TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Sandos Caracol offers one of the most dynamic and close to nature experiences I’ve ever encountered. Great for families and couples, this resort blends the Mexican jungle with a 4 star resort experience. Plenty of wildlife encounters from spider monkeys walking past you to various birds and lizards. Families enjoy the water park on sight, for adults, my wife, adult son and I stayed in the select club section of the resort reserved for adults only. The staff each day was amazing and took care of all guests with a high degree of professionalism and care. The food, especially at the à la cartes was very good each time. We tried all of the à la cartes and each time it was great. Things to keep in mind. I wouldn’t say negative things, but just to keep in mind when staying or potentially choosing this resort. Rooms are clean, a bit dated, but clean. Beds are hard, so if you prefer a softer mattress that won’t happen. My son had a separate room and the bed was the same. Check-in can be a very long process. After a long day of travel, many people will want to have a quick check-in, more than likely if you see a small line, that can mean a good 40 mins to an hour wait. Lines don’t move fast, but it not so much staff in my opinion as it is the facilities are a bit small to accommodate the large number of guests. Nightly entertainment usually means arriving 50 minutes ahead of time as the theatre is small relative to the number of guests that stay on the resort. The Sandos app is great, it does involve some understanding of how things work at the resort. Booking à la cartes begins after midnight each day and you book à la carte restaurants two days in advance. For example you want the Italian restaurant and it’s a Sunday, wait until past Midnight into early Monday morning and times are available for the Wednesday that week. It’s not a difficult process to book times, we figured it out fast but there is a learning curve, so if you dislike navigating the inter workings of a resort that could be a disadvantage. We attended the “timeshare” presentation, got a couple of free massage coupons from doing it, and some tips on how to navigate the app and restaurants. The presentation was interesting and a part of me was interested in signing up for the timeshare but one thing did stop me. Talking with other Royal Elite members and having gone to two Sandos resorts, the standard isn’t the same at each resort. Los Cabos Sandos is 5 star and I enjoyed that experience fully, it felt 5 star through and through. Sandos Caracol isn’t 5 star, it can show at times as the facilities do need repair in some spots, it didn’t make my vacation unenjoyable, but other Royal Elite members mentioned their experience at different Sandos resorts and the inconsistencies of 3, 4 or 5 star experiences. If I’m going to drop 20k on a timeshare the experience should be 5 star everywhere. Sandos has room to grow and with a bit more maturity in the development of the properties could be a fantastic experience for those for want timeshares. Big thank you to the staff at Sandos Caracol you all are great!

Jan 16th, 2026 Sandos Caracol overall review: I’ve been part of the Royale Elite for a few years now and had the opportunity to try the other Sandos in Mexico. We had three “PSU” rooms for 6 adults and 6 kids this time. This resort is the worst. Read all the other negative comments and we experienced most of them other than being sick. Avoid January/February time frame… It’s a zoo. Pros Plenty of food & drinks No issues with the room service and cleaning crew Wilde life roaming in the park ( Agouties, Coaties, Peacocks and Monkeys ) Cons: Maintenance is lacking at just about every level: 1) Website pictures are deceiving. PSU rooms are too small for 4 people. No seating area, no desk and these pix were taken a decade ago (colors have faded and buildings are deteriorating) 2) All but one pool have murky water. The exception is the adult pool “Select Club Pool”. 3) Room 1… Main room door drooping… in turn, letting the mosquitoes in the room. Front desk unable to provide another similar room for 2 days due to the resort running at full capacity and unwilling to upgrade the room even with compensation. 4) Room 2… Air conditioning not cooling the room. Took 3 days and 4 trips to the desk to get a new room. 5) All sliding doors in the various rooms were very hard to slide. 6) ALL “straw” roofs need repair… all leaking when it rains. 7) Plumbing faucets in one room was changed to a newer shorter model. When using it, you couldn’t avoid splashing water all over the vanity. 8) Some days the water was warm at best. Not ideal to get the grand kids in the shower. 9) The water park was fully closed for two day. When it reopened, the kiddy pool stayed closed for the week we were there. 10) Some critters found their way in the ceiling of the second floor and duking it out. This managed to push a recess light out. We reported the issue. When we left 2 days later, it still wasn’t fixed.

We arrived on Mon 12th January room 6711 and still have 2 weeks to enjoy. The service at reception and guest relations is really good we had a problem with the safe and they were there in a minute, there was a queue for check in but they offered you drinks this is because of the large Families who are well catered for. Omg this place is a cross between Thailand and the Lake District in one Hotel, every time we walk out our door there is a path to lead you to discover cenotes, caves, jungle trails, bridges the nature is phenomenal. In the grounds and on the shoreline even better than Costa Rica for bird watching. We are a couple but the amount of facilities for families is so much and food and drinks are plentiful. I don’t understand the negative reviews look around it is amazing nature, service and all the staff are very helpful and happy.

