Mystique Holbox by Royalton, A Tribute Portfolio Resort — Hotel in Isla Holbox

Four Star Reasons: This is a very beautiful hotel. It is right on the water and has a private beach for it's guests. We were able to get a beach chair and umbrella everyday. This may be more difficult in busy times so I suggest to go early if you want a beach day. The associates are very attentive to guests on the beach with food/drink service and assistance with the chairs and umbrellas. The room was very nice. The floor is tile. This is very important because the whole island is sand. You will get sand everywhere and its good there is no carpet to hold it in the room. The shower was an overhead rain style. The bed was quite firm, a plus if you like that. The TV was large and had plenty of channels to watch movies in downtime. Our room was the Junior Suite with an Ocean View. We were on the second out of three floors. This is more of an obstructed beach view since the hotel restaurant is directly between the hotel and the beach. There is a small road that is between the hotel and the beach but the traffic is light and the vehicles drive slower here (the island only has golf carts and mules, no cars and trucks). The balcony had a table and two chairs that are really nice for use. The balcony is large and the sliding door window is the span of the whole ocean view wall. There are two sinks and plenty of storage space to unpack your luggage. The restaurant had okay food. I would recommend the Tuna appetizer for dinner. It was certainly fresh fish and moderately priced. For breakfast the pancakes, they were well made. The service was great and very friendly. If you get coupons for the restaurant make sure you use them appropriately. Make sure a manager gets them before you eat and you will only be able to use 4 per visit. About a quarter of the staff speaks English. Another quarter speaks broken English. But they are very helpful, understanding and patient with non Spanish speakers.

Reasons why not 5 Star We paid ~$300 a night for the hotel. This hotel room combo should be closer to $225-250 a night, especially because we stayed 8 nights. The internet Wifi only worked about 1/2 the time. If you need internet because you don't have phone service don't stay here. We called to complain and were pretty much told, it is what it is. That were very frustrating. The lights on the balcony are very bright. Since the whole wall is a window that light leaks in the room the whole night. The lights stay on all night. It made it difficult to sleep at times. They should consider turning them off at a certain point or at least dim them later in the night. The restroom does not have a privacy door. Make sure you and your partner are very comfortable with each other. Especially being in Mexico and eating street food as we did. The restaurant is quite expensive as expected. The lobster pizza is okay but priced too high. Don't get the Chilaquiles and egg, it was very terrible, pretty much chips, salsa and one egg over easy. I'm sure there were bugs in the room. The last night I got a lot of bites on my legs. The staff would not replenish our coffee K cups for some reason every day. We had to call the front desk to have them refill. The AC either turns off in the middle of the day or the staff turns it off when they clean. I would appreciate it being left on. There are intermitted power failures. I understand this is part of a bigger island problem. But when you pay $300 a night you expect the place to have a generator on standby for at least cooling purposes. That thought was not put into the design...

Loved my November holiday at the Mystique Blue. Choosing accommodations in Holbox was stressful. After looking at reviews from Holbox Facebook group, we opted for this place. We booked direct via their website and got a 25% discount off of what Booking and Expedia were offering.

We arrived at the port, parked our car. Took a private taxi over. Negotiate your price on the private taxi - we did not going but we did coming back. We had to take two taxis from the Holbox port to our hotel because of a new COVID law that only two passengers could travel per taxi vehicle. Nonetheless, we finally arrived to our destination.

The place is beautiful. Small but a well used design of space for the rooms, pool, and beach club. The lobby is adorable and they offer you welcome drinks upon arrival. Check in was simple. We were greeted by the hotel concierge Mariama who is such a wealth of knowledge and a pleasure to see each day. She offers some great recommendations too, so ask away. Our room wasn’t ready for check-in so we left our items and went to grab lunch from Dreams Holbox Beach Club. We stumbled upon the place walking along the beach and it was a great lunch decision.

