Occidental Grand Xcaret Resort Playa del Carmen Mexico. Best Hotel Deals & Reviews

Date of Stay: July, 2009

This is a great choice if you plan to spend a lot of time at the resort. It is spread out and there is decent amount of activities to do while you are there. The nightly entertainment was fun and I would rate a 7 out of 10. Each night there is a different show. There are lots of different animals on site such as flamingos, monkeys, macaws, turtles, and fish. There is also a small Mayan ruins site on location as well. Since the resort is so large they offer shuttle service throughout the day to get you from your room to dinner etc. Don't pay extra for nightly turn down service if offered because we payed $19 a night extra and they do it anyway. The Xcaret park is included with purchase through orbitz, however, most activities inside the park cost extra. Swimming with the dolphins at the park costs extra but was the best dolphin program that i have seen. You are in the water for almost an hour and you even get a foot push from two dolphins that push on your feet and propel you through the water.

Date of Stay: April, 2009

I want to preface this that this was only a two night stay. The Hotel grounds are spectacular. Excaret is beautiful in every way. The problems we had was our Concierge. He missed booked our only night at a reservation only restaurant. It took over 45 min just to get this resolved and by that time we had lost our appitite and mood for the Dry overdone food we received At the La Hacienda (note: if you only stay 2 nights they limit you to one reservation). 2nd the Hospitality clerk, was never on time. We waited for her on both days just to get our departure travel back to the airport for a total of 1 1/2 hours.only to find out we just had to drop off our departure slip. This is not counting the Phone time.The Olympus tour guide had intially told us we needed the signed voucher. The Massage , nestled above the lagoon was Fabulous. ( a little on the expensive side). The Food at the Lagoon was much better with better servers and staff. The Buffet area had a good variety of food. Lunch/breakfast The Bars at the pool and Lagoon closed early.. We are rather night owls. When checking in, please make sure they have the right bed for you. They did offer to get us a king but would put us on a wating list.( we had two twin beds, and waiting list for a two day trip would not work. They did put the beds together. The complimentary admission to the Park Xcaret was outstanding., Again their grounds are beautiful, staff pleasant. Overall, the Hotel is beautiful but because we only had two days to stay, the extra time waiting took away from the overall ambiance. Return trip yes with more time?

Date of Stay: July, 2008

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at this resort and at the adjacent park! There is lots of room so you never feel crowded. We only ate at the buffet because the food was excellend and plenty to choose from. You can go snorkeling right at the beach in the resort or hang out at the pool if you don't like the salt water. The beds were a little uncomfortable, but we didn't sleep much anyways. According to out 13-year old son the teen club "sucks", but he still had a blast at the beach. Thanks to other traveller's reviews we were able to successfully avoid time share people. They call it "membership", but it comes out to the same. Tip your maid a dollar every day and your fridge will be full all the time. Hotel transfer is cheaper if you don't book it with your package. We used entertainment plus and paid * for 3 people (round trip).

	Date of Stay: July, 2009
It is very nice location,great pools,food. We are enjoyed to stay there. But only made us sad is waisting time with receptions. Look like they don't know anything. If you ask them a question,they are trying to sent you to someone alse.

Date of Stay: March, 2009

Nice resort, nice location next to Xcaret park, but if you going for the beach then forget about it, the place has no beach, it has a man made lagoon (more like a swiming pool) The staff are not friendly at all, it took them 2-3 hours to check us in with no apology. The rooms are small, our rooms had no views what so ever (facing other rooms) which was a huge disappointment. The buffet is good for 1-2 days but then it gets old ( no change) They tell you that you need to make resevation in the non buffet restaurants,but then you find out that there is no spots, and when you finally get a spot the restaurant is half empty. After 3 days of staying there they had an offer to transfer us to Allegro resort in Cozumel island, since we wanted the beach we took that offer (they covered the transportation expenses) they promised that it is same scale as the Occidental, of coarse it was not, but that's another review

