Stop! Read on! It doesn’t mean I have to have a pretentious logo wearing staff, or Frette sheets and Bulgari toiletries. Okay, those things help in my quest, but I want an experience. I want a visually pleasing place. I want the room to be unbelievably clean, and I want the service to be wonderfully “spot-on” as well as unobtrusive.

In fact, if I am “expense account” traveling, I won’t stay at the big name hotels. I will hunt down a bargain at the best small boutique hotel in the city I am visiting and stay within a fairly reasonable budget. If it’s my own dime, I hunt down the best bed and breakfast in that very same city. I love to travel, and like many of my family members, I spend an exorbitant amount of time researching the city I am visiting as well as the lodging options.

My wonderful fiancé and I married this past summer. Last November, after hours of research, we booked our honeymoon at the Excellence Riviera Cancun. It’s a luxury all-inclusive resort for adults. What’s funny is I hate the words “all-inclusive.” I detest all-inclusive anything of any sort. I detest buffets. I hate cheap liquor in pink frothy drinks. You can’t beg me to participate in a pool activity. And after one afternoon at the “swim up” bar with drunken karaoke, that gets old as well.

Fortunately, we found a totally different kind of experience. We pulled the trigger on an ocean front room at their Excellence Club (EC) portion of the property. If you are trying to impress your date or arrive with a little romance intact, do not do what we did. We took one of those awful airport transfers (rookie mistake). And then, the transfer company representative called every morning at 8:30 a.m.to sell us some tourist package. I nearly lost my mind.

But thankfully, the hotel was a different story. As soon as they got our name at the front gate, the special EC bell boy greeted us with cold towels and champagne. We bypassed the front desk, and he walked us through the property to our private check in at The Club.

We were asked when we wanted our room cleaned, our coffee service delivered and what kind of newspaper we would enjoy. The Club atmosphere was quiet, as well as beautiful with mahogany walls, beautifully appointed furniture and computers for our use. They were serving tea and champagne with canapés and petit fours.

Our room was decked out in marble and travertine. It did smell a little musty when we arrived, but we lowered the thermostat and lit the incense left by staff on the huge jet tub in the middle of our room. We had a flat screen TV, a four poster bed with lovely linens and a second Jacuzzi tub out on our balcony. We overlooked one of the swim-up lagoons, and there were hammocks scattered up and down the waterway which made us clap with delight. There was a bar with top- shelf liquor, and a refrigerator stocked with sodas, mixers, water and candy bars. And if we needed anything, we were assigned our own club concierge who answered our every need. “Oh, Pablo, might we have a little champagne?” “Why yes of course Mrs. Vallin - it’s on its way. “ We had nightly turn down service with weather forecasts and cute (real not cheesy) Mexican trinkets left on the bedside tables. Yes, these newlyweds looked like two fat cats that had eaten two HUGE canaries. We couldn’t stop smiling and I think I almost skipped at one point.

Here’s the exhausting routine:

• 8:30 am: Hot coffee service with fresh cream arrives with two fruit plates in our secret little delivery closet outside the front door providing maximum privacy.

• 9:30 am: If needed, we might choose to have breakfast at the Mediterranean or Lobster House restaurants. We liked the sushi, beef Carpaccio and salmon with an egg or bagel, capers and red onion. I always had mango yogurt with granola, too. Or we would order room service and eat our breakfast looking at the turquoise ocean on our lovely balcony.

• 10:30 am: We would drag ourselves out to the “Club” beach where Moses was waiting for us with our champagne bucket of Dos Equis. One of us would lie on the beach bed and the other on a cushy beach lounge under our own palapa.

• Noon: We would wander over to the Club pool and float around until around 3 - sipping margaritas “a la rocas” - made with Herradura or Cazadores, Grand Marnier, and fresh lime juice.

• 3:00 pm: We were ready for the ultimate club sandwiches and fresh guacamole.

• 5:00 pm: Nap time until 7 pm followed by a walk on the beach and the grounds while the others were having early dinners.

We always skipped the nightly entertainment and opted for romantic dinners at the restaurants around 9:30 pm. At this resort, reservations were never needed. My favorite night was appetizer/cocktail hopping through three or four restaurants. We dined on sushi and sashimi, a lobster burrito and of course, some more of their wonderful guacamole. There was also a beautiful flaming coffee at the Agave restaurant. All the food is muy yummy.

This all inclusive resort is everything you dream it will be. It’s relaxing, luxurious and the staff is outstanding. The Excellence resorts are now building in Jamaica – I bet we’ll beat you there.