Meh-xico Vacation

The best part of this hotel was the staff, aside from one who checked us in and set us up for a "lunch" at the Royal Elite part of the hotel, which is for returning members only (we had purchased the select club adults only package). We were told it was just a chance to see what it was like and would be 90 minutes tops. I was also told that this was the only part of the hotel which had a swim up bar (later found out this wasn't true, the family pool does as well). We meet him the next day and [... read more] he introduces us to a man who would take us around. Well, this lunch (we had tacos at El Nido, a restaurant we already had access to) turned into a sales pitch. We were brought over to the Royal Elite side of the hotel and shown a model suite. All the while being told that our side of the hotel served bad alcohol that would give us a hangover, and commenting on how much nicer this model room was compared to ours (this is the second day of our 7 day stay). More sales stuff about how online sites that offer packages purchase a bunch of rooms and sell them, while he could get us a deal for $1 a night for the room, we just have to book flights. More sales pitch that confused us, I started thinking it was for a timeshare (something about not being able to book certain dates??). Then off to his office where he shows us pictures of different Sandos resorts around the world. At this point we are not biting, so he brings in his boss. Finally, after 2+ hours (when it was supposed to be 90 minutes total), I explain we are not interested and the good reasons why. We are promptly ushered out. Lame. On top of all this, the select club package is supposed to give you priority seating and reservations for the restaurants and buffets. Many times we waited in line for the main buffet place. The food is ok but lacking in many ways. Too many items were overcooked, dry and bland. We saw one of the made-to-order cooks at the main buffet using the same tongs to touch raw meat and chicken as to serve the cooked meats. I didn't even bother trying anything from that station after that. Halfway through our stay, the 24 hour room service stopped. We were told we had to go to the El Nido restaurant and order from there off a different, smaller menu, which no longer served any breakfast items. The shower leaked all over the floor due to there being a gap at the bottom of the door, and we had some kind of leak in the toilet closet. The pros (there were some), are the staff was extremely friendly and attentive; there were all kinds of animals around (coati, raccoons, a peacock, turtles and monkeys); there are on-site ruins (!!!), and the foam party.

Absolutely stunning resort!

We thought the resort was beautiful! The wildlife is the real reason we came here and that did not disappoint! It was amazing all the different animals, we are sad that the weather was too hot for the monkeys to come out for the most part and the weather was far too windy for snorkelling but that’s on me and my lack of planning. We would definately come back here! All the staff were so friendly and willing to help with anything!

Great resort

The initial arrival to the resort was a bit of a wait. We were able to check in but had to wait about two hours for our room. Understandable as rooms are not usually ready by 3pm, however our flight time was early and we arrived just after 1pm. The resort is beautiful. If your looking for a beach, this isn't the resort for You. Tons to see and do without the extra expense of leaving the resort. Dinner reservations you needed to submit at 12am every night in order to get one. Buffet was ok [... read more]ay, but lacked in amounts of restocked food. Tons of kids activities, entertainment. To highlight this resort more would be to Add additional kids services such as ice cream parlour or a coffee shop.

Sandos Caracol Eco Resort

Resort has gone downhill since last year. Food was cold and very little variety (buffet) Could NOT make reservations for any restaurant as the were booked and could not book anything that was available later unless i stood in a line several days later. Resort has excellent walking paths through the greenery.

Terrible resort

Poorly managed hotel. Unable to get reservations unless you wait in line for 3 hours at 7 am in the morning. Very dirty rooms along with the horrible smell in the rooms. Not enough staff and the staff they do have many of them are rude especially at the front desk. The beach has to be one of the worst beaches in the area. All rock and very dangerous. Would not recommend to anyone

The resort was lovely, but very large, too much walking,

The hotel was lovely, but way too large for the restaurants, so many people with not enough places to eat. Waiting I lines, not able to get into the restaurants because they were already booked even though we tried on our arrival day. Towel bar by the restaurants not by pools, so you had to carry them and then take them back to an area that was 15 min walk from your room. We are in our 70s and we were given rooms farthest away from any of the facilities. The eco environment was lovely, swi [... read more]mming in the senote, and the animals very enjoyable. Large peacocks and monkeys. The beach and ocean was rocky and you were unable to swim. The staff were pleasant and hard working but unable to answer most questions. We went on March Break so the place was packed and unable to accommodate so many people at the same time.

