Hotel Hacienda Viva Sotuta de Peon - Village Resort — Hotel in Yucatán

We stayed at Hacienda Viva Sotuta de Peon for 2 nights (Nov. 29th to Dec. 1st/2022). It was an absolutely lovely stay with great service and very comfortable lodgings. We had booked a King Deluxe cabin with its own dipping pool and it was very private, quiet and looked out onto the hennequin fields. The bed was super comfortable and the shower was huge with lots of hot water. The grounds of the Hacienda hotel complex are beautiful and laid out in a very walkable manner, with wide paths branching off to the pool, the restaurant, reception, etc. Everyone at the front desk was very helpful, especially Jasmine and the manager, Ivan. He was a great guy and nice to converse with and had a good sense of humour. The pool was huge and we were the only ones using it the afternoon we went for a swim.|The restaurant is spacious and covered with a palapa roof with nice hand crafted light fixtures. It was a buffet style with many options to choose from and they bring juice, tea, coffee to your table. The cochinita pibil at dinner was excellent! Everyone was polite and helpful no matter who they were.|We booked the "Jet's a Wool" massage for both of us and it was heaven! My head, arms and feet never felt so good! It was done outdoors, seated on chairs beside the old freight train car. We also booked the Sisal Plus Tour to see the old Hacienda buildings preserved as a museum, the working machinery to make the sisal rope and then an hour swim at the underground cenote on the premises. Our guide Ivan (popular name, lol) was very passionate in his explanations of the stages of hennequin (green gold) processing and the history of the haciendas in the Yucatan. The cenote swim was fantastic and nice to cool down in the humidity. We were transported by the horse drawn truks on the rails that are all over the property and that in itself was such a fun experience. The Sisal Plus Tour included a 4 course meal/lunch back at the restaurant at the end of the tour (otherwise you have to pay for snacks and drinks) if you don't choose this option - we felt since we were actually staying at the hotel, it was worth it as this would be a full lunch for us.|I highly recommend staying here for a few nights to get the feel of Hacienda history and to enjoy the property, as opposed to just booking a tour for a few hours. It was really nice to start out our 2 week Mexican vacation at the Hacienda, allowing us to decompress in the calmer, natural surroundings before heading off to explore Merida for an extended stay in the city. Thank-you again to everyone at Hacienda Viva Sotuta de Peon for a memorable...

The grounds of this hacienda were absolutely breath-taking. The tour is special in itself, and differentiates from other hacienda tours in the Yucatan as they have an actual machinery museum and rein-act all the procedures of making the henekén. If you are staying the night, the shared pool by the dinner restaurant is so nice, and 4-course the dinner was delicious. You can walk around the hacienda grounds and find the different pools, visit the buildings, and pet the animals. They have a variety of ponies, horses, sheep, donkeys, etc. Also, don't forget your camera as it's super picturesque!

Beware - They use real horses to tow tourists to the cenotes and back. The horses seem well-fed and cared for, but it's extremely hot out and the route to the cenote is over 2 kilometers. Plus, they load around 12 tourists on to one cart. I imagine it's heavy for the horse.

Where the hacienda fell short was in the service. First of all, my husband requested a special set up in the room we rented (the deluxe king villa) as it was our anniversary and the request was confirmed by the hotel. Upon arriving, there was no set up. Secondly, we had to wait for an extra 20 minutes to check-in to our room at 3 pm. While walking to the villa, we saw the cleaning staff walking out - they hadn't cleaned it on time for our check-in. Thirdly, the villa was full of mosquitos and no mosquito net was offered. We came out of there covered in mosquito bites and contemplated returning to Mérida late at night to get away from the bites.

The staff were professional and very nice the entire time, I think it's just a matter of organization and communication that needs to be worked on. At that price, they could have done the special set up requested and gotten us...

This schedule worked really well for an overnight stay:|We booked a 1pm tour, so arrived about 12:30 so we could eat light sandwiches we brought with us. We had our cenote-swimming bag ready to go too. (You do have to haul that around as you walk the tour, so keep it light.) Tour is excellent and the cenote wonderful as others have said.|Back to the casita for cocktails (there's a tiny fridge so BYOB), a break and a walk around the beautiful grounds.|Dinner was very nice, but take note: it was a fixed-price (about 400 MXN each) with one choice of salad, one of soup, two main courses, and 4 desserts. All were excellent but the small selection surprised us. Perhaps there are more choices at peak seasons; I don't know.|A quiet night in the casita (this is not a place with lots to do!). Someone else mentioned the loud air conditioner and I'll confirm that; it's like the contractor installed industrial units designed for offices. Bring ear plugs; you'll be fine.|The main pool is VAST. Photos taken with wide-angle lenses always make pools look bigger, so look at a satellite picture. Two big end sections are shallow for kids; big center section is DEEP.|Someone wrote there's nowhere to drive to for sightseeing; you're not far from Ticul (town of shoes and pottery) and the Pu'uc and Convent Routes. But mainly Sotuta is a place to get away...