Good morning everyone! If you've been keeping up with me on Instagram, you know that I recently got married and have been on my honeymoon in Mexico all week. We stayed at El Dorado Maroma, which is about 40 minutes south of Cancun and they have the only over the water bungalows in Mexico. I can't tell you how many times I got asked if we were in Bora Bora - it's that nice!
For this post, I'll be sharing all the details about our trip, the food, my outfits, and how you can book this dream trip!
Rooms: There are several different room options at El Dorado, but the bungalows , also known as The Palafitos, is what totally sold us on the trip. As you can see from the pictures, these rooms are your own private getaway and it's honestly hard to even want to leave your little paradise.
Your trip starts with a welcome glass of champagne and a meeting at the Palafitos office. There you check in and get a run down of the resort. You will also pick out what you want in your mini fridge, what type of pillows you prefer in your room, and so many more details to make your stay completely unique. Check in is at 3:00pm (this is very strict and your room won't be ready a minute sooner, checkout is at 12:00pm), but luckily they have a private upstairs at the front office where you can change and shower while you wait. We used this room to change into our swimsuits and get the party started!
Once 3:00pm arrived, we got into our room and were completely AMAZED. The rooms are seriously outrageous! Each 800 sq ft room comes with the following:
- Two private butlers (shoutout to Alan and Carla, they were rockstars and literally did everything for us. They booked our spa treatments, our activities, escorted us everywhere, provided room service, and book our dinner reservations)
-King size bed with your preferred pillows (they have about 5 to choose from)
-Massive indoor jacuzzi
-Private Infinity pool
-Large wooden deck with a table, two chairs, and a love seat
-Private staircase that goes directly into the beautiful Caribbean ocean
-Two layout chairs on your pod to the beach
-Indoor shower and outdoor shower (I loved the outdoor shower!)
-24/7 roomservice
-Glass bottom floors (AMAZING)
-Snorkel gear and life vests
- A breathtaking view
We loved the glass floors. You can see stingrays and so many other fun fish on the ocean floor. I even have a video of Nick snorkeling under the glass floor and it cracks me up every time I watch it. We also really enjoyed the infinity pool and private stairs to the ocean. Our butlers brought us some fun floats so we enjoyed laying out on those and just enjoying the Caribbean sun.
Food/Restaurants: This resort is all-inclusive, so all of your food is included in the cost to stay. El Dorado has seven different restaurants and we loved all of the ones we tried. Your food options are American, Asian, Peruvian, Italian, Caribbean, and of course, Mexican!
In the mornings, we stuck to room service for breakfast. The spread was absolutely amazing and we loved the ease of placing our order with our butler the night before and eating breakfast together on our patio. For breakfast they have just about anything you can think of and of course we added french press and mimosas to our order.
Once lunch rolled around we were still pretty full, so we either stuck to room service or went to eat at Papitos, which is right next to the main pool and beach. This restaurant has different specials every day and is served buffet style.
For dinner, you have to make a reservation. You reservations need to be made before 2:00pm, so I suggest just booking the day before to book your desired time. You can book your dinner reservations directly with your butler, which is so nice. They even show up at your door step 10 minutes before dinner to give you a golf cart ride to your restaurant. I recommend doing dinner around 7:00pm so you can soak up every second of the sun. Sun sets at about 6:15 so that gives you plenty of time to stay in your swimsuit until then and still have time to get ready.
Our favorite dinner was definitely Kiyoko, but we are huge sushi lovers. There wasn't a bad roll on the menu, and believe me, I think we tried them all. This was also the only restaurant where we had to pay for something. I am obsessed with sake and that was one of the only drink options that wasn't free. I think we paid 900 pesos for two bottles and we just charged it to the room. I will say alcohol wise, there is a wide variety. They even serve top shelf liquor like Don Julio for free. We also really enjoyed Mio (highly recommend the steak) and the Caribbean food was an awesome change. We had the lobster fritters, coconut shrimp, and crab cakes and they were to die for.
There is also a private restaurant for the Palafitos with an ocean view (last picture before talking about the food). This restaurant is open to you without a reservation, which is nice for those last minute cravings.
