Great Resort

The grounds themselves were very jungle oriented, with lush foliage everywhere. There were iguanas and cotis and racoons and cats are running around, which I really liked, oh and can't forget the geckos. The trails were different, plentiful and interesting, the food was awesome, and it did not matter which restaurant you went too, they are were great as well as the severs. However, I did not appreciate going to eat on our last nite and finding the restaurant closed with no warning to anyone, whe [... read more]n we asked the staff they had no idea. That was not kosher, and we had some problems with our room and when we spoke to management, we were told whell its the jungle 80% humidity -- which we replied the other two rooms that are friends are in have no issues!... So, I was not please with their response to that problem, however, they were quick to send to maintenance guys around when we lost our hot water, and had a flood and a/c dripped everywhere..... They had a water park which they desperately needed in that heat, however, we did not have time to explore it as they was not shade anywhere near it.... but overall I liked the resort, and would probably go back again.....

Great resort!

We thoroughly enjoyed this resort! We were a party of 8, with 3 kids (7,10,13), 4 parents, and one grandmother! Everyone had fun! There is so much to do that you don't need to leave the resort! Restaurants were all great too!

Fantastic resort!

Everything was just wonderful! The staff were all so friendly, polite, and knowledgeable. The restaurants were clean and the food was super and we tried all of the different ones. There were so many things to do if you wanted to that I didn't even open the book I took with me.

Great Family Resort

Food & service fantastic.....excellent kids club & water park! The food & services are 4 star! Main pool should be 3 times bigger..... Check-in is terrible ..... Need to communicate with new guests better then everything would have flowed better - once check-in was done . ...... Great time!

Sandos

Didn't really like this resort the service was terrible the staff really made you feel unwelcome and a burden..food was always cold.long lines at the bar.the bug bite are really bad to the point that I spent three days in the room swollen and blistered with ice on my legs and feet I wouldn't send any one I know here.only good for kids and even hat was lacking in most areas

Very family oriented, tons to do!

We went with another couple, spent 10 days there and still did not see/do all they had to offer. Their focus on the Mayan culture and the Eco activities was a nice,yet different touch. It would be a great place to take kids or a large group. They work hard to keep the place clean. We liked that you didn't have to make reservations for the a la cartes, and the most we waited was about 40 minutes -time to have a "before dinner" drink! The only disappointment was how rocky the water at the beach wa [... read more]s, very difficult to swim in but being able to visit the other Sandos resort which had a gorgeous beach, made up for that.

Nice resort. Great for families. Lots to do.

The resort is well placed. Lots to do and places to eat. Since it is spread out over a large area, the crowds are also spread out and their are few lineups for anything. Great water ideas for the kids and adults alike

Awesome

Grounds are beautiful, staff is awesome some of the friendliest I have meet in the Mayan. Rooms clean. If you love animals this is the resort for you. Some rocks and coral in the water but all in all not a big deal

Sandos Caracol Eco Resort

Very good Family oriented resort. Lots of things to do on the resort. Did not get Queen size beds as booked and paid for. Rooms are a little musty. Beds were on the hard side as were the pillows. Food was very good.

Great Eco resort

The room had great view of the jungle, all food was tasty and lots of selection, loved the coffee bar in early am for lattes, cappuccino The spa pool was very relaxing, good choice of quiet pool or activity pool, lots of chairs at beach. Beautiful bike,walking paths and snorkelled in cenotes on site, the only big negative is the timeshare people who great everyone on arrival, located where there is a big sign for Guest Services, really sad that customers are deceived this way, with drinks, promi [... read more]sed a breakfast..and if you say no and approach them by mistake they try again, then call your room, don't be fooled guest services is NOT guest services go to front desk only at concierge for resort info.

