An Honest Review of Excellence Playa Mujeres Mexico

Booking a resort you’ve never stayed at can be daunting. When it’s all-inclusive and you don’t intend on leaving the premises, your hotel can make or break your entire vacation. If you are thinking of staying at the Excellence Playa Mujeres keep reading for my thorough, and honest, Excellence Playa Mujeres review.

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About Playa Mujeres

Playa Mujeres is a secluded vacation destination and beach area just north of Cancun Mexico. It’s my understanding that due to the way it’s geographically shielded by Isla Mujeres the beach gets a fair amount of seaweed, which I’ve seen first hand.

The average high temperature ranges from 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit, and the average low range is 67-77, depending on the month that you go. It can get very, very humid so don’t be surprised if the temperature reads 85 but it feels like 95.

When visiting a tropical location, rain can often be a concern. February – May are the least rainy months with October being the rainiest.

I’ve been to Excellence Playa Mujeres three times, all in October, and have had different experiences with precipitation. It’s poured rain for one full day, it’s drizzled rain sporadically on most days, but on my most recent trip, it didn’t rain one drop.

Getting to Excellence Playa Mujeres

Unless you live in Mexico, you’ll fly into the Cancun International Airport (CUN) and drive 18 miles to the resort. Depending on the time of day, this will take 35-45 minutes.

Going through customs is a relatively quick process. Do that, grab your luggage and you’ll see the plethora of transportation options. I highly, and I cannot stress this enough, recommend that you pre-arrange your transportation to the hotel. All the options can be overwhelming and it can be tricky to know what car or taxi company is legitimate.

Seasons Tours is the exclusive transfer company that Excellence Playa Mujeres uses. In one of the emails the resort sends they will remind you to schedule your transportation. Make sure to do that once you have your flight information because they’ll need to know arrival and departure times. Then it’s so convenient! Walk outside and you’ll see the different companies holding up signs. Look for Seasons Tours and they’ll have a clipboard with your name on it. In 10 minutes, we were in a private nice, cool, clean Mercedes on the way to the resort.

The Resort

There is a lot of security to even enter the resort so it feels very safe. A couple of overall things before we get into the details:

• Excellence Playa Mujeres is an adults-only, all-inclusive resort. If you are looking for a family-friendly resort you’ll want to visit Finest Playa Mujeres which is their sister property right door
• About 99% of the guests are couples, many celebrating honeymoons or anniversaries.
• There is free wifi and the signal is pretty strong throughout the resort so having access to the internet is no problem.
• You’ll want to download The Excellence Collection App from the App store. This is where you’ll see all of the restaurant menus (they don’t have paper menus), daily entertainment, and more.
• Some mornings there is a pretty potent sulfur smell, which can be a little off-putting but it goes away quickly. My understanding is that this is from the algae in the region.
• Tipping is of course optional but always appreciated. They happily accept U.S. dollars and I recommend bringing a variety of $5’s, $10’s, and $20’s depending on what situation you are in. For instance, in the morning at the swimming pool, we would tip the waiter $20 and be good for the day. If you are going to get one or two drinks at the martini bar, you will probably want to tip less than $20. You’ll also want cash to tip the drivers. I made the mistake last time and only had a few $5’s and $10’s so shelled out more $20’s then I necessarily would have if I planned a little better.
• When we went they provide free Covid tests for guests who are flying to counties that require proof of a negative test (the U.S.). They will give you a time to go to a room, they administer the test and then email you the same day. It’s very easy and convenient.

Excellence Club

The Excellence Club at Excellence Playa Mujeres is an upgraded tier when booking the room. The actual rooms are the same within the same category, but there are other perks. You’ll have to decide if the perks are worth it.

Some of the benefits are private check-in/check-out, two separate swimming pools, a separate beach area, access to an exclusive restaurant, upgraded alcohol in the room, evening treats sent to your room. There are more benefits, but I recommend going to the website for the full, updated list.

