Josie I meant to get on here and make a post in honor of love month, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t procrastinate! It’s a rainy Sunday here in South Florida, so what better time to get on here and reminisce about sunnier days. Though love month has come to an end, I wanted to share about a romantic getaway destination in Cancun – Beloved Playa Mujeres.
Beloved is boutique-style, all-inclusive resort that is a part of The Excellence Collection. I say it’s a romantic getaway destination because it is designed exclusively for couples-only. If your love language is quality time, then this is the place you want to go. Marc and I spent a long weekend at Beloved last August to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and really enjoyed the quality time we got to spend together.
We have been to other resorts in Mexico, but what we loved about Beloved was that it had such a calm and relaxing feel to it. Since we were celebrating our anniversary, we didn’t care too much about nightlife and partying. Unlike other resorts, we loved the fact that we could relax by the pool and have a conversation without listening to a DJ booth blasting music, or large rowdy groups heavily day drinking. That just wasn’t the vibe we were seeking on our anniversary weekend. That’s not to say though that Beloved has no entertainment or activities because they definitely do! I will talk more about that in just a little bit.
Travel
Like I mentioned, we visited Beloved for just a long weekend. We flew out of Fort Lauderdale into Cancun on a Friday morning and headed back home the following Monday. The weekend went by so fast and we definitely wished we had more time!
It was a quick and easy flight for us to get over to Cancun from Fort Lauderdale. The resort had arranged for private transportation to pick us up from the airport, and our driver was waiting on us when we landed. It was about a 45ish minute drive from the airport to the resort. As soon as we arrived at Beloved, we were greeted with moist towelettes and welcome cocktails. Since we arrived around mid-morning, our room wasn’t quite ready yet. We left our bags with the luggage concierge and walked around the property. The property is small so you can walk the whole thing in about 5-10 minutes, which we loved! At this point, we were so hungry so we went and enjoyed our first beachfront lunch of the weekend at El Mar until our room was ready.
Suite
We stayed in a Junior Suite Ocean View room. It wasn’t anything too crazy, but it was so big. Our bed was actually ginormous (which I’m pretty sure it was just two queen beds pushed together). We had a huge walk in shower, a soaking tub, a sitting area, and a big balcony with a daybed. We didn’t have the best ocean view, but our room overlooked basically the entire property. When we got up to our room for the first time, there was a chilled bottle of bubbly waiting for us. Of course we popped that thing immediately and made a toast to our anniversary weekend.
Service
We were thoroughly impressed with the service throughout our entire stay. The concierge was always readily available to assist us with any needs and wanted to make sure we had the best time. The housekeeping staff was great and provided nightly turndown service, which we always looked forward to. They would leave our slippers next to the bed which was so cute, and even leave little night treats, which my late-night sweet tooth looked forward to. Room service and in-room dining is offered 24 hours. We did order food up to the room a couple of times and it always arrived quickly. On the morning of our anniversary, we had a champagne brunch set up for us on our balcony.
Dining
The food was actually really good for an all-inclusive. We enjoyed every meal we had. One of the things we loved is that we didn’t have to make dinner reservations anywhere. We’ve stayed at larger properties in the past where you would have to make dinner reservations in advance, even before the trip. We loved that Beloved is small enough that we could walk into any restaurant we wanted at whatever time we wanted and get sat down immediately.
Le Bisou
Le Bisou was our favorite restaurant. One thing about Marc & I is that we love a big breakfast when we are on vacation. And we love to start our mornings off with the breakfast trio: water, coffee, and mimosas. Le Bisou had a breakfast buffet that we went to every morning, with the exception of our anniversary morning where we had a room service brunch. Le Bisou closes after breakfast, and reopens for dinner with a French cuisine. We also had our special anniversary dinner at Le Bisou which offered us a set menu that was different than the regular dining menu. See Le Bisou breakfast menu | dinner menu.
La Isla Trattoria
La Isla Trattoria is an open-air poolside restaurant. They are open for lunch and dinner only with an Italian and Caribbean cuisine. We did come here for both lunch and dinner during our stay. I remember liking the risotto while Marc liked the pizza. See La Isla Trattoria breakfast menu | lunch menu | dinner menu.
El Mar
El Mar is also an open-air restaurant with beachfront views. They are offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner, depending on the day, with a seafood caribbean-mexican cuisine. We ate lunch here when we first arrived but never got around to trying out the breakfast or dinner. It was the best start to our weekend though having lunch and margaritas with an unobstructed view of the ocean. See El Mar lunch menu | dinner menu.
Lupita Steakhouse
Lupita Steakhouse is open for dinner only, but we never got a chance to go try it out. We did, however, spend a lot of time at Lupita Lounge every night. See Lupita Steakhouse dinner menu.