Date of Stay: July, 2008

My husband and I loved the Occidental Grand Flamenco Xcaret Resort! We got in late (about 10pm) but our first impression even at night was of a beautiful and friendly resort. We had rented a car and drove straight up to the lobby. A valet/doorman quickly came and welcomed us to the resort. He brought our luggage and our car keys to our room for us. The front desk person was great as well - he gave us an overview and exchanged some money to pesos for us. The next morning, we checked out the whole resort and the property is pretty amazing. Everything is well-maintained, clean, and luscious with fish, parrots, deer, monkeys, flamingos, etc. scattered on the property. There are 5 pools with something for everyone like the pool with the swim-up bar, or the romantic pool, or the lively activity dance-club pool, etc. We always got chairs at the pool - and there is plenty of sun or shade chairs. I liked that you can bring the chairs in the water so you stay cool. Also, one of the best features of the resort is that you can go one day for free to the Xcaret Park next door. This was an incredible experience not to be missed. There is a concierge-type person in each building who can help you with dinner reservations. We went to three specialty restuarants and the "D'Oriental" was definitely the best. But men need to bring long pants to eat in them. You can take a shuttle to different places on the property, and we liked that there is a private and secluded beach. You can see a nightly show which was always of superior quality, and there are activities all the time if you want to keep busy. Staff is friendly!

Date of Stay: June, 2009

We checked in at 230pm. After calling the front desk 4 times (each time told it would be taken care of) we managed to get our room cleaned. They checked us into a room that was not clean (dishes in the bathroom sink, bed undone, bugs on the floor, full of mosquitoes). Room service finally came and we began out vacation. Due to the recent flu outbreak, they had over 100 vacancies. Thus, they cut staff and service. We tried to reserve a dinner any of the 3 nights we were there and were told they were full. Very disappointing. Buffet every night was not bad, but got old. We decided to go into town our last night for dinner. Again, not desirable when you pay for an all-inclusive resort. Lets talk about the anemeties. The beds are not comfortable. You might as well sleep on the floor they are so hard. Make sure you run the shower and sink to get rid of the yellow water in the pipes. Bring bug spray, the rooms and properties are stocked with them. Again, since the hotel is not staffed accordingly, expect to wait for your drinks, menu, or anything else. They are doing their best.

Date of Stay: February, 2009

The resort was beautiful. Very secluded. Very relaxing. The food was very good. We have stayed at all inclusives before and found the food to leave much to be desired. Service was excellent. They are rather pushy at wanting you to go to their presentations for membership. They usually have a show or some activity going on in the evenings if you want to participate. You can find the same shops at the resort as are at Playa De Carmen and at the same price or cheaper.

Date of Stay: July, 2008

This resort was so beautiful and clean. We were very happy with everything. We actually loved the man made beach. The breakers kept the rough waves out but the fish in. Lots of places to lounge, hammocks, hanging beds. We spent alot of time there. Liked it alot more than the pool, which is pretty but very warm. Even liked the buffets. The dinner at the steak house was the best though and a nice change. Real drinks too, not watered down at all. We should have told the concierge at our building "no" right off the bat about the 90 minute sales pitch. Started to hope she wasn't there when we went to our room just so we wouldn't be bugged about it. Loved the Xcaret park, could have spent way more time there. It was nice to leave and come have lunch and drinks at the resort and then go back to the park. Olympus (airport shuttlle) did bug us too about coming to arrange our trip back "immediately"-total scam to book more trips-we finally went to chat with them when we wanted to check out some trips to Tulum anyway. We booked a catamaran that sailed up the coast and took us to the ruins. Very nice, but would have liked more time to explore the ruins. Olympus totally screwed us on the airport trip back, left our name off the driver's list. They got another driver to pick us up an hour later, but it was a little stressful thinking we were not going to make our plane. But we loved this resort. The grounds were so well kept and the critters running around was neat (iguanas everywhere by the way-no one mentioned that). The room/bed and staff were great as well. Would stay again.

Date of Stay: June, 2009

This resort is amazing. The food, the ambience, the staff, and the nature were just what I was looking for in a quick weekend getaway. The resort is settled within a beautiful natural setting with animals running about. Though many people were on site, there was always a space to be alone and peaceful. I will definitely be returning to this hotel. I would add that a larger beach space with direct access to the sea would be better. At this resort, the beach area is a cove with no crashing waves, etc. But still a great beach.

