Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa

My wife and I stayed At the Caracol Villace Jan18-25,2003. It definetly isn't a five star hotel but is a great place to stay. The airport was a nightmare, it was a 2 hour wait to get through customs and our signature rep at the hotel (Natalie) was a useless,rude,lazy bag. The rooms were great, the staff was great, Melena the girl who looks after the kids was awesome. The food was good the beach was nice. Sorry I'm not much of a story teller but all i can say is we would stay ther again.

We just got back from a one-week stay (Jan 16-23/03) at the Caracol Village. Thought I'd jot down a few things while they're still fresh in my mind. We had a great time and would definitely go back to the Caracol Village. The price was quite reasonable, especially considering we only had to pay for the airline flight for our two kids (age 10 & 8). Our accommodations were really nice, however the only complaint I had was that the balcony that we envisioned sitting out on in the evening while our kids slept was so small you would be hard pressed to fit two chairs out on it. Also, the view was on to a jungle area. Oh, and our room was very dark as our fan did not have a light on it. But, the showers were huge, lots of hot water, comfortable beds and all in all it was a nice place. We were in #16 so we didn't have to walk too far but I might have been miffed if I had have been in numbers 20 - 24 because they were waaaayyy far out. The food was good, not outstanding, some things didn't appeal to me but the buffet was so huge you could always find many things that you liked. I particularly enjoyed the breakfast and had the same thing every morning ( French Toast, sausages, fresh fruit and orange juice). The one thing I would complain about is that there is no designated non-smoking area and while we were there there were an abundance of Europeans who smoked (it seemed they all smoked). They do put up little signs on tables here and there that say "non smoking" but if you look around, the tables adjacent almost always had ashtrays on them. Go figure! The Kids Club was really good and Malena who runs it is truly wonderful. She is just great with the kids and goes out of her way to get to know them, somehow remembers all their names and makes them feel special. This is most evident at the nightly entertainment when she gets all the kids involved - it is truly worth going to watch, even if you don't have kids with you - lots of laughs! We really enjoyed the nightly entertainment and in fact missed our coveted reservation at the Meditteranean Restaurant because the kids didn't want to miss the Michael Jackson show. It was worth it - the nights were all excellent, my kids particularly enjoyed the "Mr Caracol Village night" and the Comedy Night - a little racy for kids but very funny! The staff were excellent and the activities team really try to get everyone involved in doing something. My husband played a lot of beach volleyball which was very fun to watch. Lots of laughs. Kind of neat when you have 6 players from 6 different countries playing together! When we were there the majority of the vacationers were Canadians, most notably Manitobans and a whole bunch from Saskatchewan. There were also people from Germany, Holland, Poland, Scotland, France and Italy. It was a great "life lesson" for our kids to see first hand the benefit of knowing another language as both are in French Immersion and on one excursion our daughter acted as translater for us! She was quite proud of herself! The beach going into the water was rocky but this didn't deter us. About a 5 minute walk down the beach there is an area that is free of rocks if this bothers you. My husband was pretty pumped when he heard there was a nude beach about a 10 minute walk south. He was pretty disappointed when we got to the resort only to find out that this seemed to be an area only frequented by males (if you get my drift!), also we were told walking that stretch at night was not a good plan with kids as you were apt to come upon some sights that you certainly wouldn't want your kids (or myself for that matter) to see! The major downside to this resort is that it is fairly isolated, there are no resorts nearby and it is about a 10 minute drive to Playa del Carman (5 minutes down the potholed rode off the highway). You could walk the beach to Playa del Carman but at a really fast clip it is about 45 minutes, closer to 1 hour or more, depending on how fast you walk. We didn't try it with our kids. Don't buy any packages from the hotel. We paid a lot less in Playa del Carman (about 40% less). We went to Tulum and Xel Ha one day and really enjoyed that. I would definitely go back to Xel Ha in the future. The snorkelling is wonderful. I heard the excursion to Isla de Murjeres was great. We planned on going to Cozumel for the day but never got around to it. We were pretty content to stick close to the hotel as there were lots of things to keep both my husband and I content and our kids as well. A week was definitely not enough in order to see and do everything we wanted. Would we go back to Caracol Village?- absolutely. It was good value for what we spent and we had a terrific time.