Nice hotel, terrible service

The hotel itself was lovely. The grounds were well kept, the wildlife in the resort is amazing and the rooms are very nice and clean (we had the family suite) Unfortunately, that is where it ends, the hotel is very understaffed. You wait hours in line for any buffet, if you want to book an A La carte, that is almost impossible as their app barely works, or you have to line up at 6:30am (Mon & Thurs only) to try and get a reservation. Both me and my husband ended up with food poisoning as we [... read more]ll. Drink lines are long and room service takes forever. The beach is nice, but you definitely need water shoes if you want to go in the ocean due to all of the rocks.

Alot of room for improvement

Not very clean rooms, long lineups for food, overcrowded feeling, same food every day. There's no beach left, disappointing. The Nexus rep for westjet was rude and completely unhelpful, couldn't be bothered. Would not book again

Great Family Resort with Nature vibes!

Made some great memories at this resort! Lots of wild life and jungle vibes all over, and plenty to do for the kids. Folks at Kids Club were A1. Food at buffet could be little hit or miss, but not bad. Restaurants very hard to get reservations. Beach very nice, but hard to get out and swim with the rocks. Pools/ water park were great tho! Snack bars by the pools were great places for easy lunchs

Beautiful family resort

Beautiful family resort. Loved the lush surroundings and animals especially the monkeys.. Rooms in family section were clean, large and great setup with bunk beds for families. The water slide park was amazing able to accommodate all ages from toddlers through adults. The staff were friendly and accommodating. This is not the best place for anyone with mobility issues as no elevators and walkways are uneven. The food was mediocre. There is one buffet which is poorly organized resulting in freque [... read more]nt lines. Specialty restaurants were next to impossible to book.

Not terrible but wouldn't recommend for families

Pros: Beautiful grounds Cons: Beach/pools - No nice beach area where kids can run into the water (very rocky). Pools were incredibly cold and quite dirty. For a family resort, it wasn't very family friendly - Despite requesting a crib/pack n play and being told repeatedly there would be one (prior to the visit and upon check in), we did not receive one and were told it's because of a "liability". If we had been informed this prior, we could have planned appropriately. Quite irresponsib [... read more]le for a family resort to not provide adequate beds for all ages of children. Food times are also not amenable to young kids (no food prior to 7 am, minimal food options between buffet times and long wait times). Kids shows/activities also don't start until 8:30/9 pm Rooms - we were without water for ~24h in our room. We kept being told it would be fixed in 30 minutes and someone would be by - this didn't occur. Food - Food was mediocre at best. Buffet food was always cold (even though we were first to arrive in the am). Ordered room service multiple times however, doesn't come ~50% of the time. Service - service was quite poor. Resort staff seem quite irritated at any request and hesitate to help

Great Family/Kids Resort

I could talk at length about this resort. Overall it's a great spot for families and checks off all the boxes of things. Rooms are excellent for families of 4 with kids under 12(ish), resort is beautiful, and there is a lot of things to do on the resort. I found that staff to be excellent, and service wait time was very fast (minutes). This resort could easily be a 10/10 in exception to the food. There is essentially one buffet and there was always a lineup. The food was very repetitive an [... read more]d mediocre at best. The layout of the buffet is terrible as it promotes lineups instead of sectioning things off and spreading people out to access the buffet. Restaurants were very difficult to book and we eventually gave up. We were able to get two of them, Italian & Brazilian. Italian was very weak. Food came out cold and was ok at best. Brazilian was incredible. The buffet section was superior to everything in the resort in exception to the amazing main dishes. It was easily the highlight of food on the resort. Other than the food this place was fantastic. I suspect we will be back again before our kids are in their teens. On another note, it's not great for elderly people. The walking surfaces are not great for those with knee/hip issues, and you might get stuck on the third floor without an elevator. Just something to think about if your in laws/parents are tagging along and are not as mobile at they once were. There is also a lot of walking (which I actually really like). Something to consider for those who are less inclined to be moving around. With that said, it's also dependant on where your room is located, and where you plan to be each day and your overall activity level (review the map). I think this spot can easily be a 5 star if they fix their food situation. Some of it is variety, some is quality, some is the structure. All could easily be fixed with minor renovation, organization, and food selection.

Not bad but not great!

The resort was very nice to walk around, very pleasant grounds, good size room and bathroom, and beds/pillows were very comfy! On the down side, the buffet food wasnt great, but trying to get a reservation in another restaurant was difficult. The lack of communication was very evident, you could ask the same question multiple times and get a different answer each time. While we did have a great holiday, that was due to the weather, beach and quality family time and not because of the resort we s [... read more]tayed at.

Not great.

