Nice but lacking

The resort itself was nice, the staff always wonderful and helpful. I did not like the slightly high pressure sales pitch to join the royal club which came as a surprise! I missed a nice long beach as well. The food was great.

Don't Think Twice!

A very comforting and relaxing resort to unwind and be young again. The room was very safe warming and welcoming, a bathrobe and house shoes to add comfort along with a coffee machine, water, drinks in the mini fridge and a television, also a very clean washroom and comfortable shower add to the happiness of the room. No need to bring soaps, shampoos or other items, it is all there for you to unwind with at the end of the day or in the warm sunny caress of the morning start. The resort is lar [... read more]ge and never ending days of exploring, there are polite monkeys in the trees, iqunas on the ground and actually one early morning we encountered a young deer having a stroll on the property. There are many safe shuttle vehicles that will never leave you lost or astray, the resort is very safe there is no need to feel uncomfortable as the staff is very respectful and courtious and there are many security cameras to ensure your safety 24 hours a day. The grounds are exceptional and clean, a family with children will be very happy with the resort as there are children safe play areas, you won't find party animals being excessive and annoying. The food variety and quality is amazing, I gained 10 pounds while being there, seafood, steak, vegetables and fruit will make you very happy and healthy along with great selections of expresso's and coffee's and fresh juices. The bars at all clean and friendly pools are awsome the bartenders go the extra mile with quality beverages and service, Sebastion at the Seafood Pool Bar is a very professional bartender and can amaze your thirst desires, quite nice martini's. The main beach zone is wonderful and the staff at the restaurants and bars will make your day relaxing while you take time to unwind and suntan and swim in safe waters, a Fantastic way to spend an entire day, you have everything there. You won't be bored or disappointed taking this resort as your choice, I spoke with many people while being there and found none with a complaint, there is value here.

Beautiful resort

Went with my husband and 2 kids for a week, and bought the unlimited pass to the Xcaret park. We had a great time - and I recommend it. It was a different experience than our typical beach vacation - but it was a nice change. The monkeys and the jungle-style setting were a thrill. The resort is gorgeous, the food was mediocre and a little disappointing compared to our previous stay at the Iberostar - but we always found something. The staff were mainly lovely, with the exception of our con [... read more]cierges which employed high pressure sales tactics and appeared to be mocking us more than once - it got the point where we would try and avoid eye contact. Overall though - a great week!

Beautiful resort in the jungle

We just returned from a week away at this resort. Overall we had a fantastic holiday. We opted for the package which allows for unlimited access to the Xcaret park which we took full advantage of visiting many times both day and night. We are a family of 4 with two children ages 5 and 8. Pros: Resort is very clean and grounds are beautiful. It is secluded and there are no other resorts in site. It feels very safe and you can walk it easily. Lots of animal to be seen around including monkeys, [... read more] coatis etc. Ample pools and chairs available. Pools are a little cold but ok. Food was decent and there is a good choice of restaurants. No booking required. The beach buffet is in a beautiful setting. Some more variation in the food would be good but overall we found lots to eat. No illness. We heard complaints about booze being watered down but this is pretty standard in Mexico. Service was friendly and attentive. Staff at kids club were very kind to children. Beach- it's a man made beach and quite small. It's a cove which worked well for us and there were no waves so children could swim safely. Other beaches in the area are much more beautiful but the undercurrent can be strong. Xcaret park is incredible. Tons to do. There are lots of optimal extras but we didn't do any and still loved the park. Cons- Some hassle to attend time share demos. We did attend and weren't given any hassle when we said a firm no. Beach loungers get snatched up quickly. Need to reserve early morning. Rooms are quite small. Typical hotel rooms rather than suites. No bath. Overall a lovely resort. More suited to families who want to attend Xcaret.

