We stayed at this all-inclusive resort in 2005 and loved it! We stayed at a sister hotel (Paraiso) in 2006 because the Tucan was booked. This year we decided to return to the Tucan for a family reunion and booked early. We booked all of the trips through Apple Vacations.

We are very impressed with both Iberostar Resorts, it is a class-act operation.

The Tucan, however, is truly a tropical paradise! It is where the jungle meets the Carribean Sea.

It is a treat to see the monkeys navigating through the forest on the property, as well as the other tropical wildlife roaming the grounds.

The white sand beach on the turqoise sea is hard to leave at the end of the day...but the pool bar is the perfect place to meet other guests from around the world.

I wish I had known about this place when our children were young because we would have been there every year. The Kid's Club is quite impressive! In addition to activities, many of the children participate in the evening pre-show on the entertainment stage. (That's my favorite part...they have so much fun and are so cute!) And the club gives the parents a break.

Our kids are in college and we sure get our money's worth at this resort (they eat and drink a lot!)

The food was terrific and always something available for any pallet at any time of the day or night.

There is so much more to this resort than I can even explain here. The Mexican Riviera and the Mayan culture are awesome! We have so much to learn from the region. We will definitely make it a regular vacation destination!

Pretty long review. Just scroll down to the part you want to know most about like the pool, beach, excursions, ect.

Contents:
Intro
Reception
Rooms
Buffet
Restaurants
Drinks
Pool
Beach
Hotel Activities
Gym/Spa
Nightly Entertainment
Excursions
-Xel-Ha/Tullum Ruins
-ATV Tour
-Other
Shopping
Other

Let me say this first. When you fly into Cancun Airport, no matter what hotel you are staying at, you will be "attacked" by people right near the exit selling timeshares. Now, why these representatives seem like very informative people trying to help smooth your trip, that is actually part of their plan to entice you into one of their offers. They come off as nice people then offer you some deep discounted excursions in exchange for staying at one of their sponsored resorts or something. Just walk right past them.

My stay at the Iberostar Tucan with my family of six was very pleasurable. We arrived via a private transportation from the airport. If you don't want to pay for a private transport, there are coach buses that leave from the airport every 15 minutes or so, but the reason we didn't take on is because they stop at every resort on the way. It could take 2 hours to reach the IB Tucan depending on how many people are on your bus compared to the 50 minute ride we had.

Reception: The reception area was fairly nice, there were two parrots in the main lobby which could say a couple words in English. There also is a peacock that walks around with its baby in the lobby. Check in was flawless, we got our wristbands and room keys. White is for children 17 and under and also for US citizens 21 and younger. Orange was for UK visitors 18 and over. Then purple for US citizens 21 and over. Basically, the real purpose they served was alcohol, i.e. people with white wristbands couldn't get alcohol. I recommend checking in at 3 if you can.

Rooms: We had a standard room in the 1800 building. It was just outside the lobby. Only a minute walk to the buffet and spa/tennis courts. I was very impressed with the bathrooms. The water pressure on the shower was very strong, better than my shower at home. It was very spacious with many amenities including a hair dryer. One thing I didn't like were the beds. They were very hard and firm. The rooms also have mini fridges which are refilled every other day. Everything in them is free of course since the resort is all inclusive. They have beer, water, then soda such as Coke, Sprite, and Fanta. Was a good refresher. The TV had many channels the same as the US, but most were in Spanish. Only a few news channels were in English. The rooms use the same outlets as in the US. No need to buy an adapter. Though, I didn't like how there were very few outlets. Only two I found open. Had to unplug a lamp to get another.

Buffet Food: I read a lot of reviews on Trip Advisor saying the food was bad. I am a very picky eater and I thought the food was great for an all you can eat place. At breakfast they had many kinds of eggs, bacon, french toast, pancakes, home fries, bread, and more. Also, they had an excellent chef who made omelets. I got one every day. Just tell her what you want and they make it.
Lunch wasn't bad. Similar to dinner. They had pasta, beef, chicken, pork, seafood, salad, french fries, burgers, hot dogs, and a variety of other foods. Though, one time the food at dinner did make a few members in my family sick. . . Best part about dinner was the desserts! Of course.

