O Tulum — Hotel in Quintana Roo

My husband and I stayed here for 6 days to celebrate our honeymoon. We had an amazing experience and felt like we were taken care of, met super attentive and caring staff, and had all of our needs met! LOCATION: The hotel is located 20ish minutes from El Centro and 25+ for the beaches, ruins, etc. It is on a long dirt road that is VERY bumpy. During the time of our stay, you can tell there is a lot of construction going on. This did not impact our experience at all but it's good to know when it comes to planning. THE HOTEL: It looked exactly like the pictures! We got really lucky that we came during amazing weather - so were able to appreciate the beauty of it more. It was clean and a perfect size boutique hotel to get where you need to be. All of the pools were clean and staff would switch out any padded seats/benches/etc. any time it rained ASAP. Public bathrooms were always stocked. THE BEACH: This was definitely a perk. Please note that there are a lot of rocks in the water; however, staff have water shoes. I didn't step into the water but enjoyed the view. THE ROOM: We had the honeymoon suite with a jacuzzi and view of the ocean. It was a little outdated and worn down but not a huge dealbreaker. Staff did a great job of cleaning out our rooms and we didn't have anything stolen. It's common sense to lock up any valuables in your suitcase with a lock (which we did) and we didn't find anything missing. I recommend getting someone to clean your pool daily if you intend on taking a tip. We had flies in our jacuzzi from the second night on but we never jumped back into it to care for it to be clean again. The jacuzzi could've been a bit cleaner or down the line renovated but it was nice to have in the room. The bed was extremely comfortable. ALSO, YOU HAVE WORKING AC! On days when it was in 90s, our room felt like heaven. It works like a charm and you can put it on full blast. THE STAFF: Loved every person we came across. Nadia and Xavi were great hosts - always answering our questions, offering any support, and even helping my husband plan his proposal. We had our pictures taken and had a set-up and we couldn't be any more impressed with the extra step that staff took to ensure we had an amazing experience! Mayo from the bar knows how to whip up an amazing drink. Everyone was always easy to reach and we were really comfortable. THE FOOD: Yessss, the food is amazing! The all-inclusive breakfast was the BOMB. You get to choose delicious authentic Mexican food and it was cool they offered vegan options. I would say the food is priced just like American restaurants but presentation and taste was always on point. My husband and I ate here a handful of times and I would say to expect for a bit of a wait but you have the view of the beach to keep you occupied :)

The only bad experience I had of this trip was that there was this couple fighting pretty loudly throughout the day. You were able to hear them throughout the entire premise. I wasn't sure if staff was going to do anything about it but it was unpleasant to deal with. Otherwise, the rest of the visitors if we ran into them kept to themselves...

Almost 98% of the time when my hubby and I travel I am the one that picks the hotel but this time I let him choose a hotel in Tulum.

I read all the reviews and to be honest I was a little bit worried about the road since I keep reading that they are not in good condition. I use google maps to drive from the airport until the hotel and it worked perfectly, it took us straight to the place. When we saw the road right away I knew why people were mentioning this part as negative, it was very rocky and had some holes and even worst no street light at night. I am happy that we rented an SUV because we were 4 people and we are not skinny lol 😆 so with a normal car I wouldn't feel comfortable to drive within but enough about the road.

When finally we got to the hotel we were welcomed by nice staff, I forgot his name but he was a young guy with an amazing attitude and very humble. We picked the first-floor ocean view rooms because the other one's you can't see the beach, only the fence and we wanna wake up looking to the ocean and the private pool. The room was better and bigger than I thought, it comes with a private bathroom with a shower and a bathtub next to the bed 🛌 which we didn’t use but it was a very nice touch. Personally, my favorite part of this hotel was our balcony, the fact you can open your door and use your private jacuzzi or just jump to the pool that only the first 3 rooms from the first floor were allowed to use was the best part, every night my friends and I grab some wine and spent hours just relax in your pool and when tired just go straight to your room from the balcony. This hotel comes with a complimentary breakfast which was surprised to me because it was like gourmet instead of continental, very tasty. The hotel’s in a private area so even though it looks scary the road especially at night it’s actually totally safe because there’s a gate with security staff that controls the access of the people and also at night the hotel brings 2-3 security staff so we felt very safe. Last but not least the beach area it’s very rocky so you don’t have like a sandy beach but apparently there’s one 10 min walking but we didn’t use it, we stayed the whole time at the pool so it was ok. I did notice that they have several staff cleaning their beach area and removing the big rocks so maybe they will fix so that got can go inside instead of walking 10 min to another beach. This hotel was OUTSTANDING, totally recommended it, the only reason I didn't give them 5 stars was because of the road, whoever owns that land needs to put some money and fix the street because there's several mansion, hotels, and Airbnb and I'm sure between all of them they can fix it so it looks more smooth. Other than this hands down of the best hotel I've ever...

Where to start… the check-in was awful.

Signing a leasehold of over 5 pages. I’ve stayed in 5-star hotels around the world and never had to deal with a leasehold agreement, requested a copy of my credit card in case of fraud, had to pay an extra pet fee which wasn’t mentioned beforehand and told just about it after signing the contract. A whole page of extra charges for washing the linen if stained, and once you get to the room, all the linen is old and stained. The page of extra charges even includes one in case you lose the keychain! A really terrible first impression which, if it wasn’t for it being after a long haul flight I would have actually refused to sign and just find accommodation elsewhere.

Very run down and outdated overall. Rotten wood paths which felt like an accident waiting to happen (which did). Lack of immediate energy generator after a power cut. Poor room service. The pools felt like dirty puddle water tanks. The cenote or lagoons feel more clean.

The beach itself was impossible to use. Though they offer you water shoes to avoid destroying your feet, it’s hard to walk to the water or even get to the loungers. The loungers falling to pieces. The only key USP was it being beachfront but nowhere is it mentioned it’s in a rocky beach with no access to the sea. I won’t mention sargazo cause it’s a natural thing, but I will mention that the senior host pointed out lots of plastic rubbish by the beach, and instead of having her staff pick it up, she just said “oh it’s not ours, it’s brought in by the tide”. In the three days of our stay no one other than another guest picked up all the rubbish. Shocking!

The actual hotel location is another massive con. The worst unpaved road drive of +12 mins to get to it, plus far away from any attractions, shops, restaurants. They really should warn or suggest guests to drive in a 4x4 or quad bikes. It’s like driving in actual craters.

The room itself was okay size, but after signing the contract I expected it immaculate and oh boy… Stains everywhere! After signing the contract of course I inspected it and counted more than 10 stains in sheets, duvet, bathrobes, towels. Oh yes, and no hot water at all. At most lukewarm. Also a nespresso in the room with no pods. No kettle either.

A positive was the dinner menu, and the girl at desk who was very polite at all times. Cynthia I believe was her name. She was a star.

Overall: Poor location. Poor hospitality by senior staff member. Poor first impression with a lengthy contract upon checking in. Poor beach access. Poor room service.

Happy to have...