We also had some great honeymoon surprises , which included a private dinner on the beach. This dinner was romantic and delicious. We requested steak and lobster, as there is no menu for this, and they did not disappoint! We had a full on 5 course meal and a private waiter. The dinner took place in the bamboo cages, that I have pictured in this post. To get your honeymoon perks, bring your marriage license or your wedding invitations and give it to the service desk at check-in.
Beach: The beach is beautiful at El Dorado. I couldn't get enough of that Caribbean blue and teal water and the white soft sand. On either side of the Palafitos you have the beach. On the right side is a private beach for those staying in the bungalows and the other side has more spots to layout and a cool little island you can walk to, in about waist deep water. At the beach you can relax on a padded layout chair, nap in a shaded cabana, and get beachside service from the wait staff. You can even ask your butler to prepare a picnic for you on the beach - how fun?!
My only complaint about the beach would have to be the seaweed and the sandbags. The seaweed created a fishy odor sometimes, but they do have people constantly working to clear the beach of the unsightly weed. The sandbags are in your direct view, but I understand they're needed and they aren't that big of deal. They just kind of look like beached whales sometimes..
Pools: There are three different pools on the resort, but we only used the main pool, which has the Mio Swim Up Bar. There are also five different bars on sight.
Activities: There are so many things to do at El Dorado, which are totally free. There are yoga classes every morning, dancing lessons, cooking lessons, you name it! You can also go kayaking and paddle boarding. The paddle boarding was cool if you're in the bungalows, because the instructor brings the paddle boards right up to your staircase to the ocean, so you don't have to actually leave! If you're interested in booking paddle boarding, just have your butler book it.
Off resort Activities: Nick was very adamant about not wanting to leave the resort and I don't blame him, but lucky for us, the activities are right next door to the resort. We had Carla, our butler, book them, and she even took us to the activities on a golf cart and checked us in and made sure we were good to go before she left us. I really liked the aspect of things being next door because of safety issues and we didn't have to waste time loading a bus and driving somewhere 30 minutes away.
We chose to do jet skis and swimming with the dolphins for our experiences. We did the jet skis for 30 minutes, which was super fun, but you have to "follow the leader" and don't get to venture off and do your own thing, so that was a little bit of a let down, but still fun.
I was dying to swim with the dolphins and I'm so glad we did it! For an entire hour we got a private experience with two dolphins and a trainer. I highly suggest doing the private experience if you do this, totally worth the money. Not only is it super exciting, but we learned so much about these magnificent animals.
Other activities include ATV's, speed boats, golfing, horseback riding, fishing, zip lining, sailing and so much more. I really wanted to see the Mayan ruins, but that's an EIGHT HOUR excursion and I was not trying to do that all day.
Spa: We were lucky enough to be gifted hour long massages by our travel agent and were so thankful for it! The room where we had our couples massages looked out into the ocean and the facility was clean, nice, and relaxing. Not to mention that massage was much needed after planning a wedding. I definitely recommend making some time for some sort of spa treatment on your trip!
Transportation: For our trip, we flew from Houston (IAH) to Cancun. This was about a two hour flight, which was another reason we booked Mexico. A short travel day was really important to us. From the airport it's about a 40 minute drive to the resort. Our travel agent completely took care of this and made sure we had luxury transportation. We were greeted with a bouquet of roses, a cooler full of beer, a bottle of champagne, and a Cadillac Escalade. Then for the flight back we had the same car and pick up time was completely taken care of.
Booking: We used Where Can We Take You Travel and they did EVERYTHING! You can book with Sean like we did by emailing him at sean@wherecanwetakeyou.com. They visit the resorts they book first hand, so I totally trusted all of their recommendations and reviews. Not to mention they made the booking process simple, easy, and stress free.
Overall, I highly recommend El Dorado. The bungalows are like a dream and I think it's a phenomenal honeymoon or anniversary spot. This is an adult only resort and designed for couples, so it's the perfect spot to let loose, relax, and have a romantic getaway with your spouse. If you have any questions please comment below!
XO Tiffany