TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Amazing experience. An excellent complex, with many activities to do, with a lot of nature around ,good food, clean rooms, great holiday

If you are going to book this place STOP right now! Unless you want to wait in line to check in for 3 hours. Absolutely ridiculous. I have two tired and hungry kids and asked if the kids could get something to eat and they said no not until check-in. Have not even been here a day and already regretting I booked here. I should have took the reviews seriously! Don’t do it! Ridiculous!

Avoid Sandos at all costs. The resort is unsanitary, poorly managed, and severely understaffed. Over the course of our 10-day stay, our family experienced two separate bouts of food poisoning—sudden, excessive vomiting within six hours of eating, no diarrhea, and full resolution within 24 hours. We also met numerous other families experiencing identical symptoms, and on nights when we were not ill ourselves, we could hear guests in nearby rooms vomiting through the walls or plumbing. When I reported the incidents to the buffet manager, I was told to speak with concierge. The concierge insisted that “no one else has reported illness” and advised that my daughter must see the on-site doctor—at a cost of $120. This was said while another family was in the lobby with their child actively vomiting into the bushes. Despite all this, staff continued to deny any issues with the resort’s food handling. The resort layout is also problematic: pathways are uneven, poorly lit and insufficiently marked; creating tripping hazards and frequent confusion navigating back to our room in the evenings. Food availability is quite limited. There is no food service at the beach or main pool. Only basic hot dogs and burgers are available in the waterslide area, where alcohol is not permitted. If your ideal vacation includes relaxing by the pool with a drink while your children enjoy snacks in a carefree environment, this is not the place to stay. The wildlife on the property loses its charm quickly when you find yourself stepping over animal droppings or fending off raccoons trying to get into your bags. There is a single main pool with one bar area, regularly staffed by just two bartenders—one poolside and one on the dry side—despite the hotel being at “maximum capacity” throughout our stay. Wait times were consistently long as a result. Restaurant reservations were extremely limited, leaving most guests reliant on the main buffet unless they wanted simple snacks/tacos from El Nidos . Evening lines for the buffet stretched out the door, and the interior layout funneled everyone into one long line rather than allowing guests to move among different stations. Staff were generally unhelpful, almost certainly due to chronic understaffing. A towel attendant demanded money from my husband when he requested a clean towel after a bird defecated on his. At breakfast, a server refused to provide me with coffee because the host had seated my family—along with many others—in an outdoor section with no assigned waiter. I could go on, but the bottom line is this: I would never recommend this resort and will not return. I will also be filing a formal complaint with WestJet, as they sold us this vacation package. Our family travels frequently, and we have never encountered an experience as disappointing as this one.

Upon arrival—already exhausted after a long day of travel—it took nearly an hour just to check in and receive the bracelet required to access our room. We were then greeted by a pleasant young woman who reviewed the resort map with us and encouraged us to attend a “not a time share” presentation the following morning, noting that breakfast would be provided. She also advised us to make dinner reservations as soon as possible. As we walked to our room, which was supposed to be located in an adults-only area, we were surprised to see children everywhere. In addition, the short path to our room was overshadowed by a strong sewage odor. The next morning, we woke up early—as we typically do at 6 a.m.—but found that the gym did not open until 7, and food was not available until 8. When we attempted to book dinner reservations, we discovered that nothing at all was available for the entire duration of our stay. During the meeting with Alejandro, I repeatedly asked about the cost of the program being presented, but was told each time that pricing would be discussed later. We were shown exclusive-member areas—which were indeed beautiful—but the “included breakfast” turned out to be simply eating at the buffet with Alejandro. We declined the executive program, as I had not yet had the chance to experience the resort or determine whether I would even want to return to Cancún. Alejandro ended the meeting abruptly; he sent us down the elevator without so much as a thank-you or a polite goodbye, which came across as dismissive and unprofessional. Our attempt to dine at Lido also proved frustrating. My friend requested no onions, with added lettuce and cheese, but because our server did not speak English, the dish arrived with only meat and onions—which we later realized was the standard preparation. I had looked forward to enjoying authentic Mexican cuisine, yet found none at this resort. Because no restaurant reservations were available, we were forced to eat at the buffet each night. This would not normally have been an issue, but on Wednesday evening, there was a 40-minute wait at 7 p.m., and when we finally entered, there was almost no food left that I was willing to eat. The night before, we had witnessed an employee clearing dishes without gloves, then using the same unwashed hands to cut a loaf of bread, which made me unwilling to eat it. We visited the adults-only beach area, where the food was excellent—but service was only offered from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. While there, we were constantly approached by people selling massages and various items, disrupting any chance of a peaceful experience. Children frequently ran along the beach, though staff made an effort to keep them out of the lounge area. At the adults-only pool, lounge chairs were never available unless we went to the upper pool, and even then, the dense tree coverage made it difficult to find any sun. On Thursday (Thanksgiving), the resort made a commendable effort to celebrate, but by the time the football game ended, the food was largely depleted yet again. The breakfast buffet was also disappointing. Although the yogurt bar looked appealing, there was no actual yogurt available. When I asked, I was told it was on the way—this was at 9 a.m. We attempted to use a hot tub to relax, but the only functioning option was located near the gym, and it remained occupied the entire day. Overall, I was dissatisfied with nearly every aspect of this trip. The concierge desk staff were particularly rude; one employee, wearing pink eyeliner, rolled her eyes at me and implied I was lying about not receiving towel cards at check-in. She was extremely dismissive toward both me and my friend when we asked simple questions, such as directions to 5th Avenue. I had no intention of “stealing” towels—and fortunately had brought my own—so I chose not to argue. On a positive note, the bell staff were consistently helpful and courteous. Perhaps I am accustomed to a certain level of service, but when I spend money on a vacation, I expect to enjoy my experience—and unfortunately, I did not at this resort.

