Hotel Overview
Set along a beautiful white sand beach in Playa del Carmen on Riviera Maya, this eco-friendly resort lies in the luxurious residential complex of Grand Coral, next-door to a Nick Price-designed 18-hole golf course. Escape to an array of beautifully appointed rooms stretching from the magnificent Mexican Caribbean to the lush green jungle. Upgrade to the Select Club section for a luxurious adult-only experience. Rooms are decorated in superlative fashion, complementing the soothing ambiance of the Mexican Caribbean.
The Sandos Caracol Eco Resort lies in the exotic Mayan jungle and is surrounded by natural sinkholes (cenotes), mangroves and lagoons where you can admire the typical fauna and flora of the region. Enjoy a romantic and relaxing canoe ride through the natural waterways of the mangroves. In the biggest cenote of the resort, right behind the lobby, guests can discover the crystal clear, refreshing waters that are typical for this region. Plus, learn all about ancient Mayan culture, enjoy the Temazcal (additional fee), admire the Attic of the Orchid, and explore the bicycle track and the trails. This is truly the perfect destination for the nature-lover in all of us.
The main pool offers a little something for everyone. Dive in or pull up a seat at the swim-up bar that spans nearly the entire length of the Royal Elite section, only a few steps away from the beach. The resort's fun-filled water park features 22 water slides for kids and 7 water slides for adults, with lifeguard supervision. Daytime activities include beach volleyball, sandcastle building, swimming and yoga, a lit tennis court, a supervised baby club and kids' club with a playground, crafts, TV, movies, sports, and over 40 different ecological activities included in the All-Nature Experience. The teen activity program features music, pool tables, beach soccer, and more.
Indulge at the wide range of buffet and à la carte dining options. There are three abundant buffet restaurants, featuring international fare, delicious Italian specialties, and authentic Mexican cuisine. For à la carte dining, enjoy Teppanyaki, Brazilian, Mediterranean, Italian, Vegan, and steak/seafood. After dinner, head to the theater featuring live nightly entertainment.
There's something for everyone at Sandos Caracol, whether you prefer naps on the beach, treks through the jungle, or drinks by the pool.
Greening Your Life: Part of the Apple Vacations Greening Your Life initiative, this property is Rainforest Alliance Certified, avoids the use of plastic water bottles, and uses recycled paper for all printed material. Repopulation programs are also available for local wildlife and native plants, and biodegradable mosquito repellant is available for free throughout the resort.
Sandos Caracol Eco Resort participates in several programs designed to give back to the community. Guests can also enjoy the All-Nature Experience, which offers up to 40 eco-friendly activities for both educational and entertainment purposes.
Location
Riviera Maya - BeachProperty Information
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Hotel Details
Hotel Advisories
General Policies & Fine Print
Hotel requires a debit card authorization upon check-in for incidentals; this will place a hold on your funds.
Hotel Spring Break Policy - Spring breakers are not allowed. Minimum check-in age is 21.
Transfer Policy - A price may display when children stay free, if your vacation includes transfer to your hotel.
General Information - Room taxes and service fees are included in vacation price.
Minimum night stay restrictions may apply.
Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
Customer Ratings & Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
26108 reviews
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Nov 17, 2024Spend your money else where!
Keep your money and go somewhere else ! We where there for 7 days in room 4306, 7 days with no hot water Even if you start the shower 15 minutes before getting in you wont havé hot water. Never could book any restaurant the whole week. All the buffets are the same, poor eating everywhere. All the resort is due for a rebuilt, désuet, this may have been a five stars years ago but it’s for us (and we where 11 ) a 3 stars max, so for the Price they ask go spend your money somewhere else.
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Nov 16, 2024A week in Mexico.....
