When all you are looking for is a quiet hotel with a friendly staff, a nice restaurant, a beautiful beach, warm sand and blue waters; this is the place for you. The shuttle from the airport is only 24 bucks and the location is great. It's only a 10 min, 60 cent, bus ride to downtown Cancun. The staff is local and speaks mostly Spanish. Of course they all speak English as well, but expect to have misunderstandings. The other travelers in the hotel were mostly Hispanic and older. Although, there were one or two groups of younger kids.

Being a young college kid, I'm used to drinking every night, However, this trip was more about relaxing. We did venture out to Margarita Ville, but that's about as exciting as it got. The first two days consisted of lying around the pool and enjoying the ocean breeze. The pool has a swim up/Jacuzzi bar and is all very picturesque. What was sort of odd was that the pool and Jacuzzi closed at 6.

On the way to our hotel we found out about a place called Xel-ha. This is a beautiful park reserve where you can choose from activities such as snorkeling through a large lagoon, swimming with dolphins, or swimming under caves. The package was all inclusive so breakfast and lunch were free, as well as all your drinks. Don't listen to them when they say dinner is free too because you leave at 2:30. Leaving so early doesn’t give you nearly enough time to see the whole park. After the park we were taken to Talum; an ancient Mayan city with a large temple overlooking the sea. Although kind of expensive the whole day was well worth it.

The whole trip was exactly what we needed. It was a chance to get away from work and going out constantly. We were able to relax in a beautiful environment and remind ourselves what a great life we live.

We stayed at the Bel Air in March during spring break. The hotel itself is very nice and the pool and beach area is gorgeous! The ambiance of the courtyard and surrounding areas is very relaxing. The rooms live up to the minimalist theme the hotel is going for and are well kept. The beds are very comfortable! The Bel Air has one main restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner but close in between, so make sure you plan meals ahead of time. Overall, I would not call it a 4-star restaurant as claimed but they do serve good food at reasonable prices. I was very surprised at how quiet the hotel was considering it was spring break time. The only time it was louder was during the weekend at the hotel next door. The service in the lobby, the restaurant, and at the bars is hit-and-miss but Freddie was very helpful. We opted out of the all-inclusive package and sometimes I felt the service was not as good because of this. The only major complaint I had was the $200 fee to add another occupant to the room. This price seemed a little unreasonable but had little choice but to pay. In addition, there is a $6 fee to make local calls. Overall, we had a great time at the Bel Air and would recommend it but be prepared for extra charges if you are not all-inclusive.

The hotel is beautiful, the decorations are great. The staff brings you drinks while you check in. My ocean view room was great. The furniture is comfortable. The prices for the drinks (non-alcoholic) in the refrigerator are reasonable. The room comes with a DVD player and you can borrow movies from the hotel's very limited selection for free. I love the infinity pool. The maid comes daily, but the service is not constant. Somedays they would forget to put back the towl for the floor in front of the shower. All of the staff is pleasant and friendly. Most speak broken English, but they try to be accomodating. The restaurant is beautifully decorated. The menu is limited, I never tried the lunch menu. Breakfast was my favorite time to eat there. Beware of the oatmeal! They put yogurt or cottage cheese in it. Other than that, everything is fine. The hotel is at about KM 20 and most of the shops start about KM 14. The bus is 65 cents and runs about every 7 minutes. There is a bus stop steps away from the hotel. The bus also runs all through the night, so you can catch one back to the hotel if you're leaving a club at 4 am.
There are some things that can be improved, but for the most part, I thought the hotel was great. Nice, clean, calm.

When I stepped out of the people-carrier taxi I fell; the step was too high for me to exit without assistance, I hurt my foot badly and was limping in strong pain for the entire stay at the hotel.
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There is a long flight of carpeted stairs, with a handrail on one side only, leading up to the reception area, which is not enclosed, it is all outdoors -which provides a delightful vista to the beautiful pale sea, just a few meters more.
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I don't drink alcohol, but was offed a glass of champagne with a cherry in it -by hand, without my asking for it, from a waiter - the same waiter who was later, to show me to my room.
I extended my hand but asked first what it was -to tell him that I did not drink alcohol, -he then asked if I'd like some other drink.
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After waiting for the receptionist to finish checking in other people, I said that i want a room for one night and if I like it I shall stay longer, than one night.
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They gave me a nice room, and I did stay longer than my travel agent booked me for; when I checked-out the staff told me a different rate from that which I was given when I checked in - this rate excluded breakfast.
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In the interim I was told the rate in us$, I told them that I only had local currency, then they told me that they rent the rooms in local currency, and that the us$ price was only a guide.
Their guide was 25% higher than the real us$ price.
This was very off putting - to be in a hotel 25% more costly than my travel agent had ordered for me.
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In the end I paid for the final night with my us bank debit card, for $152.50.... I had to pay for my two breakfasts only when I checked out -luckily I had enough cash on me for them and the taxi to the airport. two breakfasts were 250 pesos.
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Nobody talked to me while I was at the hotel, so I presume the staff are friendly -as trained to be, but are not at all interested in the guests; there was one nice receptionist staff member, her name was Sarah.
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The housekeeper was very slow in coming to clean the room 3.30 p.m. and she did not clean the coffee machine one time, and one other time she did not leave me the right amount of free bottled water.
The small things are only a problemo, when you know you can't rectify them easily because the staff mostly don't understand English or French.
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The biggest let down was -contrary to advertised - there was NO WIRELESS INTERNET in the room; one could only use Internet in the lobby at reception - where there were no power sockets, one had to rely exclusively on the laptop battery.
I had to ask housekeeping for a white wire so as to plug my laptop into the power socket behind the receptionist's desk.
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The weather was probably typical for that time of year, it was appalling, and there being an exposed to outdoor lobby, there was nowhere to go to get away from the howling wind.
I was returning to Europe and so handily was able to wear my hooded coat and hat, while searching in the lobby for a different hotel.
The thing about travel ling with the laptop is that one can feel at home in the room, with one's choice of music, which is not so if there is no Internet in the room.
I could only stay down in the lobby for about two hours, then I had to return to my room to wash the salty wind of my face and to warm-up.
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The room was felt to me to be the best room in the hotel; it was on the fifth floor non-smoking and situated on a corner of the building, with double aspect and two-fifty-degree views, some over the next door tennis courts -I could see up to five miles away westerly.
The room had a large balcony with two plastic chairs on it.
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The sun came in my window via the balcony, at sunrise and was all over the bed for about an hour and a half, when then, it was too high and behind the winter clouds.
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The room was clean looking and the bed was so comfortable that I looked under the sheets to see what the manufacturer's name was; there were seven pillows on the bed, which was too many for me to move, so I just slept on them all.
The linen was perfectly fine.
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The room was very thoughtfully decorated and was in fact very modernly decorated -similar to the hotels in London that are very fashionable at the moment.
There are three old hotels I know of, and have been in, since they were sold and completely refurbished with a minimalist theme, one in the same street as where Madonna's London home is -Marble Arch.
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There was no European television stations on the television, and the telephone was apparently very expensive to use, even to use the phone dialing card I brought with me from Puebla.
My friend advised me not to use it, and that she would call me instead of me call her, everyday.
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The situation of the hotel is perfectly fine; it is extremely picturesque, and a treat for any city-dweller to witness.
The natural colours of the sand the palms the flowers and the ocean and the surf breakers remind me of the art of Gauguin (1848 - 1903) .
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I have put some pictures of my stay on You-Tube.