Royal Sands - Resort & SPA — Hotel in Cancún

Royal sands resort in Cancun is delightful in almost all respects.

We’ve stayed at this property twice this year and at other royal resort properties in Cancun perhaps 6+ other times over past 10 years. Usually just my wife and myself but we have brought our adult kids on some trips .

We keep coming back because - in general- we find the royal resorts to be well managed, well maintained, very clean, well staffed, high service, good amenities and very importantly— without exception the employees are nice, helpful, have worked there long term, are proud of the resort and sincerely interested in providing a good guest experience.

And you can’t beat the weather, beach, pools and overall vibe.

Most of the 340 units are in interval ownership (time shares) although we are not owners. Instead we rent from owners or from the resort.

The basic room unit is the full villa (or master suite) consisting of 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, open floor plan kitchen / living/ dining room, spacious private terrace and balcony. The kitchen is small/ galley type but fully equipped. The full villa can be subdivided into the A side 1 bedroom “suite” and the B side “lock-off” junior suite.

All the rooms have good ocean views . The buildings are in an V shape with the open part of the V facing the ocean. Inside of the V is the spacious pool deck.

This is the only resort I’ve stayed in so I can’t compare but I’ve been told it’s not a “luxary resort” but in my mind it’s pretty darn nice and is a good value.

Food service is available in a few restaurants, at pool deck bar/ grills and delivered to your beach cabana There is also room service and all inclusive package (that we have not used).

The only thing that’s not outstanding at the Sands is the restaurant food. Not bad - It’s just meh. Menu is tired and uninspired and could go up a few notches. Everything is served at the right temp, looks appetizing, and I’m sure food sanitation practices are scrupulously followed. I do enjoy the mixed ceviche, fish tacos and they make a great guacamole.

Over a week, we may have 3 or 4 meals served at the pool or beach and the rest we prepare in our villa or we go out into Cancún.

There is a small market on site that sells basic food, beverages, house made guacamole and salsas, snacks, some produce, some frozen items, beach supplies, health/ beauty supplies, beer/wine/liquor. It also has a franchise Starbucks inside.

There is a mid sized grocery store outside the resort about a 5 minute walk and there are mini marts , banks, and some restaurants and pharmacies walkable in the area.

The sands is located on the ocean side of the hotel zone about 1/2 way between the airport and el centro downtown Cancun. There is a public bus service with stops in front of the hotel that will take you to other hotels, restaurants, stores in the hotel zone or el centro. The bus is enlightening and a bargain at only 12 peso (about $.60 usd in December 2024). There are also a cab stand at the resort and cabs are readily available on the street and the area is also serviced by Uber.

To get to/from the airport we use a transpo and tour company called Thomas More Travel which has an affiliation with royal resorts and an office in the lobby. They are very reliable and fairly priced and allows us to arrange/ pay in advance online and avoid the potential for scams and ripoffs related to hiring a cab or shuttle at the airport.

Amenities and activities at the resort include: free parking, tour desk, spa, work out gym, sport deck with beach towels and floatation / beach toys, concierge, ATM, currency exchange to peso at front desk, beach and pool volleyball, water aerobics in the pool, beach cabanas, etc, etc, etc

Any sales effort (for spa services, family photos, ownership , etc) have always been low key and they easily take no for an answer.

Royal sands resort in the Cancun hotel zone is a gem. Paradise! The food service could use a boost but otherwise it’s Beautiful, great service, safe, clean and...

We just got back from our 9 day vacation with our 4 kids at the royal sands. We stayed in their family suite (basically two connecting rooms).

I'll go into more detail, but would I stay here again? No.

The service:

When we got to the resort, we were greeted by our concierge (Omar). Off the bat, he was extremely pushy to get us to go to the timeshare meeting. We didn't. He told us we could text him to get us reservations at the restaurants, but he ended up getting sick for multiple days during our stay and we were on our own and weren't able to get reservations without really trying (explanation below).

Every single server here seems like they are overworked. They all are rushed and not kind. Not overly rude, but be prepared to wait a long time for your drinks and food. And they absolutely care what you tip. If they don't think your tip is adequate, they will let you know with eyerolls. We thought we tipped well, but be prepared to tip even more. Think Vegas tipping.

The restaurants: We booked this hotel because we thought it had alot of all inclusive restaurants. Wrong. There is only one restaurant to get breakfast and that's the buffet. The buffet is awful. Im serious, it's bad.

Here's a breakdown of the restaurants:

-La veranda: breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet. Not good.

-Club bistro is dinner only and is by reservation only (we could only get a reservation here ONCE on our week long stay). This "restaurant" is actually IN the La Veranda buffet restaurant. They put a curtain to split the restaurant to create this "restaurant".

-Hacienda Sisal is a dinner restaurant and is by reservation only (we could only get a reservation here ONCE in our week long stay). This was actually really good food and good service. The only good food we had all week.

