When you step through the threshold at the Excellence Riviera Cancun, relax and allow your breath to be stolen.

Forgive yourself, as you should, the complete and shameless abandon of your New York City bustle.

Drop your woes, Blackberry’s and day planners off at the Cancun airport - just scant minutes away from this dreamy paradise.

Allow yourself to be captured. I did.

Stroll into the grand vestibule and submit, if you will, to the sights, fragrances and sounds about you, as you feel your senses heighten and poise - ready to inhale every last drop of The Excellences’ wonder, in grand elegance and lush tropical splendor.

Take in the powdered sugar-lined beach front stretching for miles. Poke a toe into the aquamarine bath warm ocean - as vivid as a masterpiece painting. Marvel at the backdrop of rich peaches and cream castle-like structures, peppered throughout with lazy hemp hammocks and lavish palm trees and gardens, bordered all the way around by a maze of pristine swimming pools.

Be greedy for the first time in ages, as you see hear taste and smell absolutely everything, all for yourself, from the meticulously prepared gourmet fare offered in a diversity of cuisines, to the dirty blond thatch palapas whispering an invitation to your own private lot of sun kissed beach.

Lap in The Excellences’ signature luxury, as it dispels the myth of the cliché all inclusive resorts we all have come to expect. I did.

My invitation to The Excellence allowed me to experience this resort in the spirit of a romantic getaway.

While romance is as diverse as the hearts that beat it, The Excellence manages to offer every universal aspect of it, showcasing any given couple’s fantasy getaway, from honeymoon or vow renewals, to anniversaries and beachfront weddings - choreographed from start to finish on the resort premises.

The Excellence offers private beachfront candlelight dinners complete with an enchanting harp player strumming classical pieces while you dine, breakfast in bed delivered with discretion and quiet finesse, a state of the art discothèque for dancing till the wee hours and nine different drink spots including a Martini bar, appointed to concoct the martini of your dreams.

Expect luxurious rooms and suites, many with both indoor and outdoor Jacuzzi’s, a walk- in shower room complete with teak wood bench, rose petals sprinkled playfully atop white towel doves upon your king-sized bed. Find champagne chilling for a spontaneous toast, and a top-shelf stocked bar for a nightcap later in the privacy of your room.

Best of all, visit the Excellence Spa. Treat yourself to healthy hydrotherapy in the pool, a Swedish sauna, or a deep tissue massage. Enjoy the afterglow of your treatments in this cavernous oasis and finish with some cleansing aloe juice. Sip a flute of champagne and nibble on a chocolate covered strawberry.

Be a guest at the Excellence Resort in Riviera Cancun, Mexico. I did.

After all, sometimes don’t you just want to be swept off your feet?

Excellence Riviera Cancun Mexico
Carretera Federal 307
Chet-Pto. Juarez, Km. 324-342 Mza.
7, Lote 1, S.M. 11
Pto. Morelos, Benito Juarez Q, Roo, Mexico, C.P. 77580
www.excellence-resorts.com

- Review by Karen Holly Berliner (KHBCSW@aol.com)