Not for those with mobility issues/beware of sales pitches

This hotel and specifically it's location are breathtaking - you are up close and personal with many exotic and wild animals. The resort is vast and quite spread out, however if you have mobility issues this becomes a liability. The resort provides a 'trolly' between all major buildings however we quickly tired of waiting every time we wanted to eat, go to the pool etc. The trolly service stops at 11 pm, curtailing your ability to enjoy the night life if you are relying on them. Another draw [... read more]back is that EVERY employee, except the cleaning staff, will approach you to attempt to book you for a time share presentation, and are not particularly gracious about accepting no for an answer. This became annoying very quickly and we found ourselves trying to find short cuts to avoid staff and their high pressure sales tactics. The floors of all the buildings and wooden bridges are extremely slippery when wet - which is often due to the climate - we witnessed many vacationers falling. The facility is being upgraded and hopefully some of these issues will be taken care of. I think this resort would be best for younger people, people with children, or active people without mobility issues.

Monkey Heaven!

This resort was absolutely amazing. Starting from the wonderful staff to the rainforest aspects. The pros: the breakfast buffet by the beach was absolutely stunning due to the views. The lunch time buffet on top of the pool bar had the best burgers and chicken wings Paco Taco for supper was delicious (it's open super late too so for the ones that love the disco, you can end your night at This restaurant) The margaritas and Bloody Caesars were amazing. The rooms were spacious,modern and com [... read more]fortable. We had monkeys on our balconies all the time, they are extremely friendly. Even though the resort was at 90% capacity, we never felt as though it was busy or packed. We always had a beach chair available to us. Cons: the staff asking for VIP meetings was abit excessive.

Very nice resort

We really enjoyed the fact that the resort is located within an eco park, interesting animals, however mosquitos were quite bad so beware. Food was excellent in a la carte restaurants ( we ate at the oriental and Mexican ones) and you don't have to make any reservations. Buffet was also good. Friendly staff. One complaint is that some staff are pushing to sign up to an info session to become a member of the Barcelo hotel chain, unless you are considering buying into their time share don't waste  [... read more]your time. The resort is very convenient if you want to go to the XCarat park which is right by the resort or X-Plor park, for which they offer a free shuttle. We went to The Xel-Ha park and Tulum combined. One disadvantage is that you lose half of the day to enjoy the park because visiting Tulum takes up 2 hours (approximately). We got caught in stormy weather so couldn't appreciate the snorkelling as much, but it is hard to predict when you book a few days earlier. We still had fun though. Beach is very small and can get busy but snorkelling in the cove is great as well as along the shore by the adult pool.

Awesome experience

Our family had an amazing time on this trip to Grand Xcaret, starting with the highly proffesional help of Robyn from tripcentral, all support and reminders, flight and hotel staff. Thank you Robyn and great people at Grand Xcaret! There were few small inconvenients during arrival (far suites between family members - fixed, room problems - fixed) but overal great people, very proffesional, polite and giving their best, unique hotel by design, atention to details, amenities, nature, events, fo [... read more]od and drink, everythin first class. Big thanks again and atrongly recommend it, specially families

Great vacation at Occidental at Xcaret destination

This is our 2nd time at this resort in the last two years. The grounds were well maintained, as well as the pools, there were lots of leaves and berries in the pool some days, but there were 3 staff in the pool trying to clean it when we were there. I expect it is a big job to maintain the pool with all of the trees surrounding it. We upgraded our room to a suite in the Royal area as we were there celebrating our 5th anniversary. The suite was perfect and so big with ocean view and on a corn [... read more]er, so we had two balconies. We ate at all of the restaurants and had not complaints, we had sushi at the Oriental a la carte which was good. The sushi at the snack bar was also very good, and the chef came out and made us some special sushi just for us when he saw that we were enjoying what was in the buffet. The restaurant at the Royal area had the best food overall, breakfasts, lunch, and dinners were amazing at this restaurant and all of the staff were amazing. Room service was also available but we did not use it. They made us a Mexican fiesta dinner one night which was awesome and we had a full seafood dinner another night which was also amazing. We did not swim in the beach area this time, but it looked very clean from the beach snack bar. Overall this was a great spot for our 5th anniversary and we did spend a day at Xcaret next to the resort which we also enjoyed very much.

