Thanks for booking with BEACHES ETC!

Your comments and opinions are very important. Please take a moment and tell us about your vacation. If there was a great story, funny thing that happened, Your most romantic moment or Adventure, or if you had a little problem. Please let us know so we can pass on the information to the right Company, Hotel, Airline etc. This is to ensure vacation quality and customer service for all.

THANK YOU for your business!
Kerri L. Aungst
BEACHES ETC

Hi Kerri,

just wanted to let you know that we had a wonderful time in Tulum. Dreams Resort was beautiful, the food was great, the service was great, the rooms were very nice, endless beach (just like you said)...everyone loved it! I went scuba diving on Monday, then the wind came up and the ocean was too rough to go out the rest of the week, but that was ok. Laying on the beach or by the pool reading a book and drinking pina coladas wasn't too rough. It was a great vacation. Thanks! Talk to you soon. Steve

Hi Kerri,

We got back from the honeymoon and just wanted to let you know that we had a wonderful time! The Aventura was an amazing resort. It was so beautiful, quiet and relaxing. We loved Mexico and can't wait to go back! The excursions with the hotel and with Apple were both wonderful. We really had a great time. Our only complaint was the flights. It didn't appear that you had requested specific seats when you booked our flights, so our seats coming and going were terrible. Going to Mexico we were seated in the last row of the plane and coming back we were directly in front of the exit row, so neither time did our seats recline. It was a bit of a bummer. However, overall the trip was wonderful. We really had a lot of fun! Thanks!

Dana & Andrew Strotheide

Re: Out of all the years with booking packages, this is a first complaint on seats. Usually they are automatically assigned through Apple Vacations when making reservations with them. And upon check in can be changed. I apologized to my clients for this and it shouldn't happen again. I try to make sure this doesn't happen.

Terry said you were interested in hearing about the resort. This is what I am posting on trip advisor. Over all, Terry and I were both impressed with the value and were thrilled that we went there with our kids. We would have been heart broken if our only goal was romance.

Thanks again for your help! We were so pleased with your service and your skills!
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My 3 and 6 year olds loved this place. My husband and I were so glad that we could take them to Crown Paradise Club Puerto Vallarta. Had it just been the two of us, we would have been pulling our hair out by the end of the week. But we weren't there for a romantic get away, thank goodness, we were there to enjoy our time as a family.

THE GREAT:

The children were treated as royalty upon our arrival. They have their own check-in desk ( a mini pirate ship) and even a mini luggage cart. My son was delighted to follow the bellman to our room with his and his sister's back packs on the cart. They were even greated in the lobby with mocktails. By the way, if you have kids, try to be on the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th floors overlooking the kids pool. NOISY!!! But so worth it for the kids. Plus you can still see the ocean from there.

The room was clean, the balcony large and the bathroom was indulgent. It was almost too big - everyone felt it was ok to be in there at the same time. So much for modesty :) But the water pressure and temp were perfect and the tub was terrific.

The kid's pool. There is simply nothing like it! The water was consistently warm. There is even a little jacuzzi area in center - a great place for parents to sit and watch there kids go nuts on the princess castle, pirate ship, and 9 slides! The pool is designed with water depths of 9"- 2 1/2'. It also has a considerable number of levels, built in benches and mini pools. Its shaded in the afternoon, but still warm so its a great place to keep your little ones out of the sun.

The playground - clean, modern, padded ground.

The beach. I have been to PVR dozens of times and this was one of the cleanest, best maintained beaches that I have seen. There is a jetty running out (watch the sea urchens - I got 5 stings in a matter of seconds) into the water about 25 feet at the half way point along the beach. One side of the jetty is more calm than the other. Great for the kids. The water was clean!

The kids drink menu. The bar tenders were great with the kids and encouraged them to order on there own. With SOOO many families there, there was a level of safety in knowing that all of the parents were watching out for allof the kids, so they could have a little bit of independence. Some parents took this too far and would leave their kids at the kid pool uattended for hours on end. But, when my husband and I wanted some ocean time to ourselves, it was easy to find another family for them to build sand castles with.

The palapas. My son infoms me that there are 110 palapas - more than enough. Generously sized, each outfitted with 4 comfy chairs and a table with cup holders. Lots of kids would sit right under the palapas in the shade building the castles of their dreams.

