Hyatt Zilara Cancun Oceanfront Room Review

The Hyatt Zilara Cancun is a beach resort located in the Hotel Zone area of Cancun, Mexico. If you have never been to a Hyatt Ziva or Zilara property, they are a vacation within themselves. These are upscale all-inclusive properties that are still accessible to most everyone from a cost perspective. Those who have followed this website for a couple years know that I am personally a fan of Hyatt Ziva and Zilara properties (see other reviews here: Hyatt Ziva Riviera Maya and Hyatt Ziva Cap Cana. The following is a Hyatt Zilara Cancun vacation room review from December 2022.

At all-inclusive resorts, the resort is the whole vacation for a large portion of visitors. While you can travel outside the confines of the resort to experience other restaurants and tours, a majority of people don’t since everything is already paid for at the resort. Therefore, I try to go into great detail for my all-inclusive reviews. What follows is the first part of a four-part review of the resort:

1. Hyatt Zilara Cancun- Hotel Overview & Room Review (this post)
2. Hyatt Zilara Cancun – Restaurants
3. Hyatt Zilara Cancun – Bars
4. Hyatt Zilara Cancun – Amenities & Activities

Location

The Hyatt Zilara Cancun is located within the Hotel Zone. For those of you not familiar with the Hotel Zone, it is technically a 14-mile-long island located just off the main coastline of Mexico. This island is connected at each end to the mainland with major roadways. One end of the island connects to downtown Cancun and the other connects to the Cancun International Airport area. Concentrated along the island are tons of major hotels, resorts, condos, and miles of white sand beaches. If you are looking for a tropical beachside resort vacation, you will find it here.

The location in the Hotel Zone is both a positive and a negative. On the positive side, the Hotel Zone is very safe as Mexico protects its tourism industry quite well. The Hotel Zone contains a variety of other resorts, shopping, and activities if you are looking to get off your resort. However, there are a couple of downsides to being in the Hotel Zone. First, you won’t find much local activity in this area. If you want to eat very authentic Mexican food or to experience local life, you won’t find it in the Hotel Zone. Second, because there are so many tourists and resorts in the area, there can be a lot of crowding.

The Zilara Cancun is located a 20 to 30-minute drive from the Cancun International Airport. This is a fairly easy trip after the completion of your flight to Cancun. It also means you can find relatively inexpensive transfers from the airport to the resort (see USA Transfers as an example).

Junior Suite King Guest Room

Bedroom Area

When you first enter, you are immediately drawn into the bright and airy guest room. Hyatt has done well in designing a room that fits with the Mexican beach resort theme. The room is anchored by a King bed that is placed along the diagonal bathroom wall. Each side of the bed has a nice sized bedside table and personal reading lights built into the wall. A common theme of Hyatt Ziva and Zilara resorts is that they have soft pillows. I generally prefer more firm (or foam) pillows. I often stack pillows to get to my preferred sleeping setup. Other than that, the bed was very comfortable during our entire stay.

One bedside table housed the hotel telephone leaving plenty of room for items brought by the guest. While not on the bedside table, the wall just behind the table also contained a bank of light switches and the thermostat for the room. This was very nice placement of both items as it meant that guests didn’t need to get out of bed to turn on/off lights or make adjustments to the temperature in the room.

The opposite bedside table housed the alarm clock for the room and the in-room tablet. The tablet provided a lot of information for guests, but we will go into it more later. A bench stood at the foot of the bed. Since there was only space for one suitcase on the designated luggage stand, the bench becomes a defacto spot for a second suitcase.

I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight one of the quirks of the room. While glass showers and bathrooms have become a modern trend, the Hyatt Zilara Cancun took a peculiar take on this trend. While most of the shower and bathroom are not open to the bedroom, there is a small rectangular window embedded in the headboard of the bed. It’s not large enough for those in the shower to see the beach or the ocean, so the purpose is somewhat of a mystery.

