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Summary: The Sandos Caracol Hotel Spa & Resort is a green, pleasantly laid back and friendly medium sized Mexican resort on the Mayan Riviera 45 minutes from Cancun airport on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. With an “Eco” label based on recent carbon footprint reductions it offers something for everyone in a low rise, low density and laudably interesting partially natural environment. The resort has a fairly good beach - sand and some exposed rock - with an artificial reef providing sheltered bathing and moorings for the dive boats. Scuba Libre offer a full range of dive packages and PADI instruction in the Caribbean and the inland freshwater Cenote caverns from their base on the beach. Italian owned, they have experienced Mexican, Argentinian, French and Italian diving staff.
Looking for warm sunny weather over Christmas with good scuba diving we decided to try Mexico. Our agent suggested a couple of resorts and we selected the Sandos Caracol which was presented as a 5 star resort. We later discovered that other visitors from Spain and Italy were paying up to half as much via agents in their own countries – so some shopping around and the extra cost and time of a European flight to Madrid or Rome may result in a significantly cheaper trip.
We flew on Continental Airways as the only option giving us a Saturday departure and Sunday return to fit with school holidays. The flight crew were absolutely first rate but unfortunately the organisation on the ground at Houston left much to be desired. The route included the obligatory transit through the carrier’s US hub at Houston’s George Bush International Airport. Our outward flight arriving four hours late we had missed our connection to Cancun and we were surprised and unhappy that Continental left us completely to our own devices to find our way through the airport onto a later flight to Cancun. The agent ready to help us mentioned by the flight crew was either non-existent or invisible. Having faced spending two days in Houston with every flight full we managed to get on the last flight of the day to Cancun on standby and arrived at the Mayan Riveria exhausted – badly in need of a really good break. Outbound we had the best range of in-air movies to watch we had ever seen and on the return flight had the worst.
The resort rapidly lived up to our expectations and we combined lazy days on the beach punctuated by a good lunch with three days diving and a day trip to the Mayan Ruins at Tulum using the local bus service from Playa del Carmen. The key to a good day on the beach was an early morning outing to put our towels on chairs before breakfast. We were told of two guests fighting over a sun-bed. Then a great breakfast with a choice of seven fresh fruit and vegetable juices, loads of fruit and virtually any other breakfast you could imagine.
Having walked a mile or so down the beach to check out neighbouring hotels – which proved to contain a lot of concrete and swimming pools - our lasting impression of Sandos Caracol was of its unusual level of greenery and wildlife. Mature trees, colourful birds, racoons, vultures, pelicans, gulls and natural lagoons populated with fish and small turtles
The weather was always warm and as it was mid-winter was never unbearably hot. This meant we could enjoy the sun without needing to constantly re-new our sun protection. The Caribbean Ocean was a constant 26C so swimming was a pleasure and the breeze on most days kept things cool and made the Hobie Cat sailing fun.
The Spa offers an excellent range of massages and treatments as extras but otherwise use of the sauna, Turkish bath, Jacuzzi and gym are free. It provides a tranquil sun-bathing area well away from the beach.
The all-inclusive package offers as much food and drink as you can consume including some reasonable international brands of alcohol with free Hobie Cat and sea kayak booking on the beach.Child and wheel-chair friendly, provided your room is on the ground floor of one of the many 3 storey buildings, the beach offers sheltered sea paddling and swimming and extensive facilities and entertainments for children.Amongst the seven swimming pools some are adult only
The mainly Mexican hotel staff were unfailingly hard-working, courteous and helpful, genuinely friendly, very pleased to receive a tip but showing no signs of expecting it. Behind the scenes the senior management were partially European. The CCTV and walkie talkie network meant that staff dealt with issues and delivered services quickly and efficiently.
A couple of espresso machines slightly offset the very disappointing coffee and any remaining disappointment could be lost in a limitless stream of alcohol – cocktails all day – if your head was strong enough! The only disappointment here was the Mexican wine, red and white which was probably cheaper than water and rather less palettable.
