Holiday Inn Express Hotel

My girlfriend and I just returned from an amazing vacation adventure in Cancun (March 23-28, 2004). We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express which is a nice place if you are looking for an affordable place to sleep. It is a quiet, no frills hotel and is about a 10 minute beautiful walk to the bus stop ( the bus system is great in Cancun- each ride costs 60 cents and you never wait more than 2 or 3 minutes for a bus). The hotel serves a decent breakfast, the rooms are clean, and the money you save by staying there can be used to explore the many wonderful places throughout the Yucatan.

My husband and I tried to stay here for our honeymoon. It was out first trip to Mexico and we relied on the internet information about the hotel. It was grossly misrepresented and we switched hotels after one night. On the good side, we booked through hotels.com and they really worked with us to switch to a better hotel. We went to the Mirimar Mission and I highly recommend that hotel. We initially chose the Holiday Inn because we figured we couldn't go wrong with such a large American chain hotel...warning, it is nothing like the American Holiday Inns!!!!

I stayed here from xmas to new years. It's an excellent place if you want to enjoy some peace & quiet.The location is excellent! It's right in the middle of downtown and the hotel zone but u have to walk a distance from the bus stop so make sure u were some comfortable tennis.The room had the basic nessessites..nothing too fancy. The continental breakfast was great and people are very warm and friendly.If your interested in getting great deals and going on tours (isla mujeres, Xel-ha, cozumel) make sure you stop by and speak with the travel agent at the front desk.Just be careful that you dont get suckered going to there beach club. I realized that in my trip to Cancun alot of people are scam artist and even at your hotels always be cautious.This lady approached my mother offering her free tour and breakfast if we visited their other beach club..and upon going there they asked for credit card info. so we decided to leave.

My wife and i just stayed at this hotel (9/25-9/28/03) and everything was fine. The staff was courteous and friendly (it is Mexico and they obviously don't speak english well...thus the communication block can be perceived as rude by inexperienced travelers). The room was clean, the AC worked great, the TV had a few english channels in addition to the spanish channels, the pool was nice, the continental breakfast was very good. Overall, this Express was better than any Express I've stayed in the U.S. I travel about 10-12 weeks a year for biz & pleasure and know what to expect from a hotel. Being off the beaten path insured a peaceful, quiet, relaxing stay. For the money, this place is hard to beat. Regarding the distance to the bus, there was ALWAYS a taxi or 2 waiting out front and after seeing the bus, I'd stick with taxis or a rental car. We rented a car from Budget for $22 a day and went wherever we needed to go whenever we wanted to (FYI, you'll blow that in taxis and busses daily anyway if you plan on going anywhere besides the hotel so you might as well be in control of your own transportation...plus all of the roads were well maintained and smooth) . The money saved on the inexpensive accom and rental car allowed us to travel at our leisure to other places like Playa Del Carmen, Cozumel, and Tulum. We didn't even go to the beach in Cancun, the ones in Playa del Carmen and Tulum were nicer and much more relaxing thanks to smaller crowds. The only hotel negative I encountered was the constant pestering regarding visiting their "Beach Club" (timeshare condo BS). They will call you in your room to try and get you to go (I just unplugged the phone...problem solved). On a related note, ALL of Cancun was trying to sell timeshares, tours, and hairbraids (I'm not exaggerating)! If you don't want to be subjected to that for your ENTIRE stay...don't go to Cancun. Go to Playa del Carmen or Cozumel. If you need to stay in Cancun on a budget, I would recommend this hotel. However, for the same money, you can also stay in Playa or Cozumel and really experience rustic Mexico...not Cancun - the Americanized Condo Paradise! In summary, sleep at this hotel and then get out and go see MEXICO. If you plan on staying exclusively around Cancun, you might as well save your money and go to Gulf Shores Alabama...it's the same thing (Outback, Pat OBriens, Rainforest Cafe, Hard Rock, TGI Fridays) just without the language barrier!

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express from 07/21/03 thru 07/26/03. The price was great. The location was an inconvenience when it came to dining and getting to the beach. Taxi's where $5 to $10 USD just to get to the nearest hotel, so that you can access the beach. If you opted to walk to the beach, it was easy 20-30 minute walk. And the walk to any dining facility was twice the walk. Be prepared to be exhausted at the end of any day. On a more positive note, once you walk from the hotel to the bus stop.... it's only 60 pesos, which is about $.55 USD.

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express (a/k/a Holiday Inn Pok-ta-Pok) with a friend about 3 years ago. I agree with other postings that the prevalent attitude of the staff is one of nonchalance-to-indifference about pretty much everything, but then again you could say that about most places in Mexico and I've travelled to this wonderful country many times. The hotel is 'away from the action'; the rooms are clean and have everything you need (a/c, TV, phone, hair dryers, etc.). There is no onsite restaurant, which is a big negative -- especially when it begins to pour the rain and you want to eat something, and it is quite a hike to Kulkukan Blvd (the main street) in order to hail a cab or catch a public bus, but these are things I liked about the place. There aren't a bunch of drunk kids staying there (guess it's not cool 'nuff for 'em), the hotel pool is awesome -- no activities director harassing you every five minutes to get a volley ball game going or whatever -- and not a bunch of drunks at the pool either. All in all I like the place. I'm returning next month to Cancun and will stay at the Holiday Inn, but since I basically go to scuba dive it works out great for me. Also worth mentioning is they do have free continental breakfast which consists of plantains, a couple different types of bread, juice, coffee, milk and some kind of jello (which I took a pass on) Not bad for a freebie, and it's served at the pool every morning by one overworked, but super-friendly employee

