Hacienda Wakax — Hotel in Quintana Roo

The architecture is nice (sadly, the finishings inside the buildings don't match). So if you want to come here to get photos for your social media, maybe that makes sense. But as a guest, i found this place to be very underwhelming.

In sum: the hotel layout, tour organization, dining, and check-in/out system was byzantine for no reason. It seems the operator put little-to-no thought into the guest experience.

For example: The hotel offers a tour of the underground caves linked to the cenote. Well in advance of our visit, I emailed the hotel asking about the time of the tour on the day we would be visiting. Answer: it depends on the availability of the guide. I reply, telling them we plan to arrive at 3:00, and ask if he ever does tours that late. Answer: the tours are at 1:00 – here is the number for the guide, you can call him and see if he will do a tour that day. The number is wrong. I email the hotel again. No reply. I follow up by email in two weeks, no reply. I whatsapp the hotel asking for his number. Hotel says, here is the number for the front desk of the hotel, message them instead. I message the front desk, they give me the correct number for the guide. I am now have to send multiple texts back and forth with the guide to arrange the tour and get details.

WHO DESIGNED THE PROCESS THIS WAY? THIS IS A HOTEL TOUR FOR HOTEL GUESTS ONLY. WHY DON’T THEY PUT DETAILS ABOUT THE TOUR ON THE WEBSITE AND BOOK IT FOR YOU?

Then, during the tour, we got stuck in a group with a mother-daughter duo who were so annoying I was waiting for Oompa Loompas to come out of a corner of the cave and start singing and dancing. Daughter interrupted the guide so frequently that a 1.5 hour tour ended up lasting 2.5+ hours. And we are just stuck there in the cold water looking at the same cave wall while she blurted out every comment and question that crossed her mind. Pushed past everyone, smashed her flashlight into stalactites, and made everyone else miserable. Guide did nothing to redirect her. Also, the guide, with 22 years experience, said iphone 14+ or 15+ was safe to bring along. I kept mine mostly out of water but still ended up with no ability to charge that night, data connection issues, and fogged cameras for a few days. Thanks.

Check in is just as painful and awkward. More pointless steps than any check in I’ve ever completed. The staff has no sense of hospitality and makes a line form despite having enough staff to check in all the people waiting. People just standing around.

The layout of the hotel is non-sensical, for no benefit to the guest. Perhaps they had building restrictions due to the cenotes, but they did nothing to make it easy to navigate. The parking lots are an eyesore and are poorly located.

The dining area was massive and had way more tables than needed, so it felt like you were dining at a place that was struggling to get customers. They started fires at dinner time (to keep bugs away?) and the smoke flooded a table with a family eating there (not us). I could go on and on. So many things that would be easy to fix. I can't imagine that the person running this hotel has any prior experience.

At check-in, they told me breakfast was included. OK, fine. I tell the waiter at breakfast, he says, no, it's not included and shows me a printout of each guest and he says mine is not included. OK, fine. We order breakfast. I go to check out and ask for clarification. They want to bill me extra for an included breakfast AND make me pay for the breakfast I ordered, because I didn't get the included breakfast(???)

I almost never leave negative reviews, because my expectations are very low as a guest. I do not expect the guest experience of staying at the peninsula, where they remember your name and what you ate last night. I am fine with the experience at a $30 motel at the side of the road. I just want it to be reasonably easy to stay at a hotel. Not so complicated. i've never stayed somewhere where it was such a hassle...

The grounds of this hotel are truly stunning. You can either relax by one of many pools (or the lake) or be active if you prefer. As it’s so spread out it never feels crowded. It could be a film set, it feels a little deserted and lacking soul. WiFi was very good and worked very well in all areas. Rooms are lovely and very spacious with great decor. The hotel provides mosquito spray as well as make it available throughout the grounds. One absolute legend was Gonzo, the entertainment manager. What a lovely friendly soul. So enthusiastic about what he does and his positivity was very refreshing. I’m so glad we got to meet him as that was definitely a highlight of our stay there.

