If you’re looking for a family all-inclusive resort in Mexico that’s close to the Cancun airport but not jammed into that city’s busy hotel zone, Sensira Resort & Spa north of Puerto Morelos is an ideal choice. It is jammed with things for the kids to do, has plenty of dining and drinking variety, and even some rental work pods if you need to put in some laptop time while you’re here.
The first impression of this beach resort is a grand one. A spacious lobby has lighted glass flower sculptures and large columns that glitter with gold tiles, all reflected in the polished marble floors.
Check-in staffers provide cool towels and a welcome drink upon arrival and large windows look out on the swimming pool complex. The architectural boldness continues outside where two floors of rooms connect two other building sections, those rooms suspended in the air and directly facing the water.
Refreshingly, there are no scratchy plastic wristbands to don here and no endless tickets to sign like you have at some resorts on this coast. Just order what you want and enjoy.
Food and Drink at Sensira
There’s an impressive collection of outlets for drinking and dining at Sensira, with a high standard of quality for what’s in your glass or on your plate. Often the all-inclusive resorts will only have one bar open at a time throughout the day and night, but there are always at least two options available here and sometimes more in the evenings.
The main restaurant is a large buffet one that is a good choice for families, especially at breakfast when there’s a wide range of cooked and cold items available, including an eggs-to-order station and a great spread of fruit and pastries. There’s a nice mix of items from this region of Mexico, plus some international standards for those who don’t want to get too adventurous. The juice area has champagne and vodka if you want to get the party started early.
This option is joined by a pool grill close to the beach for lunch. This serves sandwiches, pizza, and salads in addition to great Mexican choices such as fish tacos and seafood aguachile. There’s also a coffee and ice cream stand at the ground level under the lobby.
The options open up more at dinner when four specialty restaurants rotate on different nights depending on occupancy. I had an excellent Yucatecan meal at the Mexican La Finca de Ana, beautifully presented and delicious. Then the next night I dined on a well-prepared steak at Rodeo Grill and did something I certainly hadn’t planned before checking in here: riding a mechanical bull.
The two other dinner choices are Galerie de Sens, a fancy French restaurant, and La Tentazione, a Tuscan Italian restaurant. Then there’s Kiosko, a snack bar open until late in the evening.
For having a drink and socializing, the two daytime bars are the air-conditioned lobby bar and a thatched-roof one out by the swimming pools and beach. Waiters are making the rounds bringing drinks from the latter to individual lounge chairs and cabanas as well.
In the evenings, the lobby bar is joined by several other choices, including a clubby English-style pub that might make you forget you’re at a beach, complete with pool tables and scheduled casino nights. There’s also the terrific Amber Lounge that’s more contemporary, with an impressive collection of higher-end tequila and rum to choose from.
Then kudos to Sensira for setting up a place where the family can hang out together. The fun Serendipity Lounge has adult beverages and mocktails on the menu, big screens with sporting events or music videos on, and a game area.
Pools and Activities for Kids
Sensira Resort and Spa has three separate pools to choose from, all surrounded by ample lounge chairs. At one end of the spectrum is a fun kids pool with several sets of water slides, a bridge and fountains. At the other end is an adults-only pool with some lounge chairs in the water and a view of the Caribbean waters. The largest pool is for everyone and also looks out at the water over the beach. More lounge chairs and daybeds are on the beach itself.
A full spa is available if you want to get in some extra relaxation, with a menu of massages and treatments. Or if you need to get some work done, there are pods from REMO Club that you can rent for the day to do Zoom calls, upload videos with super-fast Wi-Fi, or pound out some reports so you can stick around longer in the tropics.
In a region of Mexico where there are plenty of family all-inclusive resorts to choose from, Sensira Resort stands out for really taking the choices to a new level of fun in the Riviera Maya region. Any kid who comes here is going to compare every other place Mom and Dad books in the future to this and most others are going to come up short.
The list of spaces for young ones available here starts with the standards, like a kids’ club that has supervised activities (one for tykes, one for ages 4 to 12) and a game room with ping-pong, air hockey, and foosball. Then there are activities geared to young travelers set up on different days. Those are just the start though, as the list goes on to include a movie theater, a full-on disco, a lounge geared to teens, a climbing wall, an indoor trampoline zone, and even a zipline across the pool area.
But wait there’s more! An 18-hole miniature golf course is on one upper level of the hotel, there are basketball hoops by the pool and volleyball nets on the beach. Outside of low season, there’s a theater here with live entertainment shows.
Two tennis courts and a gym are on site as well.
Sensira Resort Rooms
Rooms at Sensira Resort are spacious and well-equipped, with marble floors, furnished balconies, and attractive bathrooms with refilled toiletry bottles and attractive lighting, including make-up mirrors. The color scheme is mostly earth tones with some splashes of navy blue. Solid wood cabinets are good quality, with black stencil designs and cut-out areas.
Each room has a minibar that is refilled daily and they’ll adjust the mix of what’s in it on request. There’s a 43-inch cable TV, capsule coffee maker, robes, slippers, and an electronic safe. The WiFi worked quite well during my stay whether in my room or elsewhere on the grounds. There’s nightly turndown service and 24-hour room service.
The suites offer more space, often a more direct ocean view, and butler service at the three top tiers. Many of these have a whirlpool tub. The splash-out option is the Diamond Suite, which comes with its own private swimming pool on a big party deck and its own billiards table in the living room.
Booking a Riviera Maya Family Vacation
Rates start below $400 per night all-inclusive here when it’s not high season, for a couple or a family. That’s a terrific value considering all that’s included here. There are taxes on top, but no gotcha fees for WiFi, parking, or anything else.
Get more information and make a booking directly at the official website, which has information about all room classes, restaurants, and amenities. You can also check rates at Hotels.com.
Review and photos by Hotel Scoop editor Tim Leffel who was hosted at the property and worked at a REMO pod for purposes of review.
