Reviews of Sandos Gala Playacar Hotel, Playa Del Carmen

We decided to book a late deal for the Easter holiday through Sunmaster, going through people's comments we decided on the Sandos resort in Player Del Carmen, when we arrived at the airport the transport was waiting to take us (my partner, daughter and myself) and one other family to our hotels.

The hotel was ok our room was quite old looking it only had one double bed and a worn out sofa bed, there was no bath only a shower overall it did not look anything like the brochure picture.

We were not happy so my partner spoke to the manager who was more than helpful, the next day he gave us two choices one was to move to another room or take a look at there sister hotel the Sandos Playacar, we looked at both and decided to take up the offer of moving to the other hotel which was beautiful and the room was perfect.

We had a fantastic holiday the staff were very helpful.



I would recommend Sunmasters to friends & family.

We had an excellent time here. The hotel is very well laid out, although if you opt for the suites they are the road side of the reception & further from the beach.



The rooms are the usual standard, ours (1427) overlooked the pool & sea, was clean & well maintained, as was the whole complex.



The staff are very pleasant & helpful with nothing too much trouble.



The food was good with the buffet restaurant being better than the a la carte's. With the 3 a la carte -Mexican, Mediterranean & Italian- the food was good quality & well presented but always cold, whichever restaurant you used.



The buffet cooked food regularly so it was always fresh & hot - steaks, salmon, large prawns (lovely) even chateaubriand, good selection of veg & tasty soups. Fresh salads with crab, avocado & smoked salmon.



Fresh fruits (good strawberries) & pastries. Loads of snacks around, crisps & nuts, corn Doritos with tomato, onion & cheese dip, cakes & pastries (all covered) & left on the bar to help self.



The drinks were good, all brands, just name your choice. Decent wines with meals, liqueur coffees. Cava at breakfast.



What little we saw of the entertainment looked better than most other hotel based, (not the bad singer with the bontempi organ or country dancing!) this was quite professional, good costumes, well choreographed.



The animation team provided the usual activities during the day. They even dressed up as Batman, the Devil & Michael Jackson & ran along the beach with a bottle of flavoured Tequila.



There were also lots of other little things happening early evening, to make you smile & pass the time.



The hotel worked hard to make it a memorable holiday.



This hotel has the best stretch of beach, broad with soft sand. It narrows the closer you get to playacar. Unfortunately the sea was too rough to swim or snorkel, presumably the time of year.



The weather wasn’t that great, it was cloudy till around 10 & the sun had lost heat by 3, it wasn’t cold by any means & I never wore a cardigan at all, just not as sunny as I expected. It rained quite a bit - mostly at night. No trouble with mosquito's or any other insects.



Took a cab to Playa del Carmen ($5) pleasant area, plenty of bars & restaurants & shops selling usual tourist stuff. Playacar is a 5 min walk away & although only a small area the shops sell the same things a little bit cheaper.



That about covers it - we had a great time.

If you haven't booked yet, don't. If you have already booked, don't bother with the Royal Club unless all you want is a view of the water. They do not deliver on any of the other "upgrades" indicated except for entrance to the VIP beach. But don't think any member of your family can spend any time with you there if they do not have a gold wrist band.



The resort was newly painted and refurbished after the hurricane. The beach has brand new tiki hutches and all the buildings look great due to new paint. The trees that are still there are almost bare however and shady spots by the pool or at the haciendas is at a premium.



Don't expect to get a drink while at the pool or beach without having to go get it yourself. You'll have to wait in line because each bar (2) has only one bartender. Get to the beach and/or pool early to "reserve" your chairs. Sometimes there were 4 chairs reserved at either place from early morning until 3:00 or so when the people showed up finally to use them. It can get a little annoying.



Every bar and restaurant are understaffed. Service is slow and after your first two cups of coffee you are ignored...unless you put a dollar or two down on the table for incentive. The wait staff were friendly, just overworked and overwhelmed. We tried to tip whenever possible to get better attention.



