TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Queue for every restaurant, 75 minutes for a check in, "Guest Service" who didn't even want to talk about the issues. 8 different restaurants that you have to make reservations, but are always full. You arrive with your family, everybody is tired, long trip. all you want is get to the room, take a shower, eat something and relax. At Sandos? forget about it! After waiting 75 minutes on a queue for the check-in (that only took me 5 minutes to do it) we went to the room leave the luggage and went to the Italian restaurant, needed a reservation, fine, than to the Japanese, also needed a reservation. Ok, any who does not need a reservation? Yes, the one with another hour of queue. The installations are good, to food is good, the waiters and waitresses are polite, but it is clear to me that the resort should have at least 50% more people to handle the number of guests, also a proper training on those at the "lobby" would make a much better experience from the customer point o view.

We had our wedding at Sandos Caracol in April 2024. Everything turned out better than we ever imagined, from the locations to the decor. The planning process was easy and stress free, Armando was so helpful and pleasant and made sure everything went exactly how we wanted. We highly recommend Sandos Caracol for your destination wedding. We had our ceremony at the beach gazebo and reception on the Mapache deck. We also used the resort photographer Romanza and they did an amazing job. Rest assured the wedding coordinator has it all handled. Thank you Armando for making our dream wedding a reality.

This was an ok resort. We booked it for the slides but ended up not really using them. My kids are 12 and 9 and I'll start with the negative: -Booking ala cartes was terrible. My husband would have to set his alarm and wake up at midnight to book. -The buffet was not very good. Hot dog weiners on pizza?! We found stuff to eat but overall pretty poor. We ate the buffet at Xplor and at the sister resort Playacar and both were MUCH better. -There wasn't much for privacy in the rooms. There was no door on the bathroom area, so when getting changed we would have to go into the room with the toilet which was small or into the shower. Coming out of the shower we always had to give warning "No one come around the corner". -I think they had a bit of an issue with the plumbing, the toilet room always smelled like an outhouse, so we made sure the toilet seat was down and left the door open which helped. Also no hot water most days, it was just warm enough that you could get cleaned up. My husband didn't mind because he thought it felt nice after a hot day but I wasn't a fan. -The beach is terrible. We brought water shoes because we heard the beach was rocky but it wasn't even worth trying. -The bikes they have for free to ride to the ruins are in very bad shape, we saw they had brand new ones at the sister resort. -My kids used the water slides but they were just ok. POSITIVES: -The resort was overall pretty clean. -We loved the variety of animals. This however could also be a negative. There are so many Coatis around the kids pool at lunch, so we had to watch out for poop. One went on a chair and peed on someone's belongings. Also we were at the Brazilian ala carte and a racoon went up on an empty table and started eating the sauces they put out. We told a waitress about it but they never replaced anything on the table, that being said we also didn't see anyone sat there. -The location is nice, it is really close to Playa del Carmen. -They have a sister resort you can go to Sandos Playcar Beach, you do have to pay $25USD to get a taxi there and pay again to come back but we spent a day there and really liked it. The food was better and the beach was really nice. FINAL: I didn't hate this trip but would I come back to this resort? Absolutely not.

Family of six myself and my wife. Our two children in their twenties with their partners. Foodies, canteenies and one particular eater. Booked two rooms in royal elite and one in adult select. Note that booking a room in royal elite does not entitle you to royal elite benefits. So no concierge and no access to royal elite areas. No matter because adult select was very good and worth the investment. We got into a speciality restaurant every night and went to every restaurant.. We all logged into the app at midnight with everyone having a target booking. We then cancelled all but our chosen choice. Best undoubtedly was el tempo. Followed by fugo de Brazil. Managed to eat twice at both of these with a table for six. The rest were disappointing. In general the meat eaters were a lot happier than those preferring sea food. The times we ate in the international buffet we really liked it … but it is a canteen. The fish here tasted nicer than the fish in the speciality restaurants and the New York steak was as good as I have had anywhere. So many options and not sure why it has got such bad feedback. When presented with drinks menu at the restaurant you can just ask to order from the bar. You do not have to pay for drinks in the restaurants unless you want something off the drinks menu. Plenty to do on site. We also did the trip with Ekinox to Chichén Itzá and ik kil cenote. Highly recommended especially ik kil. Coco bongo was good but disappointed on where we were positioned. Booked gold vip on site. Coach to get us there took 1 hour to do the 3 mile trip with other hotel pick ups. We were last in and as a result right at the back with an obscured view. We would have made our own way if we had known. Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our holiday. Huge variety to do and eat at a fair price.

Fabiola did my massage and then did my make up for my wedding the next day. Both days, she was phenomenal. Totally recommend!