Location
Riviera Maya - BeachProperty Information
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Resort Details
Hotel Advisories
General Policies & Fine Print
Hotel requires a debit card authorization upon check-in for incidentals; this will place a hold on your funds.
Hotel Spring Break Policy - Spring breakers are not allowed. Minimum check-in age is 21.
Transfer Policy - A price may display when children stay free, if your vacation includes transfer to your hotel.
General Information - Room taxes and service fees are included in vacation price.
Minimum night stay restrictions may apply.
Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
Customer Ratings & Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
26151 reviews
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Dec 28, 2024Its just ok. Major work needed
This is our second visit to Sandos Caracol Eco Resort. The first time was about 5 years ago. Sandos was not our first choice. Our first resort had a name change and is undergoing renovations limiting it to 1 restaurant an 10% occupancy. We made the change 1 week before leaving and we picked Sandos because we knew what we were getting, or so we thought. When we arrived at the check in, we were told that we cannot checkin at the front desk as we are part of the Select Club. We didn't know that. The front desk girl took us on a walk to the Select Club pool and the office that sits beside it. When i have stayed at other resorts, you are usually offered a welcome drink (champagne, wine etc..). None of this was offered although there is a self serve area. Check in here took quite a while as there is only one person working. When we left there was 3 other groups looking to check in. Im not sure what Select club gets you as we were never told. The rooms for the select club are positioned around the select club pool, which is at the FURTHEST point from the beach. Be prepared to walk 20 minutes to get to the beach from these rooms. The brazilian BBQ restaurant is also at this pool. The room itself was pretty plain. A king bed, pullout sofa, minibar and a big 20L water cooler which was nice to fill our water bottles. The minibar had coke, sprite, fanta, sparkling water and 4 beer. This resort is falling apart since the last time we were there. I saw lots of maintenance people doing painting in rooms and landscapers working in the gardens but i didnt see any "Heavy Maintenance." A small list of issues we saw: -Our room had a cheap shower curtain for the shower (you could tell there was a glass door there before and the other couple in our party had a glass door), - the toilet door didn't close/latch properly requiring you to hold it shut while you do your business -The TV didnt have a remote and it took 2 attempts to get one. When we did the remote was missing the battery cover so the batteries kept falling out -The Mirror in the room is delaminating and is showing "holes", see photo - Room service dishes left outside were in the same spot for 3 days before being pickup up (covered in insects) -The in room smoke detector didnt have a battery in it. -The fire alarm pull station in our building was pulled one night and no alarms were sounding. I am not sure if the alarm system is even active. -There was a large piece of drywall ceiling that fell off in the lobby near check in. I hope no one was hurt. -When it rains, the entire place gets wet. The thatched roof on all buildings is in need of desperate repair. The bartender at the elephant bar was soaked because the rain was falling on him. The Riviera restaurant men's bathroom had water coming through the drywall ceiling and pooling on the ground. Just about every building has a grey tarp covering the roof. -Ladies bathroom at the pool was closed for the duration of our stay Restaurants If you plan on eating at any place except the buffets then you need to book your reservation on their "APP." The app is a webpage and restaurant reservations open up at 12 midnight for the next evening. This needs to change! I don't want to be waking up at 1159 to book my dinner when i am on Holidays! It should open at 9 am or noon the same day. This gives everyone a chance to book. The food is generally good. I have celiac and cannot eat wheat or gluten products. The Al a Carte restaurants were excellent in gluten free awareness. The 2 buffets could be much better. At the buffets the food is generally labelled (other resorts have a printed label with allergens). At sandos it was just some handwriting and most of the time the item was not correct (i can tell the difference between fish and pork). I did ask for a walkthrough of the buffet and the girl that helped was very nice but i questioned if she knew what gluten was. The teppanyaki grill was by far the best food and the best for Gluten Free. They brought out Kikkoman Gluten Free Soy sauce to cook with and i didnt need to worry about cross contamination as they made the whole table gluten free. No desserts here though (tart and fried ice cream were offered). The wildlife was fun to watch until they began to encroach on your meal. The racoons would come into the Brazilian restaurant and climb your chair while you eat, the monkeys pester you around the select club pool for food. They are so bold they come right up to you and touch you. The birds will steal any bread you leave on the table while at the buffet (Brazilian Restaurant Breakfast). We consistently watched people go into the select club office and get food just to feed the animals. This is unacceptable. I know Sandos would have a hard time controlling this but there is a difference between living with nature and living for nature and guests should be held accountable for any feeding. The staff is generally friendly. They are always moving and working but im not sure what is actually getting done (apart from the restaurant staff). The main pool had 1 server for the whole pool, the select pool had 1 server and that seemed to start after lunch. In general we enjoyed our small visit but not as much as last time. The resort is in DESPERATE need of major work. We will not be coming back to Sandos Caracol Eco Resort.