Restaurant Food: Since we stayed 7 days, we were allowed 3 a la carte. If you stay less than that you get 2 I believe. Then if you stay 2 weeks you get 5-6. There is a dress code and my family followed it since I read about the long pants for men on Trip Advisor, but IB does not do a good job of advertising that. Therefore, many people at the restaurants had dress shorts like madras and even workout shorts and no one said anything in the restaurants. The restaurant are as follows:
Japanese
Steakhouse
Tropical
Mexican
Italian
The first one we ate at was Japanese. I was very surprised as the food was actually decent. Dessert was very good too. I got a combo of beef and chicken. You get many appetizers such as soup, rice, and fried shrimp.
Next, we ate at Italian. A lot of the food on the menu was also served in the buffet so I was a bit disappointed. But it was goo nonetheless. There is a buffet table full of appetizers. Chesse, seafood, bread, ham, ect.
Last, we ate at the Steakhouse. I was very impressed with the menu. It had many kinds of steak, beef, and more. I ordered the BBQ ribs which were very good though was a small portion I thought. It also had a table full of appetizers.
If I had to rank the 3 I stayed at it would go as follows from Best to Worst (though all 3 were good)
Steakhouse -Definitley eat here
Japanese -Good food, entertainment for family. Go here as well
Italian -Food was good but I wasn't happy with menu.
A lot of people have said avoid the Mexican restaurant so we did.

Drinks: The resort offers many cocktails and tropical drinks. A few are Blue Hawaii, Strawberry Daiquiri, Banana Daiquiri, Pina Colada, and more. Basically any drink you can get at any beach resort. These drinks were OK. Not great. My favorite was the Banana one. Bartenders do offer great service and are very friendly. Make sure to bring lots of tip money!

Pool: I only went in the pool once, mainly because the beach was so great. It was fairly big with a hot tub in the middle which could fit 10+ people. It was clean from what I could tell. Something I loved about the resort was they always had activities going on there. There is a nice shallow part for the younger children. Make sure you get there early as the pool chairs are usually all gone by 9 AM. When you check in, the desk gives you towel cards one for each member of your family. You give the towel cards to a hit near the pool in exchange for towels. (You can also get a beach umbrella and pool toys there) At the end of the day return the towels to get your cards back. You can also trade in dirty towels mid day for new towels. There is also an adult only pool with a swim up bar, but we felt that was pretty dirty.

Beach: They have come a long way since the hurricane. Beach was very nice. Sand was white and waters were crystal clear. There are sand bags in the water but they did not take a way from the beauty much. I actually thought they were fun to relax on or slide off of as many people did. Get down to the beach early again. People always reserve seats here and at the pool. I started reserving seats with towels as its really the only way to get chairs as everyone does it. But, the beach is more than I could ask for. Tip: Bring lots of suncreen as I got sunburn on my face from lack of sunscreen and many people there had sunburn.

Hotel Activities: I salute the hotel staff for trying very hard to make our stay enjoyable. They have a Star Friends team which is basically a staff dedicated to making your enjoy yourself. Everyday or every other day they have archery, basketball, soccer, and tennis games. For soccer, sometimes as many as 25 people were there. There are also occasionally ping pong tournaments. The pool has tons of activities every day from salsa lessons to singing. Lots going on there. Also, on the beach they have a beach party once a week where there is music, food and bikini contests. Last, you can rent ATV's and mopeds from the hotel for a fee from a stand near the gym. We took mopeds out and rode to town.

Gym: Gym was very nice. Had towels and water upon entry. Children under 17 weren't allowed. There are 3 treadmills, free weights, bench press, stairs, bikes, and more.
Spa: My wife went there and got a manicure for $50 and said it wasn't very good. They also offer massages which I did hear good things about.

Nightly Entertainment: Every night the hotel has a show. I attended them every night and thoroughly enjoyed the bulk of them. I did see some big similarities in some shows i.e. some dance routines were re used in shows but for different characters. Most of them were funny and kept you entertained. There are waitresses walking around bringing you all the drink you want. I recommend getting to the auditorium by 9:30 or you won't be able to get a good seat. A live band which is very good starts playing music around 8:30 I think. My favorite part was the Pre-show which started around 9:15. Pre shows always involve guests. One pre show they asked for about 8 men and they made them strip their shirts off. Others were couples dancing to various songs like Michael Jackson. There was also karaoke. After the show if you aren't tired (they usually end around 11) everyone who isn't tired yet goes to the disco. The disco is OK. Not very crowded. It is a nice place to get a drink at one of the two bars and relax. Shows are very good for the whole family and you should definitely go!

