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The hubs and I visited UNICO 20°N 87°W in Riviera Maya for my birthday last year. The all-inclusive adults-only resort was less than two years old when we visited. Here are some highlights from our trip ~

RESORT & BEACH

From the checkin process in the beautifully decorated lobby, I was already smitten with this resort. The service was great and the staff was knowledgeable and friendly.

I loved this little touch of being able to select a scent at checkin to be used in our room during turndown service each evening.

Before we arrived to our room, the staff decorated it with chocolates and a little ice cream piñata!

UNICO is a beautifully designed resort, on the larger side with 448 rooms.

The ground floor rooms have a swim out feature.

The vegetation is lush between the resort and the beach. There are three walkways that connect the resort to the beach.

We were on the top floor of Building #1. The hub’s and my favorite part of our room was the bathtub with a view!

That chaise lounge was the PERFECT napping spot every day. There was a second lounge in the room if you wanted an air conditioned nap instead of a sea breeze one. This was also made for the perfect reading spot.

Needing some inspiration? Here is a link to some of my favorite books I’ve read on vacation.

The main pool had a fun, loud, party vibe. This is NOT a good napping spot. 🙂 It is a fun place for drinks, people watching, and a game of volleyball! The seats on the edge of the pool were taken early in the morning. If you have your heart set on a certain spot around the pool, I would recommend grabbing a towel and some personal items to save your spot. We were informed by they staff that they can only hold your chairs for an hour, so make sure to come back every now and then.

This is where the hubs and I spent most of our pool time – the quiet pool in front of Building 8. We have three kids so any extra noise on a relaxing kid-free vacation is not ideal.

It was a bit of a bummer to find out the seaweed (sargassum) was so thick when we were there. The resort was so nice though that we hardly spent any time on the beach.

ALL-INCLUSIVE

One thing that was different about UNICO than any other all-inclusive we had been to before, was that UNICO covered 75% of the cost of select salon services, golf, SCUBA, spa treatments, and tours/excursions. For a small fee (25% of the normal cost) we were able to enjoy many of the above items!

Josh and I ventured out on the “Xtreme Mayan Jungle Tour”. It was a half-day group excursion that included zip-lining, swimming through caverns, and lunch. Our favorite part of the tour was swimming through the caverns. The water was so clear and calm. The lunch buffet wasn’t the greatest, so I stuck to the salad bar.

Fun fact: Josh and I got SCUBA certified before our first anniversary in 2008. I only made it on two or three dive trips before I realized this was not for me. Part of that reason was my dive buddy (pictured below) LEFT ME on one of our dives. He got distracted by a beautiful manta ray and forgot about his wife. His wife. I can laugh about it now. Good thing he’s cute.

While the hubs went on a couple dives, I got a haircut in the resort’s salon! I was a bit apprehensive at first, but my hair needed some lovin’ sooooo bad. I was pleased with the result.

The second time Josh went SCUBA diving I treated myself to my first ever four-handed massage at the spa. Wow. Two massage therapists massaging you in sync. Bliss.

I love working out, especially when we are on holiday. It gives me energy for the day and makes me feel great! The UNICO gym had everything I needed and more.

FOOD

UNICO has 5 restaurants and 6 bars. Our favorite restaurant was 20.87.

The Italian restaurant had a vegan menu. The Italian restaurant also had an excellent cocktail list. So good that I may or may not have ordered three different cocktails because I couldn’t choose one. Don’t worry, I didn’t drink all three of them.

The lunch buffet had a gluten and sugar free station.

We had to try the Mexican food out the first night! It was delish.

Teppanyaki is always a favorite of ours. Our chef was so funny!

If you are a black olive fan, Cafe Inez had a great lunch salad that had black olives. I got the same salad two days in a row.

We had room service two mornings to have a breakfast in bath on our balcony.

Every day we were brought a specialty cocktail while we were getting ready for dinner. A staff member would bring all of the ingredients and make the drinks for us in our room. They left a little recipe card too! The Exotic Yellow drink (below) was my fave! I found out you couldn’t order this from any of the bars, but only from the specialty cocktail service.

The decor in each restaurant was beautiful.

WEATHER

We visited in June. The temp was in the high 80s and it rained one day for about 15 minutes. The sea turtles were hatching while we were there. A staff member brought this little guy by to say hello.

Overall UNICO delivered a relaxing kid-free vacation – which was exactly what we wanted and needed.

Related posts:

5 Reasons Why You Need to Book That Kid-Free Vacay ASAP

Southern California Weekend Itinerary {kid free}

Key West: A Quick Guide For Your Kid-Free Getaway

Mandi

11 Replies to “Resort Highlight: UNICO 20°N 87°W Riviera Maya”

  1. This looks amazing! I am especially interested in the slow mornings with breakfast in the bath and a four handed massage! Sign me up please!!

  2. This resort literally is paradise – the accommodations are lovely and would be a great relaxing get-away for my soon to be husband and I! I will be checking this out!

  3. The interiors😍😍😍 I so want to go here now!! This would be a great spot for a couple of newlyweds😉

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About the Author

Hey there & welcome! I’m Mandi – wifey to my college sweetheart, mom to three crazy cute kiddos, and we are an American/Australian dual citizen family.  You’re in the right place of the blogging world if you love your kids, but also want to be encouraged to travel kid-free once in a while. I share about our luxury travels (kid-free & family), our love for healthy foods, and how we stay mentally/physically/emotionally well.

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