I had some issues with this resort. When we arrived our adult room was not available - we were given a room in the family building with bunk beds and a king size bed - we are sisters and seniors. Next day our adult room still not available and but after persisting they finally gave us a room with two queen beds. The shower leaked over the bathroom floor daily making it slippery and dangerous. One night our beds were made and we had no top sheets. Room service wouldn’t answer so we had to go to  [... read more]reception at 11pm asking for sheets. My son’s room had cold water in the shower and plugged toilet most days. The food was not good. No toaster - only way to get toaster was to wait in the long line of people waiting for omelettes and eggs and the one lady working would put the bread on the greasy grill. There was no pasta station. The cold cuts and cheese were next to each other and touching. Very little fruit. No bacon - we found out two days before we left that it could be ordered from the staff. The beach was mostly rocks which were sharp and craggy. We found out mid week we could go to a sister resort about 25 minutes away with a beautiful beach and good food - we paid to go there twice after we heard about it. We tried on day one to book the a la carts restaurants and none were available all week. The rooms were clean. The staff worked hard but the resort was understaffed. The surf was beautiful! Lots of loungers. The animals were cute but the donkeys should be free - they were kept in a small corral and looked hot and miserable.

Needs work

The animals wandering around are a nice touch. I hadn’t seen a lemur before. But I felt sad for the donkey who was not free range and looked hot and tired (like me). The pools are fine but not plentiful and not visible from the trails. There are no trolleys to take people around ( except staff) and I overheated twice trying to find a place to sit or cool off. The staff are lovely, the room fine, the food iffy.

Good Resort for a good family time

This resort has everything for all the age group to keep everyone busy throughout the stay and hence it's a good resort for family vacation. You stay within the nature and complete away from the noises of the city life.

Would not return!

This resort is stunning for its jungle feel, wildlife, unique activities such as swimming in a cenote or Jade river, Safari tour, biking trails with wildlife and ruins and so on. What discouraged us during our trip was the long line ups, the lack of staff vs the amount of guests, We got to know some workers and questioned the functioning of this resort and they mentioned that at Sandos Caracol, its always at 95% capacity. Its a busy resort with not enough staff, not enough lounge chairs at be [... read more]ach and pools making it difficult for guests to feel relaxed during their vacation. Its a constant battle to find a chair, wait in line for the buffet and even book a la carte restaurants. If they gave a limit of 3 restaurants per family this could avoid the struggle to get in. We had tried the app, which was always saying restaurant closed OR no availability. We found out that guests book their supper for the following day at midnight on the app. We were sleeping by then. We tried tipping at 3 different restaurants and asked several times for a cancellation to get in that evening and that only worked at one restaurant which my son got food poisoning from (Italian). You could either book restaurants with concierge, on the App or for 2 restaurants you had to wait in line at a booth early in the morning. The food at the buffet was comparable to Cuba. The layout on its own was horrible. It was one constant line up whether you wanted a salad or just fruit, everyone was in one line like an overcrowded hospital cafeteria. To get an omelette, it was a 45-60 min wait because the person making them was making one at a time (never seen that before) Yes lots of choices but the quality and freshness wasn't there. You could wait in a line up of 100 people to get in to the buffet and then again in another line up once inside. Choices for snacks were hot dogs and hamburgers, with again more line ups and waiting. No ice cream all week at the water park when my kids were excited for unlimited ice cream during their vacation. No fresh fruit to grab and go such as apples, or bananas which would be an easy snack when you're tired of eating hot dogs especially while in mexico. Room service was cold, and often no meat with breakfast even at the buffet, never seen bacon or sausages and scrambled eggs were watery and farm tasting (Cuba was even better). The pools were foggy and not clean, overcrowded because of their small size and no chairs often. Between the lack of organization at this resort, the rocky beach (which we knew about) and the horrible food, this vacation seemed like a constant battle to book things, get into things and a whole lot of waiting and standing. I would not recommend this resort. We visited Sandos playacar, and it was night and day the different of the cleanliness, the food options, quality and layout of the buffet which made so much more sense (salad, bar, kids section, mexican section, ice cream bar) never seen line ups or waited, it was quick, efficient, made us feel like we were actually on vacation. I would recommend staying at Playacar and visiting Caracol hands down. For those 2 resorts to be in the same chain (Sandos Playacar and Caracol) as well as the same price, the difference for the organization and food is huge. Yes if you want the jungle feel and you don't mind hot dog, hamburgers and pasta and having more hot dogs and hamburgers for snacks then you'll love Caracol. Were used to travelling to Mexico and having fresh fruit, fresh quacamole, pico de gaillo with tortillas...but its not what we got during our stay. If you're ok to pay the same amount at caracol then you would at playacar and be willing to wait in line and struggle to get in restaurants and wait in a huge line up at buffet full of impatient people, then you'll be just fine.

Amazing Amenities and grounds, not so great a beach, Food was okay!