I’ll get into some of the details below, but I think the upgrade is absolutely worth it. My favorite things about the upgrade are the private check-in and check-out and the two private pools.

Rooms

As I mentioned above, the rooms are the same within the same category regardless if you have an Excellence Club room or not. What I mean by that is, the Junior Suite Pool View is the same room layout and finishes as the Excellence Club Junior Suite Pool View.

For my most recent stay, I booked the Excellence Club Junior Suite Ocean View. This definitely isn’t oceanfront, but if you look over the resort you can see the ocean in the background.

The room features a walk-in closet with a safe, double sinks, a water closet for the toilet, a dual-head walk-in shower, king-size bed, sofa, TV, indoor/outdoor jacuzzi, and balcony. It’s slightly over 800 sq feet, which is a lot of space seeing as though the Junior Suite is the smallest room.

There is a mini-fridge with water, soda, beer, and wine as well as some candy bars. The bar has a variety of alcohol and there is a Nespresso machine ( I believe the Nespresso is for Excellence Club). Room service is available 24/7, but unfortunately, you have to call in your order as it’s not available on the App yet.

Great Things About the Room

Every room has a good size balcony that includes a table and chairs and a daybed. I love this aspect as we wound up ordering room service every morning for breakfast and eating on the balcony. We used the daybed in the evening if we wanted to play card games or if I just wanted to read before getting ready for dinner. It’s very nice to have private outdoor space. Tip: the silver tray that the ice bucket is on is a perfect tray to use on the daybed to be able to set your drink on.

It’s spacious so there’s plenty of room. Plenty of space in the closet so you don’t feel like you are living in clutter, and plenty of room with the dual sinks to get ready.

The TV is nice and new which means it has a port for a streaming stick. If you’ve been around the blog then you know I am obsessed with entertainment. When I go on vacation, I always travel with a Fire Stick to pop in the TV and I can watch most of my regular shows. Just know that certain Apps only have rights to certain shows in certain countries, so if something is missing, that’s probably why.

Not So Great Things About the Room

The room is an open concept so there are no walls to the bathroom. You read that correctly. The toilet is in a water closet, but the door is glass and it does not go from floor to ceiling. Here is where I get very real with you, but that’s what an honest review is all about. You will be very happy you have a private outdoor space to get some sort of privacy.

The sofa is slippery and uncomfortable. Not a good lounging sofa.

It can get quite damp being so close to the ocean. I bring one of these to hang in the bathroom and it does help reduce the moisture in the air.

The first morning we woke up there was a ‘smell’ in the room. I called the concierge and they sent someone right away to fix it. It didn’t smell after that but I got the feeling I wasn’t the first person who had ever called with that issue.

We tried out the jacuzzi but the liquid they give you for it is actually shower gel, so if you want bubbles then you’ll need to bring some from home. TBH, my at-home jacuzzi has better power so I pretty much immediately got out of the tub.

Restaurants & Food

Excellence Playa Mujeres has 12 restaurants, all with different themes and cuisines. I love this because when you don’t leave the resort you still want variety. During previous stays I’ve eaten at most of the restaurants and, overall, I would say the food is above average, but not great. It’s hard to find great food at an all-inclusive so above average is pretty good in my book.

On the most recent trip, since the pandemic was still very relevant and Mexico doesn’t require a negative test or proof of vaccination, we weren’t eating inside. This severely limited our restaurant options since many of the restaurants that have outdoor dining weren’t seating.

