Sandos Caracol Nature Resort & Water Park — Hotel in Playa del Carmen

My partner and I booked this resort in Playa Del Carmen due to the vast amount of nature and wildlife surrounding this resort, along with the range of activities and facilities present ||HOTEL ITSELF|On arrival, the hotel entrance and lobby was absolutely gorgeous. We arrived around 6:30pm on a Wednesday with no queue at check in at all. It was a speedy process and the bell man took us to our room straight after with our luggage and showed us all the room amenities ||The resort is big and the signs around the resort are very clear that even if you do take a wrong path, there's always something new to see and it loops around to where you need to go eventually haha! We stayed in the eco rooms which were in-between the beach and the lobby and overlooked the Tortuga Pool - ideal when you didn't want to walk far in the heat and could just plop straight in the pool||We did originally book the select upgrade with both of us being adults and wanted those extra perks. At check in, we didn't really question the reason why we were not in the select rooms as the eco rooms were in a prime location, but it wasn't until 4 days into our stay that we were told that the select pool area and restaurant was closing that day for renovations which could take over a month at least. This was very disappointing as the resort didn't let us know at all and didn't really know themselves until only a day before - clear communication between the hotel and their guests would have been great and this is definitely something they could improve on.||Luckily we booked with Tui who were not advised of the renovations themselves and whilst there, we complained to the Tui rep who issued us a partial refund for our holiday . The hotel wouldn't do anything themselves but thankfully Tui were there to step up and assist straight away - Kristin was our Tui rep whilst at the resort and she is outstanding!||Other than that, the hotel grounds itself were beautiful, with so much to see and do, including the gym, Segway's, rental bikes, river boat ride, snorkelling, river swims and cenote swimming which were at no extra cost. Then you had the spa and beauty room which you could opt to go to at an extra cost. The spa for an hour use of facilities was 22 USD each and massage prices varied depending on what you wanted - with daily offers available to if you go ask at the spa reception ||FOOD|I must admit, the food was delicious! The buffet restaurant served food and drink that catered for everyone and the staff were on the ball every time we visited for food. I highly recommend trying the sweet tamales in the morning, I am still missing them now that I'm home. You could book the restaurants via the app which was great. We were disappointed that during our stay, the Italian and Mexican were closed, with then the Brazilian closing for renovation during our stay.||The Los Lirios a la carte was divine and we ended up visiting here twice. This is located in the Royal Elite area - the signs start to confuse you on your way there, but you will need to walk through the RE area, alongside the pool and it will be right there. The other restaurant we loved was the Teppanyaki which put on a great show and food cooked fresh in front of you. ||The resort also do Mexican nights every Friday in which they have food out on the path in front of El Nido (in the main square by the entrance to the buffet) - this is a lovely event with small vendors too, great to see. ||We didn't find the Riviera restaurant very nice at all and unfortunately didn't end up going back at all||TRIPS |If booking with Tui, your Tui rep will be in the hotel and located Infront of the theatre on the chairs - you can go directly to them to book trips if preferred but please note that they DO NOT take American Dollars, only Mexican Pesos or card payment||Alternatively, you can also go to Chris Ardon at his hut, located on the right side of the beach, slightly right of the select club house near the massage people. We booked a trip through him and his service was exceptional and great pricing. He advised what days were best in terms of weather and was spot on, so glad we booked a different day to what we originally planned||You also have the gentleman at the hut on the left side of the beach, who do all water trips - we did snorkelling with them at only 50 USD per person and just off the coast of the resort and that was fabulous also.||ROOM|As mentioned, we were lactated in the eco rooms (block 25 ground floor to be exact), in between the lobby and the beach and right next to the waterpark and overlooking the Tortuga Pool). |The rooms themselves are spacious and you are provided with a fully stocked mini fridge (4 beers, 2 Fanta, 2 diet coke, 2 normal coke) and a water container which can be changed over if yours goes empty. |You also have robes and slippers provided and little toilet amenities also. ||We did notice a few faults with the room e.g. the shower did not go warm / hot at all. We had the maintenance guy out who had appeared to sort it, but by the evening, when we went to shower it was cold again. We met with a couple who said that in their room, they were told to run the tap for 10 minutes and then the water will heat up - this isn't good enough. |Luckily, by the end of our trip, the shower did start heating up.||The metal holder for the hand held shower head was also loose and kept falling off the wall and the wallpaper was peeling off from behind the bed - I'm sure in time these little niggly faults will be fixed||POOLS|There are a few pools around the resort. If you are staying Royal Elite, they have their own infinity type pool with swim up bar. If not Royal Elite, you have the choice of other pools. The main pool is the biggest and longest pool, surrounded by a juice bar, standard swim up bar, ceramic painting activities and other entertainment throughout the day. This is located right next to the beach with showers surrounding it and plenty of loungers||You then have the Tortuga pool which is in-between block 24 and 25 with its own bar, however, during the select renovations, the select adults only pool has now been changed to the Tortuga pool, so kids are not allowed here until the select area is back open||Once the select area is open, the select guests will have access to a large pool and secluded jacuzzi pool area, in a relaxing and large area with its own breakfast and lunch restaurant and waiters that come around asking what you'd like to eat - it's fantastic when operational||LOCAL TOWN|The local town of Playa Del Carmen is only a 20 minute ride away where you can either pay 4USD each way for the shuttle which leaves the resort twice a day, or the concierge can call you a taxi which will arrive straight away and costs around 20USD. The great for food, drink and souvenirs ||TIPS FOR WHEN THERE|- A lot of people buy insulated flasks, I would highly recommend, they are fab|- It's kind to tip the workers who go above and beyond during your stay, even if it's just 1 dollar, they do really appreciate it |- No need to reserve loungers, there are plenty there|- It says you need to pay environmental tax before leaving the country - I would wait until you're in the airport. There will be people dressed in beige, if they stop and check if you've paid it, you can just pay it with them||Overall, we had a wonderful stay at this resort and would 100% come back to Mexico, whether that be this resort or to visit another and see a different...