The Royal Club is not worth the money as mentioned before. The upgraded mini bar refers to the one in the VIP lounge, not the one in your room. We never saw robes, a fruit basket or had turn down service. We didn't get preferential treatment for restaurant reservations. We could only get one reservation. We figured out that it was because they only had staff for about half the tables in the restaurants. Late checkout is another perk that didn't exist for us. We had to fight to get a 1:00. We even tried to pay for a "day" room. We were told that we could sign up to use the two rooms they set aside for guests to use after checkout. But we had to wait until 9:00 a.m. the day of checkout to sign up. My husband arrived at the concierge at 8:50 and was told all the space had been booked already. We were given this 'come back at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow to take care of this request" a few times. Always with the same results. Sorry, not available. The desk staff in the lobby is not very helpful. They seems to have a "us VS them" attitude.



Unfortunately the food was not very good either. Not any variety and the cooks at some of the stations are clearly tired out and sick of guests. We do recommend the burgers grilled at the beach. They were quite good. But burgers can get pretty boring after the 3rd day.



We did eat at the Mediterranean restaurant and everyone liked their choice of grilled skewers. No one tried the seafood. Service was spotty.



My husband was so upset by this resort that he wanted me to write the most horrible review I could. But I'm really trying to be fair. That said we won't ever go back there again, even if it was free. We'll stick with Iberostar's from now on.



I do want to mention some positives though.



The maids were all very nice, worked hard and did a great job. The bartenders also were friendly but clearly overworked. Sorry, that's it.



A word of caution. The pools were filthy. After two days you could not see the bottom. This includes all the pools in the hacienda areas as well. If you have sensitive skin or kids that tend to get water in their mouths or eyes... watch out. Two of our grandkids are sick with coughs. Don't know if it's related but I'd bet it is.

Brill, Brill, I went by myself unsure of what I would find, but I shouldn’t have worried, the staff were wonderful and ensured that I was not left on my own, joining me at mealtimes and in the bar and nightclub/disco.



The food was plentiful and a wide choice from basic breakfast (after too many tequilas the night before!!) or full cooked and make your own choice of omelette, lunch was another wide choice and even on the themed nights there was still a wide choice if you didn’t fancy Mexican or Italian. there was another restaurant that caters to the kids choice of burgers etc but the salads etc available in the main restaurant were hard to resist.



Rooms were large and cleaned well the mini bar (free) was stocked daily and bottled water delivered to the room, room service was also available and also free. The evening entertainment had many outstanding shows and even if you didn’t fancy that there was always something going on in the bar and later in the nightclub.



The area was outstanding and easy to get to the various sites, a visit to Exceret must not be missed. I enjoyed myself so much that within 2 weeks of being back i rebooked for three weeks this Easter, cant wait...

We stayed at this resort from January 1st to January 8th. The beach is absolutely beautiful! The accommodations were good, however the rooms were not cleaned in any kind of order so there were days where our room wasn't cleaned until 4pm. Breakfast buffet was good and room service was also good.



Lunch consisted mainly of hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, nachos, fruit and various sandwich meat and it wasn't too impressive. For dinner, there are three restaurants: a Mediterranean (not very good, be weary of sea food), Mexican (very good food and excellent service....I wish I went more than once) and Italian (average).



The drinks were decent...quite watered down. If you want a local drink, try the "Caiparina"...it's strong but it is so good. A very family oriented environment. Lots of children. Lots of activities on the beach (beach volleyball, soccer, kids activities) and an equal number of activities in the pool area (tequila volleyball, basketball, water aerobics, kids contests, etc.).



The nightly entertainment was good. We did not have an opportunity to visit the night club/disco however. Overall, I would rate it a 4 + facility simply because the food wasn't fantastic. The staff were very friendly and definitely appreciate the tips!



I would recommend this place to friends/family. The beach is absolutely unreal. Enjoy your vacation!