We just returned from a wonderful time at Valentin's. Our dates were July 7-9 for only 2 nights and so our only complaint was that we weren't there long enough! Both restaurants on the beach were excellent. We ate at the seafood restaurant for lunch one day and the steak place one evening. Our steaks were done perfectly and we took the advice of our waiter and ordered the filet mignon and he was right, it was super tender. Our other evening we ate in the Japanese restaurant and again, our food was wonderful. All of the menus for the various restaurants had lots of choices, too many to choose from! We wish we could have tried them all!
The rooms were very spacious and the beds super comfortable. The lead in rooms are easily a 2 to 3 category upgrade at other resorts. We found the staff to be very willing to please and extremely pleasant.
The surf is not the best here for swimming, but there are plenty of palapas for sunning and you can certainly walk the beach for a long ways in both directions. The pool is absolutely to die for! There were plenty of beach chairs that were either in the direct sun, under a wood slat filtered sun or even total shade. They also provided plenty of floating rafts in the pool.
We had a very relaxing enjoyable stay. I'm telling everyone I can about this resort and we can't wait for our return!

We went to the Valentin this passed weekend 7-11 to 7-14.
It was fabulous. Everything pristine and brand new. The resturaunts were fine dining with excellent chiefs. Food was beyond what we had expected. Our favorite was French (chateaubriand and the scallops) . The Mexicans work very hard to please. We tipped a dollar here and there for drinks but not everyone did. We also left a few dollars when we ate but again not everyone did. We really enjoyed the beach and big waves (we are from connecticut where the waters are calm in Long island sound). Clean waters and swimming at the left side of the beach was wonderful. Pool was salt water, large and warm. swim up bar was great...lots of drinks. Pool bar closes at 6PM but they still served beer after 6 while they were cleaning up. Other bars through out open later. Sports bar is open until 2AM with pool tables, card games, jenga..etc.

I loved taking spanish lessons every day and sailing on the hobbie cat and roller blading (all included in the price)

One day our key didn't work but we waited 10 minutes...maintenance came and reprogramed the lock....no problem.

we booked through book it .com.....my only suggestion is not to use the transfers thru them which is best day travel. No real problems but it is more expensive then a taxi....also you are told to meet and confirm return trip at a certain time where they want to sell you outside activites......then returning to the airport it is on their schedule not yours. we didn't go to the "activities" meeting and called by phone instead.

All in all you will not be disappointed.....go while it is new..... I met people there on a second trip already (resort opened this past Nov)

enjoy!

Just got home last night from a 4nite/5day vacation at the Valentin.

As my wife and I and our friends pulled into the resort, I knew we were in for an experience. The buildings are designed in typical Yucatan style with a touch of elegance. We were welcomed in the main lobby with a cool towel and a glass of champaign as we checked in. Our rooms were upgraded from junior deluxe suites to swimups. We were then quickly taken by cart to our rooms and our luggage arrived just minutes later. In no time at all we were all enjoying time under the sun.

The food is very good. We ate breakfast everyday at Marche (huge buffet), and lunches either at the beach restaraunt or by poolside. The first nite we ate at the Japanese place and shared almost everything they offer. All of it was excellent and probably my favorite. We also ate at the French, Lobster Pot, and Italian restaurants and only had to wait once for about 5 minutes to be seated. The drinks were very good as well. Just be watchful for the wine lists at the a la cartes because there are only a few that are part of the 'all inclusivity'.

Service was outstanding. They intend to go above an beyond what you expect, and always asked if there was anything else they can do. Staff everywere were very friendly, from the grounds keepers to bartenders, they always had a smile on their face.

I would definitely recommend staying at this hotel to others.

My husband and I travelled to this resort on 28th June and stayed till 5th July. We "discovered" the Riviera Maya in Aug 2002 and are lucky to have been able to return to this area 15 times since then, plus twice to Cancun, .staying at all-inclusives, some of which have been adults only. (Secrets Capri, RPDC, The Grand Paraiso and Golden Parnassus). We are <blush> over 50, and have also travelled extensively worldwide - just to give you some idea of our travel experiences. This was MY fav. resort so far (but not hubby's).

We booked with Funjet, flying out of St. Louis with USA3000 and arrived at the resort about 8pm on Sat. night (BTW, Cancun airport was a ZOO that night, first time we've ever encountered that - we also flew into Terminal 3; has always been Terminal 2 before). Greeted warmly with champagne and a cold towel, seated at desk in the impressive lobby (beautiful fresh flower displays) and asked to fill in a form, which already had our room number on it - from advice here on TA, I knew (from room no.) that we had been upgraded to Golden Suites from reg. deluxe - I had e-mailed them to tell them it was our wedding anniversary on 3rd July and my Travel Agent from Traveloni had also phoned them the day before we arrived. I'd asked for top-floor, room was 2nd floor, but they changed it there and then to top......rm 6301 Golden, overlooking lagoon, swim-up pool, with sea view in distance. Lovely room, spacious with nice view. As all details have been mentioned in other reviews, all I'll add is that the bathroom has NO AC...and I don't think the AC in the room is efficient at all - had mine turned down to 65F and it STILL felt hot! Unfortunately, the mini-bar was almost empty and it took them 90 mins to send some cold drinks (and three phone-calls) - and we had to wait in room, otherwise, no delivery! We wanted to get out and eat and explore the resort - oh well. Managed to make it to the Indonesian restaurant for dinner - yummy!