The Resort is a solid 4 start nothing more because of food and beach. There is no more beach left. If you are a beach person, this is not the place for you. It's rocky, lots of seaweed and you will not be able to swim in it without getting hurt or cut on the rocks as the waves come crashing against you and rock you nice. I am a beach person and I found myself sitting at the pools which I never do, so that was a big let down for me. Where the resort shines is in its Amenities that it off [... read more]ers, a lush Jungle of green trees and bush with filled with a variety of wildlife that will keep you entertained especially the kids. From monkeys to Iguanas, to strange looking birds and an animal that resembles a undersized racoon that are a delight to watch. The birds that came to our balcony every morning were incredible. Waking up to that every morning was pure delight especially for my daughter as she loves birds. This place is like living in a Jungle the entire time you are there. It was a different and incredible experience in that respect. Eco Resort also has a natural fresh water Cen?te that you can swim in and snorkle to see all the wonderful fish and other animals living in there. It was really beautiful. Be careful here as this area is filled with mosquitoes that have a different bite than the ones found here in Canada. These ones here, it feels like your skin is on fire with one unbearable itch. The good thing about these bites it they don't last long, after about 1 hour the bite is almost not existent and gone, no more burning pain, or itch. The Rooms are very nice and look very modern. These are the family Superior rooms. The only thing is that our room 5013 is located quite a distance from the central part of the resort where the main buffet is and the restaurants. It was quite a walk especially if you had forgot something in your room. From our room to the main Buffet La Laguna was 8-10 min walk to the beach it was 15min walk. Now for the Food: La Laguna is the main Buffet for this resort. In all honesty, for the size of the resort and the amount of people that were there, this resort needs a 2nd Buffet. There times where there were lines to get in and sometimes waiting up to 15 mins or more. The Food here was a hit or miss. Some days the food was good and some days, it wasn't. I'm not a very picky eater but I found the Breakfast a bit tiring, no bacon, no sausage, just meats and chicken that were more geared towards what you would have during dinner. If you wanted to have fresh eggs made to order, Good Luck! get in line and wait 20-30mins as there is only 1 person making eggs, big disappointment. I only eat eggs at breakfast and sometimes there wasn't any eggs on the menu and I had to line up for 20 mins to get some. There should be at least people at this station making eggs. The worker making them was miserable and tired. Big let down for breakfast. Lunch and Dinner I found very good and I had no issues there. The Deserts they offered were fabulous, very tasty and lots of variety. We went to some of the restaurants during our stay El Templo is amazing, Japanese Teppanyaki. The chefs there are incredible and the food was super tasty! Los Lirios was another restaurant which was good and food was generally really good here. Breakfast and lunch at Lirios was only for Royal Elite Members so you couldn't come here unless you were a member. Caracol Eco Resort is actually a very nice resort, the grounds are breathtaking the activities that are offered on the resort are so vast that you don't actually need to leave the resort and everyday you can keep busy with lots of activities that will keep even kids entertained. We went for 9 days Jan. 13th to Jan. 22nd. The resort was extremely busy with lots of people more than I am accustomed to. Please keep in mind that this is a huge, huge Resort! it's big and vast and if you look up the map on Google you will see what I'm talking about. The Service at this resort is actually pretty good. No complaints here. There was also room service for food as well and we used that twice we were there so if you arriving into the resort really early or very late, just use room service for the food and it will be delivered straight to your room within 15 mins if the buffet is closed. Overall, this was a very relaxing 9 days at Sandos Caracol Eco Resort and I could see myself coming here again for my daughter as she loved it, but I think my next trip will be Sandos Playacar in Playa Del Carmen next year. The beach there is stunning from the other reviews that I have been reading on Google and some of the photos I have seen back that up.

Sandos Eco Caracol

Nice family resort for kids largely due to their great water park. Beach 6 out of 10, if you want the best beach you need to taxi to Sandos Playcar for 350 pesos each way (approx. $32 CAD). Food 3 out of 10, if you want good food you need to go to Sandos Playacar or Sandos Cancun. People/Staff 10 out of 10. Was everyone perfect. Most people were especially given the number of demanding tourists they deal with as result not all tourists treat the staff as they are supposed to - we are all equa [... read more]l human beings. Please be kind to each other. You are on vacation yes you paid for eat however the staff are not less than you. Room service 10 out of 10 Up keep - while not all parts of hotel were 100% they were always working on something as result would give them 10 out of 10 especially for effort

Would not recommend

Main pool small and cloudy Couldn’t get into restaurant even after setting alarm to book at 12:01am which I’ve never heard of at any other resort, staff at concierge were no help and not very friendly,buffet long line ups and food always the same