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Dec 27, 2024Worst resort ever
This resort is absolutely the worst I’ve ever been too. We are currently here as a group of 7… 3 adults 4 teenagers and from day 1 it’s been nothing but problems. The management staff are less than helpful and basically just shrug their shoulders when you come to them with your issues… There is no beach here that is swimmable… it is full of rocks and coral and everything is very sharp and after you traverse the sharp rocks you have to walk out forever just to get to knee high water. We already have a broken toe and a severely infected cut. Haven’t been into the water since. The pool is small and very cold so it can’t even be enjoyed when the weather is less than ideal. The food at this resort is the worst I’ve ever had… the buffets are disgusting and the a la carte restaurants all require reservations that have to be booked through the app at midnight the night before… if you don’t stay up til midnight and book you will not get a reservation… the food at the restaurants is just ok… Most of the bartenders and entertainment staff are doing their best and try to make everything fun but the management staff are so incredibly rude they told us that if we didn’t like it then we can go somewhere else when we already spent 21,000 dollars cdn for this trip…. Everything we have done that has been any fun at all is when we left the resort and paid out of pocket. The only interesting thing about this resort is the animals that roam around, but overall such a complete disappointment!
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Dec 25, 2024Wildlife are the real stars of the show
Accomodation - room was large with two kingsize beds. Free mini bar was refreshed daily with options for additional wine and spirits if you caught the staff member filling it up. They were doing some repairs to roofs of the block we were in which meant random chainsaws strewn across the steps which was a bit of a hazard. Meals: good selection of restaurants to eat in. I preferred the surf and turf restaurant on beach front. Quite busy to get into so you may be willing to wait. The beach restaurant was always quieter on beach front. The buffet restaurant was horrific, it spoils the ambience of resort always huge queues expect to wait up to an hour on morning for breakfast. This is why it gets 4/5 instead of 5 for me. The Italian restaurant has no rhyme or reason as to when you get served regardless of when you made a booking. Food is good in this one but service is terrible. Water park: the water park is well maintained and staff are friendly. Wildlife : the wildlife are stars of show here. They deserve 10/10. Worth it to feel like you are staying in jungle to meet the animals is amazing
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Dec 25, 2024
The resort is awsome. Plan and simple if you are beach lovers don't come here. Water is all coral. Cannot swim. Other than that.
If you are beach lovers. Don't come here. Water is full of coral. Cannot swim. Other than that place is excellent. We stayed at adult pool..no kids lol. Highly recommend. It's like living in the jungle. Monkeys everywhere. Great food. Awsome temps. Great service
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Dec 21, 2024
Worst All-inclusive Report Experience
Probably worst all-inclusive resort experience ever. There’re more times I’m still hungry after a meal, than not. I’d rather not eat good tast food. Room service phone line doesn’t event pick up. The service can not keep up with the increasing number of guests, and more new guest buildings are built. Staff are overworked and need more support, it shows in their service - no one cares; no spirit to work as one. Best way to describe is disorganized chaos. On the first morning of your arrival, they try to make you commit to coming back by “lock-in” the price of the room and ask you to join their Royal Elite membership for just $6K USD for 70 nights, within 5yrs. All you do after is pay $100/day/person for the all inclusive. I don’t even know if I’d love to come back yet. But there’re people would pay the amount right away after sales pitch - after dropping $6K how likely you will see the flaws.