We were impressed by the food. Despite a tendency to cook omelettes as if they were a pancake, cook both sides then add a filling, fold and serve immediately, the range of freshly prepared fruit, vegetables, meat and fish was good and some dishes were excellent.
Key Features: [top]
- The all-inclusive package offers as much food and drink as you can consume including some reasonable international brands of alcohol with free Hobie Cat and sea kayak booking on the beach.
- Child and wheel-chair friendly, provided your room is on the ground floor of one of the many 3 storey buildings, the beach offers sheltered sea paddling and swimming and extensive facilities and entertainments for children.
- Amongst the seven swimming pools some are adult only.
- The Spa offers an excellent range of massages and treatments as extras but otherwise use of the sauna, Turkish bath, Jacuzzi and gym are free
- The seven restaurants offer a good variety of food most of which is prepared in the massive kitchen serving the largest buffet restaurant La Lagoona and distributed by the hardworking Mexican staff.
- Only a few of the Hotels on this coast have scuba on-site so if you want to dive this hotel is a good choice with Scuba Libre based on the beach.
- A US$10 taxi ride from the centre of Playa del Carmen, a rapidly expanding and vibrant Mexican town giving access to the taste of Mexico
- There is a free bus service from the resort to Playa several times a day.
- Where possible pay in pesos not dollars. Currently the official exchange rate is just under 14 pesos to the dollar. The conversion from pesos to dollars on goods and services offered by hotels and shops varies from 10 upwards hence if you pay in dollars you can easily pay another third on top of the peso price. When paying by credit card insist the amount is in pesos.
- Take some small denomination dollar bills with you for tips, as when you do pay in dollars you will receive change in pesos.
- Mexico uses the $ symbol for pesos and $US for US dollars.
Hints & Tips: [top]
- Routes: avoid any US carrier – they will transit you through their US hub which will cause you delay as you have to pass through US immigration merely to transit. Ideally get a charter flight direct to Cancun.
- US Biometrics: remember how you put your fingers on the finger print scanner the first time the US authorities recorded your finger prints as putting your fingers in a different position may result in their recognition software failing to match you which will mean you are taken to a secure room where you are manually processed – result at best more delay
- Duty Free purchases: avoid all liquids and gels over 100cc as you cannot transit these through a US airport – you would have to queue to check them in after passing through immigration and before going through security to get your flight
- Rooms: avoid some rooms on the southern end of the beach front where noise associated with food distribution may prove a nuisance. It takes about 15 minutes to walk from the most distant rooms to the beach
- The pillows are chopped foam so consider packing your own.
- Mexican bus services are regular, comfortable and cheap. Day trips from the Hotel are much more expensive so providing you are happy to take a taxi or shuttle bus into town first the local bus will be much cheaper and probably more fun.
- Cancun airport has extensive air-conditioned shopping selling the normal range of duty free goods at inflated prices which were, they assured us, “less than you will pay back home”. For Mexican goods buy them much cheaper in town before you leave.
Weaknesses: [top]
- The coffee was generally very poor, weak and slightly tainted by the treated drinking water.
- The four smallest restaurants are bookable for dinner and each guest is rationed to two a la carte dinner bookings a week. Queuing at 7.30am on the day may be required to obtain the booking of your choice.
- Insufficient sun-beds were provided on the beach during high season.
- Recorded music played in the bars and restaurants can be too loud and unduly repetitive from a limited selection of CDs. Some areas could usefully be designated as quiet areas without music. The entertainment troop around the beach front pool can be pretty noisy during the day but if you don’t like that sort of thing you can move further down the beach.
- During our visit in December 2008 extensive roadworks on the coastal highway created significant delays if you wanted to travel south beyond Playa del Carmen towards Tulum.
Travel Details: [top]
We booked through Viva Travel of London UKOur outbound flight on Continental Airways having been delayed and missing our connection at Houston we arrived at Cancun on a later flight than planned. The local agent Hola Tours counted meeting our scheduled flight as one transfer and taking us to our hotel on arrival as a second. After quite a lot of hassle we were unsuccessful in obtaining any further assistance from Hola Tours who clearly did not regard us as valued customers – so we paid for our own taxi to the airport on departure.
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