Dreams Huatulco Resort & Spa — Hotel in Oaxaca

Our flight from Oaxaca to Huatulco was canceled, so we were rerouted to Puerto Escondido and were told to take a taxi from there to Huatulco.

After a long (over 2 hours) and pricey cab ride, we arrived at Dreams.

Booked w Chase, and Chase just booked me the basic rate. So immediately after checkin, they sat me and my fiancé down at a separate table to try and sell me on the higher rate. I tell them no, I’m ok.

The sales pitch continued, with our guy writing down nonsensical figures on a piece of paper only to cross them out. A “romantic” dinner on the beach. Massages. Buffets. They tried to sell me on all of that and more. He was practically begging me to get on board with their loyalty program.

We just got in from a very tiring drive. Sweaty. Hungry. Launching into a sales pitch right after we had just arrived is not hospitable. Because of our room rate, only breakfast was included. In order to indicate this, we were to wear one of those plastic bracelets you get when you go to a music festival or nightclub. They wanted us to wear this bracelet for the entire stay. I have never ever heard of tagging your guests like cattle with a plastic wristband.

So after an uncomfortable checkin process, we made our way to the room. Once we got to our room, we were hit with a powerful smell of mold. I called the front desk and they moved us up to a different room. No complaints there but it didn’t help with our initial impression of this property. We decided the wristbands were ridiculous as well, so we took them off. We were hungry and started looking for food options in the hotel.

The only option for lunch was the buffet. For this, and because we weren’t on the “all-inclusive” plan, they wanted $25 per person. This is crazy expensive for Mexico unless you’re eating in a serious restaurant. (We had just eaten at Destilado, Casa Oaxaca, Alfonsina, Criollo in Oaxaca, clearly I have no problem spending money, just not on a buffet!) I asked to see the food offerings: burgers, salad bar, some stews sitting in steam warmers. Nothing looked very appetizing. We declined. We really just wanted a snack.

Throughout our stay, the sales pitches didn’t stop. We hit the gym one day (a nice gym btw) and the attendants immediately tried to sell us on a 2-for-1 massage. We just wanted to work out! We said nothing about wanting a massage!

A day later I received a call on the phone in the room: “Hello?” “Hello yes? This is so-and-so at the front desk. I just realized that we have some offers for you, there are 7 coupons we can give you for...” click. I just hung up. More sales pitches!Unbelievable. I have never experienced anything like this.

The beach at the property is fine: there are much better in Huatulco.

The best part of this longwinded story is the ending. Upon checkout they were dismayed and confused as to why we weren’t wearing our stupid bracelets. I told them we took them off. Got a plane to catch. Time to go.

They said they had to charge us for taking off the bracelets! Are you kidding??

At this point I’d had enough. I walked away, told our cab driver we are leaving. Now. The hotel staff chased after us, told the taxi to stay, and it got to the point where they threatened to call the police. For refusing to pay for the stupid plastic bracelets! Let me repeat that sentence just to put things in perspective: this 4-star resort threatened to call the police for refusing to pay for removing our bracelets. If this isn’t the epitome of idiotic hotel policies then I don’t know what is.

I relented and paid. Had some nice words for the front staff as well.

We will be back to Huatulco as we loved it, and recommend others to do the same. But never again at Dreams or any of their other properties. These people do not understand the basics of hospitality or how to treat people. Anyone would be better off staying in Crucecita at a 3-star hotel with air conditioning, eating at any of the great local restaurants, and supporting local businesses instead of multinational corporations that treat their guests...

