Where To Stay: Mia Reef Resort Isla Mujeres

With summer ending, I have been more inspired to continue recapping our summer vacations. After talking about what Isla Mujeres as an island had to offer, I knew I needed to go into detail about the amazing hotel we stayed in. When I started searching for accommodations, I was thrown off by how inexpensive most of the hotels in Isla Mujeres are. Some are as low as $30 a night, and still a beautiful place! Since we all wanted all-inclusive, with endless drinks and food comes a higher price tag.

Most nice all-inclusive will run about $350-$500 a night, which can be worth it depending on how much you drink and all the amenities. For example, I had no problem paying this when we went to Jamaica and stayed at a Couples resort because it was far beyond worth the cost. You can imagine my surprise when I found the Mia Reef for around $300 a night. It had great reviews, was in the end stages of a full renovation, and was in a beautiful location. All for such a great price!

Mia Reef is on it’s own private island off of Isla Mujeres. You have to take a bridge to get there, and it’s just wide enough for a taxi or golf cart to travel across it. In order to get onto the island you have to either be staying there or purchase a day pass. I will get into this option later, but keep it in mind. Mia Reef is made up of one large building, two smaller buildings for restaurants and evening entertainment, and then about 30 private villas. My grandparents were in the large building and we were in one of the villas.

The lobby was large and beautiful with eclectic mismatched furniture, fish sculptures, cheese or fruit options and a glass of champagne upon arrival. Hello, Mexico! Check in was easy, and we were given our wrist bands and towels even though we arrived 3 hours before check-in. Our first stop: the bar!

There are two bars available, one of them is a pool bar and the other is a regular bar. The two of them are connected but function as two bars. The one in the pool is open from 10ish-6ish, we were able to get some drinks around 9:30am everyday, and the inside bar is open from 10ish-12ish. We enjoyed some drinks and started to plan the rest of our activities for the day…hit the beach, hit the pool and continue drinking. It was perfect.

There are several options for things to do around the resort. You can swim or lounge in the main pool, go swimming in the King’s Bath which is a great snorkeling area, take advantage of the activities or rentals, lounge on one of the beach cabanas, swim in the beautiful ocean, or snorkel anywhere around the property. The main pool is nice, but a little smaller than expected, the outside areas are only 6 inches or so deep, which was nice when you wanted to chill on a float. The steps that led to Kings Bath were right outside of our villa, and the area was really cool and secluded. The resort offers group activities like beach volleyball and snorkeling tours, or you can rent bikes and kayaks for free among other rentals. The beach area is known for amazing snorkeling, and we could easily see why.

We were excited to see our rooms when we were able to check-in. The villas are a little farther of a walk from the lobby, but being able to see the King’s Bath from our balcony was cool. It was a nice size for a room and had a nice bathroom. There was a small desk, comfortable bed, mini kitchenette, and a large closet, it was perfect for our stay of a few days since we were hardly in the room. My grandparents called right as we got into our room and my grandmother asked if I had anything to do with their room…I booked them a master suite…she told us to come up right away and see it. Their room had a jacuzzi tub on the large balcony, an all glass shower and bathroom, and a nice size bed. They were in the main building with a perfect ocean view and absolutely loved it!

The dining and entertainment options were a little more basic than what we have previously experienced, but it was definitely good enough for our stay. There was a buffet that was almost always open from morning until night, a snack station was set-up everyday around 11am until 3ish, there was 1 specialty dining restaurant, and you could order room service. The main buffet had various types of food and changed the menu everyday, the snack station also changed the menu from a fiesta type meal to burgers and fries, and the specialty dining place had amazing seafood.

If you wanted to stay in either Cancun or elsewhere on the island, you are able to get a day pass for Mia Reef and enjoy all of the amenities for about $30 a day. You can have all the drinks you want, endless food, play games, use the loungers, etc. I believe you just had to leave by 5pm. I think $30 for all of that is a great price on such a beautiful island. If you are thinking about heading to Mexico anytime soon, I highly recommend staying at the Mia Reef Resort in Isla Mujeres.

Have you been to Mexico?