Dreams Tulum Resort & Spa

I’ve been to a number of all inclusive resorts and I don’t hold back. I am the first to complain about things so here it goes. People need to stop complaining about the 2 hour bus ride. It’s a great way to see Mexico! Check-in is extremely professional and expeditious, your bags are immediately brought to your room. If your room isn’t ready, big deal, walk around, have a drink and relax. My wife and I are very critical of food. The food is not gourmet 5 star but there isn’t much to complain about. If you eat something you don’t like, get something else, or go to a different restaurant. You can also order room service, which is excellent. I’ll say it again, room service food is awesome, fast and fresh. So, no one here should be complaining about the food, the worst they can say is it won’t blow you away. Absolutely no one should complain about the beach, a few rocks but you can walk around bare footed. If you have aqua socks/shoes, you will be fine. Our room had mosquitoes as did our friends. Spray some off in there and you’ll be fine. The smell in the rooms is from the water in the bathroom. Yes it is salt water, but its not a big deal. Actually feels kind of neat, its no different than jumping in the water. Pools are awesome, swim up pool bar rocks. The pool has seating all around the edges. Activities are nice and the staff really get people involved. The “loud music” by the pool is nothing to complain about. If you read that in someone’s review, skip the whole review. If you want it quiet, go to the other pool or sit on the beach. Wait, the waves may be too loud, just stay home. OK, you may have a day where the maid doesn’t clean your room, guess what, pick up the phone and ask. Which brings me to the most important aspect of this resort. From the moment you arrive, you are treated like royalty. I know, I know, most people are easily impressed when visiting an all inclusive. Trust me, I’ve been to about a dozen of these all over the Caribbean, I’ve also heard stories about great service. The service here is genuine and unmatched anywhere in the Caribbean. They are not happy until you are happy. Couple examples: When I arrived at the resort, I was on crutches, they got me a wheelchair without asking for it. Through the week, different people asked about my progress and applauded when I was able to walk on my own. No matter what you ask for, no one will ever give you an attitude, they will always go above and beyond what is expected. Ask a waiter to bring you two orders of nachos by the pool, they will walk to the restaurant and get you two plates of nachos. I won’t get into it but we were very demanding and they delivered every time. We were blown away. No matter what goes wrong or what problem you have, the incredible service will overshadow ANYTHING. I tipped about $200 in singles, and it was all well deserved. I never tip just because. No one there ever expected a tip, even the room service guys who dropped off the food in a down pour at night, just put the food down and took off. You had to stop them so you could give them money. Most resorts, I would tip the bartenders to get better service, here it made no difference. Top notch service regardless of tips. I’ve never seen anything like it. No one behaved any differently when tipped. The one thing all of these reviews had in common, they all raved about the service. Don’t bother bringing large insulated mugs like we did. Getting refills on drinks is never an issue. The construction: Yes, The resort looks like its doubling in size. Yes, you may hear some noise. It won’t keep you up at night and it won’t ruin anything. If anything its actually cool watching how these guys work. I was disappointed in that after dinner, there is nothing to do. If you are a young adult, you are screwed. Luckily we were with another couple and played poker every night. The shows ---…..I mean they absolutely ---. I guess this is good for families but not people who like nightlife. A trip to Playa del Carmen is worth it. Stay the evening/night if you want to party and take a cab back. You will enjoy it. We took the “free shopping tour”. Basically, if you agree to stop at Lapis jewelers for an hour, your transportation two and from play is free. Not bad, but the people at lapis are crooks. If you try to negotiate with them, they get offensive with you. Like you insulted their kids. We were told to negotiate with them, when we were trying to buy $2000 worth of merchandise and asked for a 20% discount, we were told to keep our money and leave. Word of caution, don’t take the ATV tours offered by the hotel. There was a girl who flipped hers and ended up in the ER. She almost died and the tour operators didn’t even help with anything. The ambulance wanted $800 up front and the ER wanted $1500 US before they did anything. They make you ride ATV’s on the sand inline with no goggles or eye protection. Real smart. Final advice: For anyone who already booked a trip to dreams tulum, stop worrying and stop reading all the reviews like I did. You will have a great time and come back so relaxed. For young people who like to party, this isn’t the resort or area for you. For parents or families, this place is perfect. I won’t be on this forum anymore but you can email me at denutzer at yahoo dot com. Cheers and have fun, Ash Patel

My little family (couple with a baby) just returned from a week at Dreams Tulum and had a great time. The beach is beautiful and the pool nice. The food and servic went far beyond our expectations. The main buffet serves a variety of dishes tastes better than any buffet i ate. The rooms are nice too. Entertainment was so so, though we liked the fact that it was quiet and romantic (walk on the beach at night). We will definitely try to return.