The customer service was pretty good, and the accommodations were decent- we decided to upgrade our room, which included more space and a view of the ocean. Wi-Fi is also decent at the resort, you can get a good signal with decent speed. Just be warned, you can only have 3 devices connected through your room account at a time (with our 43 devices everyone has, this was a constant issue :P). Our room also included a whirlpool, but the first time I turned it on, all this nasty black stuff came flushing out of the jets so I had to keep refilling and draining it. The two biggest issues during our stay, however, were the food and finding seating around the resort, which was a total debacle. For the former, some of restaurants were okay, you could tell that the chefs had been properly trained and had put together menus that included and complimented ingredients that could realistically be found locally. The daily cafe/cafeteria was fine, exactly what you'd expect. However, some of the restaurants were simply awful, to the point where the food was nearly inedible. This isn't a situation where I was being a food snob; the food was so overcooked or over/under-seasoned that it could not be eaten. Also, while I hesitate to put this in my review since I can't "prove" where I got it, I came down with symptoms of a stomach/GI virus that began during the middle of our stay at Dreams Huatulco and has not yet cleared up, a full week later. Again, I can't prove that I got sick there, but considering that we had been there for 5 days when I became ill, I can't rule that out as being the most likely culprit. However, the issue that frustrated us by far the most while we were there was that of the situation with the seating at the pools. I recognize that the week we were there is one of the busiest of the year, and that the resort was at near or full-capacity. That being said, I've never been to a resort in Mexico (this was my 13th trip?) where getting pool seats was next to impossible every day, due to the fact that people were reserving them at 4:30-5AM in the morning for the day by leaving towels or other pieces of clothing or personal items on the chairs and stating that the chairs were "theirs" in perpetuity. It got so bad that we ended up having to pay a staff member to help us move chairs from halfway across the resort to sit by a pool. Again, this is not me being a "whiny, spoiled, privileged white male", this has to do with the resort being unwilling to enforce its own posted rules/signage about not reserving seats by the pool unless the occupant is actually there. We happened to overhear one family bragging that they had taken over a total of 15 chairs, at multiple pools and the beach, and were spending the day rotating between them. We contacted the resort staff regarding the lack of seats, but as they were unwilling to confront guests directly, I ended up having to drag chairs across the resort every day. Oh well, at least I got the exercise in! Before I forget, as to the kids club, there were some issues with being able to rely on them taking children when they say they will, particularly during meal times (dinner) so always make sure to sign your child up for the every meal when you first sign them in and if you decide to take them with you later, you can just take them off the roster. Anyway there were lots of excellent things too, the concierge recommended three outstanding restaurants outside the resort while we were there, and we went on an amazing coffee plantation tour at Oro de Pluma and got to meet the family who owns the plantation, they were absolutely wonderful. I strongly recommend doing excursions while there, as I heard from others that the cooking classes and dolphin swimming lessons were just as good. All in all, we had a really nice time in Huatulco, we would definitely go back. We likely would check out one of the other resorts next...

I have very mixed feelings about this resort. We travel to Mexico often (at least once a year for the last 15 years)and have stayed exclusively at Dreams resorts the last 3 years because of the relative quality of the food (compared to other AIs) and the activities at the kids club. We always do preferred club for the private beach area and the lounge. I must say this resort disappointed in both food and preferred club.

The buffet is very small with minimal variety and very few fresh options. The only fruit available is pineapple and watermelon, no fresh lettuce and toppings for salad. No jams at breakfast, no cream cheese. The buffet moves very slowly because guests are not able to serve themselves but are instead served by the staff. In a way, I like this because of sanitation but it slows things down significantly. The “6th floor” preferred club lounge is a joke. There is no bar, there are bottles of liquor and juice for you to “make” your own drink, there are only a few food options sitting in steam trays, drying out all day. If you have been to other Dreams preferred lounges you know this is not the norm. We are accustomed to plentiful variety with frequent refreshment of food and friendly, outgoing staff. The 3 times we have been in the lounge it was one harried staff member with dirty dishes piled on tables and even on the buffet area. Sodas are in two liters so simple tequila coke (a go to drink for us at an AI) is flat. Flies are all around the drinks at the lobby bar and nothing is covered, cups are dirty (we use our own tumblers at the beach and pool). All the drinks are served in cloudy plastic cups, even in the restaurants.

The beach is beautiful here, truly spectacular! The preferred club cove has fish and the water is crystal clear. We are currently in our 5th day of 8 and have had plenty of shade to chose from until today when the beach is more full, probably because it’s Friday. My only complaint about this area is that the staff do not monitor the guests to ensure only preferred members use the beach. I don’t want to be snobby but we paid extra for this perk. Currently I’m in the sun because non-preferred guests are using the shaded areas. How do I know they are not preferred guests? Proffered guests have orange towels and stay Dreams bags, other guests are given brown towels. Frankly, I would not recommend the preferred club at this resort, there really is no benefit.

We paid an additional $1,000 USD to upgrade our room after the first night. It was well worth it, if you are able to upgrade to a junior suit I recommend you do. The room is beautiful and spacious with a gorgeous view. The “ocean front” double bed room we had the first night was very small. Was not near the ocean and the “queen” beds were actually doubles.

The pools are beautiful, three of them infinity pools however there is nothing for kids (slides etc). We haven’t tried the kids club yet, which is unusual for us, because there are “registration” hours that we are not used to, you can’t just take them at any time.

On the positive side, this area of Mexico is amazingly beautiful. Lush, green vegitation with clear, warm water that is not typical of the Pacific coast. The staff are helpful and polite if not friendly. There are minimal options for AIs in this area and we really wanted to visit this part of the country. With little ones, AI just makes the most sense for us. I will come back to Haultalco, despite the truck to get here from CA because of the beauty of the area. We took a bag snoring tour and released baby turtles, both wonderful experiences. I will NOT return to this resort unfortunately. We will try Los Brisas next time.

We were considering becoming vacation club members because of how often we travel to these resorts lately. This experience helped solidify the choice not to commit...