From the moment we’ve arrived something just didn’t feel quite right. The check in didn’t seem particularly welcoming (Caroline I think). Restaurant, whilst ok, it is extremely expensive. We pay less money for decent meals in London, which is meant to be one of most expensive cities in the world. The included breakfast is shocking to be fair. You cant even get a cappuccino without paying extra, you just get a flask coffee, like you would in a canteen! It’s not a standard I would expect from a 5 star hotel and offering different types of coffees is so basic. They make you feel like they’re doing you a favour with the included breakfast, completely forgetting that to get the breakfast included the room rate is higher to reflect that… Whilst we were having our lunch, we were told off by a waiter for leaving our table in the morning after breakfast without signing a slip for the breakfast. Breakfast that was included in our room, just very unnecessary in my opinion and adds to the oddness of the place. The next day the waiter ensured we didn’t leave without signing the slip, it stated the cost of 800MXN. No way that breakfast was worth 800MXN. I think they over-inflate that price and add that in for signature to force higher tips. Each meal we were fogged with the mosquito smoke. I have been to many hotels in tropical locations and never seen a place that actually smokes their guests instead of the insects. The pits are set up very close to the tables and are started when the guests are already eating. With wind it all travels into the eating area. All I could taste was the smoke. For some reason staff don’t think it would be a good idea idea to light these prior to people eating and letting it settle a little… main swimming pool looked really dirty so we didn’t go in. Our swimming pool; which was the one nearest to the restaurant was lovely but had lots and lots of leaves. Staff do clean the pool in the morning (again, mid morning when people are already at the pool rather than before), but they just clean the water leaving all the leaves around the pool behind. Within minutes the pool is dirty again. Yet we’ve seen staff clearing leaves along the road all the time… Genuinely don’t understand the logic. One day we’ve received a text from reception about a broken coffee cup in our room. It was passive aggressive. We received the message in error, we didn’t even use the coffee cups at that point, but even if we did and we did break one…not sure it warrants a text like that. The door in our room had no proper frame; meaning it had a big gap at the top and bottom. In a place where there is lots of bugs it would be nice to have some sort of barrier in your room. Unfortunately I got unwell after eating at the restaurant (tuna tacos). Few hours after my first meal at Wakax I started feeling unwell. At that point we had already been travelling around Mexico for a week and I had no problems. That being said my partner had a burger and he was fine. I hardly ate after that. On departure, the guy at the gate did not even smile. Very accurate reflection of what the...

For anyone who wants to see Quintana Roo without the typical Tulum/holiday party vibe-this is the place for you! Our trip was mainly to see center Yucatán (Valladolid/Merida…etc) but we also wanted to check out Quintana Roo/Riviera Maya without staying in the typical beach party loud music resorts. If that is what you are looking for then Wakax Hacienda is THE place to go. It turned out to be a magical spot to spend a few days-that we can say it became a highlight of our trip. We even added an extra night and could easily have spent more time.

Here are some details that might help: We liked the rooms- very spacious and comfortable. They don’t have tvs or phones-which was totally fine for us. We communicated with reception through WhatsApp and they answer v quickly. They have bikes that you can take around the hacienda and put a tag on it so that you use it throughout your stay. I recommend you get those since the hacienda is HUGE! It’s a wonderful place to get around and explore (more on that later). They have various free tours around the Hacienda that you book with their activities manager Gonzalo. The underground river tour is an amazing experience and was totally unexpected. They hacienda has various cenotes around but also underground caves that you tour with Gonzalo to see this wonder if the Yucatán. We also went with him on the Jungle bike tour which was very cool. Lots of flaura, fauna, birds and wildlife to see. Make sure to book and confirm those as soon as you arrive. Swimming and sitting by freshwater lagoon and cenote is magical and v relaxing! They have one restaurant which serves v good food. We had a car so when we were looking for variety and a chance to explore Tulum we went out for dinner and other meals. If you want to spend a day on the beach, they have a deal with a hotel near Paradise beach which was very good to spend a couple of hours. With that being said, we were actually very happy swimming in the Hacienda’s lagoons and cenotes. Perfect place to see the Tulum ruins but you should use the access to the ruins from the Cancun highway and not the one from the beach. The staff are very nice: Thank you...