Dreams Tulum January 13, 2006 – January 20, 2006 Arrived at the Kansas City airport the recommended 2 hrs prior to boarding. Check-in took approximately 3 minutes. Good grief what am I supposed to do for the next hour and 45 minutes. (Note to self – no need to get to the airport so early.) Flight from KC to Houston was fine and flight from Houston to Cancun was fine. Made our way through the Cancun airport to the stop light where I was told to push the button. Lucky me I get the dreaded “red light” so up on the table goes the suitcases for them to dig through and then on through the sharks (timeshare folks) and outside to find our Apple rep. We had paid extra for the private transfer and so once our baggage was stowed in the van we were off. We arrived at Dreams (Sunscape) Tulum approximately 90 minutes later and after a quick check in were directed to our room. The room had a slight musty odor so we turned on the ac and opened the patio door. (I never noticed the musty smell again while we were there but this morning when I was doing the laundry it seemed like all of our clothes had that musty odor). A little later while we were waiting for our luggage to arrive, a bottle of champagne and plate of fruit was delivered to our room and later that evening a rose and 2 chocolates were delivered. We went for a walk on the beach heading north first and then south trying to decide which direction might be best for running. A beach party (barbeque) was held that evening. One of the couples we sat with had arrived earlier in the week and had also booked their vacation through Apple and had been brought to the resort on a bus and it took them just over 3 hrs to get from the airport to the resort and the other couple had been brought to the resort in a 15 passenger van that made 2 or 3 other stops and it took them slightly more than two hours to get to the resort. After hearing their stories I was very glad that I paid the additional $100 for the private transfer (another benefit was that no one else was checking in when we did and so our check in was very fast). As we were leaving the barbeque to head back to our room, a light rain started to fall. By the time we were nearing our building (approximately 2 minutes later), the light rain was now a downpour. Our room was on the 2nd floor and the stairs to get to the 2nd floor are on the outside of the building. Evidently the architect that designed these buildings was a genius because the eavespout is directly above the bottom of the stairs and so as I hurried around the corner to rush up the stairs I got drenched with the water that was pouring out of the eavespout. It was rather amusing. Because we had been up so early, (2:00 a.m.) we decided to go to bed early. Soon after shutting off the lights, I could hear something dripping and so turned a light on and found that water was dripping in the entry way around the light fixture. Knew that no one was going to be able to do anything about it right then so just put a towel down on the floor so that we wouldn’t be able to hear the dripping. Sat. Jan. 14th - The next morning I am awake at 5:30 (and I am not normally a morning person) and so woke up my husband to see if he would go with me to the beach to watch the sunrise (he can’t believe I am waking him up at this hour when we’re on vacation) but he does finally get up and so we head to the beach and go to the south. He walks with me for a little while and then he starts his run while I continue walking. My suggestion for anyone wanting to take long walks at this resort is to wear tennis shoes and socks. The composition of the sand is such that I found wearing any other footwear just too painful. The slivers of coral can really cut up your feet. Now for short strolls along the beach you can go barefoot or wear flip flops or water shoes or whatever but if you are wanting to go for long walks (and you can go for long walks in either direction) I definitely recommend the tennis shoes and socks. By the way, a few hundred yards south of the resort is a military outpost and there is usually a soldier stationed there with a gun so don't be alarmed when you see that. That afternoon we played tequila volleyball in the pool. The volleyball was fun. The tequila was bad. We had supper that night at the buffet and then back to our room. Sun. Jan. 15th – Get up and go for a shorter walk and then grab a couple of bananas for breakfast. Head to the back of the resort to meet up with others for the bicycle tour to the Tulum ruins. These bikes