I’ve lost count of the amount of times we’ve gone to Mexico. I love that I live a life where I can say that. Every year for at least the last seven years, though, we travel in November. It’s not as hot, the rates aren’t as high, and it makes for a perfect extended Thanksgiving break just when I’m starting to truly feel the need for a break.

In the past years, I’ve stayed sometimes with just the Bear and me, sometimes with friends, and sometimes with groups. The place we’ve stayed MOST is Excellence Playa Mujeres (EPM) (6 times). I still love that place so much for a lot of reasons. (I’ve also stayed at Valentin Imperial, El Dorado Maroma, Hyatt Zilara, Live Aqua, Excellence Riviera Cancun, and Grand Park Royal Cancun. They all had their upsides.) But I now have one -that if I had to line them all up in a row and choose- is better than all by more than a nose, but not by a mile: Impression Moxche is the new favorite resort for both the Bear and me.

We left from Austin on Thursday morning, and the non-stop flight on Southwest was completely uneventful, which is the best kind. There are no longer any forms needed for entry. The e-gates were available, but since there were no lines through immigration, we went the old fashioned way. We were through immigration in under five minutes from time we exited the plane to the time we were in baggage claim. Yes, we still pack a bag. And, yes, we did have to wait in terminal 4 (just under 50 minutes). Then, we were in our Kalido transfer and on our way. We’ve used Kalido at least a dozen times now. They are ALWAYS perfect.

Let me qualify by saying Impression is significantly more expensive than EPM — unless you can get a good deal. Rachel Burk, my go-to for all things Caribbean, found me a deal just before they opened last year. I paid just under $600 for the room a night. They now start at $1100 most of the time. That said, I really wouldn’t want any more than the basic room. I would not enjoy a “swim out” at this resort. They’re not so much “swim out” as they are VERY large plunge pools. I would say they are more a private pool, but with no privacy. Every room on the floors above you can look down at your “private pool.” It is surrounded by mangroves as well, so you have no view from your pool. If you don’t have a swim-up room, you have an ENORMOUS bathtub (non-jetted) on your balcony. It EASILY fits two people. It holds heat AMAZINGLY well, and can be a great way to end your night. There is another one inside the room, too. We had a “tropical view” room, which meant that we looked at undeveloped land next door – unless I looked WAY to the right, and then I could see the main Impression pool and a strip of ocean. The rooms on the other side of the building look out at the main area of the resort, so there isn’t as much privacy on the balcony. The higher up rooms have more of an ocean view, which I’m sure is lovely, but we spend almost NO time in the room, so the basic Impression room was perfect for us. It is very large and VERY cool (okay, frigid, but we like that) and comfortable. It’s super quiet and private. I would say a drawback is storage. I love EPM for having drawers everywhere. This room had a closet with three drawers and some shelves in it, but we made do quite easily. There is a minibar with wine and beer, but no in-room spirits. You do get one bottle of hard alcohol, but that’s it. You get a half bottle of Moet at the start of your trip, and supposedly they restock wine the whole time. We asked for them to restock. (They took our white bottle away before we even opened it), but they never brought us new wine. There are bars EVERYWHERE on the resort, so it’s not a big deal. It’s just something we noticed.

Impression is actually a hotel within a hotel- somewhat similar to Excellence Club at Excellence Playa Mujeres. You literally have to book from a different website. It’s a separate part of the Moxche resort with full access to the Moxche resort- including access to preferred – but this resort also has its own Impression amenities If you stay Moxche, you can stay Moxche regular level or Moxche preferred. There really isn’t much benefit to staying Moxche preferred except that they do have a small rooftop pool and restaurant. Impression, though, is amazing. I would not be interested in returning to the resort unless I was staying Impression. It has a lovely lobby bar with snacks all the time and some seating. There are only three buildings at the resort. Buildings 2 and 3 are very large and belong to Moxche. Building one (closest to the beach on the left when you enter) is Impression.

Impression has three of its own pools – one on the rooftop with Cielo restaurant (open only for lunch), one ON the beach with SeaSide beach club restaurant (open for breakfast, lunch and dinner), and the “main pool” on the second level with an infinity pool. I tried to do a different pool each morning for sunrise, including doing one morning at the “quiet” pool at Moxche. This is DEFINITELY a pool resort. There are fourteen pools total, some of them being tiny cenotes and others like the GIANT lagoon pool at the entrance. This is a much later “rising” resort than I’m used to. If I was out there by 7:30, there was generally NO ONE at any of the pools until about nine. They don’t start serving alcohol until 10 o’clock here, so that could be part of the reason. Some of my considerations are that I want comfortable seating, in the shade, with accessible towels, and nearby restrooms. They had everything I was looking for except the shade options were a little harder here. It’s not so much that they don’t have umbrellas and cover – they do… it’s more the positioning of the pools to the sun. The views are GORGEOUS. The resort is phenomenal, but sometimes it made finding shade difficult. On the rooftop pool there was almost always a breeze, though. I wish I had gotten better pictures of the rooftop pool because it is QUITE dramatic. You can find more online, but this was a pool I ended at most days. The right hand side does seem to be in more shade, and there was always someone to help you find a spot.