All in all, our trip was great. But please don't bother going here unless you are doing it for your kids. And, by the way, The Marigalante is worth every penny! We've went on the night time party cruise (which shoots off firworks everynight in front of Crown Paradise Club) on another trip and couldn't wait to take our kids on the day cruise. My son went nuts! It was really like a fantasy come true. They catered to the kids and made the time really enjoyable for the adults as well. As an added bonus, the captain re-routed the boat so we could do some whale watching. It was satisfying to realize that all of the other whale watching excursions did nothing but sit there and watch whales while we got that plus sooo much more for the same price and time investment. The food was far better than that at the hotel as well.

One more tip - if your children are weak to moderate swimmers, don't hesitate to bring along swim vests. Lots of kids had then and it made the ocean more safe and enjoyable for everyone in the family.

Blessings,

Karen O'Keeffe

Re: Aventura Palace

Hi Kerri,

We've been using BEACHES ETC for years because you are friendly, reliable and easy to work with. Booking an international, coastal trip is tricky because the condition of beaches and resorts can vary from year to ear due to weather, changes in ownership, etc. We love working with Kerri because she can provide the most current info and recommendations on the best place to enjoy your beach vacation. This year we chose to visit the Aventura Spa Palace in Riviera Maya (about 1 1/2 hours South of Cancun). What a beautiful, amazing resort! This place was a top-notch, high-quality, all-inclusive resort. The property is immense - so you can really enjoy a broad range of experiences without ever leaving the resort - from light hiking to swimming, fine dining (the head chef of the Italian restaurant is from Italy) to night clubs, relaxing spa treatments and relaxation in every form you can possibly imagine. There is no natural beach on this particular property, but the lagoon inlets, man-made sand beaches and incredible pool never left us wanting for anything more. If you're anxious to enjoy some beach time, Playa del Carmen is only about 20 minutes away by cab (some of the most beautiful beaches in the area). In terms of the resort, we're really picky about things like cleanliness, service, quality liquor and food. The Spa palace exceeded our expectations in every one of these departments! We will definitely be back.

Thanks again, Kerri, for a great recommendation and a worry-free trip!

Steve and Jessica
Erie, Colorado

picture attached: Enjoying some Don Julio Tequila at the THAI Lounge
in Aventura Spa Palace

Re: Leaving on his honeymoon to Sandals Halcyon in St. Lucia

Thank you so much Kerri! You've made this experience wonderful! When I get back from my work trip and have a chance to speak with Jodi, we'll get that whale watching thing signed up. Thanks again!

-Mike Walker

Re: Costa Rica Trip from Thank you Card

Dear Kerri,

I just had to write to say thank you for planning (actually making our plans a realty) our trip to Costa Rica! We had a fantastic time there. The Caribbean coastline between Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo is so beautiful and in many places you have the beach to yourself. Shwanda (the 1st place we stayed) had the most beautiful flowers and there were lots of howler monkeys. Tabacon Resort is like being in paradise with all the plants and hot springs. We saw the Arenal Volcano erupt 3 times-twice at night. It's spectacular! We also went on the canopy tour (zip line). It's so much fun, but not for scaredy-cats! The monteverde area is wonderful. The climate is perfect, about 70 to 75 degrees in the daytime. We saw flocks of parrots, toucans, and several quetzels, which are one of the most beautiful birds in the world. I know that you really worked hard to get these places and dates we wanted. Also the transportation from one place to the next really made things so much easier for us. Thanks again for helping to make our vacation great!

P.S. I will share my pics when I get them developed

-Patti Payne & Stephanie Albert

Re: Western Caribbean Honeymoon Cruise

Hi There,

There finally here, the honeymoon pictures.... Click on the link below to see our honeymoon in pdf format. I needed to put it in this kind of format because because the amount of pictures and I wanted to say a little about the pics as well.

click link to see Honeymoon pdf

Re: Honeymoon Riviera Maya

It was wonderful to have Kerri help us schedule our trip. She is very knowleageable about many different places. I was skeptical at first, never having been outside of the country. I was very nervouse that we would get lost and have troubles, but she explained to us that someone would be there at the airport to show us which shuttle to go on. And for all of our excursions that we went on there was always a tour guide and there was even a person to help us choose our excursions. Plus Kerri saved us a lot of money, it was cheeper than just going online, plus we could buy Travel Insurance. So about Mexico, It was beautiful, and the people were very friendly. They had so many different things for us to do wheather it was at the hotel or not. It was absolutely amazing and I would love nothing more than to go back someday.

Sarah & Jess Bird