weren’t the kind of bikes most of us are probably used to riding. They had 1 gear and only some had brakes (mine did not). There was a group of 30 or so of us and we left the resort at about 9:15 and arrived at the ruins approximately 30 minutes later. It cost $1.00 each to park our bikes and then we walked down the road to the ruins (because it was Sunday we did not have to pay to get in to the ruins). I was really hoping to hire a guide to tell us more information about the ruins but there weren’t any available when we got there so we just wandered around on our own and then went down to the beach and stayed there for a while until it was time to meet back up with our group and head back to the resort. We ate a late lunch at the El Patio restaurant and the food was really good. Spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach. Mon. Jan. 16th – Again went south for my walk and met a lady from AZ that has been coming to this resort for the past 4 years (and was staying for 5 weeks). She was able to tell me that the deserted looking buildings that I was near was Caleta Tankah and that it had obviously been badly damaged by the hurricanes. I asked her about the 5 buildings just a few hundred yards to the north of Caleta Tankah and she said that they have never been occupied in the years she has been coming but that this year they had added a third story to them. Each building looks like it has 6 units and so I assume at some point they may be available to rent. On the way back to the resort I saw an egg in the sand. At first I thought maybe someone had just put it there as a joke but as I stood there a wave washed it a little further inland and I could see a few cracks in the shell and after a few minutes more cracks appeared. However I didn’t stay around to see if anything came out. That afternoon we decided to take a walk to the north of the resort and ended up walking for about 90 minutes and were on the beach area that is located between Tankah Bay and Soliman Bay (didn’t know where we were at the time but after looking at the aerial shots now know that is where we were.) I have to say calling parts of this area a beach is being very generous. There were several places where instead of a sandy beach it was huge coral rocks. We decided to go inland in this area and probably 20 feet from where the back of the beach should be was where the sand was and the vegetation was also heavily damaged(thanks to the hurricanes). A short distance down the road 4 dogs came running out of a driveway and nearly gave me a heart attack but I just talked to them and they came up and started giving doggy kisses. The distance from the ocean to this road we were on was probably only 70 yards but the temperature difference felt like it was around 15° warmer. That evening we went to the French restaurant. Please remember that I am farm girl from Iowa and so I didn’t know what half the items on the menu were but thought the green salad sounded pretty safe. Well when they put it in front of me it wasn’t what I expected and I can’t even describe what it was. But I ate a few bites and moved the rest of it around to make it look like I had eaten it. It wasn't necessarily bad just not what I expected. I ordered some kind of fish as the main entrée and it was very good and my husband had the pork medallions which he said were very good. My main observation from our meal here is how incredibly rude some people are. At Dreams you can go to any of the ala carte restaurants as many times as you want but they don’t take reservations it’s just first come first served and if you have to wait they give you one of those things that light up to let you know a table is ready for you. We went right after 6 and was shown to a table right away. Next to us was a table for 10 with 4 people sitting at it. Over the course of the next 30 minutes 2 more people showed up and sat at the table and by the time we left a couple more had arrived but still not everyone and so they hadn’t even ordered by the time we had finished our meal. My point is this – if you are a big group wanting to eat together, it isn’t fair for a few of your party to get there early and hold a table while the rest of you get ready. Good grief 2 groups of 4 could have had their meals and been done by the time all of the people from that party ever arrived. BTW this was a group of Europeans. Tues. Jan 17th – Left the resort at 8:45 for the Mayan Adventure Tour. This tour took us to a lagoon at Akumal, a cenote and to a cave for snorkeling. This