Date of Stay: February, 2009

The resort is beautiful and most of the staff were very friendly. The pool staff/activity staff were outstanding. They made the entire trip very enjoyable (especially Christian). The hotel had over-booked 60 rooms and were sending guests to neighbouring resorts. They were not able to accommodate our request for a room with a king bed on a floor above the ground level. They said that there were 40 other guests ahead of us on the waiting list for room changes. The double beds were too small to sleep two comfortably, so we each took our own bed (not very romantic). Additionally, the beds were VERY hard. It felt like we were sleeping on the box spring. Other guests all made similar comments. The food was not what we were expecting. We were told that the food here was great. I at least expected decent Mexican food, but tacos and other mexican food wasn't that good. The buffets were 'okay', but not great. I have a seafood allergy, and many of the seafood dishes are placed right beside other dishes and share spoons and tongs. Everyone we spoke to agrees with what some other reviewers have said, that the hotel requires reservations for the a-la-carte restaurants, but when you go to make a reservation, there are barely any tables left, or they are completely booked, but when you get to a restaurant, it's empty. The restaurants were all empty on each occassion that we visited them. We found a large cockroach in our room on the last night, but the front desk insisted that this is typical for this part of the world. Thankfully they moved us to a new room. Pools, drinks, and most service staff were wonderful though. Nice resort overall, but could use new management.

Date of Stay: July, 2008

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our vacation. It was myself, my wife and our 3 teenagers (13-15yrs). The kids loved every bit of it. It was hard to get them out of the pool or off of the beach to do anything else. My wife and I do have a few issues. One is the service at the restaurants was not great. We had a few good experiences, but overall the wait staff smiled very rarely and seemed bothered to help you (we tipped plenty). The food however was good and we did not have a hard time finding things we liked. Another issue was there were no bars where our room was that was open past 6pm. The resort is very spread out and the only open bars were at the main area where the restaurants and shops were. Also, getting snorkeling gear was a challenge since the supply was small and the place that checked it out was only open until 3 or 3:30pm. Finally, don't expect a room with a view of the ocean. On a positive note, the resort was beautiful. We were not bored at any time. The food there was good. We especially enjoyed the beef fajitas at Paco's Tacos. Since the resort is part of the national park, there was wildlife around, which we all enjoyed. The pools were awesome and the lagoon was beautiful. We liked how spread out the resort was, because we enjoy walking and the walkways were very scenic. We did attend the sales presentation for the timeshares, but we did not buy, we just kept saying no and received free t-shirts, hats, blankets, etc. If you are not good at saying no, do not agree to attend one and beware they will make it look innocent.

	Date of Stay: June, 2009
The hotel was nice. It was a 10 miles outside of Playa del Carmen so it became expensive and a little old taking a taxi there and back. The food was ok at the "reservation only" restaurants. The best one we ate at was the steakhouse. Paco's Tacos was delicious and the buffet was really good too. The breakfast out by the beach was the best.

Date of Stay: February, 2009

I have just returned from Xcaret (02/20/08 - 03/02/08) and I have to say I enjoyed it immensly. The room was nice and the mini bar was stocked daily. The grounds were lovely although it is a 5min walk to the beach from the main complex (2-3min to the pools). The beach is in a cove but saying that there is plenty of room to swim. The only complaint is about the food - sometime it can be a bit bland but around 40-50% is varied day to day. This is the only reason why it gets 4 stars. If you make reservations - ONLY got to sonora grill (amazing steak) and Olivos - the Mexican place is crap. The bars are very good - make sure to ask for cocktails with topshelf liquers. We did not get hit with timeshare presentations - just walk past the concierge and say Hi and keep walking. Hints Note that this is a pepsi joint - Coke can be found at the tobacconist. Always have breakfast and lunch at the beach - the buffett seemed to be better Make sure to take lunch rolls outside to feed the fish in the ocean - a must do. It is a great base to use for driving - can be safely driven to from Cancun international airport AT NIGHT as 309 is a great road UNTIL the road works about 20k south. Tulum and Koba are within easy distance , but Chitchen ITZA requires you almost to get to the airport before you reach the highway inland. Overall I rate it a 4 the fundamentals are there but occasionally food lacks taste.

Date of Stay: July, 2008

Great property, great service, above average food. Plenty of options for vegetarians, which is not typical of all inclusives. The hotel does not have a real beach but has an inlet with ocean water that will work for kids (there are also several pools). For adults, I suggest heading to the adult pool near the ocean. The beds are not comfortable, but other than that the facilities are very good for the price. The free ticket to Xcaret is a definite plus.