Just returned from a week at Caracol Village (Dec. 30th -Jan.6th. We had a good time, and enjoyed the property! Property was spotless, the food was good. Lots of variety. The staff was very friendly & willing to help any time. Nice beach, yes a little rocky but you could pick your way out into the ocean. Very laid back hotel & if you are looking for the BIG party this is not the place for you. Side trips are expensive and the prices are in US dollars, Canadian dollars not recommended. Only problem was, we had to wait 2 1/2 hours to finally get our room on arrival day. Check out time is noon. If you come in on an early flight you then have wait for your room. And if you are leaving on a late flight home, you should consider booking your room an extra day. We watched people sitting in the lobby beacause they had 6 hours to kill before they left for the airport.

My wife and I have just returned to the cold, white north following a wonderful week at Caracol Village. Having reviewed many comments on this resort prior to booking our holiday, and you have to take some with a grain of salt, we found that this resort exceeded all of our expectations. I am not a big fan of buffets, however, I did find the daily buffets presented at Caracol to be very good, offering a good variety of food. Both a la carte restaurants were very good but our favorite was la Riviera. Make sure that you book your times as early in the week that you arrive as possible in order to avoid disappointment. The rooms were clean and comfortable with tile floors and came complete with TV (about 6 english channels) and hair dryers. The shower stalls were large (easily accommodate two people) with good water pressure and lots of hot water. The beach was wonderful fine sand and you could walk for miles to the south of the resort without tripping over other resorts. You could actually walk all the way into Playa del Carmen which will take about 1.5 hours if you don't stop to swim or beachcomb. Many of the comments about this resort were negative on the swimming area in front of the resort as people found it to be rocky. I personally did not find this to be much of an issue as there is a sandy trail through the rocky areas to deeper water where there is a more extensive sand bottom. Also, there is a great sandy swimming area about a five minute walk to the south of the resort so you can pick your spot. The rocky areas in from of the resort (and elsewhere) made for more interesting snorkelling than what a sand only area would provide. For those of you who may be shy, just a word of caution, topless sunbathing is common at many (if not all) of the resorts in this area with about 5-10% of the women being topless during our stay although this was confined to the pool and beach areas only. We also discovered a totally nude beach about 45 minutes south of the resort during one of our walks for those of you so inclined. There always seemed to be beach chairs available but in order to get the good ones you did need to claim your spot (place a towel on the chair) before 8:00 am. Once again we never had a problem getting our choice of location. The other need to rise early was if you wanted to catch an early shuttle into Playa del Carmen. For this you needed to be up at 6:30 am but considering that some of the other resorts did not even have shuttles, and you could always take a taxi at any time, this is a personal choice if you want to sleep in or not. It was perhaps the grounds of this resort that really made our stay. I prefer natural surroundings and this resort has been developed keeping the natural environment in mind. Although they do have manicured garden and lawn areas around the buildings and pools, much of the area between the units has been left in a natural state. I noticed that the resort had been awarded an Environmental Award for 2002/2003. As this resort is fairly spread out, the only downside may be if you are located in one of the units furthest away from the beach but this is only a 5 minute walk. This may be a hassle if you had small children with you so ask for a pool or beach view unit if you can. I would recommend this resort to anyone who is looking for good value in an all-inclusive resort and would not hesitate to stay here again. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any any questions about this resort or the surrounding areas.

When I first walked into the room, I smelled a very musty/mildew smell. I walked into the bathroom and noticed that there was rusty water on top of the toilet seat and I looked up and the light fixture was dripping water. I told the front desk about both issues. I was told that because the hotel was near a lagoon, the smell was from that. A maintenance man fixed the leak, temporarily. The next day the leak was back. Again I told the front desk and again someone came to the room to fix it, again temporarily. On the third day of it leaking I told the front desk either the leak gets fixed or I want another room and an upgrade. Lo and behold the maintenance person came out and said that the leak was from the room upstairs. When I got home, I had to wash my clothes, even the ones I didn't wear twice to get the smell out. I didn't eat in the resturants but I did eat at the buffet. The hot food was not hot. The only food that was hot was the food that was cooked on the grill in front of me. I will choose another resort when I go to Playa Del Carmen again, which I will do within the year. The country is beautiful and well as the history. Toni Papia

My girlfriend and I stayed at Caracol from Dec 1-8 and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Positives: decent buffet food (especially liked the mexican theme night), excellent Mediterranean a la carte (make sure you book as soon as you can, not the day of), nice soft sand, beautiful blue water, impressive shower water pressure, friendly staff, pour your own beer (though no Coronas or Sols, only XX), very tasty burgers and guacamole at the snack bar, lots of drinks (even Cuervo Gold), and overall tranquil atmosphere. Negatives: mosquitos (make you use your repellent), one day they ran out of beach towels, lots of rocks in the water by the resort (not so if you walk south 15 min), cigarette butts in the sand...come on people, some respect for the environment, kind of quiet after the daily staff show ends. Bonus: We were celebrating my girlfriend's b-day that week so I e-mailed the hotel in advance regarding this, and on her birthday when we returned from the beach, they had some flowers on the bed and a bottle of champage in the fridge...cool! Note of caution: When arriving at the Cancun airport, avoid the "info booth" by the baggage claim as they will just try to get you to goto a time share presentation, but disguise it as a discount way to buy tour packages. Oh, by the way, the walk from Playa to the resort is 2.5 hrs, not 1 hr. Hope this helps!

