Sandos Caracol All Inclusive Beach Resort and Spa, Playa del Carmen

Went thru our timeshare this year and ended up here and never will return ever again. It was like torture everyday trying not to get bit by those sneaky little MOSQUTIOS..We were eatin alive and you could see all the bite marks on everyone else..You had to get up 6am to get dinner reservations. Never made it to the steak house because of this stupid rule for reservations. Forget the Brazillain restaurant out in the jungle. Mosquitos were even worse there. Food was just ok. This was our 3rd trip to Mexico. We will be going back to our wonderful Palace Resorts next time ..

Our trip was from Sept 25 - 30th. We enjoyed the Animation/Entertainment team VERY much. Friendly staff at reception, the restaurants and at the Spa. The food was ok but not great. There are many things to do at this resort, one of my disapointments was that this resort is very old and is in need of an update. (Stay at their sister resort in Playacar if you can) Try to avoid the 90 timeshare presentation if you can, it's not worth it. We went just for kicks and the 90min turned into half a day. They shuttle you from Caracol to their sister resort in Playacar. We had made it back to the point of contact with the shuttle taking us back to our resort from the 90min timeshare presentation and we saw the driver pull in. We asked (in Spanish) if he was taking us back to our resort and he said he was shuttling employees only. So, needless to say, we had to wait another hour. The general manager, Diego, was so rude when we explained the problem. Instead of fixing the problem, he decided to argue with me and basically said it was our problem and that the paper we signed about the transportation read that the shuttle was never guaranteed and that we would have to wait for the next one. Diego was not compasionate at all and doesn't try to solve the problem but instead will argue, NOT 5 star customer service at all. My suggestions to ALL travelers to this place is, if you can, stay at their sister resort SANDOS PLAYACAR, DO IT!!! So much better there. Newer facilities, better food at their buffet and WAY better beach. Bring LOTS of bug spray because the mosquitos are vicious!!!

The beach was Fine from outside, but when you go in to the sea, you realised that it is rocky,silty and full of dead coral, so you have to go careful because it is an adventure to go in the water.I think a dangerous beach it is the worst you can expect in a resort were you are expecting a sunny day in a wonderfull beach .In the beach I began to realize that I was not in a classical caribbean beach,and the reality was worst than my expectations. The food was OK, there is a lot of quantity in the buffets restaurants, but perhaps the quality was not goog enought for a five stars resort.I do not have any complaiment about the chinesse restaurant , quality was good.In the other rstaurant,steak house, the quality of the meat was so poor for this kind of restaurant. The drinks, I have to say that the quality of the alcohol was very poor, but they mixed in the cocktails, so you really didn`t realized about this.But if you want a good Whisky ,Vodka, Ron,...for a first mark, it was impossible to have it.They always said that it is finished for today, but tomorrow... I don`t like any kind of entertaiment, so I am not going to write about it . Another big problem in the nights were the mosquitos, a terrible amount of mosquitos.The Hotel it is in middle of the jungle,well, it is built over the manglars, soyou are living in the mosquitos home, and they have the right to bit the intruders.It does not matter if you use repellent, they will bite you Perhaps it is not the right value for the price, at least it is not what I thought before to be there

The rooms were great (we had two, one was double bed,one was king bed). The food was great everywhere we went in the resort. The staff was amazing!! We were treated like kings and queens. I never once seen a staff member that was lazy. There were all working their butts off. The service absolutly couldnt have been better!!!! Pools were great, beach was awesome and the drinks were wonderful. The resort was spotless clean. Two hours after I got home I was looking on line to book our next trip next year. I was worried about stomach issues because I have a touchy stomach when it comes to drinking water away from home but they filter all their water and ice. I ate and drank anything I wanted and had no tummy problems at all!!! What an awesome vacation!!

The rooms were ok , lighting was poor could not read a book in the room at night. Food was great lots of variety and lots of buffets. If we could not find anything at one we could go to the others. snack bar open all night. Loads of bars . Every night we would go to the coffee bar. Great Baileys coffee. We went to the beach everyday and spent the entire day there. We would check out the pool also by the beach so we could get refreshments there. There are many pools if you do not like the beach or cannot find a chair at the beach.We spent 2 weeks at this resort and could not find anything that was really bad to say about anything or anyone at the resort.