Sidelines is open lunch and dinner and it has burgers and some bar type food. The service here was the absolute WORST.

-Sushi bar is literally in the back of sidelines restaurant and is terrible.

-Bartolas pizza restaurant ? Nope there's no restaurant, it's room service.

speaking of room service.... They have it SO limited and honestly the food is just plain bad.

they also offer a show and dinner buffet and the food and show was SOOOO bad we never went back. Oh and you also need a reservation for this too lol.

Basically if you don't have a dinner reservation, you are stuck eating at the one and only buffet.

The reservations can only be made the same day (members/ timeshare owners can make reservations 4 days in advance and take all reservations so it's very hard to get in anywhere)

If you have all inclusive, just be aware that any specialty drink or actual good food (like a steak) comes at an additional cost.

Okay and the drinks.... They 10000% water down their liquor. Just for an example, my husband and I laid by the pool all day one day ordering drinks. At the end of the day, we counted 10 Pina colada and 8 Mai Tais...and they were DOUBLES. This amount of alcohol would have been enough to put us in the hospital and we did not even feel buzzed.

The Room: The rooms were clean which was great. The beds are very hard but they will bring you a comfortable foam mattress topper if you ask. The all inclusive comes with a "stocked fridge" but they only bring a couple cokes and beers. So not stocked at all. The maids who clean the rooms do a very good and thorough job.

The kids club: This was a big reason why we booked this resort and the main lady there acts like she hates her job. She's not a very kind person. My son who is 5 started crying the first time there and no one called me to let me know. He told me when I picked him up that she yelled at him and told him that crying is not allowed :(. If I had known he was sad I would have picked him up right away. We never used the kids club after that so that seemed like a waste.

All in all, I feel like we did not a get a good value here and the service was a big let down . I would recommend looking elsewhere for your...

What a fabulous trip!!!! This was not my first time here, but my first time in January. Our room was not ready when we arrived but we were allowed to put our bags in the closet and start our vacation. We also had the option to leave our bags with the bellman and have them bring them up later. We took our bags to the room and went to LaVeranda to get some lunch. Since we had already checked in (11:30AM) we had our wrist bands and were ready to relax.

Since this resort is mostly a timeshare most people check in and out on Saturday so I know they're busy. Once the housekeeper Ligia Viana got there she was very thorough and got the room perfect for us. We sat on the balcony most of the time she was there so we know how hard she works.

Also.... there is not a bad room or view from any room. We stayed in Phase II which is always my preference. There is a view of the Gulf and the pool from every room. The soothing view and sounds are a great way to destress on vacation.

There are different restaurants to eat in and we typically will go to them at least once, but my preference will always be LaVeranda. I have Celiac Disease and am quite sensitive. They are very well versed in food allergies and will guide your choices. There is a GF menu, but I prefer to order off the main menu and just tweak them to my needs. I will go to the buffet if it's offered for fruit and salad. The servers are very attentive. During breakfast I will always try to sit in Fher's section. He is just such a nice man!!! Besides that he knows I'm GF and remembers my favorites. I'm not sure how he does that since I don't go every year and even at that there have to be thousands of other people between my visits. He remembers my family and asks about them even if they're not there and I don't mean generically. He asks about them by name.....Amazing. At dinner in LaVeranda we had a new to us server, Francisco and he also remembered night to night that I eat GF. He even suggested that I order dessert a little early since it takes some time to come out. I've got to appreciate a man who knows how important dessert is to a woman on vacation. The service is also very good at Hacienda Sisal and my husband truly enjoyed the food. I stick to basics and bland so can't comment on it.

The highlight of my vacation is always the spa. I get multiple massages. The staff is very attentive and accommodating to schedule. Luis and Estefania were very helpful to work with the schedule that I wanted to keep. My first massage was with Naomi and she very sweet. My next massage got booked with Emilio and then I booked the rest of them with him. He knows how to create the massage experience while getting the job done. He was able to work out the knots along my shoulder blades and neck. I will definitely be requesting him when I return!My husband uses the gym which has all the equipment that is needed to stay on your workout routine. He also used the sauna and whirlpool this trip which he hadn't in the past. Full disclosure, the gym is included with the "all inclusive" but the "wet" areas he did have to purchase a pass.

The resort is extremely clean and there are always people around maintaining the property as well as people to answer your questions.

You can schedule excursions, but we didn't- I just want to relax. We walk to the mall that is very near and browse around. We also walked to La Isla outdoor mall which is just about 1 mile. There are restaurants and basic stores as well as high end stores. There is an aquarium and movie theater there as well.

On the resort property there are plenty of activities that you can do such as Yoga, beach or pool volleyball and more. There's a schedule as well as kid's club if that fits your needs. There is a newer pool area for the kids with great slides and other ways to play. That was not there when my kids were young. I have visions of taking my grandkids there......when/if I ever...