I just got back from the Grand Palladium Kantenah Resort and Spa, and I only have good things to say about it. It is an immaculate resort filled with friendly people. If you are thinking about going to this hotel don't hesitate! It is a beautiful property with so much to do. The Spa is a must and take advantage of the a la carte restaurants. Great food and very romantic.

What a wonderful resort! Beach beautiful, clean, white sands, blue sea, lots of hammocks, beach bars well stocked, salt pool lovely, small barracuda in there one day swimming along, and literally dozens of types of fish just below the surface! Very generous spirit measures there too! Adult pool and bar nice idea, we enjoyed it, excellent bar service too! We ate at the buffet restaurant most nights, as I am not really an 'a la carte' sort of person! I found such a wide variety every meal time, that you really couldn't complain, service was utterly superb too, the waiters and waitresses couldn't do enough for you!

We thought our room was excellent too, clean, well stocked, (iron, ironing board, coffee machine, clean towels every day) although if you want a cup of tea, take a travel kettle, apparently the Mexicans don't use kettles (so we were told!!) We were on the top floor, so had lovely view of the Mangroves, and listened to the wildlife every morning, yes, at first it wakes you, but , hey, you are in the middle of the jungle, and you do get used to it!

Drinks were plentiful, and I thought plenty strong enough! Sparkling wine on tap, I was a happy woman....!!

We really, really cannot fault this resort, it ticked all our boxes, so to speak, and we would like to go again next year, yes, the 10 hour flight is a bind, as is the 2 hour transfer time, but, it's worth it in the end!

Word of warning though - we travelled through Thomsons, and booked the 'Dolphin trainer for the day' through them, superb day, but, when it came to travel back, they sent a young lad, who didn't count the passengers, therefore 5 miles out of Cancun, back we went, to pick up 2 more passengers, but they never materialised, so, off we went again. He had no idea where he was going (we kept telling him to go straight, after all the road is 3,000 miles long, and all the resorts lead off the main road) he wouldnt listen to us at all. Wouldn't answer us when we asked what was going on, he got lost in Playacar, we went past the Riu Yucatan 3 times.... he phoned for directions on his headset whilst texting on the other phone, of course, he was driving at the time.......... he then scared the living daylights out of all of us, (4 adults) as it was dark by then, he pulled over onto a side road, and a people carrier stopped behind us, someone got out and came towards us, we thought we were about to be mugged....luckily, they just exchanged something, my husband thought it was a phone but who know, we were deeply stressed by this time! The other couple with us were not happy either by this time, the chap said if it carried on much longer we would overtake him and take the keys and just drive ourselves back....no kidding, this wasn't funny by this time, he was veering all over the road, he really didn't have a clue. Finally we reached our hotel, 3 hours later. It took just over 1 hour and a quarter in the morning to get to Cancun..! We were all exhausted, and the best bit was, he was shocked he didn't get a tip.....!!! What annoyed us, was that both couples went to see the Thomson rep the next day, who tut tutted in all the right places, promised to investigate, said this didn't look good for Thomson's reputation blah de blah. We both asked him to 'keep us informed what happened' . We are still waiting, and we have been home for weeks now! That's very disappointing, and as far as I am concerned, poor customer service!

We would recommend the Kantenah wholeheartedly, and would love to visit again, but I probably won't be booking any more excursions with Thomsons i'm afraid!

Beautiful resort,loved the atmosphere (or ambiance) and the beach was very beautiful.The only ,and my main complaint is the receptionists .We walked in around midnight and were treated VERY rudely because there was an error with our Orbitz reservation.The woman told us we weren't even supposed to stay there since our kids weren't on the reservation,but my husband begged to let us stay the (already paid for 7 nights) and we would straighten it out in the morning.So,we basically were never given any info about this hotel(no cordial greetings,reservation info etc..).Orbitz tried for the first few days to straighten this error out with them but no one knew or was around to help out when they called (supposedly). Then Orbitz basically gave up and told us to help ourselves,and this was hard because the lobby said to have our agent do it.
So besides all that drama,I noticed that most people were generally nice staff wise,with the exception of the boutique-which charged $23 bucks for a stick of sunscreen! And beware that it is expensive to use the taxis for excursions and you need good bug spray because of the mangroves around you.

We had the pleasure of staying at the Palladium Kantenah from June 28th – July 5th. Our group is large, and diverse in age (25 people age 14 – 59). It was our third time vacationing in Mexico in July, and we thought it was the best by far.

