Hotel Privilege Aluxes Isla Mujeres — Hotel in Isla Mujeres

We discovered Privilege Aluxes through a friend of a friend and have been three times over the last few seasons. We love the location on the beautiful Playa Norte, the staff, great food + drinks, the proximity to the rest of the island's experiences (vs staying in a hotel zone away from the city in Cancun) and the gorgeous grounds.

PROS: -All inclusive rooms are charged by room not by person; this makes it way more affordable. For example, in Oct our room will be half the price at Privilege than another resort we are staying at for wedding in Cancun.

-I am not a bougie world traveler, but in my opinion, the quality and value of the food, service, and drinks is far better, than other all-inclusive resorts I have stayed in Mexico. For example, for lunch, instead of hot dogs and nachos served at a cold buffet by the pool, you can order off a menu at the pool or sit down at the Beach restaurant for full-service. There are American favorites if that's your jam, but also you can enjoy fish tacos, a steak, or a vegan bowl for lunch! The room service menu is smaller but provided 24/7 and the mini bar inc for free and is stocked with beer, liquor, sodas, chips, candy, etc and restocked every day!

-Great Staff; We LOVE Matu at the Beach Bar (afternoon/evening), Ruben at the Beachside restaurant (evenings), Dani who serves the beach cabanas (all dang day!), Efrain at the pool and Alex (bellhop and front desk assistance). We've also had great housekeeping service and come back to a cleaned room and stocked mini fridge every evening.

-SPA & Gym: The gym is small but mighty and very clean. During high season there were a handful of folks in the gym but in Oct and Jan it was usually only 1 or 2. Both my partner and I have received two different types of massages (swedish and deep tissue) and they did a great job! You can also sit in the steam room with spa services (See Tips below)

-Pool: It's heated so it's v relaxing year-round and it's cleaned every morning. The swim up bar is dangerously close while floating in perfectly temped water :)

-Wifi seems to work all the way to the beach!

-Entertainment: Every late afternoon there is entertainment (singer/band, etc) at the pool and evening at the Beach Bar/Restaurant.

Things you may want to Consider: -Playa Norte is a day-trip attraction and Privilege is near the ferry - during high season the beaches do get busy.

-We appreciate that we are right near the hustle and bustle of the island (across the street!) and the evening street noise does not bother us. We usually pass right out, but if you are sensitive to noise, book an ocean view room which will be farther away from Hidalgo Street.

-There is not a "gift shop." However, you are about a short walk from a bank, a convenience store, a pharmacy, and souvenir shops. There is a grocery store nearby & a "wal-mart" type store mid-island.

-We believe between the menus at Sabor, Beach Restaurant, Satay and the Brazilian-style dinner there are enough options that you can bop between the cuisine on-site and it stays interesting for at least up to a week (and we are pescatarians when we travel so we're cutting out quite a bit of their menus). We are generally impressed with all the dishes we have tried but if you are dying to go offsite we recommend going for breakfast as that menu is the same every day. If we had to rank our least favorite dish, it is Satay - but we also didn't go to Mexico for sushi. If you're debating going off-site or Satay, try one of the spots off-site.

-We have had a garden view, a city view, & an ocean view and 3 sizes. The smaller room we had with a city view was indeed efficient; space for a King bed, restroom and wardrobe, but it had a hot tub. For us this was plenty but some folks may prefer the suites with living rooms. The two suites we've tried, the ocean view is off the living room, not the bedroom and the bedroom was still on the city side. This may vary as I know there are many other suites, so you may want to ask if there are any ocean views from certain bedrooms if that is...

First of all, I never leave reviews, and I rarely complain about anything, even when faced with poor customer service / quality of products. I am more of a "s**t happens" kind of person.

But this hotel has treated me worse than I ever thought possible.

Do not stay here.

If you decide to make the mistake of being a guest at this hotel - DO NOT BOOK DIRECT WITH THEM.

We booked a package vacation with the hotel (flight and room) and then the flight was cancelled. The hotel rebooked us on another flight that arrived too late to get us on the last ferry to get to the hotel. The hotel didn't notice this and we would have been stranded at the airport overnight if we had not done the research and contacted the ferry company ourselves.

I spent several hours on the phone trying to resolve this with the hotel call centre in Madrid over the course of 3 weeks. They did nothing to help.

The airline refunded us the difference in price for the flights, but it felt like the hotel were saying something along the lines of “tough luck that the package vacation we sold you is physically impossible for you to use".

If you make the mistake of booking with this hotel - for the love of god, DO NOT GET THE ALL INCLUSIVE PACKAGE

The food is horrendous. Literally inedible.

Don’t take my word for it.

Google the two restaurants they have on site to see the reviews. “Satay isla mujeres” and “Sabor isla mujeres”.

How on earth they manage to mess up tacos in Mexico is a mystery i will never understand.

The only good part about this experience is that now whenever i eat tacos anywhere else in the world, i have a funny story about this "Luxury" resort.

