The day the CDC announced that vaccinated Americans could travel abroad, I started looking at plane tickets. Both our babymoon and wedding anniversary trip were local due to the pandemic. I was so excited to splurge on a trip. We landed on Mexico because it’s only a two-hour flight from Tampa. Picking a hotel was much harder. There are so many all-inclusive resorts in Mexico, and a lot of them have incredible reviews. After going back and forth between Le Blanc, Excellence Playa Mujeres, and Unico, we settled on Unico 2087. It’s a newer adults-only hotel that’s about a 90-minute drive from Cancun International Airport.
I booked our trip through JetBlue Vacations because it was the best deal that we could find. It includes free airport transportation, making it more than worth it if you stay outside of Cancun. We would’ve been paying at least $100 roundtrip if we had to book a transfer ourselves. We stayed from Friday morning to Monday morning, which honestly wasn’t enough time. If I did it again, we’d extend the trip another day or two, but Vagner had to get back to work, and I knew we’d miss Nora too much. Here are my tips for making the most of your vacation — I hope you enjoy this Unico 2087 review!
Unico 2087 Customer Service
When you walk into the hotel lobby, you’re greeted by a staff member waiting with a refreshing drink and a local host who makes your meal reservations and answers any of the questions you have throughout your stay. Our host Krystal was fabulous and helped us book an excursion and gave us her WhatsApp number to ask questions whenever we wanted. Service at the resort remained terrific the whole time we were there, and we were waited on hand and foot. I’ve stayed at a few all-inclusive resorts and haven’t ever had room service or service calls answered so quickly. Negative COVID tests are required to return to the U.S. The hotel also provides free rapid COVID tests on-site and sets up the appointment for you.
Quick tip: Bring more cash than you think you’ll need. Buffets and bars are closed due to COVID, so you’ll have a waiter for every meal. You’ll also want to tip your local host generously. There’s an ATM in the lobby, but it only gives pesos and charges $6 USD to use it.
Food and Drinks
Flank steak from 20.87 Restaurant; Short rib from Cueva Siete
Folks, this is where Unico shines. Most of the other all-inclusive properties I’ve visited have food that’s just satisfactory. I usually eat burgers and chicken fingers from the pool bar at other hotels. Unico truly blew us away, and I found myself looking forward to every meal. We didn’t get a chance to visit the Italian restaurant Mi Carisa, but the other three restaurants were divine. We got to try a guest menu from Abel Hernández, the chef behind Eloise Chic Cuisine in Mexico City. Vagner said it was one of the best meals of his life, and I found myself agreeing. The drinks were also appropriately strong — I’m used to all-inclusives watering down cocktails, which led to me having one too many rum punches my first day there!
Quick tip: Try the sushi at Mura House and the beef tips at 20.87. Get room service at least once. Really, though, you can’t go wrong with anything.
Hotel Property
We booked the Alcoba Ocean View room, and I can confidently say that it’s even better in person. Having a private hot tub was incredible, and the bathroom was extremely spacious. I never took housekeeping up on their offer, but we had the choice of turndown service every night. This is the only section where I have anything negative to say about Unico 2087, so buckle up. The pool was super crowded every day and had more of a party atmosphere, so not the romantic vibe we were expecting. Because it’s a smaller property, we had fewer pools to pick from as well.
The biggest surprise was the beach. Due to an influx of seaweed and us arriving right after Hurricane Grace, the beach was a no-go. They obviously can’t control nature, but it may be better to visit once the seaweed calms down if the beach is important to you. There weren’t any lounge chairs available on the beach, but that could be because we got there after a storm. The beach was also not private, which isn’t a huge deal, but we had people trying to sell us drugs whenever we walked by the shore.
Quick tip: Visit the beach at nighttime, although I’d stay close to the hotel for safety’s sake. We saw a turtle laying eggs, and it was incredibly cool.
TL;DR: Unico 2087 shined when it came to food and customer service. The pool and beach experiences both left something to be desired. I have ample access to the pool and beach here at home, so that wasn’t a determining factor for me. We’ll definitely be back. If you have any questions or if I missed anything, let me know in the comments!