Another main element in the guest room is a private hot tub. The hot tub sits along one wall of the guest room and looks out the large windows onto the beach and ocean. I can’t comment on the operation or comfort as we did not use it during our stay. However, if you are visiting as a couple, I can see how it could be a romantic and relaxing to enjoy an evening in the hot tub looking out on the ocean.

The guest room had a small desk and chair that is good enough to do some work if that is necessary during your trip. Opposite the bed were two armchairs, a side table, and a wall mounted TV. While the purpose of going to a beach front resort is to get outdoors and enjoy the beach, the room was very comfortable with all the amenities and furnishings provided.

Balcony

One of the best aspects of the Hyatt Zilara Cancun is that all guest rooms face the ocean. Also, since all guest rooms are either a swim up, walk out, or balcony room, all rooms have excellent views. Therefore, if you enjoy observing the beach/ocean from the balcony, this guest room has a major positive on its side. While not very deep, the balcony was as wide as the room. This afforded enough space for two comfortable chairs to sit on the balcony. An added surprise was that a hammock was available to stretch across the balcony. This is bundled up on one side of the balcony. Therefore, if you like hammocks, be sure to set this up.

As the resort faces mostly east, the balcony gets views of the sunrise each morning. By noon (or a little after depending on the time of year), the balcony is in full shade for guest enjoyment in the afternoon and evening.

Bathroom and Entry Hall

The bathroom is located to the side after entering the room. This is also where most of the storage in the room is located including the closet and chest of drawers. A modified chest of drawers is provided to guests and is located just inside the door to the room. While it provides drawers for clothes as expected, it also includes the minifridge and snack bar. The Hyatt Zilara Cancun includes all in-room food and drinks in the room rate which is a nice option. While you won’t find mixed drinks or liquor in the minifridge, there are soft drinks, water, and beer. A couple different snack options like chips and peanuts were also available.

Moving into the bathroom area, one whole wall consists of closets. There are a total of three doors for the bank of closets. Two doors cover a standard closet. The final door includes additional shelf storage. Also, in this final single door closet is the in-room safe. It’s always nice when you are able to fit a 15″ laptop inside the safe which was the case at this resort.

The first bathroom area consists of a single bowl sink with a substantial amount of countertop space around it. This area was perfect for getting ready as it was next to the closet and exposed to the room. Often, I am not a fan of bathrooms that are exposed to the rest of the guest room. However, I did not mind the arrangement at the Hyatt Zilara Cancun. This is because there was another bathroom area that was completely enclosed from the rest of the bedroom. This part of the bathroom contained the shower, toilet, and another sink. While this sink had much less countertop space, it is still appropriate as a getting ready space.

The shower was a nice size and featured a custom tile enclosure. There were also multiple shower heads and a bench that could be helpful for shaving. While some Hyatt Ziva and Zilara resorts provide full amenity kits in their bathrooms that include toothbrushes, shaving cream, nail files, etc., the Zilara Cancun did not provide any of these. They provided the standard hotel set (shampoo, conditioner, soap, and lotion).

Parking

While most people do not rent a car, the resort does provide free parking if you need it. The parking is self-park, and it is located at the front of the hotel off to one side. While there is security around the property and security within the Hotel Zone is pretty good, the parking lot did not have any additional protection from the main road.

I didn’t utilize the parking during my stay as I booked a transfer to and from the airport with a separate company. Therefore, I can’t really comment on the details of the Hyatt Zilara Cancun parking situation in this review.

Food and Beverage

Because food and beverage is such a large category for an all-inclusive resort, a separate review is coming for all the Hyatt Zilara Cancun restaurants and bars in the future week.

Service

As is typical of Hyatt Ziva and Zilara brands, the customer service is very good. The wait staff are always very attentive as are the bartenders. The housekeeping staff kept the room clean and stocked during our stay. Finally, when we were looking to book the additional experiences offered at the resort, the food and beverage and program staff were always accommodating.