tour costs approximately $75 per person and I felt it was worth the money. We returned to the resort shortly before 3:00. It was really windy and so there was a red flag on the beach. We ate at the Italian restaurant and while we were waiting for it to open I was talking to a lady that had eaten at the French restaurant the night before and she was complaining that the portions were too small. Frankly I thought the portion sizes were fine but you certainly can’t please some people. If you are still hungry after your meal, just order dessert and if still hungry order a 2nd dessert. Wed. Jan. 18th – I went for my normal morning walk and my husband ran. This was probably the best day for a walk as the ocean was really calm and so there was more hard-packed sand to walk on. Spent the morning laying on a lounger at the beach and hubby and I took out a kayak. After lunch at El Patio, we took a taxi to Akumal (180 pesos). I had brought some children’s books (Spanish) and pencils, colored pencils, markers, hair things for girls and Matchbox cars for boys and so I wanted to take them to the library. We walk down past the Akumal Dive Shop and to the beach. I notice the web cam and point it out to my husband. We continue down past the ABR and sit on the rocks and just enjoy the view and the sounds of the waves and the feel of the breeze. After leaving the library we go the Cyber place to get on the internet (since it was much cheaper than doing it at the resort). Checked our home and work emails, checked the weather back at home and sent an email to our kids (which they never received so I guess it’s lost out there somewhere in cyberworld.) Headed back to the resort and had supper at the buffet (seafood theme). Thurs. Jan. 19th – This is our last full day and so I am feeling kind of sad. Went for another long walk on the beach. It was cloudy and cool and so went back to the room and laid in the hammock and read a book. Played sand volleyball in the afternoon and that was fun. There was a wedding on the beach in the late afternoon. Rained later in the evening. Fri. Jan. 20th – We have to leave today. Went for a last walk on the beach but as we were coming back towards the resort I just kept walking slower and slower. I spent the last hour on the beach while hubby finished the packing and checked out, etc. Left the resort at about 10 and arrived at the airport at 11:15 and when we went in I could see it wasn’t going to be the 5 minute check in that we had in KC the week before. The line for Continental stretched back practically to the door. We did finally get to the front of the line at about 12:15 and we were one of the lucky ones who didn’t have our bags gone through. So we headed to Gate A-9 to wait for our flight. Later we were all told that our flight had been moved to Gate B-2 so we moved to Gate B-2. Uneventful flight from Cancun to Houston. Lavatory problems with the plane in Houston delayed the flight to KC by about 30 minutes but uneventful once underway. Snow in KC made the drive home tricky but we made it safe and sound. Summary: Loved our stay at Dreams Tulum. The mini bar was stocked w/ 2 bottles of 2 different beers, 2 diet cokes, 1 sprite, 2 regular cokes, 2 different juices and 3 or 4 water bottles when we arrived. My husband drinks diet coke and I knew I would want the water so the next day he put an empty diet coke can with a couple ones w/ it and there were 4 or 5 diet cokes in the fridge the rest of the week as well as 5 water bottles. The staff at the resort was just great. They were always smiling. All of the food we had was great and neither of us were ever sick. We did not try the sushi restaurant or the Asian restaurant. The buffet has a different theme each night, ie. Seafood, Mexican, romantic, Italian, oriental, etc. My favorite meal at the buffet was breakfast. We stayed in a jr. suite garden view room (#337) and it was about as far from the beach as you can get at this resort but still only took us a couple of minutes to get from our room to the beach. The room was always cleaned (usually around 3). We did see some very small ants running along the wall behind our bed a few times and as I mentioned before we did have a leak in the entry way (I did advise the front desk of the problem but do not have any idea if anything was ever done). We always had plenty of hot water and the water pressure wasn’t bad. Would I return to this resort? Definitely but if I could afford it I would try to get one of the new ocean front rooms once they are finished.

