“Luxury all inclusive” is a term that invites immediate skepticism.
If you’ve ever stayed at a Four Seasons or a Ritz-Carlton or an Aman resort, you know there’s more to a five-star resort experience than offering top-shelf liquor at a bar or dressing someone in a suit and calling them a “butler.”
It’s just really difficult to realize a true luxury experience, with the amenities and training it requires, in pay-one-price resort concept.
The Le Blanc Spa Resort Cancun, however, comes closer to realizing this vision than most.
The flagship of the Palace Resorts group, the Le Blanc is a 260-room, adults-only, AAA Five-Diamond resort in the center of Cancun’s Hotel Zone that combines smooth, South Beach style, attentive service, well-conceived accommodations, and true dine-out quality restaurants.
Fresh off a $30-million renovation completed in spring 2019, this dazzling resort lives up to its name.
When the sun is shining it’s hard to look directly at the whitewashed Le Blanc sans sunglasses.
Arriving guests are welcomed in a bright and spacious Francois Frossard designed lobby, with dangling glass chandeliers reflecting the sunlight pouring in from a wall of windows.
Concierge staff posted strategically between the lobby and the guest elevators unfailingly offer greetings to passing guests, as does the equally well-positioned head butler stationed by the elevators on the hotel’s third-floor, where my butler-served room was located.
That made it easy to request services like a hot pot of tea delivered every morning without having to pick up a phone; I just asked when I was on my way to or from the beach or other activities.
Guest rooms featured mini bars stocked with complimentary snacks and drinks, and the resort offers a menu of fun add-on butler services, from laundry pickup and shoe-shining to delivery of room service food, nightly aromatherapy, a choice of pillows, and handcrafted soaps. Butlers also will draw a hot bubble bath in the en-suite tub, located a step down from the bedroom area with views of the ocean or the Cancun lagoon from the nearby French balcony.
The smart service extends to the “BLANCSPA,” which delivered one of the more expert massage treatments I’ve received in a hotel spa.
The Le Blanc spa is well equipped with a hydrotherapy area, hot and cold plunge pools, a sauna, a herbal steam room, chromotherapy, sauna therapy, a relaxation lounge, and 19 treatment rooms.
Upon arriving a few minutes early for my treatment, I was led by an attendant through a brief but invigorating pre-massage ritual utilizing the sauna and steam room (I opted out of the cold plunge). A lot of spas have similar facilities but don’t provide the one-on-one guidance — they could learn a lot from Le Blanc about how to extend the pleasure of a spa visit.
On my next visit I’ll try the signature, 80-minute Kukulcan massage, billed as a “sacred Mayan ritual” where four hands are choreographed in a simulation of three traditionally revered animals — jaguar, snake, and eagle.
I didn’t get to experience as many of the resort’s dining options as I would have liked during my short stay, but was very impressed by what I did get to sample. Long story short, the all-inclusive dining at Le Blanc is indistinguishable from a visit to a high-end, standalone restaurant — in Cancun or any other big city.
The service, menu options, decor, atmosphere, and food quality were excellent, from the Mexican breakfast options at the pooloside, open-air Terraza to the delicate sushi and interesting rolls at Yama. Other dining choices included elegant Italian dining at Bella, modern Mexican at Blanc, fine dining at Lumiere, healthy eating at Pure, a poolside ice cream shop, Glasé, and a chocolate and coffee shop, K’akau.
The beach is almost an afterthought, but the resort is located on a broad swath of Cancun’s famous white-sand beach, with ample beach chairs, cabanas, and other shelter available to guests. On the fringes of the property you’ll find nesting areas for sea turtles, with periodic evening hatchings a delightful addition to the resort’s daily activity calendar.
For more, visit the Le Blanc Spa Resort.
