Hotel Siente Tulum — Hotel in Quintana Roo

We stayed in early January 2025 for a planned relaxing restful holiday with perhaps a venture fourth or two.

It's very hard to review it fairly as it was not at all what we had planned on or expected.

The hotel has many good points and a veneer of quality and style that shows what they are/were trying to achieve.

The staff are a very strong element. Most are efficient, helpful, and keen to help where possible.

The rooms are spacious and well presented and initially appear to be very good indeed.

However, this is where the mask begins to slip.

There is an effort to present the hotel as a feel-good, tripping hippie, eco-friendly, boho haven, but, in truth, this is used as an excuse for missing basics.

No mini fridge or comfortable seating in the room and no balcony furniture.

Some reviews say beds too hard, etc. But I, who is a little sensitive to such matters, found them firm but decent.

Leaking doors/windows/ceilings in rainstorms. Erratic plumbing and poor finishing in the sink/bathroom/shower area are another clue to the contradictions of Siente Tulum

The rooftop bar / restaurant / pool relaxation area is a very clever use of space and a highly original design.

The whole floor is open plan and is modelled on the deck of a ship from to bow-stern.

There is an open area seating / working area to the rear with funkyswing chairs, normal tables, chairs, and even a glass business /meeting room.

The middle section is a covered 'galley' kitchen and earing area used for all meals served in the hotel.

There are plants and wall murals, etc. attempting to create a rustic / peaceful / natural vibe. Yet, the regularly blaring (occasionally intolerable) dodgy 1990s clubbing cover version based music rather destroys that effort.

The 'bow' area has the open bar area modelled as the bridge of the ship, a horizontal mast and sails are used to provide minimal cover / shade from the strongest sun.

There is then a 'deck' area with a space / sun beds for less than 20 people but with no umbrellas or other facilities usually expected to be available.

Then comes a finishing touch to the ship creation with an 'infitinty style' pool as the water on which the ship is sailing. It is the width of the hotel but 2 metres or less in length!

The food was a real mix. Siente operates buffet style for breakfast and dinner.

Breakfast is simple: omlettes, egg dishes, pancakes and fruit etc. It was all tasty and enjoyable. The coffee was cheap but plentiful.

Dinner buffets were simply POOR: a handful of luke warm dishes that would normally just not be good enough. Judging from the looks on the faces of those who paid separately this was a widely held opinion.

The total opposite was true of lunch time.

The food area turns into a cafe style service post breakfast and offers a limited but excellent menu of items made fresh to order from noon-5pm

This was made available to us as part of our all inclusive package and quite frankly prevented major arguments and rescued the food situation overall. All lunch items we sampled were fresh, tasty, plentiful, and excellently presented.

SIENTE should not bother offering an all-inclusive package. It is simply not set up to offer what most people would expect or demand.

No easy beach access, no real pool and poolside facilities and no entertainment or activities etc.

Fortunately my wife and I are not typical all-inc. holiday makers and so we're able to adapt our holiday from one planned on being fly and flop but with 'traveller days' to almost the exact reverse.

We arranged multiple trips around the peninsula and kept hotel days to those needed to recharge our slightly aged batteries.

We ate big lunches upon returning from trips and journeyed into Tulum Central for treat dinners! Thus, we managed to minimise the negative effects of the hotels limitations.

BUT, due to Tulum no longer being a cheap location, and SIENTE being located close to the ruins not the town it cost a lot of cash to adapt our holiday!

Good for short stay digital nomads or a dash of 'backpacker...