Excursions: We did a couple excursions, but mostly stayed at the resort. One tip, there are a few booths at the IB Tucan from different travel companies, but don't book with them. I recommend booking with the hotel. They have a room between the jewelry and tequila store. They had much better prices and excursions. The travel agencies say to book with them not the hotel because they know the "safer" tour companies but thats not true at all. The hotel would never put you with a dive company that is not licensed ect.
Xel-Ha and Tullum was our first excursion. I recommend doing them both the same day. It was the perfect amount of time. Tullum was beautiful. We hired a tour guide which was very useful. Bring a camera definitely. Also, a bathing suit if you want to go in the ocean. You will want to cool off. But there is no place to change so come with it already on.
Xel-Ha (shell-ha) was amazing. So much to do there. We went cliff diving, rope swing, walked across a rope walk, and best of all snorkeled! The area was huge with lots to do. You can also swim with dolphins there. Best of all, it also was all inclusive so you could get all the food and drinks you wanted. Beautiful area.

ATV Tour: I enjoyed this a lot to. We did some serious off roading which was challenging. We went on the main roads, the beach, and forests. We ended up at a cenote and swam in underwater caves. Freshwater and very cold but was exhilarating. Definitley do some kind of ATV jungle tour. Its a great value.

Other excursions we didn't do but heard were good were Xcarat, Dolphin Discovery (something like that) and a snorkel trip that went to 3 locations (barrier reef, underwater cave, cenote). They also offer deep sea fishing, diving, and tons more tours.

Shopping: Playa Del Carmen is a very touristy area thus many stores are expensive. There are two shopping areas you can go to. The first is a short five minute walk and is a small outdoor mall with many little shops selling many souvenirs, shirts, jewelry, shoes, sunglasses, ect. Then there is another, much larger shopping center a 20 minute walk away or 5 minute taxi/moped ride. (We took mopeds) There are many name brand stores in that are such as Oakley and American Apparel. As well as at least a hundred different flea market type stores. Great are for shopping. Most stores accept American dollars but bring peso's just in case.

Other: Many seem to have trouble with moquito's. These were not really a problem for us or others at the resort. I only used repellent once. Don't let this be the reason to book a trip elsewhere!
Also, all weather reports say 60% chance of rain everyday. As all people will say who have been there recently, that stat is far from the truth. It only rained once while we were there and that was at night. Again, don't let the weather reports make you book a trip elsewhere.
if you have any more questions contact me at one of the sites through the contact us page. I will answer ASAP!
www.xeenit.com
www.khmerauction.com

Thanks and I hope this helped!

Everything was fantastic! From the food to the drinks, the Star Friends, beaches, etc. Had a great time! Pool was too warm, but the beach was great. Didn't have to get up at 4:00 am to get a cabana, but was up earlier, to get one. Did put our towels down to save it while we went to breakfast, but then came right to beach. The shows were OK! The band needs to change up their songs a bit, but some of the shows were actually entertaining, like Vegas night! The Star Friends are great! Very friendly, get to know you on a first name basis. Can be as involved, or uninvolved as you want to be!
The excursions were very interesting and educational. Would recommend Coba excursion if you want to learn about the Mayans, Actually visit a Mayan village and eat their food.
Tulum was OK! But Tulum Extreme excursion was fun! Went ziplining and snorkeling in a cenote (cave).
Loved the fact that the resort is actually in the jungle, Saw lots of wildlife: monkeys, peacocks, iguanas, something that looked like a cross between a rat and a rabbit!
Beds are hard, but that was OK with me.
The only complaint,that there is really nowhere to esape the heat. Air conditioning is not great. The only cool place was the hotel gift shop and the internet room. Even our room wasn't that cool! The thermostat read 20, but actually room temeperature was 28.

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!