Date of Stay: June, 2009

This place was just enourmous and beautiful! It was full of so many scenic spots. It had two mayan ruins, the beach club provided a gorgeous view of the open ocean. Super clean hotel and staff was very friendly and always willing to help make ur stay more enjoyable. The breakfast buffet was great! Had a lot of variety. The main pool has a swim up bar and definitely the happening spot during the day. We were there every day for at least 3 hours. All in all, just a wonderful stay and I would definitely go back.

Date of Stay: February, 2009

Just returned 2-25-09. The place was great. We wanted a king bed and they upgraded us to the royal club and got a king bed in a suite. Xcaret was amazing, which we had more time to spend there, as one day is not enough. Rooms were very clean as well as the rest of the resort. Had plenty of shuttles to get around resort. Food was fair to good. Did not care for pacos tacos. Staff was great and went out of their way to make sure we had a good time. The one thing I would change is to be able to pick bed size for your room. The last two days we had to change from our king suite to two double beds in the royal club. My wife and I slept in seperate beds for those two nights, not very romantic, but the rest of the time was exellent.

Date of Stay: June, 2009

We stayed here for the weekend, the Mexican President was visiting the same weekend so we had some extra security controls to go through. Staff were great, food was wonderful, there were two main pools and we stayed at the quieter one. The other was bigger and had all the activities plus music. We were shown to our room and given instructions about putting the room key in a slot to turn on electricity and where the restaurants were, after that we were pretty much on our own. Room was nice, not luxurious, air conditioning was definitely a plus, fridge in the room with drinks appeared to be included in the price. It was nice to see the wildlife, Mayan ruins, jungle and ocean, it made this Xcaret paradise all the more appealing.

Date of Stay: February, 2009

My husband and I went to the occidental grand xcaret from feb 13-feb19 2009. It was excellent. Some tips for you that we didn't know. If you want a tie bed, go early in the morning to reserve one put your towels on it some water a magazine whatever, they are free but everyone wants these tie beds so if you really want to spend a whole day on the tie bed, go early! Reservations for the nicer restaurants depends on your stay. If you only stay 6 nights you only get 3 reservations any restaurant unless they are booked, and please do this as soon as you get checked in. Then you can get the reservation time you want and the restaurant you want. The restaurants we weren't too fond of and the food is just average. They have theme nights at the buffet like asian night, mexican night, western night etc. Shows are every night they are okay. There are a lot of shops in the hotel area which we didn't know. Everybody that works there is nice, great service, clean, and watch out for the iguanas! they are everywhere! Will definetly go again!

Date of Stay: May, 2009

I travel a lot and I might have to say this trip was one of the best starting from my arrival to my departure. When my friend and I arrived at Cancun airport on the April 1st, we were greeted by our transportation rep. He was friendly, funny and very attentive. Upon arrival at the hotel, my friend and I were amazed at how beautiful the view was. It was simply amazing. We arrived early so our room was not ready; we were lead towards the buffet area. The wonderful smell of all the different foods hit us before we even entered the area. They had a wide range of food to choose from. Whatever you wanted they had. After eating, we were greeted by guest services who gave us a welcome gift and told us about some attractions we should check out. We continued exploring the premises and out of nowhere a few deers appears. Then we came up on some Mayan Ruins. We were shocked that there were ruins on the premises. Not just one but about six of them. There was one spot in particular that blew our minds, the big ruin overlooking the ocean. Having the wind blowing in our hair and seeing the waves crashing against the rocks was breathtaking. The ecological path was out of site. There were Flamingos, monkeys, deers, Limas on the premises. Where else can you find all of that on a resort for such a reasonable price? The night time shows were great, just like the one at Occidental Grand Punta Cana. One could tell that the performers enjoyed what they were doing. One of best perks of going to Occidental was the free pass to Xcaret park. We didnt have the leave the resort to get there; it was connected to the resort by a watered path. Let me tell you, it is a lovely place to visit. The animals, the show (Mayan Extravaganza), and the activities were awesome. My friend and I were surrounded by butterflies while walking through the butterfly path and snorkel in the underground cave for only $10 U.S. dollars (great price). Being that we were staying at Occidental we had the luxury of goin

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See 29 Photos	User Rating 4.0 out of 5 See 70 reviews Occidental Grand Xcaret Resort Playa del Carmen [] Carretera Fed. 307 Desde Chetumal A Puerto Juarez.Km. 381. Predio Canakicuik Playa del Carmen, Mexico
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Occidental Grand Xcaret Resort Playa del Carmen

Rating out of 5