Great Resort

Very clean, service was great, food choices and taste was awesome, great family resort, bring bug dope or use the one on the resort, we did not use it as we did not feel the bug bites until later in the week where some of us actually reacted to the bites with large welts

Honest review

The hotel is an older hotel but recently renovated. Staff very friend but extremely short staff. You have to wait for service but it's reasonable when you get it. The food is decent with a variety of options. For adults I highly recommend the adult section. Great area close to most excoursion(1 hour ).

Good service

This Eco friendly resort was nice, staff were friendly. This would be a good resort for younger kids as there are lots of activities to do - like plant a tree, snorkel in the river and take a tour of the Mayan ruins on site. The beach is rocky though and not great for swimming. Seemed to be lots of beach chairs around the pool and on the beach. Food at the buffets and restaurants was ok but not always hot

Great Entertainment!

My wife and I just spent a week (Jan20-27,2016) in Sandos Caracol. This was a great resort for couples and families alike. First the bad: the rooms we stayed in (bldgs 24 and 25) are in dare need of maintenance. They need new sinks, paint job, door maintenance, and better house keeping. A/C was weak but ok for the winter month we visited. Now the good: The entertainment is fantastic. It was based mostly on Mayan rituals (Xcalacoco experience) but there were other shows for family and adults (Fre [... read more]ddy-Michael Jackson, Super heroes, fantasy show) that will keep you really entertained. Live music was always excellent and we danced (some of) the calories away. The in-ground (by the pools and beach) entertainment was always good too. The restaurants are great. We tried all a la carte restaurants. We loved the vegetarian restaurant (but it was understaffed and food took too long to arrive). Our 2nd favorite was the Japanese restaurant (El Templo), however the Mediterranean one was also good. The Brazilian restaurant as well as the steak and fish restaurant were just ok. The buffets were always good. I never tasted a food that didn't feel fresh or badly cooked. We love authentic Mexican food, and you'll get it here. Yoga with instructor Juan Carlos is world class. He'll work you good. The Mayan Sensory experience with Jesus and Adolfo was great and unforgettable. The bar by the beach (El Nautilus) was specially friendly and refreshing with Tomas and Gerardo. I would go back to this resort.

Wonderfull family resort

Great resort food was very good very friendly staff clean rooms and grounds. this resort has a little extra to offer they have donkeys,sheep,pigs,monkeys,peacocks,parrots,deer etc Great water park for the kids.

Wonderful Experience at the Riviera Maya

We had a fantastic week at the Sandos Caracol Eco Resort, a wonderful experience ... Something new and different. This place has incredible jungles,mangroves, the cenotes, natural wells with crystal clear water. The priority is to protect all those natural wonders. Many animals live freely on the property - coatis, raccoons, sereques, iguanas ... there are monkeys, macaws, donkeys, and deer...most of these animals were rescued and very well taken care of. You have paths all through their jungles [... read more], well indicated and safe to walk...just fantastic...you need days to walk them all... Our room was comfortable, well equipped : a safe, fridge with all kinds of drinks, nice bathroom etc... The food = fantastic - the buffet place was our main destination, but we also tried the Italian and Mexican restaurant- both excellent. We also tried the Riviera on the beach. Lovely view and food. But there is also a Mediterranean, a vegetarian, and a Japanese restaurant. Bars all over the place... People are nice and helpful... 2 swimming pools and an aqua park , tennis, and also bicycles to experience a whole special road around the property including Mayan Ruins ... The only disappointment for us - the beach... nearly non-existent, very small and when you try to go into the water, you better have your special water shoes... But overall.. a fantastic experience and close enough to and from Cancun Airport.

Good resort, amazing food, lots to do!

The resort was nice. The food was better than any 5 star resort, simply amazing. The beach, however wasn't very good. It was a very rocky, so you had to walk outside of the resort to go to a nice beach. Also, water bottles were nowhere to be found - I get this is an "eco" resort, but this was a great inconvenience in the hot weather! Overall, a positive experience.