They managed to find a cut of meat for the “steak” that was more gristle and fat than meat - i literally didn’t know a part of an animal existed that was as indelible as this.

The food was so bad that we literally stopped using our all inclusive. We ate out for lunch and dinner.

The drinks are equally as terrible, heavily watered down beer and liquor. The liquor has a weird and highly suspicious taste to it.

The staff at the Sabor restaurant are the grumpiest people I have ever met, they seemed genuinely annoyed by the presence of their guests. The treatment you got from staff anywhere else depended on how much you tipped them.

Warning: They expect BIG tips for every little interaction or service. It is horrendous. If you make the mistake of coming to this hotel bring at least $80 USD in tips per day if you want to be served like a human being.

We heard rumours all over the island about this hotel stealing from guests.

The beach club is across a small road from the main resort (no big deal). But it is where the day trippers from Cancun disembark all day. Constant chaos on the beach.

This is not a luxurious hotel at all. It’s a crumbling rotten husk of a business. The only thing luxurious about this hotel is the name. There is no way that this is close to being a 5 star resort. It is 3 stars at best.

I just want to remind you all that again - I almost never leave reviews. But this hotel is by far the worst place i have ever had the misfortune of stumbling upon.

A Final Note: They are going to write a response to this along the lines of “We are surprised to learn you didn’t like our grumpy staff, our horrible food, and terrible location - our guests usually like it”.

They do not care, they are not surprised.

There were a constant stream of guests complaining to the uninterested staff at the front desk almost every time we walked past.

The response they write to these reviews is probably the only time they actually care about the experience of their guests.

Please mark this review as helpful if it has made you decide to not stay at this hotel. The only thing that would satisfy me at this point is making them realise that there are real world consequences to their terrible business practices.

Do not book here. You...

CHECK-IN: We immediately felt welcomed upon our arrival. Throughout some payment issues (call your CC company!), Patricia was very patient and another gentleman brought us each a glass of champagne. We arrived before the 3pm check-in time and were able to keep our luggage in a secure room near the lobby while we explored the beach club and began taking advantage of our all-inclusive package.

AIRPORT TRANSFER: PA provided a reliable and well-planned transfer service from then to the airport. The ~$100 fee encompasses round trip: a personal driver from CUN to the port, tickets to the 20-min ferry, and a ride from the ferry to PA. We found the service to be responsive and friendly.

BEACH: The water is clear like you read about and is absolutely perfect for swimming. The beach club provides plastic cups to bring drinks into the water, but they will also fill your thermos or tumbler if you have one. Minimal to no seaweed. We had only one day where the water was choppy, otherwise it was calm and relaxing. The beach does not offer a private atmosphere after 10am. There are multiple boatloads of people who take a day trip from Cancún to Isla Mujeres. PA Security does a great job of ensuring these day-trippers do not encroach upon the Playa Norte Beach Club. Only the water becomes busier—not the property.

Get there early (7-8am) for multiple reasons. You will have first pick at which chairs you’ll spend your day on. The beach is as peaceful as it will be all day. If you’re someone who can’t or doesn’t prefer to spend all day in high UV, high temperature weather, 7-11am is your time! You will hear music throughout the day, but not in the morning, from other boats and the two adjoining properties. It did not bother us, but between the boats and music, if you are looking for a private-ish beach, this probably is not your place.

The palapas offer two chairs per station. Both chairs can be maneuvered throughout the day to ensure that both of you are in the shade (or sun!). You’ll be in somewhat close proximity to the next palapa but you won’t feel like you’re on top of someone else, nor will you feel like anyone else is on top of you. Bali beds are front row and available for rent (~$50 USD). Overall, the beach was very beautiful and relaxing.

If the beach isn’t for you, or if you want a break during the busiest hours of the day, the pool and pool bar are the perfect alternative.

ROOM: We booked the deluxe garden view suite and it was significantly more spacious than we expected. Housekeeping kept up with everything you would expect: made the bed, changed towels, etc. The patio was absolutely massive and was a great place to hang out.

STAFF: Throughout our research into our trip, we read some horror stories about the staff at different resorts. We have nothing but great things to say about those we encountered at Privilege Aluxes. Despite the heat, they were non-stop looking out for the guests. Wait times were quick, and each and every staff member was kind, friendly, and polite.

FOOD/RESTAURANT: Satay feels like the healthiest option and presents the most intimate atmosphere. Make sure you make your day-of reservation early, because they only seat a few tables at a time. We didn’t love the sushi, but went out of our way to return multiple nights for appetizers—shrimp tempura, spring rolls, and more!

Sabor’s breakfast buffet presented a number of options, and we found each choice to be high quality. We only ate there once for dinner and it was nothing to write home about, but fine.

Our favorite proved to the Playa Norte Beach Club. The immaculate view paired with kind service made it our favorite place to eat. Ordering nachos and drinks to our beach chairs never got old. Staff is always ready to replenish whatever you may need in spite of the heat. They work very hard. No matter if it were breakfast, lunch, or dinner, the food was always great.

In one sentence: we can’t...