Please believe the negative reviews. We thought it wouldn’t be as bad as people said but it was.||We had booked a deluxe room in the Select Club, but when we arrived we were told that the entire Select Club area was closed for renovations. This information was not made available on the website through Sunwing; we got an email from them days after we arrived informing us of the renos. Apparently, no big deal as the resort had allocated a section of the hotel as a temporary Select Club area. They booked us in the eco rooms, but said they would upgrade us to a penthouse pool view. Great. |In the end we had to change rooms FOUR times. 1121 was the first room. The room was a little dusty, the jacuzzi was aged and a little yellow, and the drywall over the patio door was bubbling. 3 days in, no problems, until the ceiling over the patio broke open from a leak. They wanted us to change rooms, so they gave us another pool view penthouse (room 121). The patio door was quite literally in disrepair - handle broken, door was difficult to slide open. The repair guy said the whole door had to be replaced. Fixtures were older, AC partially broken, UV film on the windows chipping off. But the worst in that room was that the hot water came out yellow-orange. Presumably from failing pipes or water heater. The manager said she checked the other penthouse pool views and that they were worse than 121. What does that say about this place? We moved again, to a deluxe pool view (room 411). This one didn’t have a jacuzzi, which was the reason we booked the room we did originally in the select club. This one had a bad smell, and the phone didn’t work. The dummies at the front desk said the phones don’t work at night, which was a lie. The phone in 121 worked at night. Repair guy couldn’t fix that either. So we asked the manager if we could stay in 121 for the night and switch to the eco room in the morning, as we had been dealing with this for 6 hours in the rain. She agreed. At 11:30 pm we get a call from the front desk that we MUST go back to 411 as there will be repairs in 121 in the early morning. We said no to that citing the previous convo with the manager. Next morning we move to the eco room (1204). This one was a far cry from the original 1121. Musty smell from the bathroom, stains on the lampshades and bedsheets, and darker like a dungeon. We wanted compensation and at first the manager said she could book us for dinner at one of the restaurants. We could already do that through the app…and it’s all inclusive so I don’t understand how that was a compensation. In the end she agreed to a free hydro massage at the spa. The room ordeal really soured the trip after that.||Also, the beds are hard. Not to the point where I couldn’t sleep, but not the most comfortable.||They will push hard on Royal Elite (aka a timeshare). ||Food is not great. Truly, you won’t go hungry, but you’ll probably be sick of eating it at the end of the trip. Lots of bland food, food is lukewarm at the La Laguna buffet, and I had an allergic reaction to something there (thinking pistachios). They ask you for allergies, but it doesn’t seem to mean anything. Asked a waiter at La Languna if there were any desserts that were ok for me to eat with a peanut/nut allergy and he pointed to one with almonds and said he recommends this one. Clearly didn’t understand English, but that could cost someone their life. Best restaurant out of the two that were open (La Riviera and Los Lirios) was Los Lirios. Amazing steak, red velvet cake was the best dessert I’ve had in a long time.||Beach sucks, too rocky.||The resort literally stunk. In some areas it smelled like sewage sometimes. I’m not sure if that’s what a jungle is supposed to smell like, but regardless it wasn’t pleasant. ||Adult pool was mostly great. The bar beside the adult pool was the only decent place to get drinks. However, you never knew when the bar would open. There’s no posted times. Sometimes it would open at 10, other times 11. The pool was open at 8am. At other resorts the bar opened when the pool did. The bar at the family pool served some of the worst cocktails I’ve had. Watered down big time. And the drinks were inconsistent. Sometimes good sometimes bad. Sometimes the staff member was friendly and sometimes rude.||I’ve never experienced this before at an all-inclusive, but the staff barely spoke English. Programs were in Spanish. Most guests were Spanish speaking, which I guess explains it. There’s nothing wrong with that, I’m just not used to it from previous experiences. It was quite frustrating though when it came to the room issues.||Beware the gift shop. They will price gouge you on bug spray and after bite. ||They allow ticket sellers from Coco Bongo onto the resort. Same weird guy would approach us every day about it. Never saw them at the Valentin Imperial. ||The nature was great. We saw monkeys, coatis, iguanas, pelicans, frogs, parrots and more. Mosquitos were really bad though. And the bug spray containers around the resort were usually empty, go figure.||Water park was a lot of fun. Probably the best thing about the place.||Overall, we were very happy to go home. This resort needs A LOT of TLC. Unfortunately, this trip has ruined Mexico for us a little bit, and we definitely won’t be back to this resort. We...