Accommodations. After lunch, about 3 pm, we were able to check in and we loved our room. There was plenty of room for our little family unit of 3 to relax in the evenings and watch movies, enjoy the WiFi (extremely strong) and process the day. The shower was nice and big and the water pressure and temperature was excellent. The bed and pillows were nice. Plenty of outlets for your devices. Nice patio. We couldn’t use to dry our clothes or water shoes because sun never reached our patio/deck.

One evening power did go out on the A/C. Management called to inform us but we had the fan in our room so we ran that. We were not too hot or too cold. I didn’t have one complaint about the room.

Location. It was very central to downtown. About a 10 minute walk. Most times we traveled along the beach because some roads were semi-flooded and it was like a scavenger hunt at night to go around puddles, etc. The tide gets high at night so the water comes up closer to where you walk - be mindful of your shoes because your feet could get wet. We always found really good spots for lunch and dinner using Google Maps.

Beach. I wasn’t impressed with this beach or the beaches of Holbox. It’s beautiful to look at especially during the day and sunset but leaves much to be desired while you are in it. I came to learn better that it’s a sand bank - Holbox. Recent storms impacted the water clarity which the owner at cafe Del Mar says clears up significantly in the spring and early summer months before hurricane/rainy season.

Beach Club. The lounge chairs and amenities like kayaking were nice. Service can be inattentive. The food isn’t great. We avoided eating here and opted for occasional drinks.

Pool. It gets cold. It’s nice to enjoy when the sun is out and over the pool to help warm the water. This didn’t stop my kid from enjoying it.

I would definitely stay here again. I hope you find this review helpful. If so, please give me a thumbs...

I've seen some polarizing reviews of this hotel and wanted to chime in to help some others make a decision if this property is right to stay in.

I think many of the negative reviews I've seen here come from Marriott Bonvoy members who have a certain expectation of amenities of facilities of what to expect from a Marriott hotel - or perhaps others of what a 4 or 5 star hotel means to them. If this is you I would pause and understand what you are getting when you go not just to the Mystique, but Holbox in general.

Holbox is a place to slow down, relax, and where you won't have all the luxuries you may be used to in other parts of the world. For example - for two of the days I was on the island, the power was out on opposite sides of the island as they did improvements on the gird (however power never went out at the Mystique and you would not have noticed during your stay). This is a place where life is a little slower, the beer is a little colder, and you are there to enjoy the time in this beautiful place.

Having said that - I thought the Mystique hotel was a great property to take advantage of the slower Holbox life! The rooms were clean and modern, the food at the restaurant is decent (though you'll definitely benefit from getting food in town), and there was direct beach access with plenty of seating for all guests of the hotel (there's only about 45 rooms).

Most importantly - the staff was excellent. I was really surprised to see so many negative reviews around the staff. In particular, Jessica (at the front desk), Gambino, and Wiliam (on the beach) were excellent, attentive, and knew me by name after only a day. They really made my stay that much more enjoyable and it's refreshing to have attentive staff as sometimes I've noticed this is not always the case on beach hotels. Just be aware - again - this is Holbox. Things move a bit slower (island time), but if you get the staff's attention they will be more than happy to take care of your needs and they can converse in basic English (in case you don't speak Spanish like myself).

If you go in with the right expectations, you will have a fantastic time and this will be a great and reliable hotel to call a home. On the other hand, if you go in expecting butler service, very large rooms, suite upgrades, and a lavish restaurant - this hotel, and I'd say Holbox in general, is probably not right for you and you'll probably be more satisfied in Cancun, Playa Del Carmen, or Cozumel.

The only true negative I'd say is I would avoid the swim out room. While I did not stay in this room, the swim out is a pretty dingy pool that backs right into a road. I could see why people would be very upset with this room, as well as the rooms above it. I'd recommend the second or third floor deluxe rooms.

Again, give Holbox some research and understand what you will get on this beautiful island. If you believe you will like that, you will enjoy your stay at the Mystique and just understand part of what you are paying for is access to the island instead of all the perks you may get at...