My husband and I, along with our three daughters stayed in building 13 at the IB Tucan from 7/29-8/5. Overall, our trip was wonderful.

Flight/Airport/Transfers

We flew from NY JFK direct to Cancun on Jet Blue. The flight was great; bring headphones and sweater. Neither headphones nor blankets are free any longer. Once through customs and baggage pick-up we were completely bombarded by timeshare sharks. Having never been to Mexico before, I only knew what I read about and to “look for the man with the orange shirt only,” (our
Olympus tour guide). Well, I thought we would be arrested because all of the sharks are wearing official-looking clothing and telling you that you MUST comply with them and follow them. I nervously told them no and kept walking through the terminal. Finally, we found Olympus after paying a porter $3 to take our bags all of 100 feet. If you need Olympus, they are RIGHT outside the door. We had private transfers to the Tucan, which was good, although our driver broke all known speed limits down the Federal to get to the hotel.

Check-in

Our rooms (we had two) were not ready upon arrival (1 p.m.), but we were served cold drinks and headed for the beach.

Beach

The Quetzal and Tucan beach is being restored and looks very good. Erosion is not a problem. The sand bars that they have installed in the water do a great job of breaking the waves to the shoreline. The first three days of our stay were too windy to do any non-motorized water activities (the red flag was out). Tropical storm Edouard was forming in the Gulf, I think, although I don’t know if that had anything to do with it since it was a lot further north. Every single chair at the beach was taken when we got there. Every table at the beachside restaurant was taken (remember, this was at about 1:30 p.m.)

The remaining days at the beach were a lot calmer, and they started dredging the sand from out in the ocean floor and brought it in to the beach one day we were there.

The dive shop was very helpful and arranged for our kayaks and catamaran (all free) with no hassles at all. Water was calmer by then and we had our fill or beach activities. Our kids, as strange as they are, would have rather stayed at the pool, so that’s what we did.

Pool
The pool is huge … and deep, although there are sero-entry areas where it is more shallow. Being all of 5’ tall and having a teen and two younger children, I am so glad we brought rafts, inflatable noodles, and a tube with us. Bring it from home instead of buying … I think the lobby gift shop charges 150 pesos for a cheap raft. I got inflatable noodles (doodles) at an online store (search for “inflatable doodles.”) Water was very, very warm, and not nearly as crowded as the beach. Although, my kids loved the cabanas over the palapas and chairs, so my 5-year-old and I trekked down to the pool most mornings at 5:50 a.m. (yup) to get a cabana. We were mostly successful. There is a TON or reserving of chairs, but those that wanted to cabana-thing stayed in them (I think mainly for fear of losing them). Keep your towels close at hand, as one of our five was stolen and it costs you $10.

Rooms

Although our travel agent (and us personally) requested connecting rooms in building 10, we were given side-by-side rooms in building 13 (next to the playground/pool). I do not know if they have actual “connecting” rooms that hold 5 people, but side-by-side rooms did not work for us. Our kids are 13, 9 and 5, and were afraid to sleep alone next door. I have a sleepwalker, too, so my husband and I slept in separate rooms for our vacation.
The rooms were well-maintained, clean, and the beds were comfortable … not hard for us. We left pesos in each room for housekeeping services each day. As soon as we left in the morning, we saw housekeeping and always left the "please make up room" card on the door handle. By 11 a.m. each day, our rooms were made up. We also were greeted by towel creations on a daily basis.

Grounds

The grounds were beautiful. We saw plenty of monkeys, peacocks, cereques (tail-less rat-looking things), tucans, flamingos, etc. Monkeys make really loud grunting noises at sunrise. It was pretty cool. Everything was nicely kept, although the containers that they have on the sides of the pathways for cups could have been emptied more often. The open-air lobby was very nice and kept cool by overhead fans.

Dining/Drinking

No one got ill from the water. Very good filtration system in place. For an eight-day, seven-night stay, we arranged three reserved dinners. The Mexican restaurant was very good, and our daughters enjoyed the mariachi band. The Japanese was also good, but really no different than our local Benihana. The only difference was oddly saying “gracias” for Japanese food. The steak house had good cuts of meat, but they really could give you better knives.

We all found the buffets to be satisfying and they did have enough of a choice to change your lunch/dinner daily. The kids stuck with what they knew. We tried different local cuisine that was rather good and were able to find selections at every buffet that were different each day.

We could not believe the waste of some people. Honestly, it’s a buffet. You can go for more. I can’t tell you how many people we saw who piled their plates high and never finished HALF of what they took. It was a shame. We picked a sample of things and went back for more. Yes, I know, it’s an all-inclusive, but the waste was appalling.

The Tucan lobby bar, I found, served the most watered-down drinks, and the beach bar and aqua bar served drinks with a better blend of alcohol to ice.