Simply said : Go elsewhere, save your money, worse than two star !

Where should I start... 1. Bad location 2. Mediocre service 3. Food choices: bad 4. Speciality restaurants : horrible 5. Amenities: worse than two star 6. Access to services limited unless you upgrade to some "BS" royal club. 7. Tours and excursions: overpriced as compared to what they cost outside the resort. 8. No beach at all !! 9. Tiny pool with a congested swim-up bar. All in all, I suggest you, readers, to go elsewhere. Not worth the money. Probably we would have had more fun  [... read more]and entertained better had we booked a regular hotel in the city of Playa Del Carmen and ate where ever we wanted and did what ever on our own.

Beautiful and Clean Resort

We booked this resort for our honeymoon and were very pleased with the layout and cleanliness. The staff were always friendly and the food was very good. Beautiful pools and beach and we never had to reserve lounge chairs as happens at other resorts. That was so refreshing! Our room was nice and cool and always well maintained by housekeeping although it would have been nice to have more than just 2 beers stocked in our fridge. The entertainment staff could have used some help on their chore [... read more]ography and should have had some interaction with the guests outside of the hour of their show. It also would have been good to have a schedule of activities. I found it hard to figure out what was going on around the resort during the day if I wanted to get involved. Otherwise, I would definitely recommend this resort and we will definitely be booking again!

Pretty Good Resort

Grounds - Kept well. No complaints. Took a bit to figure out which way was which. haha. Really enjoyed the jungle setting. Lots of birds, iguanas, and monkeys around. Highlight. We had a room in #12 and in the afternoon the monkeys would be in the trees outside our room. We were able to feed them bananas from our hand and they would come right to our balcony. Rooms - I thought the rooms were in great shape. The bathroom door was weird as it had more of a blinds type privacy rather than a solid  [... read more]door. Hot water took forever, but it came eventually. Pools - Our favourite part of this resort. The water was nice and warm which made it easy for the kids to get in. The pool was huuge! Did not feel crowded at all and lots of space to swim around, explore, and play. Beach - Least favourite part. Although we're not really beach people so a bit biased. But, it's a cove setting, so you don't get that beach feel or view. The beach seating was set up into 3 levels with stairs going down, so a bit different that you would normally see at resorts. Lots of fish though. Bring bananas to the water and watch the fish swarm around you. Food - mediocre. It was food and we ate it, but nothing special here. Selection seemed smaller than most resorts I've been to. Not terrible, but not great. Resort Overall about a 6/10. Don't think I'd return as the last Mayan Resort we went to we enjoyed more.

Amazing Paradise!

Our trip was from April 28 - May 5. It was one of the most enjoyable vacations that my husband and I have taken. We went to Los Cabos four years ago and it was over the top. Service, location, hotel, food all amazing. We felt perfectly safe, but were a little hesitant about elsewhere in Mexico, but the Occidental at Xcaret Destination exceeded our expectations. It was like a perfect paradise - from the amazing wildlife, beautiful resort, excellent service, delicious and plentiful food. We en [... read more]joyed every minute. So wonderful to see monkeys swinging from trees, iguanas, flamingos, deer, turtles, coatis all on the resort. The staff were all friendly and helpful and our maid Angela took amazing care of us. We were located in building 18, right near the main pool, which was great and in close proximity of the main lobby and restaurants. Just a short five or so minute walk to the beach, but there is a tram if this is an issue. I was happy to see that the staff followed through with dress codes in the buffets and the a la carte restaurants as many do not and I do not think that is right. This annoyed some people, but come on people, do your homework before you go and make sure you bring the proper attire. The only slight negative is the pressure at the beginning to take advantage of viewing their club (members area), basically timeshare. You just have to remain firm if this is something you are not interested in pursuing and they left us alone after the second day. Overall would highly recommend this resort to anyone and would return in a heartbeat.

Beautiful Resort

The resort is absolutely beautiful. Loved that the resort has some Mayan Ruins right there. The grounds are kept immaculate. The food was delicious. The staff were friendly. The animals were a delight for my son.

