Occidental at Xcaret Destination reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

4.0 Very Good

  • Cleanliness 4.4
  • Location 4.4
  • Rooms 4.1
  • Service 4.2
  • Value 4.0

26619 TripAdvisor reviews

TripAdvisor users rated this property 3 out of 5

Great resort but food is a big downfall

D T (Regina, Canada) on Apr 22, 2026

As an experienced traveller to Riviera Maya 3 times a year here is my honest review. We stayed here in a basic deluxe room. We are from Canada. Check in smooth and easy we asked at check in to be close to our daughter and they gave us adjoining rooms. Rooms are alright, spacious, clean. Need some updates but not horrible. Housekeeping are awesome cleaned daily, fresh towels, stocked our fridge well, left snacks, made sure I had plenty of coffee. Grounds are beautiful jungle like we petted deer and fed them apples, fed monkeys bananas, iguanas, coati, flamingos, parrots thankfully did not see any spiders or scorpions. No issues with bugs either, brought bug spray did not use it. Pools are nice, activities by the pools lack a bit from what we are used to but it was fine. The pool party had a huge beach ball tossed around the pool but they had to take it away cause some lady complained it hit her whatever if you dont like it get out of the pool or move let the other people enjoy it. No foam parties. Pools were a bit dirty but with all the wildlife and trees it was expected. Had no problem getting chairs at any pool even later in the morning. Beach/Cove very nice lots of fish swim around you, sand is nice and very little sargassum. Bars are lacking in availability but drinks were good. the swim up bar is surrounded by a waterfall so if you want a drink there you need to stay there or your drink is full of pool water, there was a second bar you could go to above the swim up. It can be a longer walk to the bar depending on where you’re sitting. There were waiters at the pool but seem to disappear around 2pm. Adults only pool bar was closed, then there was a bar at the beach other than that you had to go to the lobby. The pool and beach bars closed at 6pm which sucked. Staff were super friendly, always willing to help and always smiling. Food was the downfall. Breakfast was standard Buffett breakfast it was best at the beach restaurant. Lunch we ate at the snack shack mostly burgers, hotdogs, fries etc it was good. Room service does not exist for standard level. Supper buffets were not good we had a hard time finding something we liked one night we had sandwiches. The only night that was good was BBQ night. Reservations were hard to get, they would only allow us to book 1 per day for both our rooms. We complained and they did give us a reservation at the royal. Italian restaurant was not very good left there hungry. Steakhouse was excellent. Royal restaurant was excellent. Pizza place was good but not always open. Taco place we did not eat at but it was not always open. They definitely need to improve on their supper buffets and have more bars and bathrooms by the pools. Also found there were not very many Canadian or American travellers here. We did not go to Excaret park.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 5 out of 5

Amazing family holiday in the most beautiful setting

amydianebooth1 on Apr 21, 2026

We just returned from a 10 day trip to this resort from the UK. Our group was family of 5 adults and 3 kids aged 12/13/14. The resort in my opinion was fabulous. Natural beauty and wildlife all around. Our room was a deluxe plus in building 14. Slight issues of loud AC and fridge which sounded like aircraft engines, other than nah all good. Housekeeping daily and excellent standards. I see a lot of people moaning about the food. It’s an all inclusive so obviously the food is mass produced and can be a little repetitive in the buffet. We all found it great and always plenty to eat! Some guests were outright greedy and wasteful but again that happens everywhere. To book the reservation only restaurants is a farce, you have to be in line at 7am and can only book 3 days in advance. This is ridiculous! We managed to get 4 reservations. Mexican and oriental were just ok. Steakhouse and Italian much better. People get up and reserve sunbeds at 5/6am but they are the idiots as come 9/10am there are still plenty to go around. All members of staff were wonderful friendly people especially Roman in the snack bar and his tequila! Entertainment wise there is stuff going on if you look for it we had fun at the pool party. All in all a beautiful resort which we definitely recommend.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 5 out of 5

4 days in Paradise

thomaswL2997VO (Helsingborg, Sweden) on Apr 21, 2026

We came to the hotel without knowing anything about it and got really surprised. Laying in the middle of the jungle att a beautiful location. Our first impression with the check in wasn’t the best but things got better. After almost an hour we got our room and it was really nice with a big big bed, a wellfilled minibar and a nice balcony. Than we took one of the shuttles which rums around the area all day to the beachbar and had a couple of drinks before we went back to the room to change clothes for a prebooked dinner at the steakhoue restaurant. Excellent food! ?????? The day after we had some breakfast at one of the buffés and it was an incredible variation of things to choose between. Walked down to the big pool area and spent a couple of hours in the pool while the nice Walters came with whatever we wanted to drink directly to the pool! Fantastic! ?? At night, dinner at the Italian restaurant and that was total dissapointment! No tender meat and lack of seasoning on the Malin dish. The soups were the only thimg worth to mention. ?? Day 3 did we go to the Xcaret park (entrance direct from the hotel) which was nice but a lot of walking up and down. Sometimes difficult to understand the different trails but we managed to see all kind of animals . Worth a visit but very expensive in our eyes cause we were not interested in the shows at all. The last day we just spent at the resort at the pool and the nice bars and had a dinner at the fishretaurant which also was delicious. All in all did we really enjoy our stay at the resort with all these monkeys, nosebears, flamingos, iguanas, deers and other animals everywhere. We highly recomended this resort and probally come back another year! ????????????

TripAdvisor users rated this property 2 out of 5

Terrible Room Experience

alber626 on Apr 21, 2026

The room was in bad shape! We did not have hot water and when we raised the issue we were told by maintenance to turn on the bathroom sink and shower and let the water run for 10-15min so we can get hot water. My kids showered with cold water for 3 days as the recommendation did not work! The ceiling fan was loud and so was the Ac. The staff did not care and didn’t bother to follow up or address the issue. The cleaning staff was great, and food in restaurants was great. The hotel was beautiful and easy access to Xcaret park. The only issue with my stay was the room condition and the way the front desk staff handled my issues. The front desk also refused to provide a late check out and one staff member was rude and seemed bothered as I expressed my frustration. I kept my cool as this was our first family trip and didn’t want to ruin the kids experience.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 3 out of 5

All was good except the little things

cryrssll on Apr 20, 2026

It is good For kids, I found it stuck in the 2000’s the grounds and ambiance with nature was great. Food quality in buffets lacked and limited choices for healthy eating. Lagoon is no good except for kids and people scared of ocean. If you love the Caribbean and floating in waves it’s a big no go.

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