We stayed for this christmas period.2026 ROOM: had and awful smell, toilet got blocked everyday.Complained, maintance guy had to unblock eve ryday 6 days :( RESTURANTS: Be aware you are allowed to use the 2 buffet restaurants the rest of the restaurants mentioned are only Ellite customers. TOWELS: make sure when you get beach towel the lady writes your room number on the book, otherwise when returning towels they wont give your cards back, Very upset it happen to us. RECEPTION: CASH MACHINES (ATM) Staff have been instructed to deceive to customers telling them there is no ATM, but there is 2 Onsite, Reason so customers pay a taxi to 10m drive, cost £16 going and 16£ back, money making scam. POOLS: Main pool depth shallow , theres a much better one but again only Ellite customers. DISCO: until 1pm and only European music and regaetton music, no mexican music pretty boring. BEACH: They have 6 parasol bases and they only have 3 parasols which means once a staff member comes around people have to run to get a parasol, not very nice

I was wary of some negative reviews before staying, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting from recent reviews - HOWEVER (and it is a big however) it does need a lot doing to the Hotel, grounds and restaurants to bring it back to a full 4/5 star. I would rate it 3.5 star at present. Pro's Lovely feel about the hotel - feels like a small village and vibrant - lots going on. Nature walks and undergrounds tunnels / cenotes is wonderful - really impressed with the nature. Good Gym/Pickelball/Tennis and Padel Staff helpful and mostly friendly - 1 or 2 rude waiters, but could see they were rushed off their feet during the Christmas period so can empathise. Location to Playa-Del-Carmen and easy taxi service was a plus - utilised this twice (300 Peso each way - in English money £12 each way) - good value and efficient. Sea was lovely - warm and safe if staying within the walled area. Cons Long wait if you don't plan for check in and check out. If arriving or leaving at peak times you have a long wait - an hour plus. We got a private transfer so got ahead of the coach and when leaving we checked out earlier to avoid the rush at midday. Not very efficient. Our wristbands didn't work for all 4 of us to get into our room, meaning a return to the lobby - luckily the concierge desk was able to activate them properly - but another wait in line. They stopped working after 7 days, so we all had to go and get them re-activated a second time. Long waits at bars - particularly daytime pool bar and smoothie station. Not helped by some greedy people filling 6 big personal cups at the smoothie station and taking 20-30 minutes time - meaning people left the queue (including us). Snack bar roof is full of holes, so on the days it rained it did not offer shelter - just poured in - needs some attention. Room We stayed in block 12 (would recommend you asking for blocks 9-14 if you stay as close to everything - some blocks are so far away). Room was dated and needs refurbishment - but size wise it was great - we had a two bed room, which had 2 showers and 2 toilets - sadly they were all in the same area, so not private with teenagers - would benefit from partitioning. I didn't mind the dated look - I much preferred the decent sized room. The plunge pool on the balcony is a waste of time - like a concrete bath that is filthy - didn't use. Mini bar was refreshed daily and Yolanda looked after us well. Pools not good enough for a hotel of this size - main pool very narrow and sectioned off, so not big enough at all. Quieter pool better design, but too shaded. Other pools were in the upgrade or adult only areas, so not on our plan. Looked ok, but they lacked atmosphere when we went to check them out. Water Park Was ok - not many slides and boys got bored after an hour, as no other pool in there - so more of a brief visit. Location Very remote due to long drive that is shared by a number of apartment facilities and hotels. you can walk about, but won't get you anywhere really, so need to use the taxi service. Felt very secure though. Food This was very mixed: Main Buffet restaurant - adequate and ate lunch here most days due to being the only option, other than the snack bar. mainly ate salads with fish, otherwise it was pizza, burgers chips. Problem here is the design - everything is around one edge, so a large queue forms every meal time - so if you want to get to something in the middle you end up having to queue for a long time. Drinks were sometimes served, sometimes not - just not enough staff to serve drinks or clean tables - meant long queues to get in some days. Mexican buffet restaurant - breakfast was good in here - expect last day (no plates, lack of food and not given a table inside despite there being 10+ available) We only ate here one evening and was looking forward to it - we were let down - selected our food, sat down to find it was all either cold or lukewarm - not right when it was pork, chicken and rice. For the first time ever in my life I told my family to not eat it, as clearly was not safe - we left, leaving 4 full plates of food, which was such a waste - never went back. Japanese - great food, great atmosphere - be careful of the greasy flors - very dangerous! Steak and Fish restaurant - lovely food and felt a bit more upmarket (felt like a nice restaurant night) Other beach restaurant - ate here for the Christmas meal - was awful. Hot starter was cold, salad with hot figs had no figs, soup was awful and lukewarm - main was edible. We had been told our younger son could order from a childs menu by reception - not the case and we had to plead to be given something else for him, they did oblige after a number of chats with staff and he got a meal which was only ok. Snack bar - ok for pizza, the tacos and burrito was ok (varied on the 2 occasions we ate there). Public spaces Toilets dirty throughout the bars - restaurants a little better. Mosquitoes are plentiful as you would expect - so take bug spray (jungle strength). I used it everyday and still got some nasty bites (despite them only being small mosquitoes). Cockroaches - only saw one outside our room - you will get them, they are big! Not sure if the water used to serve coffee is filtered - had to stop drinking it, as for 8 of the 11 days there my stomach was in bits - lots of pain and only got better after being home for a day. I know the hotel are really defensive over suggestions that food and drink prep may be an issue sometimes, but all of us suffered at some point and this wasn't to excessive drinking or eating - we were quite restrained (mainly due to choice and queues). Hotel needs to work on communication too - we were asking things at reception regarding booking Christmas meals and options, only to be told different advice by the booking desk and by the restaurants themselves. Team meetings would sort that to ensure consistency of messaging. Such mixed feelings - love the location and a great family holiday, but for the price we paid I would have expected better and cleaner facilities. It is a tired hotel and sadly due to that is not good value. I wouldn't return due to various issues - I hope they resolve them and spend a lot of money on the place, otherwise it will soon be a 3 star.