We booked this hotel through an Air Canada vacation package. It was a breakfast only package and paid a pretty low price for our package as it was off season. When we arrived at the hotel the room wasn't ready, and other than offering to put our bags in a locked room, there was no offer to go to the pool, or information about where we could wait such as on the rooftop terrace and restaurant. Most of the time the receptionist couldn't give us much information about anything. The hotel is not close to either the town or the beach, although it is pretty close to the Tulum ruins entrance. Once we checked in our room was nice, although our view was over a derelict building and some garbage. The shower worked well, although it leaked a bit into the bathroom and we always had hot water. The little pool on the rooftop is quite nice, but very small, and overlooks a gas station. We only ate breakfast and a chicken salad once at the snack bar, and the food was ok, but not great. There is a membership at the hotel which you can pay extra for which includes transportation and I think entrance to some of the local attractions, which would have been great, except nobody told us about it, and we only found out after we had struggled to find out way around, and to get into town and to the beach. I think this membership would have made a big difference to our stay. The hotel had some brand new bicycles, but wouldn't let us use or rent them, as they told us they were too new. There was no fridge in the room which would have been useful so that we could keep some food/cold water in the room. Some information about Tulum in general. If you are going to this hotel, I imagine, like us, you are on a budget. Nothing is budget priced in Tulum. Here is some important information: Beaches: There are some public beaches in Tulum, mainly in the North side of the main beach road. The best way to get to these from Siente is to walk or bike through the Tulum ruins path (you can go around the ruins and don't need to enter them). The beaches are in a National Park and you have to pay $60 pesos to enter each day. You are also not allowed to bring in any plastic, glass, cans or alcohol. You can bring food and water/non alcoholic drinks in reusable containers. Bring a big water bottle, because buying water at the beach is expensive (about $130 pesos a bottle as opposed to $20 pesos away from the beach). There is supposed to be water available at the beach entrances but it was never working, and the bathrooms were locked. The only way to get shade or chairs is to go to a beach club. They all have an entrance fee, a minimum spend or both. We loved Kai Tulum which cost $100 pesos to enter and there was no minimum spend. It's not cheap but the food and location were really good. Hotel Paraiso has a $300 pesos entrance and I believe there is no minimum spend. We went a bit up the coast by bike (can also take collectivo) to Playa Caleta Tankah which has a beach and a cenote. $250 pesos entrance, no minimum spend. Food and drinks were reasonably priced. Transport: You can get around by collectivos or by bicycle. We rented very basic bikes in town on the beach road from Miki just in front of Capitain restaurant for $150 pesos per day. It is a good way to get around. Attractions: We went to Cenote Calavera by bike, and it was fun. A small cenote that is semi open with bats and birds nesting inside and you can jump in as it is deep. We also had delicious popsicles there. $250 pesos to enter. We took a private day tour with Miki ($1200 pesos each) from where we rented the bikes and went to Cenote Yax-Muul which was really interesting and included a Mayan ceremony and a guide in the three cenotes and then went snorkelling with turtles and stingrays. It included a driver for the day and all activities. Food: Best tacos were from the street vendors (one I don't remember and one outside Aki supermarket) at around $60 pesos for 5...

The hotel is well located as it is just a few minutes from the urban area and the ruins of Tulum and the Jaguar Park. The view is not the best but you have to understand that the area is under development so it is normal that there are constructions in process. It is a little uncomfortable waiting to check in at the lobby because there are few seats which are quite uncomfortable, my travel agent told me that upon arrival we would be greeted with a drink, which did not happen. The good thing is that you can make use of the rest of the facilities such as the terrace dining room. The food on the terrace is ok, it tastes good but don't expect typical Mexican food. Kudos to the fact that they have a very spicy habanero dressing which is rare to find in tourist areas even in CDMX. The drinks are ok but the first day I felt the alcoholic beverages were a watered down, I assume this is due to the heat, since they have ice which melts very quickly due to the heat of the region. Also the girl who tends the bar is friendly and attentive as well as the waiters on the terrace. In general the staff is very friendly and efficient so please as guests remember to be nice to them and at least say good morning as they work very hard keeping the hotel clean and functional. The room meets the necessities; shower, toilet, comfortable bed, AC and a safe box but my room had a cracked window which made me hesitate to open the window. I would have liked to have some benches or chairs in the room in addition to the amaca to sit on. One of the negatives of my stay was that my travel agent promised me that the hotel was only for adults without children because I was looking for a place to relax from the stress of my work and it turns out that upon arrival there were many families with kids and throughout my stay more arrived and at night I could hear them screaming, running down the hallway and even one night they started knocking on doors of other rooms which was in my case. The rooms do not isolate the noise very well because I could hear at night the TV of the guest in the neighboring room or as I mentioned previously the noise from the hallway. So if they should consider that issue. Overall, it is a good hotel that meets the needs of a guest who goes to Tulum and plans to be going out to the tours of the area because the hotel does not have activities, shows or nightlife (by the way I recommend the tour to Chichen Itza offered by the agency euromundo within the...