TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

The spa experience is amazing. You have access to the facilities amenities before and after your massage. The 80 minute Swedish massage was so relaxing. We enjoyed the hot tub. The 17 degree cold water tub was refreshing. The staff as well as the masseuse were all friendly and made sure our experience was more than worth the money.

We have just returned from our stay at the resort. So here is my honest review. We travelled in a party of 8, including our 7 year old son. Prior to leaving the UK, we read a lot of negative reviews on these groups, which made us a little apprehensive about our stay. Good points: We stayed at the Colonial and upon our arrival were met by happy and welcoming staff. We were given a brief introduction to the resort and were taken to our rooms. The refurbishments taking place did not impede our stay or experience whatsoever and if we has not read about them prior to arriving, we wouldn't of really known they were happening. The rooms are very traditional and have that rustic Mexican feel, marbel flooring etc (which i personally prefer to modern decor), lovely and clean, could not fault them. They were cleaned every day to a very high standard including replacement towels. The colonial pool is great, its used by most of the other hotel visitors (its the largest and has the best swim up bar) - bearing in mind that the White Sands pool was closed during our stay. We never struggled to get beds but sometimes securing one with shade was difficult if you didn't get up early. We used the 2 jacuzzis alot, (they are based within the pool itself) , they are huge with plenty of room. The kids pool, slides and waterfall is fantastic and spent loads of time there with our son. There was always some type of daily entertainment happening - be it Pool aerobics, Water Polo or beach volleyball. Addionaly which I never seen before at a resort is Live daily music poolside & buffet (literally all day). An excellent touch ?? The Hacienda buffet was closed during our stay but on a whole the buffet restaurants were great, only thing is sometimes having to queue to get in for breakfast/lunch. But staff sat us as quickly as they could. We found the selection of food perfectly fine and the food wasn't cold or luke warm. We only ate at El Gran Azul on 2 occasions on the evening but enjoyed breakfast there everyday and my wife and son in particular loved the pancake, French toast station. Can't fault it at all and were joined by the local wildlife on a daily basis. On a particular day we chatted to one of the waiters, Luiz for ages, about where we came from and about his family (he enlighten us about the local people and cultures) He is indeed a credit to the resort. We were able to book all of the available ala carte restaurants - we booked them with the Concierge 2 days in advance and always were given an option. We have stayed in hotels across Europe, The States and the Caribbean and we found the on site restaurants excellent ?? We visited the Brazilian, Argentinan, Thai, Japanese,Mexican. Our favourites were the Brazilian steak restaurant (similar to Rio in the UK but much better - loads of quality cuts and red wine flowing), we visted twice. AND We also visted the Japanese Hibachi twice as well. What a great experience with delicious food delivered in a unique show style performance. Being from the UK we enjoyed our time in the Sports bar (Premier league at 9am) - probably one of the best Ive visited in an on site resort. Sports from around the world, simple but tasty menu (our party enjoyed the selection of chicken wings), pool and fussball tables etc. We attended the Brava evening at the White Sands and would fully recommend this. We did Brava instead of Chic as we had our son with us and Chic is adults only. The night was excellent with lovely food, drink and at table singing and dancing (I did a drunken version of the YMCA with cast at the end of the evening) ?? Bad points: When we landed, we got through customs relatively quick but after collecting our luggage the experience was dreadful - I have never seen anything like it in my life. Wow... Total carnage, be prepared. ??. Being our first visit to Mexico. I did feel that the local / Latino guests were favoured by the poolbar & bar staff BUT , all other staff members were very very courteous and attentive. On our last evening I did take offence to being ignored at the Mexican station at the El Gran Azul by the chef, he served all the Latino people in the Que before me and I had been standing waiting for food for more than 10mins. (this was not the other guests fault by the way) The evening Entertainment albeit varied (with some exceptional dancing) wasnt up to scratch in my opinion BUT i did enjoy the Silent disco - this was great and my son and I danced and sang the night away (mostly to Latino dance music) ?? The sewage style stench at the White sands was awful and made me and our party physically reach to vomit - it was intermittent but not good at all ?? The cart system that takes guests between hotels and various locations is great (and without it the hot Mexican sun could be a issue) BUT what I had an issue with and found an inconvenience was that the carts are albeit being available and frequent. If you were not a TRS, Family selection guest then the carts would not stop for us being Colonial guests. Now i get if you pay more you may get a better service but we had my elderly mum with us whom walks with a stick and I am disappointed that some common sense or compassion was not exercised to help - dont get me wrong, some did but mostly didn't ?? Unfortunately, we had a horrible check out experience (not at the desk) but actually arranging the collection of luggage and being on time for the bus home. My wife, asked what we needed to do and were told to have our luggage ready at 12 noon in our rooms for a 12:35pm departure. I walked to the lobby to pay our bill at 11.50am and was told that our luggage would be collected. At 12:20pm I had to flag down a cart myself, run up 3 storeys of steps and help my wife get the bags onto the cart (with the help of the driver but only after I was literally dripping with sweat). We got there with mins to spare. I was so stressed, hot & sweaty and it wasn't the impression I wanted as the lasting one of the resort. However, overall we enjoyed the holiday experience. Staff are on the whole lovely and friendly ???? We would return in the future, great value for money ??

We visited Italian restaurant purtofino and had our dinner there one night during our stay at this resort, we were served by hipolito, he gave us great recommendations and fantastic service, the experience from his service and attention to details was just above and beyond, also hands down to the chef the food was just next level overall the Italian restaurant was definitely worth coming back second time

Excellent and efficient service. Always smiling nothing too much trouble. Drinks were perfect and arrived quickly even though bar area was very busy. Making our holidays an enjoyable experience. Food the best ever hotel we have been to. We were served by Fernanda chan bar

Alicia in the husanda was so attentive and took great care of us meeting our needs on the dinner time rush very helpful drinks were kept full and table cleared swiftly .food was good aswell with good variety and most foods you can ask for greasy and hot