It is a wonderful resort. The beach is beautiful, the rooms are comfortable and very clean, the food was great and the staff were all very helpful and friendly. They do not take reservations any longer for the a la cartes, and the new system worked well for us. We had dinner in Sumptuori (Japanese) for all 25 of us that we pre-arranged that afternoon. Other nights we broke into groups and took our chances with the a la carte restaurants. All the restaurants we ate at were wonderful. The ones we tried were Mare Nostrum (Mediterranean), El Dorado (Steakhouse), Rodizio (Brazilian) and Sumptuori. Friday night we enjoyed the Beach Barbeque and we had two dinners at the Buffet. All the meals were great. Our favourite restaurants were El Dorado, Sumptuori and Rodizio. Some of us had the paella on the beach for lunch on Sunday which was very tasty. Most of our lunches were at El Gran Azul. The food there was excellent, but a couple times the hamburgers were undercooked. That was the only problem we ever had with food during our stay.

We had excellent weather the whole week. There were two thunderstorms during the night, and that was all the rain we got. The grounds are kept very clean and the beach is well looked after. There were lots of lizards, iguanas and various other “critters” around. We enjoyed seeing the flamingos, crocodiles and fish. We saw a couple different types of fish while swimming in the water. We walked over to the salt water pool by the Royal Suites, but did not see any fish in it, which was disappointing. Some of us used the resort catamarans and kayaks, and hired jet skis and parasails. We found the prices to be quite a bit higher than in Nuevo Vallarta.

We did not attend any of the shows so cannot comment on them. We spent most of our time at the beach, and used the adult pool on our way back to our rooms every day. The only annoyance was kids using the adult pool to play Frisbee and football. When we stayed at the Nuevo Vallarta Palladium last year, they were vigilant about anyone not wearing an adult wristband being in the adult pool. Here it did not seem to matter, and there was no staff around to check. It is a very nice pool and has a great bar and bartender. It was the perfect way to finish the day!

There is lots to do at the resort. The younger members of our group played beach volleyball, beach soccer, tennis, mini golf and soccer at the soccer fields. They met up with some Spaniards and Germans and had a few matches against them. With Spain winning the Euro 2008 Championship it made things very exciting and noisy around the resort! The guys all enjoyed watching the final between Spain and Germany with so many people from those countries.

The bar down by the beach was very busy, but the bartenders were still friendly and efficient. I cannot understand why anyone would complain about them. Considering how busy they were, they did a great job. Having to wait a few minutes for a drink while you are on vacation is really not a big deal. The drinks were pretty weak, but that was probably a blessing! We took our insulated mugs with us, which helped cut down on the trips to the bar. We spent a few evenings in Churchills and Hemingways. Because of the size of our group, we pretty much took over both places. The bartenders at both were wonderful, and we had such a great time. We did however miss Marcelino, the bartender at Hemingways in Nuevo. He is a great person and if you get the chance to go there and meet him, I’m sure you will agree!

We only spent one day away from the resort. 22 of us did the Ultimate Adventure at Hidden Worlds Cenotes Park. What a great place! We bought our tickets online before we left, and arranged with them to have two air conditioned vans pick us up in the morning at the resort. Everyone just loved it, and we would highly recommend it for all ages. We had been to Tulum and Xel-Ha before, so did not go again, but that was something we would have done if we had more time. One night 12 of the “kids” went into Cancun to Coco Bongo with a van & escort they arranged for at the resort. They loved it, and the rest of us have decided we will definitely go the next time we are in the Mayan.

The resort is set up so that you do a fair bit of walking. There are golf carts and trains that you can take to different parts of the resort, but we only used the train a couple times. We did one early morning run around the resort and it was okay, but got a little confusing trying to figure out where to go (and it was HOT – even at 7AM)! We used the gym every day, and it is a fairly good facility. There are treadmills, ellipticals, spinning bikes, exercise bikes, steppers and lots of weight machines. It is air conditioned and is attached to the spa, so you have access to the spa facilities after your workout. Our family of 5 enjoyed one morning at the spa. We had Hot Stone, Swedish and Deep Tissue massages and everyone enjoyed their treatments. After the massages we spent time in the infinity pool and hot tubs. It is a beautiful spa, and all the staff were great.

We will definitely return to the Palladium Kantenah. It is a wonderful resort on a beautiful beach. The staff work very hard so you can enjoy a relaxed, carefree holiday, and we did!