Here are some quick thoughts on the restaurants I dined at on the most recent trip:

• Toscana | Breakfast and Lunch buffet by day, Italian restaurant by night. This used to be where we got breakfast but they’ve updated it to be more safe during the pandemic, and I found the other guests to be kind of aggressive. Decided to get room service after that.
• The Grill | Located over the main swimming pool, it’s entirely outdoor seating. I found it fine during the day but did not enjoy the food at all for dinner. The steak had a weird flavor and texture.
• The Lobster House | This is the other completely outdoor restaurant over the main pool. It’s the same building as The Grill but they have different entrances and share a bar. Since it was one of a handful of restarurants we felt comfortable in outdoors, we ate here quite a few times. Here’s a rundown on some of the food (note the lunch and dinner menu are different, lunch notes are at the top of the list and dinner starts at Lobster Ceviche)
  • Chips & Salsa – fresh chips and it comes with a tangy green tomatillo and a smoky red chipotle
  • Crab Rolls – not a ton of crab flavor, more like a veggie egg roll
  • Nachos – solid go-to and the same you can order at the pool or beach
  • Fish Tacos – lacking flavor and the tempura got soggy quickly
  • Chicken Quesadilla – fine but nothing special
  • Ice Cream Sampler – trio of fresh ice cream, delicious!
  • Lobster Ceviche – very good with lots of flavor (ordered multiple times)
  • Coconut Shrimp – solid for what it is
  • Crab Cake – didn’t taste much like crab, mostly just tastes fried
  • Lobster Risotto – good texture with lobster and cheese and no mushrooms
  • Surf & Turf – the steak is comically small; you are better off ordering a lobster tail and a side of your choosing
  • Lobster Tail – great, you can get it grilled or steamed (ordered multiple times)
  • Mashed Potatoes – nothing to write home about
  • Berry Blintz – not much cheese but the crepe and berries were good
  • Chocolate Mousse – just ok
• Sol | Technically a bar behind the main pool but this is where they have. awood-fired pizza oven with a variety of toppings. They make it to order while you wait. After living in both New York and Chicago, I’m a harsh pizza critic so I got it once. But it’s worth trying.

Cocktails & Drinks

The resort has many bars to get cocktails at as well as the daily pool and beach service. There is no lack of alcohol flowing at Excellence Playa Mujeres. In the name of research, of course, I tried out quite a few cocktails offered on the menu, here are my thoughts:

• Tamarind Margarita – Made from a tropical fruit, it’s not super sweet and I love the Tajin rim.
• Mango Jalapeno Margarita – Amazing and I frequently ordered this cocktail. Made with fresh jalapeno the spiciness offsets the sweet and finishes with a Tajin rim. Check out my Spicy Mango Margarita recipe inspired by this drink.
• Pina Colada – A quintessential frozen tropical cocktail, they know what they are doing.
• Caipirosca – A vodka-based cocktail on the rocks, that tastes like a sweet version of a gimlet.
• White Wine Sangria – Hard pass
• Chai Silk Stocking – Didn’t really taste like Chai but had an interesting flavor. This is available at the Martini bar inside the main building.
• Mudslide – Like the PIna Colada, they know what they are doing when it comes to these drinks. And they don’t skimp on the booze either.
• Banana Mama – Good if you like banana-flavored drinks

Revive is a juice bar which is great when you want something refreshing that doesn’t necessarily contain alcohol. At Noon daily they serve fresh coconuts until they run out, which is around 12:30. This is the best fresh coconut water I’ve ever had! Note they do not serve straws at all at Excellence Playa Mujeres so if you think you may want instead of putting your mouth on the coconut, then make sure to bring some from home. Also, you can take the coconut to the nearest bar (Prelude) and they’ll put a shot of rum in it if you’d like.

Aroma is technically a coffee bar but it is so much more. Located by the entertainment pavilion, it is very popular and there is usually a line out of the door in the morning. They have baristas on staff that will craft hot or iced coffee drinks and there are also grab & go items available. Note that any hot drink can be made iced and vice versa. Just like the coconut call out at Revive, you won’t be getting a straw for your blended iced coffee drink so if you want one, bring it from home. Aroma may be most known for its coffee but it is also an ice cream shop that serves homemade ice cream. It is excellent!

