Looking for a family getaway without sacrificing luxury, Now Sapphire Riviera Cancun has just what you are looking for. Located just 20 minutes south of Cancun International Airport you won't have to listen to "Are we there yet?" a million times between the airport and resort.
Upon arrival, we were greeted with a cool towel and welcome drink for both us and the kids. Now Sapphire features open-air lobbies with covered walkways between the between the restaurants, bars, and gift shops. We stayed in October which is considered the rainy season in Mexico. The covered walkways do not extend to the rooms, however, umbrellas are available for use for walking to and from the rooms in inclement weather.
We stayed in a Deluxe Junior Suite Tropical View Double in building 7 which is one of the farthest buildings away from the main pool and area with all the restaurants. The resort offers a total of 496 suites, while buildings 1 - 6 have some ocean front and ocean view rooms, the other buildings only offer a tropical view. The walk back and forth was easy, and you get to see a decent amount of wildlife along the way which our children loved. You will see many Coati (a member of the raccoon family) crossing the walkway as they run across frequently in large groups. One downside to staying farther away from everything is in the event of bad weather. We did experience this during our stay, there was a tropical storm just off the coast so we experienced a decent amount of rain. The hotel does offer guests umbrellas, however, there was only one umbrella in our room and 4 guests. This was easily corrected by a trip to the front desk.
The food was very good at all the restaurants we visited. Our favorite meal was at Lemongrass, they have two teppanyaki tables, you will have to make reservations if you want to sit at these tables. The teppanyaki tables are the only place on the resort that requires reservations. We also highly recommend the Bluewater Grill, which offers a nice view of the beach and ocean in an open-air atmosphere. The breakfast buffet was good and offered many choices, our only complaint was they did not offer bacon every day, it was available every other day. We frequented Barefoot Grill quite a few times during our stay, hop right out of the pool and grab a bite to eat, this was probably our children's favorite place to eat lunch. It's always nice to have a swimsuit-friendly lunch option when traveling with kids. Due to inclement weather, we ordered room service one night to avoid the rain and it was as pretty good as well.
The entertainment team was great, offering many activities that the kids could also participate in. The resort does have a kids club when you can drop your kids off and they have daily activities more geared towards children. It looked very fun, but our kids never wanted to go. The teen zone has a pool table and ping pong table, and there is also a small shooting range in which you can shoot pellet guns and bow an arrows daily. We did this activity almost every day and our 10-year-old son loved it. The bow was broken during our stay, hopefully, they will get it fixed. The resort also has a basketball and tennis court which we visited multiple times during our stay. You will need to go to the concierge desk and check out the equipment. This was a great way to have some fun and get in a small workout at the same time. Most of the entertainment team remembered our names after the first day which always make you feel at home, and our daughter absolutely loved Paula, she was excellent at getting our stubborn 7-year-old to join in the activities. On rainy days the activities were moved indoors next to the Moments Lobby bar.
Since we were traveling with our kids we did not even check out the adults-only pool. However, the main pool was very large and that is where the entertainment was most of the day. The main pool is also where Splash is located, the swim up bar. The drinks were on par with other resorts we have visited (top shelf liquor is available) and the bartenders and wait staff were extremely friendly. They will make virgin drinks for the little ones too, which our children loved. One thing that is important to us is the type of beer served at a resort, it's always nice to know ahead time that they have an American beer available. Budlight is served as well as Corona Light.
Due to the tropical storm during our stay, the ocean and beach area could have been better. Lots of seaweed and very large waves one day, then clean and calm the next. This is obviously out of the resorts control and just a factor of Mother Nature. The white sand beach was nice on calm days and the resort staff did an excellent job of cleaning up during and after the storm. Beach volleyball and other activities are also offered daily.
We had a wonderful time at Now Sapphire, the staff was very accommodating and friendly. We would definitely go back again!