South East Travel - Steinbach, Manitoba

The Grand Sirenis is a very plush, beautiful hotel built for those who don’t mind a lot of walking and are looking for a large hotel feel.

Mayan Riviera, Mexico
January 2008

Hotel: Grand Sirenis – Riviera Maya

The Grand Sirenis is a very large all inclusive resort complex with over 1000 rooms spread over a very large area of land, approximately 1 ½ hours south of Cancun.

The resort has many amenities including several buffet restaurants and approximately 10 a la carte restaurants, coffee bar, ice cream Shoppe, many bars, tennis courts, basketball and soccer courts, 3 swimming pools and a lazy river. Also available were snorkel gear for use in beautiful coral right off the beach in front of the resort.

The rooms are very spacious with either a king size bed and hide a bed or 2 queen size and a hide a bed. The bathroom is also very spacious with a hot tub and shower area.

The view from most rooms was nothing great unless you could book into the ocean view rooms ahead of time.
The hotel is spread out over a large area, so be prepared to walk a lot.

The food and service in the a la carte restaurants was excellent as was the main buffet. The smaller buffets poolside and beachside were not as good with food often being luke warm.

The activity staff was hard to find during the day. The evening entertainment on the other hand was very well done. The shows were excellent.

Xel Ha

Akumal Beach

Playa del Carmen

Things to do:

We traveled with children from the ages of 10 – 16 and found many great things to do.

Xel Ha is a must do. It is a large area of park and large lagoon for snorkeling. It is easily a full day of entertainment for a cost of $75 per person. Included in that price are your towel, snorkel equipment, food and drinks at any of the many restaurants and a locker for the day. There are hiking trails, Tarzan ropes, caverns, cliff jumping, a lazy river to ride in an inner tube provided for you and more snorkeling that you can do in one day. This is a must do if you are in the area.

Akumal is a small fishing village and beach located just 5 minutes south of the Grand Sirenis hotel. It is an excellent place to spend the day or half a day. The beach offers beautiful white sand and the best part is the snorkeling. You can bring your own equipment or rent it at the dive shop on the beach. We saw many sea turtles, manta rays and many beautiful varieties of fish just a short way out onto the calm waters. For those who are not comfortable snorkeling, you can walk out on the beach into water up to your knees and see many varieties of fish swimming around you. There is also some shopping available on your walk down to the beach. We found the prices much more reasonable than in Playa del Carman. Your only cost for this day is the taxi or bus ride there, and any food or drinks you may purchase.

Playa del Carman also provides much shopping and dining and nightlife. It is a short 30-minute cab ride north of Grand Sirenis.
If you are going to the Mayan in January, remember your sweaters and long pants for the cool evenings. We also had 2 days of rain and temperatures of 17’C but enjoyed warmer weather on the other days.

All in all we had a good time at the Grand Sirenis. Although billed as a 5 star, here is how we rated it:

Buildings and Grounds *****
Daily Activity Staff **
Nightly Entertainment****
Buffet Food ***
Ala Carte ****
Front Desk Service**
Restaurant service ***
Rooms (musty smell) ****