Jungle getaway

We stayed at the Sandos Caracol from Dec.8 to 15th. We opted for the adult Select Club and are glad we did. The Select Club beach area was wonderful. No problem getting a lounger. The clubhouse was great - you could pop in and get a drink, a snack, even sandwiches for lunch. It also had a washroom with a shower, and a towel exchange. The beach is rocky but it is possible to find a sandy pathway past the rocks if you walk along the rocky outcropping the north side of the beach. But finding the pa [... read more]thway depends on the clarity of the water. For us, the first couple of days it was very murky but cleared up after that. We loved exploring the myriad of pathways through the jungle and mangroves and seeing so much wildlife, Mayan ruins and cenotes. Watching the monkeys play in the trees was a high point for us! We regret not taking advantage of some of the organized activities like the guided nature walks. The room was okay. Loved the hot/cold water dispenser in the room. The hot is hot enough to make coffee and tea with – a big bonus for me. So glad they dispensed with the reservations for the a la carte restaurants. We found we could just go when we pleased and didn't ever have to wait for a table. All in all a nice experience and we will consider returning.

Family vacation

Our trip at Sandos was amazing there was so much stuff to do at this resort, never a dull moment. The night life and shows were so great the superhero show was really good even for adults. The Mayan shows were also one of our favorites. The resort was big and a bit confusing to get around but after a day I knew it inside out. The kids waterpark was better than I thought the kids had such a great time there and they are building a waterslide park for adults ready in January so it will be even be [... read more]tter for the whole family. The staff was awesome and so friendly and willing to help. The things that we were not happy about was the room, it looked really run down and the cleaners would forget to clean or just didn't come. Not normally an issue for me but with all the sand from the beach you need it swept, we called a few times for toilet paper since they never refilled it or just didn't clean that day. That was just a bit of a pain. The guest service people really pushed you multiple times to do the time share tour, no matter how many times you said no they would still bug you. After a long day of traveling once we got to the resort we wanted to just get to our room, change and enjoy paradise however we had to sit with the quest service guy for about 20 min defending why we don't want to do the time share tour. Once he finally allowed us to leave he or his co workers would bug us to do the tour anytime we went to guest services with a question, we just started lying and said we already did it, or we just avoided that area all together. The other issue was the beach, it was very rocky and the waves were very rough so there was no snorkeling or swimming off our resort. I tried to snorkel and the waves were so strong and the water was so cloudy you couldn't see more than 5 ft in from of you. Even with the few issues we loved the resort