This resort is not a 6 "golden apple" resort, others visiting this resort referred to it as a "Mexican Prison." I would rate it a 4 at best. We went to this resort via a 6 apple square deal package, we didn't think we could go wrong since it's supposed to be the best of the best. It was rather strange, we were told in Milwaukee that we'd be staying at Secrets Capri, but when we arrived at the Cancun airport we were told that we'd be at Dreams/Sunscape, what a disappointment that was after the 2+ hour bus ride. What's even stranger is that this same thing happened to 8 other couples and we found our names a list indicating that we were supposed to stay at Secrets Capri? When I go on a vacation I prefer to be pampered above my current standard of living, on this vacation I felt as though I was roughing it in some cases. I've never vacationed at a resort that had salt water showers... yuck, not so good on the skin or hair. The men's bathroom in the lobby of the resort had multiple urinals filled with urine, This is absolutely gross. In addition we had tons of ants all over the walls of our bathroom, as well as light fixtures without covers. Treatment of guest wasn't consistant, friends we were traveling with in the same type of room would receive roses every night, we'd hardly have our room cleaned before 7, much less roses or towels. The evening entertainment was okay, however, everything pretty much closed up by 10:30 and they only had one bar open. This isn't a good resort for individuals that like to party, visit Playa De Carmen if that's the case, however, that's a 40 minute taxi drive at $35 each way. This was our honeymoon, we asked multiple times for the honeymoon package described in the Apple Book, but it was never given to us, this was likely because we did a square deal? The resort was really run down, not due to the hurrican either, they cleaned up after that pretty well. Our stay wasn't terrible, we made the best of it, but we do feel it's important for other traveler's to know that this is not a 6 apple, likely a 4 or maybe a 5, that's why we were most disappointed. The weather was great. I highly recommend the sushi restaurant, yummy, order more then you think though. The construction work from 7-6 was also very unpleasant.

My wife and I just returned from Tulum in Mexico. We stayed at the Dreams Tulum. Going there we understood that it was a Sunscape Tulum, but Dreams bought it and the fact that it was a 6 golden apple made it an easy decision for us to book this resort. Upon arrival to the resort, everything looked like maybe a 4 apple, certainly not a 6 golden apple. Getting to our room was a trek. We were in room 417 all the way at the end of the resort with no shuttles provided. When we got to our room, we noticed dead mosquitos on the walls with blood splatter. This was quite annoying to my wife, and after 5 calls and 2 visits to the front desk the problem was fixed. The next thing was the lack of a hammock and alarm clock we were supposed to recieve in our room. NO hammock, NO alarm clock. I had called for a wake up call the next morning, but the phone never rang. After all those problems were fixed the honeymoon went without a hitch. An occasional lack of hot water awaited us in the morning, and the toilets are terrible. The beach was beautiful, but if you go down the beach even 20 yards off the resort sand there garbage and I just about stepped on a needle. The service was excellent. The waiters were all very polite and were always there at your side when you needed something or was ready for the next course. The resort had excellent restraunts, with Italian being our favorite. There was only one bar that served all drinks so it was a bit of a pain. And as I said Dreams bought this resort so there is a lot of construction going on which didn't bug us at all. In a few years this resort will probably be worthy of a 6 Golden apple badge, but not now. The excursions we went on were Chin Ha, Xcarat, and shopping in Playel Del Carmen. All were great times with no problems.

