
the turdown service is always great. (tip you maid 2$ per day)

The restaurants
we just tryed cafe quetzal for breakfast the buffet is very good a lost of opcions to choose from, and we order from the menu and was very good too.
we had some snacks at the pool and it was litte bit pricy but good.

we always got water and sodas from the market across the street (oxxo)

i will just tell you to book this hotel without thinking twice, is a very relaxing and beautiful atmosfere.
i can't imagine how people can leave a bad review for this hotel!!
everything was GREAT and beutiful! it was a great vacation!!

I stayed here with my best friend from High School for her 39th b-day. I arrived a day ahead and she arrived the following day.

The hotel is gorgeous as the photo's I posted here show. Lots of space, pyramid design with marble floors and walls.

To settle something quick - there really isn't any AC inside because the top of the pyramid is all glass, so you have the sun coming down. The area where you check - in has 3 sliding glass doors and to go to the pool area is also sliding glass doors. They are constantly opening and closing, so there's no way to really cool the place down. That being said...

I was there from June 7th - 11th, 2008. It was very empty, maybe 1/4 full if that. Never had a problem getting a spot under the cabana huts at the pool, even during lunch. Food was good, but only during breakfast is there a buffet. None of the other restaurants had a buffet. No stomach issues since its bottled water everywhere you go and look.

They had several shops, a general store type thing where you can get just about everything including a Internet cafe ($5 for 15 minutes), a tobacco shop where they guy rolled cigars right in front of you, a jewerly shop which was highly inexpensive compared to the prices at La Isla mall, another touristy shop with t-shirts & such. So there were places to shop for stuff. There's also a Expedia travel area (Yes, EXPEDIA....DOT COMMMM!!) where you make reservations for trips & whatever travel needs you want.

The restaurants are all on the bottom floors, didn't see many at the Mexican restaurant, but then again, the hotel was not busy.

Ok - here's the deal with the "timeshare". When you first walk in, immediately on your right is check-in. If you look straight ahead, you will see 2 tables on either side of a staircase. THIS is the point share area.

To avoid them, immediately as you step away from the check-in counter, a woman will try to bring you to an area to receive your free "welcome" gift. It's just some spa stuff, bubble bath, bath gel & something else. Tell the people at the "timeshare" desk you are not interested. Do not let them wheel & deal you. They will be nice though about it. Those folks get points for being able to sign you up to meet with someone.
It's not a timeshare per say, its a point system. And its only good for the Melia hotels which do not exist in the United States since they have no interest in trying to get into the Western market. They are basically Caribbean & Europe based hotels, but not many because its very upscale. So you use points to stay at these (or others) so you aren't locked for a week, you would use points for staying say 2 day or 3 days or however long.
I had nothing to do & didn't want to pay for an excursion, so they pay for breakfast (following day) and you listen to the guy yap gab about the Melia hotels. I got $70 towards any trip I wanted to take. It's a coupon, so you go to the Expedia travel area and book it through them. Hey, you won't find $70 in the street down there!

It's extremely safe down there, there's security all over watching so you don't have to worry about anything. There's no street bums & such. Bus goes everywhere.

If anyone has questions, please feel free to ask me. The below poster pretty much summed up the hotel & stuff. I would stay there again in a heartbeat!

Well, we originally booked a room at the Ritz and then had "buyer's remorse" so we canceled it and booked a room at the Gran Melia. WHAT A MISTAKE!!!!!!
If you want air conditioning and a room without a mold smell, do not bother to book a room here. Due to the enormous amounts of hanging plants in the 5 buildings on the property, they cannot use air conditioning in the main areas or the plants will die. Well, this equates to VERY humid and hot conditions in the hotel. When we checked in, we walked in the hotel and almost were stifled by the heat. The check-in line was terribly long and everyone was glistening. I thought maybe the A/C was broken or this is just how things worked in Mexican Hotels. Boy, was I wrong. We booked a room in the Royal Service section of the hotel. DO NOT DO THIS! It is a rip-off! The rooms are small and musty. The Royal Service building and pool are deserted. The snacks and breakfast are not worth it. It takes FOREVER to get from the Hotel to the street.
We were miserable so we walked down the Hotel strip to find another place to stay. After enetering these Hotels, we realized just HOW BAD the Gran Melia really was. We went to the JW Marriott, Le Meridien, and the Ritz Carlton and they were all magnificent. We asked to see rooms in each and were allowed to except the Ritz, which was at 100% occupancy (we were kicking ourselves that we had canceled our reservation here). We ended up getting a room at the Le Meridien-pure perfection. We ate several meals at the Ritz and the Marriott and have nothing but wonderful remarks.
Anyway, DO NOT STAY AT THE GRAN MELIA if you have any allergies, asthma, or any upper respiratory conditions. After 20 minutes, I was wheezing and had a scratchy throat. My nose was running and I had a headache. It was horrible. When we went back after investigating the other hotels and told them why we wanted to cancel our reservation, even the receptionist agreed that her allergies are awful when she is there. I couldn't believe it!

The truth is that we paid WAY less and had 100% better accommodations at the Le Meridien. The rest of the trip was incredible and leaving the Gran Melia (which we coined the "Mal Melia", mal meaning "bad" in Spanish) was the best decision we could have made.