Atmosphere

The IB Tucan had a lot of Europeans. Being of European descent (we live in the U.S.) this was not as “shocking” as some that have posted. We met many people from Germany, Poland, England, Greece, Serbia, Russia, Holland … overall, very nice. Many families, although there were more young couples in groups than I thought there would be. Topless on the beach, but we knew about it and travel to Europe often, so no big deal.

The STAR friends were exceptional. We didn’t participate in a ton of the activities, but I gotta tell ya, they keep on going. The beach volleyball, water polo, darts, table tennis, dancing, and nightly shows … they are truly earning whatever it is they make. And now I have a really catchy song, in my head! ;-)

Other

We took the $5 taxi ride into PDC town and went shopping. Note: haggle for hair braiding services – much cheaper in town than at the hotel, although the women expect big tips from you! The vast majority of the money they make is profit, yet they were not pleased with the tip we left and got very angry! Go to Señor Frogs. Cheap gifts for home in town.

Make sure you bring Band Aids because we ran out and the IB Tucan lobby said we had to walk to the Quetzal to BUY one. They sell them individually.

As another mentioned, bring sunscreen and bug repellent. One of my daughters got eaten alive from the knees down, EVEN with bug repellent.

Would be happy to answer any questions … drop a line!

The hotel was beautiful and very clean! The food was excellent, I'm a very picky eater and I liked the food. The staff and star friends were very friendly, outgoing, and entertaining. The beach was clean and not over crowded. However, you do need to arrive on the beach early to reserve a cabana. There are sand bags but this does NOT affect your view or swimming. The pool area was crowded and had too many unsupervised kids (no lifeguards). You should awake early to walk the jungle path, the local wildlife is most active in the early morning hours. My family enjoyed our stay and would return in the future.

Back again this year and had a great time again, although certain aspects were not as good as we remembered. Service at time was a bit slow and the pool seemed a bit dirtier.... folliage and paper in the water. Maybe first time you dont notice these things I dont know, we just didnt have as much of a wow with it this time. Still managed to fill the 3 weeks easily though and we didnt do the trips this time. Did try the scuba taster in the pool. They make it sound easy, but be warned im informed by qualified divers I know in the UK that it can be dangerous and these guys out there are in it to make money so may not be as honest as they should.
Mosquitos had a mad time with us....we did take the plug in thing, the sprays and the lotions, but nothing seemed to work. wondered if it was because our room faced right out into the jungle area this time. I had atleast 21 bites by the second night...gave you something to do of an evening lol. We did go to the entertainment this time and it was actually ok considering how many nationalities they are catering for. Staff all friendly and had great sense of humour.
Food was still varied, but not as good as we found it last year. Still found plenty though and the fresh fruit was gorgeous. Came away at the end of the 3 weeks having enjoyed our holiday, but think we will try somewhere different next year.

We are a family of four (2 kids 10 and 7) and just returned from a fabulous stay and trip at the Tucan from 7/23 to 7/30. We booked here mostly based on all previous reviews (thanks all!). It is really is a gorgeous hotel and setting. I'll do my best to summarize my review - but probably nothing that hasn't been mentioned before.

Layout:
Tucan and Quetzal are same hotels, just a jungle and the restaurants are in between the two sections. They both have 10 buildings each. The jungle was great! We saw all sorts of animals such as monkeys, agoutis (oversized rat-looking animals), peacocks, tortoises, flamingos, iguanas, etc. From going on a few excursions and talking to others, I believe this resort may the only one that has a jungle on its premises.

Rooms:
Standard size but well decorated with marble tiled floors and showers. Beds are hard and firm on concrete slabs for boxsprings, but we did not have any problems, slept very well. AC was a cool 22C (70F) all the time.

Food:
Good variety at buffets, plenty to choose from. The water is good too (resort seems to have very good filtration system). There are 2 buffet restaurants and 5 other dinner restaurants - reservations needed. We ate at Tropical and Japanese. Tropical was very good; excellent fried fish appetizers and good seafood. Japanese was fair; but what do you expect in Mexico. It's true - men must wear long pants to the restaurants (jeans are ok) and a sleeved-shirt at a minimum, one with collars preferred. But women can wear nothing - um...let me rephrase... they can dress casual (haha).

Staff:
For the most part, very excellent. Everyone from STAR friends to the lobby to the restaurant wait staff - no problems. However, we were quite disappointed with our housekeeping. They did a bare minimum job of making the bed, but the first day, we didn't get any new towels, our shampoo dispenser was empty, one evening they didn't even come (we had to summon them at 8 pm after being out ALL day), they did not replenish soap as needed. But they were still very polite - so I'll give them points on that.