I don't normally leave reviews, but I feel this resort needs to do things better and others need to know what to expect in advance, or before booking. Sandos Caracol Eco was over-hyped and under-delivered for our family of 5 (2 adults, and the kids are 9, 11 and 12). Large property, clean throughout and for the most part friendly staff. The rainforest grounds overall are a highlight and we were able to see many types of birds, creatures and monkeys quite close up...this was very cool. We booked a family 'penthouse' suite, which was very nice to have, since the two spacious rooms were separated by a lockable door. For anyone booking this type of room, there are two full bathrooms - one for each side so there was no crossover or kids wanting to use ours and we had some privacy at night as a bonus. Nothing special was done to enhance our experience at any point, we were never offered upgrades, no towel animals on our beds, no welcome package etc. The waterslides were closed the first day we were there for whatever reason and opened the second day - but only partially. We suited up and went on in, only 4 of the larger 'adult' slides were open and got boring very quickly for us, we left after 1.5 hours and never went back for the rest of the trip. (if you have kids 6 or under I'm sure the waterpark is a blast to hang at all day, but it's defiantly NOT a reason to book this resort). The beach was the main hangout point for us, followed by the smaller secondary pool area about two thirds of the way to the waterpark. The main pool by the beach (on the bar side) gets very crowded, noisy at times and the water gets pretty gross from the kids, sunscreen and everyone spilling drinks...best to avoid this area if you want peace, quiet and a nicer experience. We never had to wait for sun loungers at the beach to be available and easily found a place to land. I would say the resort was at best 2/3rds full most of the time, but if it was full you might have a hard time getting a spot. My biggest complaints about this resort: 1) Check in: We arrived to check in at approx. 8pm EST after a very early morning and a super long travel day without much food. We were all running low on patience at this point and just wanted to get to our room and then grab some food. There were a handful of other travelers in line in front of us - the check in process was PAINFULLY slow and took over 45 minutes until we were finally ready to head to our room - pack your patience for just about everything service related, you're gonna need it! 2) The food: I've stayed at other resorts in Mexico, many have had self-service snack bars where chips and salsa, tacos, hot dogs, burgers, chicken fingers, fries etc. are available just about 24 hours a day (especially for kids and family oriented resorts such as this one) Sandos Caracol has nothing like that available and you must sit down and wait to be served at the snack bar - really irritating, especially when multiple menu items were not available...this happened frequently. When the food did finally come at the snack bar, the salsa or tacos were 50% white onion and not very tasty - many times we were forced to pick everything off and choke them down. The pizza was totally inconsistent and inedible a couple of times as well. The snack bar in general was a 2 out of 10 rating for us and really disappointing. Please note, there is no quick food/snacks available anywhere near the beach. The main buffet (Laguna) was generally decent and had a good selection of authentic Mexican dishes and North American things as well. However, the selection was never very consistent as well and was always hit and miss on items. EG. for breakfast, first three mornings we had really tasty sausages available, after that never saw them again for the rest of the days. One day burgers, hot dogs and chicken nuggets were available at dinner for the kids, then never seen again for the rest of the time. It was frustrating for us with slightly older kids, I couldn't imagine how irritating this would be for families with 4-5-6 year old picky eaters. 3) The service and the staff: Everyone in general was fairly friendly, but many times it took far too long to get service and it was like our presence was an inconvenience to many of the servers. We would sit down at the Laguna buffet with plates of food, order drinks from the staff and be fully done our meals and ready to go by the time they got back to us - unacceptable. The snack bar was probably even worse service-wise. It didn't matter if you tipped or not, the service was the same slow, indifferent pace and care level the majority of the time. On occasion, someone would hustle and take some pride - this was noticed and appreciated 100%. If this resort was full to capacity I couldn't imagine how frustrating it would be for patrons. For our family this experience was just average and we will defiantly be booking elsewhere next time. There are dozens and dozens of resorts from Cancun to Tulum along the water, pick something else unless you're dead set on this one, or you happen to get an amazing deal (40-60% or more off regular prices).