I was there nov 29 to dec 13 [ single] had a great time meet lots of people the beach is a little rocky but i new that just have to wade in slowly and off you go where there is rocks theres fish all cans of them lots of other sports to do as well trust me the staff here lets you know you can lay on the beach and not have to werry about your stuff drinks are great get to know the bar maid or man and its two for one for canadians had no problem with the food it was great but no hp sauce the rooms were good like what do you want you came here for a tan not lay in bed and watch tv and be a [casber] anyways i will be going back again maybe same time so i can practice drinking back a beer and give the mexicans abetter go

I have divided my review into several parts: welcome, room, location, activities, beach and food. WELCOME We were very impressed by our welcome to the hotel. Our bags were taken and the bell boy imediately put a really yummy drink into our hands. This was much appreciated after the 40 mins ride from the airport. Some of the other reviewers mentioned having to wait for their rooms, but we got there at about 2pm and after checking in we were taken immediately to our rooms. There were alot of dire warnings given about the consequences if we were to lose the room remote, the key to the room or the safety deposit box key. Rating 8.5/10 THE ROOM Our room made a very bad first impression on us. The bedspread was old and very stained, AND THERE WERE NO PILLOWCASES ON THE BED! (Luckily I had read one of the other reviews and had brought my own. Thankyou!) The room itself was very small, but after closer inspection was actually quite attractive with alot of tilework. The shower was absolutely massive, the water pressure was unbelievable, and we had lots of towels, but no facecloths. We also had a problem with a horrid sewer smell coming out of the bathroom some mornings, but we just kept the door closed. Also, our last night there we decided to go to bed early, (about 10:30) and there were guys renovating the room next door. We phoned down to the front desk at 11, and nothing was done about it, but then my husband went down in person, and they agreed it was kind of late, and quit for the night, which we appreciated. My advice to anyone staying here that has trouble sleeping would be to not stay on the ground floor, as the sound of security guards and people walking by seems to carry very well into the room. Also, I never slept past 6 in the morning, as around 5:30, guys would start going past our room with carts which sounded very loud on the tile. (This could also be a positive, as the sun come up at 6:30, and I always got my pick of spots on the beach.) We tipped the maid a couple of US dollars a day. I think that she appreciated if, as every day she made flowers and fans for the toilet paper rolls and did different things with our bathmat. We sort of looked forward to seeing what she would do each day. Rating 6/10 LOCATION This hotel is about 45 mins away from Cancun, and only about 5 mins from Playa Del Carmen. They have a free shuttle, but it doesn't leave until 10, and the last return was around 5:30. It could only take 11 people at a time, and everytime I looked at the sign up sheet, it was full with a waiting list. What we saved by staying at this hotel was eaten up by the price we had to pay for cabs. Just to Playa cost 75 pesos one way, and for Canadians at the current rate of exchange that is almost $15. Youch! The road to the hotel was TERRIBLE. They were fixing it the day that we left, and are actually in the process of building a new road that would be closer to Playa, but as it was when we were there, they could have called it a jungle trail and charged admission. Rating If you never leave 10/10 If you want to experience the sites 5/10 ACTIVITIES I am not really qualified to rate the daily activities. My husband and I spent alot of time on tours and siteseeing outside the hotel. On the days that we spent at the hotel we were so worn-out/dog-tired that we just layed on the beach. There seemed to be alot of people using the kayaks and the windsurfers, and there was always something going on at the pool. The nightly shows were...OK. The dancing shows weren't too bad. One night they choose 4 guys at random to compete in a talent show, and it was hilarious. Their "comedy" show left something to be desired, as it depended alot on farting noises. The kids participating in the activities before the show seemed to be having alot of fun, but the "disco" after the show seemed a little lame. Rating 6/10 BEACH After reading up about Caracol Village I was somewhat concerned about the condition of the beach. However, I think that the beach was one of the selling points of the hotel. The beach was very long and quite wide. Every morning a couple of guys would come along and clean up anything that washed up on shore. The sand was quite fine and white. The chairs were plentiful, and the beach had many of those grass "umbrellas" and some palm trees if you wanted any shade. There are places where it is quite rocky in the water, but there was quite a large area that was clear and rock free. There was only one day that was quite windy that was unsafe for swimming. It seemed very acceptable to go topless on the beach, and I actually saw a few women walking around with no tops. (That surprised this modest Canadian girl who thought she was being daring by taking her top off lying down on her beach chair) Rating 9/10 FOOD I actually thought the food was quite good. (I was surprised due to a previous bad experience at another all-inclusive) The highlight was the seafood night where they served a shrimp stirfry and every kind of seafood that you could imagine. Everything that I tried in the buffet restuarant was very good. I especially enjoyed the omlettes cooked right in front of you, the fresh-fruit smoothies, and the French bread. Of the two a la carte restaurants we enjoyed El Bandito the best. The service was amazing and the presentation was spectacular. The snack bar served really good chicken burgers and hamburgers. My favourite was the coffee bar. They made great cappicino and had really good cookies. The bar on the beach was great. We followed the advice of a previous review and brought travel mugs which we found useful for the excellent strawberry dacquiris that the beach bartender made. Just remember, if you ask for "mucho Bacardi", you will get MUCHO Bacardi!!! Rating 8/10 ****Overall, we enjoyed our stay at Caracol Village. Would we stay there again, probably not, but it was a good price, and offered clean rooms, good service, great food, and a fabulous beach.

