Jim and Carol Hicks AVA

The accommodations and service were excellent! My only criticism is all gourmet restaurants tried to serve dinner to fast!”

Great facility with beautiful rooms. It is a vacation club.

Beware hidden fees and limits on the benefits you receive. You have to pay for golf even if you don't play. They will also pressure you heavily to buy a membership. Although nice, the beach is more of a lagoon (reef protected and not white sand and blue water that you might expect from Cancun). The drinks and food were better than one might expect at an all-inclusive.”

Has potential but not there yet

Overall we liked but did not love this property. The food was mediocre except in a couple of the restaurants, the beach full of seaweed, the service spotty and inconsistent. It feels like a cruise on land. The spa is very good. What really made this a bad experience for us was the awful time share pressure that you get upon arrive and is persistant until you agree to sit through their song and dance. The property should really leave Third Home guests out of this. It definitely ruined our experience. ”

Unpleasantly surprised

Let me start by saying AVA Resort food, beverage, and wait staff are fantastic. I would say for an all inclusive resort, the food was above average and the restaurants were beautiful and well appointed. This resort just opened roughly one year ago. The rooms are already showing severe signs of wear and the finishes are dirty and breaking down. The hotel hallways have large gaps around the carpeting, doorways, elevators, and have an odor of dampness, like things aren't ventilated properly or just not the right materials for the humidity that they receive on a constant basis. My biggest issue with AVA is the timeshare aspect. When we booked our stay through ThirdHome, we were supposed to receive access to the Legendary bracelets, which would allow us to use the Legendary pools, special access area, dining areas etc. Upon arrival we were not given the correct bracelets. When we tried to use the Legendary pool the next day we were promptly notified that we didn't have access to the "Legendary," benefits with the bracelets we had been given. We right away went back to the check-in area to try and get the situation corrected. We were handed off to 3 different sales associates, that said they'd get back to us within 2 hours to rectify the situation. After waiting the remainder of that day, they told us they were unable to give us the Legendary benefits, because ThirdHome had never contacted them about our reservation. We found that very hard to believe, because we had booked massages, golf, activities etc through our concierge and had emails with the breakdown of the ThirdHome benefit prices we would pay. After two full days at the resort, they finally gave us the Legendary bracelets, but not without trying to talk us into going to the timeshare meeting once more! It comes down to the point that if you aren't a high level Legendary status, you will not get the same kind of treatment at this resort as you are promised in the breakdown of benefits. It was disappointing that the main focus was hard core timeshare pushing, which turned us off from the time we stepped into the resort til the time we left. ”

AVA Resort Cancun

We enjoyed our stay at AVA Resort. It is close to the airport and very family friendly. We enjoyed the pools and the friendly staff. It has a golf course next to the resort and they offered a variety of foods in all inclusive plan. On the down side it is not very close to shopping or other amenities and airplanes fly overhead from airport. The beach is not great but they are working to improve it. We enjoyed our stay and would love to go again.”

New Resort Partner

We have very few all-inclusive resorts in ThirdHome so I personally went to Cancun to experience our new resort partner, AVA. AVA is the closest resort to the Cancun airport, so getting there was easy. The resort is huge, with over 1600 rooms, all of which are ocean front. It has only been open a few months so everything is clean and new. They have a massive lagoon pool with kids and adult areas that offers kayaks and paddle boards. It even has an internal four lane bowling alley and the golf course is right behind the resort. My main curiosity was about the all-inclusive food and beverage and whether our discriminating ThirdHome members would be satisfied. I came away very impressed. They offer over 15 restaurants and bars with a variety of cuisines. I visited the Black Iron steak and seafood grill and enjoyed a great steak and good wines. You can also choose Mexican, Asian, Mediterranean, and French cuisines in addition to ice cream, gelato and snacks available at no cost. The bars were stocked with well-known brands and were scattered throughout the property. I think this is certainly not the typical all-inclusive resort and I think our members will enjoy their stay. ”