I rarely leave a written review but this one needs it.

The resort grounds were very nice and well kept. Lots of things to see and do.

I do struggle to understand how the resort has a 4.8 rating though.... Our experience was not that. For a 5-star resort and for the price we paid for our family of four, you can do much better in the Cancun and surrounding area....

We found overall communication from the resort on what was happening each day lacked. They have an "app" (it's actually just a website that's mobile friendly) but the majority of special events that happened while we were there were not posted / advertised on their site. We'd just stumble across them.....

Several scenarios where we were told conflicting things about timing of activities, what was going on that night and when....staff seemed unorganized / uninformed.

Buffets kind of reminded me of Cuba. Same or close to same food every day, just moved around and laid out a bit differently. We found a handful of things that were pretty good and stuck to that stuff most days. The Mexican buffet however was very good. The Hibachi restaurant (reservations needed) was very good.

The service overall through the resort lacked. Some staff seeming a little rude and not caring. We had a handful of really great servers and staff though and tipped them accordingly.

Our room fridge was only refilled three times the entire week we were there but we were told it would be daily (as we are used to at other resorts)....and the third time was because we filed a service request asking for it. My wife filed service claim a few times for different things but you never really knew if it was going to be fulfilled or not.

No pool side drink service, you wait in the line at the pool bars if you want a drink. Sometimes that wait was 10+ minutes which is unusual for 5 star resort. We are used to pool side servers taking drink orders throughout the day.

Pools were dirty. Cloudy (couldn't see the bottom most days) and full of leaves and other vegetation and bugs. You'd literally walk over something in the pool and realize it was a kids toy or something that was lost because you can't see the bottom. Yes, the pools are surrounded by trees but straining the pools a few times a day would solve most of this. We often found ourselves cleaning leaves out of the pool in the morning. Strange.... Reported to Sunwing who claimed it was from everyone's sunscreen (lol). Never seen cloudy pools like this at other resorts.

Beach was covered in a 3ft deep line of seaweed which was not cleaned or removed each day. Every resort we've been to in the past at least attempted to clear the seaweed.

Rooms were okay. Older resort and so rooms a bit older depending on the section of resort your room was (there was a newer area and an older area). Shower pressure was non existent. Shower head assembly fell off the wall the first day we used it, but they did come fix it quickly.

Lastly, the adult side of the water park (big slides) was closed the whole week we were there for maintenance. This was not advertised or communicated anywhere during booking or during our visit. Sunwing claimed the resort did not communicate this to them either. I requested to speak to the front desk manger (Gustavo) who apologized and assured me he was looking into why this and why it wasn't communicated to us but that didn't go anywhere and I did not hear any outcome from him or upper management. He said he'd send me a follow up email but that too didn't happen. I followed up twice with him before we left and he just beat around the bush with excuses as to why no one communicated the water parking being closed and said upper management was having a meeting with Sunwing to determine the descrapancy but who knows if that happened. Very frustrating we weren't able to use that part of the water park. It's one of the reasons we booked this resort.

And speaking of communication - resort staff often seemed confused and gave us conflicting information about timing of things, etc.... Seemed...