Occidental review

Found this place to be very nice and all personnel extremely polite except for the Air Transat rep at Hospitality desk who worked May 1 from 4 to 6 pm. This does not reflect on the resort but on Air Transat only.The food was ok in buffet area but the Italian restaurant Was over the top. Service was excellent and food supper good. The chef took the time to actually come out and greet me us and paid close attention to our allergies issues. Highly recommend this place to anyone especially the Itali [... read more]an restaurant.

Very enjoyable time.

The resort was very clean and nice to look at. The staff was great and very friendly and helpful. The food for the most part was great although the Mexican restaurant (in Mexico) was very underwhelming. I would highly recommend the Oriental restaurant and Buffet. The group we went with had a great time overall and all stated we would go back. Negatives were that one day the pool with the bar was extremely cloudy to the point where I couldn't see my feet at the bottom of the pool. Also there  [... read more]was a strong smell of sewage at some parts of the resort including one of the pools. I would still recommend this resort to my friends as these are minor issues that are probably being resolved.

Occidental at Xcaret

We stayed at the resort for 7 days. A few disturbing things happened. 1. A 3rd floor balcony fell off onto the ground. (no one was injured thank goodness) 2. While in the main dinning room buffet a pot light fell from the ceiling crashing to the floor. (again no one was injured) 3. At one of the pools a very foul odor (sewage) would appear. On a good note the staff was very kind. Our room was great and very clean. Food was good and I enjoyed having 3 buffets one in each area so  [... read more]we didn't have to walk from one end of the resort to another as the resort is large. The wildlife and vegetation were amazing. Having 3 areas to sit back and relax 2 pools and the ocean was very good. Not much poolside service people had to go to a bar for refreshments(not a big deal for me) We were told the Hotel was in the midst of being a Barcelo. Not sure if it meets up to that standard yet. For anyone who likes adventure the Xcaret is good and a 5 min. walk. I thought for the money it was a little much as we aren't the adventurous type. I was told it would take 2 - 3 days to get through it. We took 5 hours and went back for the show in the evening. It was $98.00us each.

Excellent Trip

This hotel was great, lots of room and many trails to walk on. The staff was amazing right from the start the grounds are beautifull especially when the monkeys were out and the food was just delicious. Would and probably will return to this hotel.

Fabulous resort

This resort had the best food, wonderful entertainment and delightful people. Very clean resort and very comfortable beds. The staff were always helpful and the tour guides on our excursions were more than amazing. The only thing I didn't appreciate was the staff who were tricking us into signing up for time share. I had a full day of travelling and was very tired when we arrived. Arrived at the resort at 12:30pm and had to wait for our room to be ready at 3:00pm. We had no problem with  [... read more]our day of travelling and were trying to wind down before dinner and were approached by staff trying to sell time shares and forcing us to sign a meeting schedule. The next morning our villa, we then had a concierge bugging us to see if and what kind of deal was given to us for our excursions. I advised that I was not interested and was pursued for most of the week to buy time shares. Quite bothersome and annoying. Other than that we had the time of our lives. Thank you,

Beautiful Resort

My family came here on a group trip from April 17-24th, 2017. It is beautiful and I love that nature is all around with the monkeys and iguanas and deer everywhere. However our room was wrong as we are a couple and wanted 1 bed not 2. It was unable to be changed but we made the most of it. There is tons of walking and stairs. My mom has 2 replaced hips and it was a lot for her. It rained a couple of days and it was insanely slippery. It took them a long time to put down mats to keep from falling [... read more]. I ended up falling more than once and actually hurt my foot pretty bad. The beach is beautiful. The pools are great but I wish there was more than one with a swim up bar. The a la cartes are great but the buffet gets a bit boring after a while. Also in many areas of the resort there is a terrible smell. I dont know if it's sewage or manure but it is fairly overpowering. Also while we were there one of the buildings roof collapsed onto the balcony below it. Very scary. Overall though it was great. The employees were super friendly and helpful. Just a few things would have made this a near perfect resort.