The resort was GORGEOUS....the room? AMAZING! The food? AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!! What's the point of going all inclusive if you literally can't stomach the God awful food they serve???? I am by noooooo means a picky person, I will eat just about anything you put in front of my face, but seriously, I had a hard time swallowing without gagging. I had to go to town to get a decent meal....and unfortunately, b/c Sandos Caracol is on the outskirts of town, it makes it difficult to leave your resort without having to pay a cabby. I have heard that on vacation you gain weight...well, I LOST weight on this one b/c I practically starved to death! They have some non-buffet restaurants there, but you have to get up at the butt crack of dawn to get in line to make a reservation to eat at any of them, and, what they don't tell you is, unless you stay there for 7 weeks at a time or own a time share, you only get to make ONE reservation...count it...ONE! That's another thing that bothered me....it seemed like all they wanted to do was sell you a dang time share...they didn't care to explain how to get around, where things were, etc....they just wanted to book you for an appointment to sell their wares. Listen, after 5 hours of travel, the last thing I wanna do is sit down and discuss that BS...I wanna get to my room, settle in, change and get some food.... The Fireshow on the beach was really cool, but overall the entertainment is so so....the actual beach is something to be desired. There's not much beach to begin with, but the beach that they do have is lined with sludge and there's an unfortunate view of Lord knows what those things are, but they look like deal whales laying all over the place. Not sure what their purpose is...perhaps to provide some protection from the waves maybe? In any case, not a pretty site. We had to walk down the beach quite a ways to actually see some decent beach front...and to get away from all the grannies sunning themselves topless. That's a whole 'nother ball of wax. Put those wrinkled up raisins back in their slings please! One strange highlight of the resort is the racoons or "mapaches" as the natives say. They come out at dinner time in droves and you can hand feed them....at least someone is eating that food. One evening the power went out in our room for several hours and we weren't able to see to get ready in the morning or use anything electrical (obviously)....and because we were soooooooo far away from the main house, it was too much hassle to walk to it to inquire....when we did ask for it to be fixed, no one was apologetic or concerned as we thought perhaps we could get a dinner reservation out of it due to the inconvenience, but noooooooo. Also! Gosh dang it....I was told that the Car Rental people would be in at 8am sharp....8am came and they never showed. Then I was told 9am sharp....9am came and they never showed. No one seemed to know what the heck was going on....I waited around for 2 1/2 for the car rental people at the main house to show who never did when all the while I could have hopped a cab in to town and had it taken care of HOURS ago....so ya, the service? Not all that fabulous. I'm not picky, I'm just saying....someone there should know the hours of when their staff works. Not complicated. One other detail...THERE ARE SOOOOOOOOO MANY FOREIGNERS! Now, God loves us all, and I love them all as well, but we don't all follow the same manners...I don't know what it is about Europeans (90% of the guests) but they push and shove and NEVER say excuse me...it's every man for them self. I was raised not to bump people out of the way when you are passing, and if by some misfortune, I accidently gave someone an unexpected nudge, so sincerely apologize! ...But not these folks. It's culture to them. And the smoking! Geeeez! I'm trying to enjoy my disgusting meal and Hans here is puffing away next to me! Yes, I would like lung cancer with my breakfast, thank you!

