We love Iberostar and have stayed with them every year. We know what we are gettting and have never been disappointed! This year was no exception.
We booked with Apple Vacations and everything went very smoothly.
Avoid everyone at the airport but your rep. The reps are generally outside. The people inside are helpful but they are trying to get you to visit a time share!
The shuttle was prompt and check in was smooth. Our room was not ready but we were expecting that due to our arrivel time and packed a swimsuit in our carry on.
We were in building 19 close to the lobby on the second floor. We were very happy with our room.
The beach is where we spent most of our time. The sand is white and the water was so blue, some of the most beautiful we have seen.
We loved the pool bar. The drinks were great and the water was cool. Henry was our bartender and he was fantastic.
We did not spend a lot of time at the pool. It was beautiful and clean but a bit warm and it was hard to find a chair.
The food was great as always. I will say the food at the buffet was always the same but there was plenty of variety.
We ate at two specialty resteraunts and were happy with both. We ate at the Steak house and the Tropical.
This is our third time to this part of Mexico. We felt comfortable to do our excursions on our own. We rented a car right on the resort and drove to Tulum. We had wonderful time exploring the ruins. Be sure to change into your swimsuit before you go in the ruins. There is a beautiful beach you can walk down to and take a dip but no place to change once you get in. This took us half a day.
We also took a cab to the ferry dock in Playa del Carmen and took the ferry to Cozumel for the day. We rented a scooter when we got to the island and drove to the sister Iberostar resort which you have full exchange with. They gave us towels and bracelets at the front desk and off we went. We ate lunch did some swimming and exploring. Another beautiful resort which we would love to stay. We had a wonderful day and were back at our resort for dinner.
We loved the wildlife on this resort. There was always something to see on the jungle trails.

We stayed at this hotel in September 2007. It was fantastic! From the cocktails served on arrival, to the night time entertainment, food, speciality restaurants and the magnificent staff.

We would go back to this hotel without hesitation.

We chose Iberostar for their constantly high standards, and were not let down.

One word of advice, if you suffer with your back, ask for a mattress topper on your arrival. The beds are very hard and after 4 days I was in agony. Other than that, just utterly fantastic!

Just book it!

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!