Pool:
Excellent large pool. There are depths for all ages and the pool does not get any deeper than 5.5 feet. They also have 4.5 feet and walk-in gradually sections too. It was annoying to see people reserving the cabanas and beach chairs so early and then not be there for long periods of time, but we had no problems getting poolside chairs in shady areas. Water temps were extremely warm - probably about 90F (33C). But pool is closed after 7 pm for chemical treatment until 7 am next morning. The towel hut - they give you cards at check-in to exchange for towels here and you can rent out - free of charge - the beach umbrellas, books, sports balls to throw around.

Beach:
The most amazing clear-azure-blue water I've ever seen. The Carribean sea is breath-taking! However, no real sea life - probably have to go further down the beach to see any coral reefs. The beach is definitely big enough - only signs of beach erosion are the "beach whales" off shore to prevent further erosion and the visible hose on the Quetzal side that's used to pump sand in. Very clean - staff does a meticulous job ensuring it. We also saw many (10-20) topless women sunbathing or walking up and down the beach, but it wasn't really bothersome to us or to many other people - just a heads up.

Water Activities:
Star Friends does a few shows/aerobics to get the pool folks in the festive mood. However, if I hear the song "Hey Baby" one more time, I think I'm going to hurl...j/k (they must have played this song about 5 times each day). Twice a day, you can try scuba in the pool for free - a must do. But if you want to certify with PADI, it's a few days of intense training for about US$550. They rent free of charge kayaks, catamarans, snorkeling equip (up to 1 hr). The place on hotel site does not rent jetskis, but there's always people on the beach coming around from their companies renting them out for ~$65 for 1 hour. We also were able to do parasailing and found one for $50 per person, not bad and you get to do ride a jetski taxi out to the power boat (enjoy the ride) and then parasail for about 10 minutes!

Night shows/ night life:
Sorry no comment here. We really didn't get to see any (saw one first night for a few minutes but not very interesting) but heard them from our room. We were too tired to stay up past 10. We did do the Playa del Carmen thing one evening but we didn't see anything that was so special about 5th Avenue, the main shopping area. Mostly junky souvenir type of shops and a bunch of restaurants.

Other Amenities / Things to Do:
We didn't use any of them but we saw towards the front of the lobby area that they have 2 tennis courts, a gym, spa, a place to rent mopeds or bikes. Also, many of the other resorts are on the same street so looks like a nice walk. Also, towards downtown Playa del Carmen ($5 taxi ride each way - definitely too far to walk if you have small kids, about 2 miles or 3+ km) they have some Mayan ruins you can check out as well.

We also did 2 half-day side excursions - Mayan Adventure and Dolphin Discovery - both were excellent! I hope to post reviews of those in their respective sites.

Helpful Hints:
- Definitely bring your own sunscreen unless you plan on taking out a second mortgage to finance it - j/k! Any kind is fine; biodegrable/oil free only if you plan to swim with dolphins, etc.

- Bring bug spray with a good percentage of deet (25% minimum). This will keep the numerous bugs off of you, especially when walking through the jungle or going out at night.

- Bring Immodium or any other prescription drugs, just in case. The last evening, I got a severe case of dysentery. Immodium helped me out a bunch before I hopped on the shuttle to the airport. 3 out of the 4 of us got similar illnesses, so you never know what's going to hit you (e.g. food, water, heat exhaustion).

- Cancun airport arrival - as a few people have said before, definitely bypass anyone INSIDE the airport until you make it outside!!! I knew about this and still got sucked in. A gentleman with a tag "TOURIST ADVISORY" pulled us (there's about 30 of these people) and told us what we needed to know about Mexico, etc. Then they go on about if we are planning to do any excursions and try to get us to buy these excursions at deep discounted prices. The tip-off is that these are the time share people. We got out of there and met up with Olympus Tours, our tour people. They also warned us after the fact. Don't do anything with these people unless you want a free excursion, have 3 hours to spend with them, and can say "no" about 100 times.

- For Americans, if you decide to purchase with credit cards, Visa and MC will charge a 3% surcharge for any foreign exchange conversions on your credit card; but AMEX will only charge 2%.

- Men - don't forget to bring one pair of slacks/trousers/pants and a collared shirt (polo ok) for restaurants - if you plan to eat in them. This is true no matter what resort you decide to stay in. Dress shoes not required; sandals are fine. Also, if you eat dinner at buffets, you must wear a sleeved shirt to cover up armpit hairs. I guess they worry about them dropping in the food? I had to go back and change into a t-shirt one night because I went in with a sleeveless shirt. Oops!

- Bring a waterproof camera, or a waterproof case for your digital camera or camcorder if you desire.

- Bring enough cash for tips.

- Have fun! Any questions? Drop me a line.