this is a very friendly family resort. i find that the resort to be great value for your money. when you leave the airport you will have at least a 2 hours bus ride, but enjoy the scenery and stopping at the other resorts along the way. when you arrive the bellman greet you with smiles and champagne and cookies. they give you a moist cool cloth. very good. daniel one of the bellman took great care of us, hats off to daniel.`this was truly a remarkable property. the jungle look and the flowers and the whole hacienda style theme, really felt like mexico.there is a natural cenote near the mexican resturant beside th lobby area. you can swim or snorkel if you like. this is a mellow type of resort and not a party place. our room was very big and very nice, good size bathroom and shower, hot water and plenty of it. nice patio and a hammock . THE RESTURANTS ARE TO DIE FOR we tried a few of them. lets begin with the buffet the la hacienda, they served mimossa in the morning, let your imagination run wild with all the foods, it was incredible, fruit stations, pastries, ommellettes, on and on. MR JUAN great guy , goes out of his way to please you every morning. the cassanova the italian resturant VERY GOOD AND ELEGANT the service was very good and the food very delicous. the senggigi the asian resturant was very good also, excellent food and excellent service. the presentation of the food was incredible. most times the food was so pretty you did not want to eat it. el charro the mexican resturant , we ate here for lunch definitely our favorite. the salsa and chips the chicken sandwich. cayetano was very good at remembering different people drinks and foods. this food at the resort was very good probably the best i have ever had, the service was outstanding and they really go out of their way to please you and make sure you enjoy your stay. the breakfast was top knotch ! DRINKS were impressive and plentiful. Louis a great bartender a delight to know. bar staff were outstanding they work hard. they use the top of the line alcohol. ONE POOL large size pool, nice pool, volleyball net for the pool also. ANIMATION STAFF ANNIE AND ERICA TWO GREAT LADIES, always smiling and offering games and stuff to do. they had water aerobics in the morning around noon. they offered some games not a whole lot. THE BEACH not the easiest to manouver especially to get in the water. lots of ROCKS, BRING WATER SHOES definitely a must makes it alot easier for yourself. i really enjoyed walking along the beach searching for treasures like shells and coral, never before had i had the thrill of finding large shells on the beach, i felt like a little kid again. i really miss it! ENTERTAINMENT evening entertainment we did enjoy watching the movie on the beach. the POPCORN was a great touch. they did have other shows the one i liked the best was the mayan dancers VERY VERY GOOD. you will truly enjoy this. there is also local vendors that set up during the week to sell there goods such as artwork,carvings, jewellery, cigars and mexican blankets. something for everyone ! the concierge Linda Capelli is a very nice person, ready to help in any way. a delight to talk to and to know. hopefully with the change to DREAMS the resort will not loose the WONDERFUL CHARM. i already MISS THE RESORT TERRIBLY. i hope this review gives you some insight to the resort and what it has to offer.

We had 10 fantastic days at the sunscape tulum. I had read the reviews before going & was a bit nervous but I neednt have worried. Check in was fast & efficent after 25 hours travelling the champagne went down very well!!! The rooms- We were in room 324 It was alot bigger than I expected & very clean. The beds were comfortable but could have done with more pillows im sure if we'd asked the maid we would have got some but never seemed to catch her. Reyna was our maid & she was excellent leaving rose petals on the bed was a nice touch & she would come every night to turn the beds down. Pool & sea Never had any problems getting seats by the pool or on the beach. Had read that it was very rocky in the sea but we went in the bit by the trampoline & had no problems at all. Restaurants We ate at the Italian - outstanding food went there a few times. Had breakfast at the buffet which had a good selection also enjoyed their lunches plenty of choice. Only ate there 1 night & didnt tbink much of that meal but that could just be down to personal preference!!! Also liked the mimosas tbey served us for breakfast!! The mexican restaurant was my favourite had lunch & dinner there alot & it was lovely & we were looked after very well. Drinks Very impressed with these!!! The service on the beach & at the pool is outstanding Freddy is a star always smiling & works so hard I wanted to take him home with me!!! Also Luis & all the bar staff deserve a mention couldnt do enough for you & always seemed suprised if I gave them a tip never felt that they expected it. Tours Here was my one problem booked a tour with Nancy at Hurucan tours & were messed around big time. We ended up on the wrong tour (it wasnt what we expected or had booked) Firstly we had been told it was cancelled for the morning but that it would run in the afternoon, not a problem. However when we started this tour & realised it was not what we had booked we asked the guide why our tour had been cancelled that morning we were told that it hadnt it was just overbooked!! Have made Linda Capelli aware of our problem & she was very good & has promised to sort it out for us. Construction How hard to these people work? Couldnt believe how hard they worked in that heat when we arrived the pool was nowhere near finished within a week they were filling it with water. My husband has a building business and he would happily employ them all!!! The noise of the construction never bothered us at all, just wish we had managed to get into the new pool before we left (it opened just after we left, we missed it by a couple of hours!) However theres always next time. There was a problem with the water one day we were there but it was soon remedied. We were on holiday & didnt let things like that worry us. All in all I would reccomend Sunscape/Dreams tulum to anyone. We got married in Jamaica and now wish we'd done it in Mexico!!! Go & enjoy, chill out, be pampered and let the fantastic staff look after you!!!