Lupita Lounge
Lupita Lounge is a cute outdoor cocktail area that opens in the evening. They have live music every night and we loved it because it would be like a live saxophone or live trumpet player. It was the perfect atmosphere to just hang out and enjoy a cocktail before dinner, or a nightcap after dinner. They also have a sushi bar that is really good. We did enjoy a sushi roll as an appetizer one night before we went to dinner and really liked it.
Bocadito
Bocadito is an adorable food truck that serves tacos for lunch. Marc & I kept saying we wanted to go there for lunch, yet somehow we ran out of time during our trip without getting to try it. I’m still bummed about it.
Beach Snacks
Of course if you’re relaxing at the beach and don’t feel like leaving your chair to go up and eat, you can get lunch delivered to you. The beach servers will always make sure you’re taken care of with waters, cocktails, and food.
Drinking
I already mentioned Lupita Lounge, which was our favorite spot to hang out and have a cocktail (or 2 or 3) every night. But during the day, our favorite spot to hang out was at the swim up bar in the main pool. We spent a lot of time by the swim up bar 1) because it was so hot during our stay and it was nice to be in the water, and 2) because it was really hard to score lounge chairs by the main pool during the day. The bartender at the swim up bar was really great and would come up with frozen fruity drink concoctions based on what I told him I liked. If you’re into banana-flavored things, he made a really delicious Dirty Banana.
Caffeto Bar is a cute little coffee bar where you can get cappuccinos, lattes, frozen coffee drinks, teas, ice cream, and pastries. We always had coffee with our morning breakfast, so the only time we went to Caffeto Bar was the morning we were leaving. I got a caramel Frappuccino and it was so delicious. I definitely wish I would have taken more advantage of the Caffeto Bar and I still don’t know how I made it through the entire weekend without getting an ice cream?!
Activities
Like I mentioned earlier, Beloved is a smaller, quieter resort that offers more relaxation and wellness experiences than wild partying and nightlife. Beloved has a list of scheduled activities that you can access every day through their app. The activities may be things like a bike tour, yoga, a cooking class on the beach, water black jack, or dance lessons. Marc and I attended a guacamole and margarita cooking class one afternoon and we had the best time!
Pool
We spent most of our weekend hanging out at the main pool with the swim up bar. That pool is a hot commodity so it’s really hard to get a chair in the afternoon. The pool is really shallow though so its nice to hang out in the water. In addition to the main pool, there are 2 other quieter pools, but we never hung out there. We did have a good view of those pools from our balcony though!
Beach
As much as I love the beach, Marc unfortunately does not have the same love for it as I do. He doesn’t like all the sand and how hot it gets, so he prefers to be by the pool. We did spend a half day by the beach. We went in the morning and the beach concierge set us up with chairs and an umbrella. It was ridiculously hot in August so we had to do the beach in small doses. The beach concierge also has snorkeling gear, kayaks, and paddleboards. All weekend I kept saying I wanted to go paddleboard, but again, we ran out of time and I never got around to it. But as far as the view goes, the beach was gorgeous. The sargassum wasn’t too bad and the water was so blue and pretty. It wasn’t too rocky so we were able to go on a nice beach walk.
Spa
Of course we had to treat ourselves to a spa day to celebrate our anniversary! We booked the Mayan Ritual couples experience. It was a 100-minute mind-body experience that started off with a traditional Mayan sound cleanse and burning sage to purify the space and attune the mind to the present moment. Next was a black mud, juniper, and rosemary body poultice to detox our bodies, followed by a juniper, cedar, myrrh, frankincense, and lavender-infused massage. Let me just tell you, my massage was SO good. I love to be borderline in pain with firm pressure when I get a massage, and my masseuse surely delivered. Afterwards, we were taken to a private room so we could enjoy a moment together with champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries waiting on us.
Of note, a complimentary hydrotherapy spa service is included with every stay. We chose to do the hydrotherapy right before our massages. It was our little spa day appetizer. It is a guided service where you are taken through different areas like the sauna, steam room, contrast bath, sensation showers, etc. The spa pool alone is definitely worth checking out. For more information of spa services offered, you can check out the Spa Services Menu.
Romance
Beloved does cater heavily towards honeymoons, anniversaries, and even babymoons. I am such a sucker for the cheesy, romantic stuff though. I love the rose petals on the bed and the candles in tub type vibes. We saw that they could set up a private, romantic dinner right on the beach, but we didn’t do that. We did, however, take advantage of the photo package to get some pictures taken around the resort and on the beach.
Needless to say, we had a wonderful anniversary weekend, but a weekend just wasn’t enough time! We easily could have spent an entire week at Beloved. We heading home feeling so relaxed and rejuvenated and definitely would love to come back and visit again!