My fiance and I stayed here over Christmas and arrived Christmas Eve night. We were bounced around from restaurant to restaurant because we didn't have reservasions. We finally got seated at a buffet were it was a mad free for all no organization what so ever. the food there was dreedful! The only good food we had at this resort was from the Brazilian grill wheck you have to make reservations for. Suposedly they had a couple of other nice restuarants there but because we only spent 4 nights there, we could only make 1 reservation for our entire trip. Therefore we were stuck with the buffets. We are not picky eaters but really found it hard to stomach the slop they were serving. By our thrid night, i fugured I would just go with a hamburger and hot dog to make life simple, I have one bite of each and tossed it. The only good food we really had was outside the resort! Another thing that really bothered be was the fact that they realy only cared about selling their times share. Luckily we had a full schedule planned and we were able to avoid having to go the the meeting. They also didn't give you much direction on where to go or what there was to do there. We wondered around and figured it out but more than a simple mapped might have been nice. The beach isn't all that great, they have some ugly wave brakes or something right in front so swimming didn't seem like an option The room was fairly nice and it had a huge tub that was great! Since the resort is a little out of Playa Del Carmen it is a $10 cab ride to town - If you are staying at Sandos Carocal rent a car! Driving is crazy down there but it is worth it if you plan to see the sites. Most everything there is to do in the area is just of the 307 (highway) At a minimum rent one for a day and see Tulum and Coba I would highly recommend staying in town for much cheaper. Save some money on the all incluse crap and spend it eating at a variety of resaurants.

December 2008 2 adults 2 kids for one week from Chicago $2200 soup to nuts. Hard to beat that. The resort was 96% full, while those around it were empty. Food was excellent particularly the "Temple" non-buffet. Lots of Canadian, Dutch (loudest), French (who smoked the most and ground out their buts everywhere), few Americans. Great pools. Horrible beach. It is not going to get better any time soon, although they are working on it. Not enough unbroken lounge chairs at the beach. Just walk south on the shore for 10 minutes for a great beach with surf. Take a boogie board from the water sports concession if the surfs up. You can see a few fish, but no coral. Took a snorkel trip for $30 which was OK. Staff was very frendly. Ask for the sparking wine which is available at the non-buffet places. Join the Sandos resort club before you go to get perks.

just went to Sandos Caracol Beach Resort and Spa with my fiance ( we just got engaged). We went for 700 all inclusive, 5 nights, 6 days, and let me tell you...THIS is the way to travel for couples who may be considering a timeshare in the future. The presentation lasted only two hours at the resort, and after we said no, they were NOT allowed to bother us anymore. ( NEW mexico rule) The rooms are amazing, and we got upgraded to a room with a huge jacuzzi in it. If something is NOT working or not to your liking, just ask nicely and the staff will come down and help. ( I mean, anything...and if your air conditioner isnt working, or you dont have enough pillows...JUST ASK the cleaning ladies. All the staff works very hard to keep people happy, ( knowing a little spanish definetly helps) but everyone is very friendly. THere is SO much to do at this resort in terms of shows, restaurants, tennis lessons, dance lessons, spa ( entrance is free ) and its all inclusive so eat till you drop. There is never enough time to do everything so just ENJOY and don't listen to the reviews that complain about everything. Most people in the world are negative..so TRUST me on this one. Things that made our trip even better was: 1) book a taxi that will take you from the Cancun Airport to the Resort. If you dont do this, it is very easy to get scammed into another timeshare thing because outside the airport there everyone starts shouting at you whether you need a ride. I reserved a taxi ( 55 dollars) and the driver was there with my name etc. 2) a Dollar tip in Mexico is a very good one.Most people dont tip because they think everything is all inclusive, but I gurantee you get better service and these people work pretty damn hard 3) The Safe is electronic and works very well. BE sure to keep all valuables in it when you leave the room. 4) Bring mosquito repellant with the HIGHEST percentage of DEET so that no bugs will get you. Use this to spray your room on the first night ( then leave so the fumes will die down) and you will be BUG FREE. On yourself and family, use a bug spray with less DEET content because the stuff is very strong 5) Yes, they will water down the drinks, but ALL you have to do is ask them to make it stronger. A dollar down on the bar BEFORE you ask is even better.. 6) Security is top notch here but stick together with someone at night. 7) Drink bottled water, but showering is safe etc. BE careful with some of the buffet food ( and take Immodium with you just in case).

We were there last year and really enjoyed our stay. The food is good, the rooms are clean. All services were great-they aim to please!!!! It is a beautiful resort, with something for everyone. The beach is nice, but get a space early as they fill up fast. There are some areas with rocks, but it is still easy to get into the water. The pools are great. Will we go back? Sure, it is easy to be comfortable there.