The Omni is a lovely little hotel on the Riviera Maya. The rooms are modern, pretty, and very clean. The grounds are extremely well-maintained and the pool, beach, and restaurant view are stunning. The beach is very small but because the hotel has only 30 rooms, we never had trouble finding a beach chair and shade. The food at the beach bar and the Xenote restaurant was fresh and delicious -- we highly recommend the ceviche!

The hotel and surrounding marina are very quiet and everything closed at 11pm. Most of the guests do not socialize with each other or mingle at bars and restaurants. While we found this refreshingly relaxing on some nights, on other evenings we were a little bored and ventured into Playa Del Carmen for a more bustling scene ($16 cab ride one way). If you're looking for atmosphere and action, Puerta Aventuras is not the place for you (at least in May). But having the option to get to Playa easily made it work for us.

The staff, while they seemed a little bored, was very accommodating and polite. We did not have a single complaint during our stay. The tour guides in the office of the hotel were all very helpful. They listened to what we were looking for in excursions and helped us book them.

In summary, this beautiful resort is the perfect place for a relaxing getaway.

The hotel's setting speaks for itself - best beach in very clean town. If you're looking for a cultural experience, however, this is not the place to stay. If you're looking for anglo-saxon sterility, welcome home. One caviat - my wife and I went down on short notice, with the hopes of being able to conduct some work with our laptops while there (trust me, i'd love to leave it at home, but that's not possible when you own your own small web design/development business). We were promised a broadband, wifi connection in every room as well as the lobby. No such luck - nothing worked, and the staff was little concerned and had little technical knowledge regarding the issue. So if you go down there on a "working vacation", don't get your hopes up. There is a small internet cafe nearby (cafe cafe, run by a very nice woman from Denmark) and that sufficed, but was somewhat sporadic with it's connectivity.

Regarding the town itself, PA is a gated community. Any vehicle which sets its sight must go through a security gate just off the main highway. It's not a classic "fishing village" or town, such as Tulum or Playa Del Carmen. The town was basically "manufactured" around a marina which has lots of monstrous American fishing boats. It's chock full of wealthy folks, and most have forced the English language on the local population - which certainly takes away from the charm of visiting Mexico. You could just as well be on a beach in San Diego for that matter. If you're an environmentalist, do not visit this town. There is a place called "Dolphin Discovery" in the middle of the marina area where they let 300 pound tourists ride around on the caged mammals for all to cheer. Somewhat disgusting in my mind.

Restaurants were great all around, but very little in terms of local fare - mostly Italian and American cuisine. One we highly recommend is Massimo - great pasta and atmosphere, an owner from Italy who very much cares about his diner's experience.

Nice thing is it's relatively uncrowded, especially when compared to the constantly growing Playa del Carmen to the north. If you want a true Mexico vacation with culture attached, I suggest heading further south to Tulum or Akumal - both of which are also experiencing development booms, but have yet to see the sterilization of the likes of Puerto Aventuras.

As a perfect summary of what Puerto Aventura is all about:

While walking around the marina one evening, my wife and I happened upon one rather large boat with a guy dining inside. We looked down to see this compassionate fella had named his gazillion dollar craft "Poverty Sucks". Enough said.

WOW! We were SO in need of a vacation, and the Omni Puerto Aventuras was the perfect place. We had never visited this region of Mexico before, so we had no expectation except to have a great beach on which to sunbathe and relax. Having said that, the Omni Resort, with its 30 spacious, CLEAN rooms and marble bath, has set the standard by which we will judge future beach vacations. There is a veranda, complete with a hammock, on which we had breakfast--by the way, the Omni's room-delivered, complimentary continental breakfast consisting of a basket of sweet rolls served with a variety of Dickinson's preserves, coffee, juice, and a fresh fruit plate (melons and pineapple) sufficienty started the day for two adults. Oh, there is also a jacuzzi on the veranda! Our second-story room had a full garden view with privacy provided by palm trees. We ate only two meals at the Omni (one breakfast, one dinner) and had drinks at the swm-up bar. The food served in the restaurant was quite good, though a bit pricey. The drinks at the bar were overpriced as well, however, the beach, the beach, the beach...priceless! The one complaint I had was the fee to use the gym, about $12 USD/day, so I didn't use it! Otherwise, we enjoyed our week at the Omni, the staff was friendly and courteous, and we would definitely return for future visits.

We had our beach wedding at the Omni in early December. Words can hardly describe how perfect everything was, this place definitely has the WOW-factor going on. The setting is ideal for a wedding, there's a gorgeous palm lined beach that feels very private. The way the pool deck, dinner, dance and bar areas were decorated in a sexy "south beach lounge" style for our wedding was so incredible, our planner Emmanuelle is the best -- we felt like celebrities! The food was outstanding, the servers were friendly, fun and very efficient. The manager checked with us periodically to make sure we were happy and well taken care of the entire time. We stayed with our 60 guests at a nearby all-inclusive so didn't get to experience a hotel stay here, but I did use a room for getting ready - it was very nice with a great ocean view, jacuzzi tub, plasma tv and other luxury touches. All in all, everything was wonderful! We HIGHLY recommend the Omni as a wedding venue.