Swimming Pools & Beach

Beach

The beach at Excellence Playa Mujeres isn’t the best. As I mentioned above, due to the way it’s protected by Isla Mujeres there is a fair amount of seaweed and algae. They do their best to keep it clean and you’ll see someone on a tractor-looking type of thing come through multiple times a day to clean the beach.

The beach for the Excellence Club guests is roped off and they are pretty strict about only letting those guests into that area. So let’s say you are staying in the Excellence Club but your friends aren’t, don’t assume they can come over to the Excellence Club side of the beach.

Since I stayed in the Excellence Club during my last stay, that is the beach I’ll be reviewing.

There are cabanas, lounge chairs under palapas, and sunbeds all available for use in the Excellence Club. I don’t think that the other side has private cabanas. We lucked out and got a cabana on our first day by showing up at 7:45am but they are a hot commodity. Other days we would get up as early as 6:30am and the cabanas were all taken, a lot of people go to the beach to watch the sunrise. Most people will claim their spot and then go back to bed or breakfast or whatever. It’s annoying, but it’s a ‘hate the game, not the player’ kind of situation.

When you enter the beach area the concierge will give you towels and water if you’d like. Beverage service starts at 10:00 am and you can order drinks and food from the waitstaff until 5:00.

If you are anything like me, you like to look at the ocean but hate sand. Here’s a tip when you want to cool off but are laying at the beach: the main pool of the hotel is right behind the beach area so grab a towel from the concierge, take a dip in the pool, and go back to the beach to enjoy the ocean.

Swimming Pool

Excellence Playa Mujeres has a few swimming pools but some of them also run into each other so it’s kind of hard to say exactly how many there are. What is great is that whatever type of pool environment you are looking for, they will have.

Similar to the beach, cocktail service goes from 10:00-5:00. Note the towels are in raised boxes throughout the resort, you just pull one out when you need it if you aren’t in the Excellence Club (if you are then you’ll get them from the concierge).

The main pool sits under/adjacent to The Grill and The Lobster House restaurants. It has your typical pool music piped through and the swim-up bar so it’s a little more lively.

Next is the lazy river but it doesn’t move so it’s more a pool in the shape of a river. This is the pool that goes right in front of the Swim-up Suites. It kind of depends on the guests as to this type of vibe. I’ve experienced it where couple friends are staying together and then it’s more energetic with 8 people having fun. But I’ve also seen it be very quiet.

There are two private pools for Excellence Club guests only, one near building 7 and one near building 8. The one near building 8 is larger and has a bar and therefore is more lively. Sometimes all the lounge chairs are taken so if that’s where you want to be, you may want to go early. The pool near building 7 is smaller and much more quite. If you plan on reading a book all day, this is where I highly recommend going. Regardless of which private swimming pool you go to you’ll be able to order drinks and food from the waitstaff.

The Entertainment

The resort has entertainment every night in an outdoor covered venue, the calendar of events is available on the app. There is the main show, and musical entertainment before and after held in the outdoor section, right in front of the venue.

It’s pretty typical resort entertainment…there’s a fire dancer show, a Michael Jackson show, you get the gist. The musical entertainment ends at 10:30 so depending on where your room is you may hear it until then. Most nights we would watch the musical pre or post-show but skip the main event. Instead, we would go to the room and play the games we brought with us (I highly recommend Monopoly Deal).

The Spa

I didn’t get a chance to hit up the Miilé Spa on my most recent trip, but I have booked a massage previously when it has been raining. The facilities are what you expect from a nice spa and they offer a variety of treatments. It gets fully booked though, so if you are interested you might want to book it sooner rather than later. If you wait on the weather forecast, you might be cutting it close.

Overall Review (TLDR)

Excellence Playa Mujeres Review: The resort is easy and convenient to get to from a lot of the U.S. As a luxury, adults-only, all-inclusive resort there is a lot of value for the price. The service is excellent (pun intended but also it’s true) and the food’s not bad either. If you are a beach lover there are better places for you. If you are a ‘cocktails by the pool’ type of person, then this might just be the place.

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