I stayed four nights Dec. 8-12 in room 2701 and have a terrific, relaxing time. Walk south and halfway between Caracol and downtown Playa is a remarkable stretch of beach enjoyed by the locals more than tourists. It's a haul, but if you're up for a great walk it was worth the entire trip. Great hotel staff, food and easy company.

After booking my holiday i came hear to see some of the reviews and was a little afraid after that. But my experiance there was amazing. it made me realize how lacking some of my vacations were - and it was not much worse than my 5 star jamaica vaction was that i paid over 3 times the money. The staff were super friendly and always ready to accomodate - the activites people were always quick to get you involved. The Food - well the restaurants are great. there are 2 'fancy' ones that you can only eat at once a week - when you do, the service is outstanding as they only have 1 waiter for every 2 or 3 tables and the food is amazing. Aside from there the buffet is huge, hot fresh bread, deserts, fruit. if you cant find something here you like there is something wrong with you. each day they have a different 'theme'. seafood night was my favorite - shrimp and as many giant grilled prawns you can eat. The next day the pasta dish always seemed to have yesterdays left overs built into it ;-). The beach grill is ok - nothing too fantastic here, but the chicken wings are great (i think its cos of the free range chicken). the beach does have some rocks, but its no biggie - if thats a big deal to you go to the other beach thats a 5 min walk south (theres a guy from the resort there to watch you and feed you drinks). both were great beachs cos there were no beach vendors hassling you every 5 minutes. the only problem with this place is i figure they resort holds 400 people but they dont have nearly that many beach cabanas. in order to get one you have to get up early (8am at the latest) and put your towels down where they stay all day long (weather you are there or not) - it pissed me off cos i saw pool chairs and beach cabanas that i wanted to use but couldnt and no sign of people all day long. they have a relax pool for adults only - i never had any problem getting a chair there. they have nightly shows that were ok, nothing special, but something too doo all the same (bar right there). after the shows the place turns into a disco, but nobody really went there. go into playa if you wanna party. the drinks were good, beer taps and pop taps face out (dos xx) so you can serve yourself and they will give you the smirnoffs and bacardi if you asked. the service was very very quick at all of the 3 bars and they would put extra booze in the drinks if you wanted. when we were there it was mostly europeans so be prepeared for alot of speedos, thongs and toplessness. they have hobie cats, sailboats and windsurfers. but if you want to use them they want you to know what you are doing. they will show you but its like pulling teeth. no problem checking out the kyaks. this place is carved out of the jungle so there is a damp smell and bring mosquito repellant!!!! i got bit lots the first few days then they seemed to all go away?! either way these little guys are 1/2 the size of canadian mosquitos but pack 3times the itch. because it is in the jungle you will see crabs walking around, wild iguanas (that are friendly enough to eat out of your hand). Who should go (in my opinion) - couples 30+ and people with kids. who should not go - singles or partiers. Also, if you have found in the past that you never seem to have a good vacation, or you are the husband of a high maintenance wife or the wife of a complaining husband DONT GO HERE!!! You know who you are. Nothing will please you other than an ultra expensive 5 star. This place is just shy of 4 starts...like 3.9 star.