I wish I had done a better job of getting pictures of the pools, but there were just so many, and they were at such interesting angles. It’s a very compact resort, all in a horseshoe, and when you walk the property, it feels as if you’re walking through the jungle; then, you come to a clearing, and lo and behold, there will be another pool – some shallow, some deep. Some where thirty people can sit, some with ten. All had a VERY different feel. It also had some of the best marked signage I’ve seen at any resort.

And I know that a question people always have at resorts is about the quality of the food. The food here was OUTSTANDING – everywhere, and we didn’t even eat at Teodoro. Teodoro is the Impression signature restaurant that is complimentary with a 5 night stay, but we only stayed 4 nights, and we didn’t want to pay $250 to eat there. (If you’re staying Moxche – not Impression – it’s $500). The menus at all of the other restaurants aren’t extensive, and they are definitely seafood heavy, but SO GOOD!

The first thing we did when we got to the resort was grab a snack of ceviche, guacamole, and another fish dish on the rooftop a Cielo. People said that’s THE place to start…

The food was definitely good at Cielo, but I don’t know that I’d start there. The problem is that the “restaurant” part of Cielo is set back far from the pool and the water, so you don’t get the “wow” views for lunch, but the food really is great. You can get a truncated version of their restaurant menu served right to you at your bali bed, too, which is downright decadent! The fresh potato chips with the smash burger are NUTS!

But if you were to ask me where to go for lunch on that first day, I’d say Sea Soul (Moxche). It’s right there near the main pool, so you see that action. And the views of the beach are so gorgeous -the breeze blows right through, and it gives you the tropical “I’m on vacation” feel.

There are SO many places to get something to eat at all hours of the day! Those who want more typical “bar food” can get quick bites and pizzas from the “Barefoot grill” that you can take away to your chair by the pool or on the beach, and there are lunch servers everywhere. They were working hard, but service everywhere is pretty slow, so be prepared to relax and enjoy.

There was one day when the Bear went to get a massage, so I decided to grab a “snack” from Bamboo (the vegan restaurant on the lagoon pool). It was SO peaceful. The signature cocktail and tea were both great, and what a place to sit and just listen to the sounds of the resort.

As for the massage, he said it was one of the best he’s ever gotten. Lots of people suggested going for a stroll down the beach for a discounted massage, and it is VERY easy to find the people to sign up for one. They stand on the beach all day waiting for you. Richard, however, wanted to experience the spa at the resort. He contacted our butler, Luis, and got almost a 50% discount. All of the Impression guests get a butler to contact to arrange things. Sometimes we had a hot bath run for us, and we utilized him to get a hospitality room to shower in before we checked out on the last day. All contact was done through What’sApp. We actually never even saw our butler until we were leaving. The Bear loved having butler service.

We didn’t spend any time on the beach, and I know at certain times of the year it can be full of Sargassum. That was NOT the case. There were A LOT of people in the water and on the beach, and it was clear and beautiful. It is a small, narrow beach and only really on the Moxche side. There is very little shade, and there are some sticks and rocks in the water, so it’s better with water shoes. Still, if the beach is your thing, this may be the time of year to go, and I LOVED listening to the waves from the Sea Side Beach club pool.

When the Bear and I vacation together, we have a routine. I get up at the crack of dawn, and he hangs around the room until he’s ready – then he comes to find me and usually brings me a coffee and a pastry. He gets breakfast snacks delivered to the “secret box” in the room. I love resorts that have this for delivering food and for picking up dirty dishes. Because of this, we usually don’t really have breakfast at a resort. This time, though, I wanted to do the brunch that they have on Saturdays at Seal Soul and one sit-down breakfast at Sea Side. The Sea Soul brunch was a fail for me… not because it wasn’t good, just because I forget how TERRIBLE I am at buffets. I get so overwhelmed and have no idea where to start. They had an omelet station, and a sushi station, and an Italian station, an oysters station, and more – and it was HUGE and amazing, and I just ended up with a plate of some meat and ravioli. We never even WENT to Market Cafe – a buffet open for all three meals. I heard it was excellent, however. After my brunch fail, the next day we went to Sea Side for an a la carte breakfast, and it was wonderful!

There were always PLENTY of daytime activities that we considered doing… but really, I just relaxed and read… LOTS of reading. There were book carts at almost every pool at this resort, which I loved. I had plenty on my Kindle before we even got there.

Every night’s a date night dinner are always a big consideration for us before we get to the resort. I like that this is a resort that doesn’t require reservations. I think you might be able to make one for something special, but we never bothered. The butlers would send a list of what was open each night and what events were going on. This is a Secrets resort, so there are ALL SORTS of add ons you can do if you want to, but we didn’t do any. The wine list is VERY over priced, even for resort prices, so we never bought a bottle. We USUALLY buy at least one bottle of wine we can’t get in the US during a trip in Mexico, but we weren’t interested if we were going to have to pay $400 for an $80 bottle of wine. If we had sat through the vacation club meeting, we would have gotten $200 in resort coupons, but we didn’t want to do that. I have heard that you can say that you want your coupons without the presentation, and they will give them to you, but I didn’t want to be confrontational.