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Club de Golf Cancun for exactly three weeks in February of 2002. My travel agent, who I fired mainly because of my very negative experiences here, booked this hotel, and since I had never been to Cancun before, I took his word that the experience would be pleasant. About all one can say about this "hotel", is that it is far less expensive than the fancy resort hotels up and down Cancun's very long, "7" shaped beach. The owner/management of this hotel, in my opinion, fosters a very ugly atmosphere at this place. When I called down to the front desk, the person answering would act cold and unfriendly. I read another review on one of these travel Web sites, and the review writer said the exact same thing of his/her experiences at this hotel. I'm only including SOME of the negative things I experienced while staying at this hotel, due to space constraints. The hotel store kept haphazard hours, if things were quiet, they would close (and not honor the hours printed outside their door). The only two nearby convenience stores within short walking distance, were very poorly stocked, and/or not even adequately air conditioned. Also, this hotel is a premier example of a cardinal rule while staying at hotels in other countries, especially countries like Mexico---NEVERmake long distance calls, especially back here to the U.S. or to other countries, from the HOTEL ROOM PHONE!!! I was socked with a charge of about $550 to $600 in calls, most of them back here to the U.S., from my room at the Holiday Inn Express Club de Golf Cancun. They charged me about $3.10 a minute, EVERY minute, for calls to the U.S. The only good thing I can say about this hotel, aside from the relatively clean, comfortable room, with a high quality air conditioner, was that the young Mexican staff members were very friendly and personable. One of the two ice machines did not work the whole three weeks I stayed there. Even the guests I ran across iinally, yes, this hotel is quite a long walk from the "action" in Cancun, but I found that the residential area it is located in to be quite charming (if NO sidewalks to walk on!). But be warned!, it is a long walk even to the nearest bus stop (as other reviewers have noted)!

This hotel is not exactly ideally situated. It is on an island within the lagoon/hotel zone. It is a good 10 minute walk to nearest bus stop and it isn't on the beach.However, the rooms are clean, cold and quiet. The pool is big and was in a picturesque setting. The price for this hotel per night was a steel. I paid $80 a night for a 4 person room. I didn't mind taking cabs to other places of interest in the hotel zone as they were only 4-5 bucks. Overall this is a steal for the price. If you are a spring breaker who is planning on spending his days at the oasis hotel beach and his nights at the clubs, this hotel is an ideal place to stay.

Not a bad place to stay for a night or two at the end of a trip to the Riveria Maya (you're close to the airport and the rates are cheap) BUT beware of their beach club. The Holiday Inn isn't on the beach but they advertise their beach club, including transportation to and from the hotel. What they don't mention is that this beach club is at a lower-end all-inclusive hotel/timeshare that the Holiday Inn has some sort of deal with. They try to get you to partake in the free breakfast or lunch buffet - all you have to do is go to a 90-minute orientation at the all-inclusive. We refused, and they said that was fine, we could still use the beach and the pool at the resort, and that we got a 20% discount at the restaurants. When we arrived there, they asked for a credit card, to which they would charge a $50 "deposit" for the food. I asked if we would get that deposit back, and they said it depended on how much food we ate. I said forget it, which was a good thing because it became clear as we walked around that it was an all-inclusive kind of place, so I doubt we'd have gotten any of our "deposit" back. The beach and the pool were lovely, but when we went to leave, the hotel staff member had mistakenly given our electronic hotel room key to another couple from the Holiday Inn. At the time of course we didn't know where it had gone (he was searching through drawers for it) and thought he'd either lost or stolen it. We weren't sure if our bags would be in our room when we got back to the hotel... All in all, we weren't terribly impressed....

I first stayed at the Holiday Inn Centro in March 1991. I really liked the hotel and was very comfortable there. The bathroom was so modern and clean. The beds were clean and comfortable. It was nice to be able to tune into CNN (this was during the Kuwait situation in 1991) and see what was going on around me while I was having a brief fling with paradise. I spent some time out on the balcony which overlooks the swimming pool, swim-up bar and pool-side dining--the scenery was very nice. The employees went out of their way to make me comfortable; no request was too tall an order for them. For instance, when I expressed an interest in going to Chichen Itza, within minutes one of the hotel staff had made a connection for me and a couple of days later I made a wonderful and affordable full-day trip with a high-regarded, very knowledgeable, English-speaking tour guide. Holiday Inn Centro's shuttle-bus to local beaches and the hotel zone was very convenient. Plus, being able to stay in the city proper gave me an opportunity to visit the local markets and take in more of the local flavour of Cancun, which is quite different from the ambience of the hotel zone and something which no visitor to Cancun should miss. The food was delicious and served beautifully. I recall having dinner near the pool, and being so content and happy. Without a doubt, I would definitely stay there again.