I stayed at the Sunscape Tulum for a fortnight from 13th Nov '05. On the second day of my holiday I decided to get on the water trampoline, climbing on the water was over my head. I dived off the opposite side (further in to the sea) and it was less than 1 metre deep. I broke 3 x ribs, and 4 vertebrae in my back and managed to puncture one of my lungs as well. I think that it is dangerous of the hotel to put the water trampoline out when it is not deep enough to be dived off. There are no signs up saying dont dive - in fact asign on the trampoline shows diving and jumping is recommended but not at the same time. The sand at the sunscape is cloudy so it is impossible to tell how deep the water is. I spent a month in a hospital in Cancun and spent 2 weeks in intensive care, fantastic healthcare but not how I would choose to spend my holiday. I would like to get in touch with the Belgian guy who helped me out of the water along with his american wife who wasa nurse, I would like to thank them for saving my life. In terms of the hotel, facilities were fantastic for the 2 days I was there - Sushi restaurant really good as was the Italian a la carte - no reservations needed and you can eat there as many nights as you want during your stay. The lunch restaurant was great - I am still dreaming of the buffalo wings. Staff were fantastic and the rooms were in keeping with the Hacienda style of the whole hotel.

We took a group of 10 - extended family - to Tulum over Christmas. The results were mixed. The place is beautiful, the beach is nice, and the food was excellent. They don't seem to completely have their act together, though. There were significant problems with the plumbing. Water pressure and drainage were problems, as well as the water in shower being salt water. We had water dripping from the upstairs bathroom the entire week. There seemed to be a staffing problem and little things like clean beach towels and clean towels for the room were in short supply. It was not as kid friendly as some of the other all-inclusive places that we have visited. It looks like it ought to be a real nice place, but it's not there yet.

We just returned from the Sunscape Tulum. We had a great time and all (myself, my husband and my 18 year old daughter) would like to return. No "musty smell" and no construction noise when we were there. We asked in advance for a quiet room and it was just that, quiet and comfortable. The room was clean and pleasant and I loved sitting on the balcony or snoozing in my own hammock. The food was excellant and even though we never made it to the Asian restaurant I'm sure the food there would be superb. Kudos to the pastry chef as the bread, pastries and desserts were great. The hotel staff was very friendly and helpful and they often tried to teach us rudimentary Spanish. Alvaro, from Olympus travel set us up for two days out of the resort. We went to Coba, had lunch in a Mayan restaurant and visited a Mayan family at home. The shopping at the Mayan restaurtant was fine and we bought rugs and pottery masks. We also spent a full day at Xcaret and Alvaro gave us useful tips on where to go at Xcaret and what to see. We saw riders on horseback, Mayan dancers, wonderful birds and floated down an underground river. The park is much less comercial than anything we've seen at Disneyworld. We didn't get a chance to see everything at Xcaret and hope to visit again. Xcaret including the dinner theater may seem expensive but was worth every penny. The night time show was amazing. Thanks to Alvaro we had a great time outside of the resort. We also took a taxi for $6 each way to the Tulum ruins and that was interesting as well. I can see how people come to Suncape and never leave. But my family likes to go places and these day trips were exhausting so we balanced them with lazy days at the beach. You need to get to the beach right after breakfast to get a chaise under an unbrella. The staff provides the towels, drinks and snacks. All inclusive is the way to go!!! The only additional expense was copies of the great photos taken by the resort's photographer at $10 each. You only pay later if you want copies of the photots so let him lots of photos. This is a fine place for families with kids of all ages and for couples seeking a romantic, relaxing vacation. Not a place for singles looking to party. Be generous with the sunscreen and enjoy yourself. The only bummer was the the Cancun Airport. It took 2 hours to get through the lines at immigration and customs and the 1 and 1/2 hour ride to Tulum at night was wild. You need special skills to drive Highway 307. It was easy getting through the airport on the way home and the Olympus staff at the airport were very helpful.