There are concierges allocated to each building and ours was Lucy, a charming, helpful lady. Everyday when she saw us, she asked if everything was ok. She arranged for our room to be decorated with balloons, banners and a bottle of champagne on our anniversary (my hubby had a word with her) and also noted and arranged for our preferences to be stocked in the mini-bar. She had maintenance come check the AC, but they said it was ok.......I heard lots of people say theirs didn't seem to be working efficiently (in fact, all the power in building 5 went out one night), so my feeling is that there is still a power problem at the resort.......We weren't being picked up for our return flight till 4.30pm and she also arranged for us to keep our room till 3pm at no charge.

The pool area is massive, impressive and salt-water; however, I didn't even put a toe in it...much prefer the beach, and spent all day, every day there with no problem getting a palapa. Shelving with beach towels, help yourself. Most days seas were choppy, but clean and I saw a lot of little fish in the rock pools and in the sea. When you reach the beach by the boardwalk, the area directly in front to enter water is rock/coral, but go left about 50 yds and entry to water is sandy. I thought the beach was delightful and you could walk for ages either way, albeit needing some kind of footwear in places (flip-flops for me) because of some rocks etc. The beach bar was at the walkway and they also had a cooler with beer and water that you could help yourself to. Servers came round occasionally taking orders. Plenty of palapas, spaced quite far apart - NOT on top of your neighbours like some resorts - though they did stretch quite a ways along the beach. Hobies and kayaks free, jet-skis to rent. Only saw beach vendors one day, Friday, selling silver, shells and cigars.

We ate lunch every day at the Mar (seafood) restaurant beside the beach, overlooking the sea. (non AC, but a nice breeze) Buffet, plus a la carte items - not as extensive as the main AC buffet area, but suited us. We ate dinner twice at Indonesian, twice at Italian, once at Mexican, once at French and once at Lobster Pot (which is the Mar restaurant during the day). Really liked all our meals; never had a bad one and had friendly, efficient service. One night we met with friends we had made, at the Lobster Pot, ordered drinks and then asked for a bottle of champagne to go for the four of us....np, bottle in ice bucket, 4 glasses on a tray......they were showing us their ocean-front room.....a note here, I think only building 11 ocean-front has a full view; the others are blocked mostly by foliage and the ground floor rooms really can only see jungle, plus the room wasn't as big as the Golden suite.....I think the sunken jacuzzi is the main attraction.....We ordered room service breakfast one morning, (it came on time and was as ordered) but the others we walked to the main buffet where the saxophonist plays every morning. Here you have 3 seating choices - open air, under the palapa with fans, or an AC room. This was the only restaurant where I felt the service was a wee bit lacking. It's buffet, but they serve your tea and coffee and remove dirty plates........sometimes served drink within couple mins....others waited 10/15 mins. ..and they were never busy. We like getting out and about, so never used room service for dinner or snacks.

We enjoyed the entertainment in the evening - shows in the theatre (which is also stinking hot!!) and the band in the open-air plaza - which you could dance to. They had a Las Vegas night, with theatre show and then gaming tables in the plaza (fun:):) We had an occasional drink in the lobby bar, which is a comfortable, large, nicely decorated well AIR CONDITIONED place - but which was hardly used - and found the best drinks here. Usually, unless you specified a brand, you were given the local no-name stuff....tho, the other bars DO have well-known brands. We stopped by the sports bar late evening a couple of times and people seemed to be enjoyed playing pool, dominos and socializing. There is a "journal" left in your room each night with the turn-down service, stating the following day's activities and entertainment programme.....I never made it to any of the day's activities - too busy enjoying the beach!:):) We've done the excursions before, so spent all out time at the resort. My hubby used the gym most days, but he said the equipment was only "adequate" and it was quite a small room. There was also "El Cafe" with a coffee/tea menu, but it didn't open till 3pm. In this room you also found the "library" - bookcases with books you could take away (left, I presume, by former guests).

BTW, this is a sea turtle nesting beach and each morning, a staff member would dig up the eggs (usually over 100) and re-plant them in a fenced area with a marker. I met a lady who has a house about 300yds north of the resort and she told me that Valentin has to have a biologist on site each day to oversee the eggs.....this, seemingly was the result of area "activists" trying to protect the environment.

We thoroughly enjoyed this resort, met lots of nice, friendly people from TripAdvisor and elsewhere, (hola folks:):)...and IF they could guarantee more efficient AC in the room and bathroom area, theatre area and bar, would have no qualms about returning. (I took a small, concertina type hand-held fan with me and was glad of it!).

Any questions, feel free to PM me. Cheers! Margaret