We stayed at the Club Westin Regina resort, which is a decent property, but as mentioned by others, not a "Westin-style" property for those who are accustomed to such. First, the resort is not a great appearing resort from the exterior. They are in the process of remodeling the interior. Second, the resort does not have the Westin's famous "Heavenly beds." Like all resorts in Mexico, the beds are hard and boxy. We asked for foam padding to be placed on our mattress, which they did, and the bed was fine.
But if you get past the exterior looks of the resort, it actually isn't bad. The beach area is nice, and the staff is attentive. Since the resort is affiliated with the Westin Cancun Hotel next door, you can walk over there for a nice buffet breakfast or good shrimp dinner.
Watch out for the time-share sales pitch. We were hit with that upon our arrival. They don’t want to call it a time-share presentation. They call it something like a Welcome presentation. But it’s the same thing. They play a game in which they don’t give room assignments until you say whether you’ll attend or not. We told them we were not interested, so they showed us a lousy room on the first floor, with a small lagoon view and next to a construction site. I wouldn’t have stayed in that room if they’d paid me.
We said no way to that room, and requested an ocean-view room. We were told that they didn't have any available, which I found odd since it was off-season. But we were also told that if we attended the time-share presentation the next day, an oceanfront room would mysteriously become available. We begrudgingly agreed. Fortunately, unlike other reviewers, our time-share presentation wasn’t bad because we made it known, emphatically, that we had no intention of buying. They say the time-share presentation would last 90 minutes. No way. We were there for three hours saying NO.
Still, considering the room we got, it was three hours well spent. The room was a large 1 BR suite, with two bathrooms, 2 TVs, a kitchen, and a balcony with a hammock and private Jacuzzi that overlooks the beautiful waters of the ocean. It was a very nice room and something we are accustomed to. My one gripe is that about all but two channels are in Spanish. You’d think a resort that catered to Americans would have predominantly English-speaking channels. The Westin Hotel next door, where we stayed our last night, had a huge selection of English channels, and the Heavenly bed.
After the time-share presentation, we were also given some money we put towards a lobster dinner cruise.
The restaurants are pretty expensive in Cancun. We took the local bus, which stops in front of the resort, into the old town of Cancun and shopped at the local market for groceries, which we used in the hotel room’s kitchen. The local market is very inexpensive, but you have to take the bus (about $1.30 for two people each way) into the “Centro” area. It’s well worth it because the produce is fresh and like mentioned before, the restaurants are expensive.
We used our time-share presentation money towards a lobster dinner cruise, which was about $57 per person. But consider if you eat dinner at Lorenzillo’s, the famous hotel-zone lobster restaurant above the lagoon, you’ll pay about the same $57 for lobster. No wonder we never saw many people in the restaurant. But if you opt for the lobster dinner cruise, for example ,you get a 2-hour cruise, a delicious steak and lobster dinner, all the drinks you want, and entertainment (we had a great saxophone player from Cuba on our trip who performed), the choice is obvious.
Going all-inclusive in Cancun isn’t probably a bad idea, because of the prices of the restaurants. However, if you’re inclined to use this resort’s kitchen facilities as we did, either primarily or somewhat, then this report is a good place to stay.
It’s the first resort in the hotel zone from the airport, which means once you leave the airport on a shuttle bus, you’re dropped off first. It also means when the local bus swings by to take you to the rest of the hotel zone, or go into town, you’re absolutely the first persons on the bus and don’t have to hassle with finding a seat. And the busses are clean and run all the time. They’re the best transportation in Cancun.
Cancun itself is still recovering from the hurricane in 2005. There is a lot of construction going on in the hotel zone, either refurbishing some hotels, or rebuilding. However, it never hindered our stay and we still had a great time.
I would return to this hotel if we got the 1 BR suite that was given to us for attending the timeshare presentation.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.