Well, where do I start... Let’s go with the positives first... The location of the resort is interesting it is basically built in the middle of the jungle lots of local animals and cenotes great walking and biking paths. Beach was rocky but a few feet in either direction and you can find a nice swimming area. Food was good, lots of variety, drinks are the same as any other Mexican resort nothing special!! Rooms were clean and comfortable,staff was wonderful!!!!! Now for the bad!!!! My wife and I have been traveling in this area for almost 30 years and have stayed in many different resorts and we both agree it is time for this to either upgrade or tear down and rebuild.... Everything in the resort is tired and in need of serious repair. There are holes in the thatch roofs of every building when it rains the water just pours in, there are no railing on the steps into your rooms,lights hanging on by zip ties in the pools,many sections on the decking rotted out and the list goes on!!!!!!!! I don’t like to leave poor reviews for anything, we had a nice time but had a hard time overlooking the need for repair and replacement at this resort!!!!! We are appalled by the lack of concern from the owners of this place... There are just too many other nicer places to go to in Mexico to have to see this kind of neglect!!!
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Nov 14, 2024
To many maintenance issues
Save your money, or better yet spend it somewhere else! I'm giving them two stars only because we did find a couple of people who enjoyed their jobs and gave us the Mexican service experience that we have come to expect in our years of travelling there. But they are so poorly run and maintained that it can only trickle down to the staff being overwhelmed and becoming frustrated. There are other resorts in this area, for the same money, you will have a better experience with. Restaurants are only accessible by elite members or select few. We finally got into a couple only by complaining at the desk day after day. Pools are dirty and bars are understaffed. So many maintenance issues, the whole resort smells of sewer. There is potential here, the area is beautiful, but until they can get the running of the place under control, go somewhere where you can actually relax and enjoy!
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Nov 13, 2024Poor music choice
The music on adult select club is lourd and the play only electronic music with loud beet. No south music neither Mexican music. Very bad choice. Can’t sleep or read on the beach. The let so many people to enter the area and ask for massage. All day long.
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Nov 11, 2024
The lies, the lack of care, and the overall crummy experience.
Buckle up. Get ready for the good, the bad, the ugly, and the lies told. *I am going to preface this by saying that I travel to 3 star hotels in Cuba often and I don’t have high or unrealistic expectations when it comes to travelling. So this is not a matter of super high expectations. This is an honest review of our experience. We just returned from a 1 week trip - we were a group of almost 50 people for a wedding. This resort had some good features BUT it had a lot MORE bad. I’ll start with the good first. If you want monkeys and animals, this is your spot to go. One night a raccoon attempted to climb up on my husbands lap 🤣 The wedding day itself was beautiful and this is a lovey spot for some very different and beautiful wedding photos. I liked the dinner that was provided with my nieces wedding and I also really liked the roof top patio where her reception was held. Food. We liked the food for the most part. Taco bar - we liked everything there. We tried them all. Day of the dead. Also amazing. They put a LOT of work in to the festivities and it really shows. The care and effort to make it perfect didn’t go unnoticed. Now to the VERY not good. This resort for some reason didn’t put ANYONE but me in the rooms we actually booked and paid for. The rest of the group ended up getting shoved all over the place. For instance. My sister booked and paid for an adults only deluxe room with the jacuzzi. When she arrived they stuffed her in a family room with bunk beds and no jacuzzi and then the manager told her in was an “upgrade”. Ummmm. No. That is not an “upgrade”. The bride and grooms “upgrade” from the adults only section was getting stuffed in a ground floor family room where people in pool loungers could see in, the speaker was outside of the room, and they were jack hammering right outside of the bedroom window. These are just 2 examples of the 42 people that ended up in the wrong rooms with the manager (trying to make it sound like it was a GOOD thing) that they had been “upgraded”. The resorts lack of care for what we paid for, vs where they put people… speechless. I’ve travelled a lot and never encountered this before. It boggles my mind. The inconsistency / lies of the front desk was WILD. They would lie (example. The hot water issue. They would say they had no idea there was a problem) Then you’d escalate, then the manager would come, then the first person that lied to you would say that they DID actually know and it’s been this way for weeks. With NO ETA on it being repaired. This brings us to the water issues. Yes, there IS infact a big problem with hot water. 