Several people had warned against going to the “steak house” -Ember. The first thing listed on the menu are steaks that you have to pay extra for, and people have said the included steaks aren’t very good. I’m not a steak house person to begin with, and definitely not in Mexico. Still, the apps on the menu looked SO GOOD. (You can see all of the menus on the World of Hyatt Inclusive Collection app.) I’m glad we decided to go. We really liked Ember. We went early, and yes- it smelled smoky inside, but not BAD smoky- DELICIOUS smoky. Everything is cooked on different kinds of wood on a wood fire grill. We LOVED the oysters and loved dinner as a whole. The dress code at night is that men must wear long pants indoors, but most every restaurant has an outdoors, too, where shorts are acceptable.

One of the minor complaints we had was that at night, there really wasn’t a “place” to go and just hang out. The sports bar is impressive, but there’s just not a whole lot of seating, so unless you get there REALLY early, you’re mostly out of luck. It looked like fun, but it was just too small. It did have a golf simulator and some pool tables, but needed to have more seating around the bar.

All of the bars were like that. There were maybe ten seats at all the bars so no place to really hang out and socialize if that’s your thing. Bamboo had live music every night, but really only seating for about 25 in the area itself. Otherwise, you were relegated to sitting across the lagoon pool on a beach lounger in the dark. It was beautiful, but not particularly festive.

If you’re looking for a big nighttime gathering area, there just isn’t really one. There is an area by the shops that serves crepes and tacos, but you’re left standing around with really tasty food and not a whole lot of places to enjoy it.

There are various themed nights, on Friday we chose to eschew Asado night at Sea Soul, which is a large woodfire buffet set up on the beach, and we went to Bisou for dinner instead. Bisou is the “finest” dining of the Moxche side- the French restaurant. They also have Allora for Italian (I’m bummed we didn’t have time for that one – next time) Suki for Asian, and Dos Almas for Mexican. We’re sad that we weren’t there on a Tuesday for Roads through Mexico, which is supposed to be great

Bisou, however, was AMAZING. the escargots were so good that we had to order a second round of it to have with our beef Wellington.

Although we didn’t go to the Asado dinner, we did go down to the beach to take a peek at the fire show after.

We chose to save our “theme night” for the following night at Sea Side for “Lighting Fire.” The chefs cook live on the beach and you get a GIANT plate of all types of surf and turf and a set menu. It was definitely good, but it was a whole lot of food. My pictures didn’t turn out great because we were sitting right beside a purple uplight, but I have a few.

We had actually heard that we needed NOT to miss the Sea Side normal dinner menu, so we returned the following night. Richard said the crab wasn’t great, but my lobster was EXCELLENT. The view and the service were fantastic, too. I did need my mosquito repellant that night, but it was worth it for the atmosphere.

We generally get to the restaurants quite early (6:00) and the shows don’t start until late for us. They begin at 9:45 and the speakeasy (you get there through a secret wall in pharmacy) doesn’t open until 10:45. I made it to one of the shows (Quirky), and it was quite good. Neither of us made it to the dance club, but we did peek in during the day once before it opened. Again, we probably would have been able to make stay up later if there was more to do between dinner and 9:45. It’s just that we never found that good energy “hangout” spot at the resort. During our years at EPM, we have LOVED the martini bar or Prelude, but we couldn’t really find a place like that here. Still, I’m willing to go back to continue to look for “that” spot.

After four nights, we had to leave the next day. I definitely wanted another day. I still wanted to try more restaurants and maybe pick my behind off the pool beds and go try an activity or even just hang out at a swim up bar. Still, not doing everything gives us a reason to be back! Our flight didn’t leave until 7:40 PM, so we were able to enjoy a good portion of the last day. I should have had Kalido pick us up later; you just never know about traffic. They picked us up almost five hours before our flight, and that was FAR too much time at the airport. I really should have gone an hour and a half later. Although Impression CLAIMS that they don’t have check-in or check-out times, they do… Like most resorts, you’re allowed to have full access to the resort, but you do not have access to your room. Still, they got us a hospitality room before we left so we could shower before we had to leave for the airport. We really liked that touch.

The Priority Pass lounge at the airport was overcrowded, the bathroom was out of order, and they had very limited snacks. Still, I appreciate the perk with our Chase Sapphire Reserve. It’s the most amazing card and has saved us thousands and thousands of dollars!

So, for all the people who have said that the pictures don’t do Impression justice – they are absolutely correct. For those who say it’s worth the cost… Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but will we pay double what we USUALLY pay (even though we love a resort at half the cost)? Yes, at least one more time, we definitely will…

Impression left an impression for sure.