BookIt.com Verified Traveler Guy from Canaan, Nh

"We've been to Isla many times, and find the island to be pretty close to heaven on earth. Between the great Mexican culture, the incredibly friendly people, and amazing food, this is a wonderful place to visit/ just don't stay at the Avalon Reef Club! We'd always heard mixed reviews from people who had stayed here, but felt that most who were disappointed were expecting it to be Cancun, and weren't accustomed to island life. We were wrong!
I can break this down very quickly for anyone considering staying here. Yes, the beds are quite hard/ Yes, the detached A/C unit is noisy/No, the phones in the rooms don't work. These were not show stoppers for us, it really came down to several other things. To say that the rooms in the tower were sparse is a tremendous understatement. We had a 12x12 room (painted completely white/ not an ounce of ANY other color), a window that we were barely able to see through (or open), and one towel to share. Furniture consisted of a broken TV stand, a 32... CRT TV (not sure if it worked), and a 1x3 desk with a chair that's about to come apart (that's it). You needed to leave a $30 deposit for towels, and a $100 deposit for a safe lock. Every piece of exercise equipment is out of order, the pool bar didn't look as though it had seen action since the Millennium, and the drinks at the regular bar only contain trace amounts of alcohol.
Like most people, our group comes to Isla for sun and to relax. This plan was also quickly thwarted, as there are only 40 beach chairs for the entire resort, and these are all claimed by 3 A.M.!! We watched several chairs remain with only towels (no people) for the entire day, while other resort guests had to walk to Playa Norte and rent chairs for the day at other resorts. I mentioned this to another guest (who was an owner at the resort), and she said that this had not always been the case, but since the owner had gone to jail, things had gone downhill (she mentioned several years now).
I can't recall ever having left a hotel (I've stayed in hundreds), but we and our group decided to leave this place in a mass exodus. The woman at the desk was sympathetic, but not surprised in the least. We found out later that this is a pretty common occurrence. We ended up paying high season rates at a hotel a few blocks away, and never regretted our decision to change!
In short, the resort employees are very friendly and work very hard with what they have. The breakfast was good, and the location is one of the prettiest on the island (could be the crown jewel), but don't risk your hard earned vacation time on this place/
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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Carolyn from Baltimore, Md

"We loved our recent stay at Avalon Reef, however I am sure some would not feel the way we do. If you expect everything in your room to be new, shiny, working, and if you expect the same sort of luxury and pampering that you might get in a big Cancun hotel, stay away. However, in exchange for 'roughing it' a bit, the hotel is in a great location for anyone who wants to be both away from the crowds and at the same time close enough to easily walk to restaurants, and everything else the small friendly island has to offer. There is good snorkeling (depending on the winds!) right there and a beautiful natural cove shaped beach area. The hotel staff do their best, but the place is definitly in need of a facelift. For example, the AC is loud and clanky (we just turned it off and used the ceiling fan), the beds are hard (we like that), there weren't any screens so if you opened the doors to the beautiful ocean sounds and breezes, you had to deal with bugs (they weren't too bad, we didn't mind), the hair dryer barely worked and wouldn't have dried my hair in 5 hours of puffing (I just went 'au naturale' while there). On the plus side, in the Villas there are great views and plenty of room (not so in the tiny rooms in the main building - not recommended). The staff are helpful and the breakfast was great. We will keep returning despite it's faults because I would rather be sitting on the room porch looking out at the waves crashing over the ironstone or swimming in the cove than sitting around a giant pool at a huge resort."

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Rob And Karyn from Colorado Springs, CO

"I thought our vacation was great! We stayed in a 2nd floor villa with great views of the ocean.
People have commented about the hard bed, but we actually liked it. If a mattress is too soft, you end up disturbing each other when rolling over or getting up. There were some tiny harmless ants in our room, but the atmosphere more than made up for it. We could sit out on the balcony in the middle of the night and look at the stars while the warm wind and ocean sounds gave us an unforgetable experience!
We had the breakfast included in our plan and the food was very good! It was open until about 11am, so you could fill up on the buffet and be satisfied until dinner. I had omelets with everything and pineapple juice every day.
The hotel supplies beach towels and room safe locks if you just ask.
October seems to be off-season and was very quiet, but that is just what we wanted.
It did seem difficult to make phone calls. We finally bought a $50 peso phone card which gave us 10 minutes of call time to the US. There are plenty of pay phones to use all over the island. We had originally planned on using the hotel computer to send emails since we didn't bring a laptop, but there is a charge for using the computer, so we didn't do it.
It looks like there is renovations in progress. The hotel tower is being painted and it is looking nice. The grass is being watered constantly and the beaches are raked every morning."

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Paul & Tina from Shepherdsville, Ky

"We will return to Isla Mujeres but would stay at a different hotel. The beds were hard, the air conditioner was noisy. The first night we arrived and got to dinner @ 7:30. 2 hours later we had finally finished. There were only a few other people dining that night. The food was just ok. We had asked for a lower level room when we made our reservations. We ended up on the top floor and when I asked about moving the answer I received was they had nothing available. Funny considering we noticed very few people at the hotel for the 5 days we were there. Exchange rate everywhere we went was 12.5 to 1 US the hotel 11 to 1. The only real positive thing about this hotel was the beach. Great island to visit to just relax. Rent a golf cart and drive anywhere, just do not get it from the hotel. There fee was $55 from 9am to 5pm. Short walk down the street and you can get it $45 and 24hours. Food downtown was great!"

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Margaret Johnson from Greenville, North Carolina

"This was our first trip to Isla Mujeres. All I can say is that it was the BEST. Beautiful place to stay, wait staff was just great. I can't say anything bad about our service. The food was great, the views were great the snorkleing was great. The only thing I can say that was bad were the beds. They were really hard, but I was starting to get use to them by the time we left. We were there for 7 days and maybe ust maybe we might get to go back some day. I highly recommend this place for anyone who wants to get away for a relaxing vacation and great fishing. We went sailfishing with our friends who was down running a charer beat. The fishing had been really great up until the week we came down. We did not go the first day we had a charter because of the wind blowing so much. We did get in the second day and caught 17 sailfish. We had a blast. You need to try and plan a vacation here. You will have the best time ever."

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