Falls Well Below Mexico Expectations

Let me start by saying that in no way are my expectations from a Mexico trip excessive--I completely understand what a 4 star Mexico rating means--that being said, while there are some good components, overall this resort falls well, well, well below the Mexican average. If you are looking for great rooms, great beach, great ocean and great service then go elsewhere. On the other hand, if you are looking for a great kids club then you would be hard pressed to find a better one. SERVICE -- Extre [... read more]mely poor service right across the board (kids club is the exception) Being a large resort it takes a little to get use too but there is no explanation as to how the restaurants work, where they are, things to do. In fact in order to get a pocket map of the resort, which you absolutely need, you have to meet with the Timeshare reps--Are you kidding me? Essentially you are left to figure it out yourself and/or deal with the timeshare pitch. Make no mistake here, you are not a guest but instead just another number that has money to spend, and spend they want you to do from the $12 bag of potato chips in the onsite shop to $200 massages in their spa. TIP--walk down the beach 5 mins and get a massage right on the beach from the outside vendors for $35--ITS UNBELIEVABLE ROOMS -- We booked the simply "family room" and after checking in had to return to the front counter to request a different room as the one they sent us to had a mold/mildew problem which I was not going to subject my 4 year old to. We were being overly polite with this request but the treatment we received back was deplorable, by first stating that we were wrong in our mold statement that it was simply the humidity--ahh NO--I know what humidity is and this was not that, in any event, after a very unpleasant ordeal they did move us to a different room, same set up but no mold. Now we did not want a ground floor room, had put that request in our booking, had emailed the resort directly ahead of our arrival specifically to request a non-ground floor room and received a reply back but yet both the original and new room-Ground Floor! However after the treatment on the first change request there was no way I was going back a second time. Once bitten, twice shy--at least the mold was gone. The room itself is in a desperate and I mean desperate need of upgrade, we were told there was a pull out sofa but there was no sofa so we slept 3 to a bed in what I can only say is the hardest bed Ive ever slept in (had to check to make sure it wasn't just a box spring). The balconies are virtually pointless in these family rooms as they are the size of an average bathtub (no joke) and most overlook their ECO system (which is a polite was of saying the swamp came right up to the foot of the balcony) no matter because the bugs are so bad you don't want to step onto the balcony or open the patio door anyway. We had a small closet and 3 small shelves to accommodate our family in their "family room" no dresser and no where to unpack. A family of 3 living out of a suitcase for a week is miserable. Bathroom was a one sink with a very very small counter space affair, again, very difficult for a family. AC unit broke down twice and was repaired twice during our week which also matched the number of times the room was not made up in the week. Drinking water in the room consisted of a big jug dispenser that could not be plugged in so it was always warm--couldn't be plugged in because other then the tv, there was only one other plug within the whole room--Come on Sandos, family rooms need to charge portable devices you know. lastly, the walls are paper thin, you can hear everything from simple conversations to a cough or sneeze, pray you dont end up with a crying baby at night because that will keep the entire complex awake, what do they build these walls out of--its crazy. In any event, we made the best of it but be warned--a Sandos Family Room--does not offer much comfort for a family, and if your someone who likes to wake up and step onto the balcony to breath in the ocean--FORGET ABOUT IT--it won't happen here. BEACH ---all the other reviews are accurate--its basically huge rocks with small sand patches in between, as an adult I navigated them slowly up to my chest once but as it was unswimable for the kids we ended up at the pool for the week--which is PACKED--because the beach is unswimable FOOD -- its Mexico so your not going to get gourmet meals but the buffet was decent and what you would expect. The restaurants were substantially better and I liked them both. So as far as food--perfectly fine but you should also expect average to below average food service, which didnt matter to me but might to some. I should point out that although I was fine, two other members of our party did get very ill (I dont know if it was the food or something else but it was a first for us) ECO -- I'm all for eco so no straws and no water bottles etc was fine with me--but keep in mind that when they say ECO, what they actually mean is FINANCIALLY ECO. Because not spending money on straws and water and linen service for some reason is acceptable when they say ECO, but cutting down the jungle to add a 100,000 gallon water park expansion is also acceptable when they can charge more per person. I have no problem with it but I mention it only because they pound ECO down your throat and I thought it was funny from a hypocritically point of view. Might be why they have a Silver Eco rating and not Gold. KIDS CLUB -- Ok now for the good--actually now for the great, exceptional, blew me away. The Kids Club is by far the best best Kids Club Ive ever seen. Not only do they have a great facility (and of course the ECO water park lol) but the staff was out of this world. The kids could and did sign up for the various entertainment shows at night and were incorporated into them. We always felt safe leaving the kids there and they always wanted to go which was great as it gave us some adult time. The staff--ohh those Kids Club staff--UNBELIEVABLE--INCREDIBLE--AWESOME. If you have kids--they will love it and it will be a memory for a long long time. In summary--if you are looking for good rooms, good beach/ocean and good service then look elsewhere and don't second guess yourself as I'm doing you a huge favor- otherwise upgrade your room to the best they have but it obviously will add to the cost of your vacation and Im not sure this resort it worth that extra. However, if the rooms, beach/ocean don't mean that much to you and its a vacation all about the kids..well they will have a good time for sure. As for me..I think the only way I would go back would be if the cost was half of what we paid--which would be just about the appropriate cost for this resort.