3/4 of our group had no hot water and the reports that this is isolated to the older family section rooms is wildly incorrect. It is VERY widespread and affects ALL sections - the Royal Elite rooms as well. I was in a Royal Elite (pool view) room and our showers were colder than the pools. IF you manage to get a room with hot water you have hit the jackpot. Our travel agent reached out to the resort before we left to enquire about the hot water because if there was a hot water problem at the resort our TA was going to try to move our group elsewhere. Our TA was also BOLD FACE LIED to by management the day before we left (October 30) - she sent me a copy of this email that she received from Sandos Management and she was told that the water situation was resolved and the boiler had been replaced. Thus completely tying our hands and forcing us to go there. This is NOT ACCEPTABLE. A problem such as this NEEDS to go out as a notice to Travel Agents so people can move to a different resort if they choose to. Hiding it and LYING about it and trapping people in their reservations is underhanded, sneaky, and so very unfair to people that spent (in my case 8k to go on vacation). Shame on you Sandos! We also had a LOT of our group that didn’t get hand soap 🤣 while this seems minor, it was the WAY our group was treated when they requested hand soap that was totally disgusting - one of these interactions over a bar of hand soap was recorded and it’s APPALLING how this person - who WAS being nice btw - was as treated. Someone else in our group had the front desk accuse them of HIDING their soap 🤣🤣🤣🤣 like …. What? WHY?! HOW?! This is yet another illustration of how this resort has VERY little care for your basic comforts while you’re there. The beach. I read all the reports on this and took it to heart. We took water shoes. Be warned. This beach is more than what people report as being “rocky”. It is boulders beneath the water and is actually pretty dangerous. I would say the beach here is more leaning towards not swimable. It IS beautiful to look at. BEWARE - I would not recommend this beach for children as we were a group of grown adults and we had trouble navigating and were stumbling all over the place. Of course, I managed to find a hole in the rocks and got my foot stuck and scraped the heck out of my leg 🤣. We walked to the pier and it was quite nice there. I highly recommend the walk. It is worth it. The massage people get annoying. They are stationed every 10 feet and ask every person that walk by “lady! Massage!” I have never said “no gracias” so many times in my life. I’ve travelled a lot of places that have beach vendors and I’m ok with it but these massage people are excessive. We can’t speak to the water park. The large slides that our group would want were closed. Not communicated to travellers because - why would they do that? The steak restaurant. Also closed. Also not communicated. We didn’t attend the RE sales pitch because no WAY would I want to own a time share here. Do I recommend? Absolutely hard NO Will we be back? Also NO. To summarize. Front desk staff / management = ⭐️ Food in restaurants = ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Food in buffet = ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wedding = ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Day of the dead = ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Beach = ⭐️⭐️ Room = ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Overall service = ⭐️ Overall Experience = ⭐️⭐️
*Prices per person based on double occupancy including round-trip airfare via U.S. certified air carriers (unless otherwise stated), hotel taxes and baggage handling, fuel surcharges, and all pre-collected U.S. and foreign taxes. Round-trip airport/hotel transfers are included in Mexico (excluding Loreto), Central America and many Caribbean Islands. Transfers not included for air-only passengers. Prices valid on new bookings only and in some instances, pricing may specifically apply to one of multiple flights on select departure days. All packages are based on the lowest hotel/air classes available at time of publication, capacity controlled, subject to availability and change without notice. Promotional pricing may only be available for a limited time. Restrictions & black -out dates may apply. Fees may apply for carry-on and checked baggage-view Baggage Policies. Some resort fees, environmental levies and departure taxes are not included and may be payable in resort. View Frequently Asked Questions for more information. Apple Vacations is not responsible for errors or omissions. Bookings are subject to the current General/Cancellation Terms & Conditions. All public charter flights Allegiant Air: PC 20-070/PC 21-043; Swift Air: PC 21-056; Viva Aerobus: PC 20-081; Volaris: PC 20-099 are operated by ALG Vacations Corp. Apple Vacations materials (including, but not limited to, names, trademark, service marks, logos, marketing materials, etc.) shall not be used, reproduced, transmitted or distributed in any way, except with the express written consent of Apple Vacations. CST2139014-20. This information is current as of June 3, 2021.