Since I have been staying at Hyatt resorts for several years, I have noticed some trends over the years and across resorts. Most recently, I have noticed the attempt to upsell at Hyatt all-inclusive resorts. For example, I received multiple emails prior to my stay offering upgraded rooms for an additional charge. In addition, I was offered several upgrade packages during check-in or through the in-room tablet. I understand that this is an additional source of revenue for the resort and that many guests may be interested in the upgraded experiences to add some extra luxury to their stay. While I don’t generally prefer being approached with these upgrade offers, they aren’t pushy with them so it shouldn’t be a detraction from your stay if you know to expect them.

Hyatt Elite Status Recognition

As a Hyatt resort, the Hyatt Zilara Cancun recognizes guests who have Hyatt elite status. There seems to be a very formal process for recognizing Hyatt elite members based on status level.

At check in, I received a letter thanking me for choosing to stay with Hyatt Zilara Cancun. The letter also recognized me as a Hyatt Explorist member. This letter outlined the benefits that they extend to Explorist members which included:

• 15% discount on cabanas
• 20% discount at the spa (although this wasn’t valid on spa packages or promotions)
• Private check-in
• 2 for 1 pricing at the Chef’s Plate restaurant
• A welcome drink upon arrival
• Upgrade to premium ocean view room
• Late check out up to 2:00 PM (subject to availability)
• A Hyatt elite-only Wi-Fi network

I find it nice that there is almost a guaranteed list of perks given to Hyatt elite members. This makes it easy to count on these benefits in the future. While I am sure that Discoverist benefits are less and Globalist benefits are more, the provided benefits seemed appropriate for the Explorist level. While there isn’t a surprise upgrade to a penthouse suite with this setup, I prefer the known list of benefits so that expectations are set accordingly.

Amenities

The included amenities are also a big draw for all-inclusive resorts. Therefore, I will provide a review of the amenities at Hyatt Zilara Cancun in a future post.

Cost

The price of hotels (especially all-inclusive hotels) varies widely based on the season and any sales that may be going on at the time. The Hyatt Zilara Cancun is no different. The following will be a few examples of the cost for the base guest room with 2 adults as of January 2023.

During prime travel times such as the United States winter and holidays, rates at the Hyatt Zilara Cancun can be above $600/night for two people in a room. Less popular times for travel (including hurricane season in October) can have much lower room rates of about $430/night. Most nights around the year will be somewhere in the middle of these to prices. If you have more than two people in a room, the room rates are increased to cover the additional people’s food and beverage. While both of these are expensive room rates, they do include all the amenities, food, and beverages while at the resort. This can make the prices a little more palatable if you are taking full advantage of those offerings.

If you are wanting to go to the Hyatt Zilara Cancun and the rates are very high, I recommend waiting for a sale. On average, the resort runs a sale once every other month. Sometimes these are advertised through Hyatt, and sometimes the sale is advertised through Playa Hotels and Resorts (the ownership group of the property). The sales often run for non-peak times such as shoulder seasons, the middle of summer when it is really hot, or the beginning of fall when hurricane season makes travel unpredictable. If these times are acceptable for you, the sales often take about $100 – $150 off the room rate per night.

The final way to stay at this resort is with Hyatt points. This all-inclusive resort runs between 21,000 – 29,000 points per night for double occupancy. Each additional occupant in the same room is 12,500 points. This can be a good use of points when the costs are at the upper end of the spectrum (peak travel times, especially around the winter holidays). You could also book a nicer suite for around 40,000 points per night.

Wrap-Up

The Hyatt Zilara Cancun is a great all-inclusive resort, and hopefully this review showed that. The property is a nice size and is located in a great spot in the Hotel Zone of Cancun. If you like the ability to walk the large sandy beaches of the Hotel Zone and be near other amenities outside the resort, this is a place for you.

While there are nicer and newer Hyatt all-inclusive resorts in the Ziva and Zilara family (like the Ziva/Zilara Cap Cana), I wouldn’t hesitate to return to the Hyatt Zilara Cancun. Hopefully this Hyatt Zilara Cancun review answered all your questions. If not, leave a comment below, and I will answer them as soon as possible.