Hotel Xcaret Mexico

Hotel Xcaret Mexico Review. (Long) Overall I loved it- beautiful property, impressed by food and fun activities. Phase 2 just opened 8 months ago and more than doubled the size of the resort. Will give specific breakdown. This hotel has been on my watch list for awhile. Numbers Details: 6 nights in 2 queen garden suite, family of 4 (44, 41, 12 and 8), booked via Costco Travel on Cyber Monday deal for $6900 with round trip airfare (AA main cabin extra) and private van transportation included, plus all parks, all food and drinks, lockers ect. First week of June travel. Transportation: It really wasn't much more, but we elected for private van transportation bc hate waiting for everyone else to fill a shuttle since we are carry on only folks. W2D/BXD was serviced through Costco Travel. Clean, good AC sprinter van. 45 min drive from airport to hotel. There is also a bus transport hub at the hotel that you can take to each park. Typically every 20 min or sooner. There is also a river boat shuttle to Xcaret in addition to the bus that sits in the middle of the property. The first bus to Xplor does not leave until 1040 so we just went to the lobby and paid 15 USD for a taxi. We wanted to get there before the crowds. Return to the airport was 4 hours prior to flight time, also 45 min transport via . Needed to use QR code to confirm the day prior. Hotel Property and Rooms: Beautiful. I felt like we were in Avatar. At check in we paid $420 to upgrade to river view in Case Luna bc room was ready. (we were 3 hours prior to check in). Very nice large double queen, good size balcony w hammocks, chair and bench. Large shower, tub, WC, and decent closet. Also came with a pull out loveseat and table. There are 10 different locations/buildings to stay in. Back to the property, it really was outstanding. While it's massive, you don't feel all the people bc very spread out. Takes at least 15 min to walk front to back. There are multiple pools near each building, rooftop pools, pools under buildings for shade, pools with small slides, and pools with big slides. Also pools are different depths - deepest is 4 ft, and then there are many shallow 1-2 feet pools too. Then there is a natural river with so many secret hideouts carved into the rocks. Many slides built into the hiking island, hammocks, and jumping ledges. Several areas to pick up life vests to just swim in this scenic river. Also kayaking. I just loved the lushness of all of it. Hotel Restaurants: Overall very impressed. I had trouble making reservations before we arrived so all were made on the day of arrival. That took like 30 min to make all the restaurant reservations and only park reservations was Xel Ha La Silla (reservation): we just waited 15 min for a no show since we didn't have a reservation. This is a steakhouse. Decent sirloin and ribeye. Catina has better ribeye. Costero (no reservation): Breakfast buffet - very good omelette station and ate here 3 times in mornings since right next to the room and never crowded. Smaller size. Lunch seafood buffet. I loved coconut shrimp but rest of family is no seafood and there were not other options so went to another buffet. La Xentral- largest buffet on Phase 2 side. Also right next to the bus terminal so it gets busy but never had to wait more than 2 min to be sat. Very good breakfast - omelette station, smoothie station, fruit, meats, eggs, ect. Lunch and dinner was good. They then had made-to-order quesadilla, tacos, plus all pre-made items. I'm in love w Conchita Pibil and chicken w poblano pepper Mercado de la Mercedes: large buffet on Phase 1, more intimate stations. We like food here a little better. Also made to order fajitas and tacos, extensive soup and ceviche, and made to order marquesitas. Lunch was later 1-6pm Catina de los Faroles (non-reservation a la carte): Oaxaca food. Very good ribeye, quesadilla, excellent drinks and light show at 8pm every night. There is an upstairs bar for late night. I tried crickets and ant sauce. Tequila drinks were outstanding. Chi (reservation a la carte) Probably my favorite. Best drinks - milk punch mezcal drink i still think about. Soup is great. I had lobster pasta in truffle sauce and my husband had beef tenderloin with hibiscus sauce and goat cheese. Phenomenal. There was some live dancing that came through as well. Tama-Mon (reservation, a la carte): Also top restaurant. There are 3 different types of reservations here. Regular table, sushi boat or hibachi table. all have the same appetizers - sushi, nigri, hamachi, rolls, ramen, fried rice. Regular table was then ordered like a Mongolian Grill. Monarco (reservation a la carte): Fun experience with mocktail changing colors, great ceviche, my lamb was fantastic. Hubs didn't like his tacos so he and one daughter hit up the buffet after. Las Playas (non reservation a la carter): down near the beach, burgers, lime soup, tacos, it was fine, just near the beach. This is typically what I expect most all inclusive resorts to be. Bio (non reservation breakfast and lunch only, VEGAN only): it's in a cave. I really liked the coconut ceviche, but the rest of the family did not like the no meat or real cheese options. Parks: Xel-ha: snorkeling. I am glad we brought our own goggles bc the ones provided were scratched. Water about 78 degrees but hot out so it felt good. decent fish and some manta rays. Big water side then walked around. Jumped off ledge into river, did river tubing and then zipline into water. Very fun. Options for swim w dolphins, stingray, speed boat (we did not do any extras) Xcaret: Like a mini zoo with butterfly garden, neat aviary. Fun long river swim. Kids loved the spider monkey and coati. Also note the water is like 75 degrees. Refreshing but my 8 yo w no body fat got cold and had to get out part way. Options for swim w dolphins, manatee (we did not do these) Xenses: kids loved this park, its only like a half day park. Lots of neat sensory experiences and optical illusions, also water side with waterslide, river float, mud float Xplor: my favorite and most adventure filled. Zipline (5 yo and older), 7-8 ziplines on a circuit and end with a zipline in water. My fav was the ATV. Then underwater exploration, hammock splashing and cave rafting. Besides ziplining, most is in the shade and in caves. Be prepared to get a ton of steps on park day. average 17-19k per day. The all inclusive includes the food and drinks at the park restaurants too, just not Xenses since smaller. All parks have lockers, showers. Snorkeling and towels are included. Do bring reef safe/ mineral sunscreen as they check sunscreen at parks Xplor. They will exchange if you need. There are tons of places to take pics around the hotel and the parks w your wrist room key. You can buy a photo package. It was $317 for 4 people and 4 parks w hotel. We took over 350 pics. Housekeepers were so kind and left little treats every turn down service. Most of the staff was very nice. We carried a bunch of small bill cash to leave so tips w drinks and meals. I feel like we could have done 8 nights here in order to catch more restaurants and build in more pool/lounge days. Certainly won't get bored here and it's just beautiful to explore the property. Again, impressed with the food. Hubs tips are ask for kids menu at each a la carte and each bartender for their signature drink. Packing: bring lots of swim suits and cover up or at least water shorts/tops. Will get very sweaty, wet and dirty. Need water shoes. Cute breathable outfits for dinner. Temps mid to upper 80s but felt like 100 in first week of June. We had zero rain, one cloudy day despite rain predicted every day

The best experience ever! Anallely gave us the beat service at pool side by the water slides.

Excellent exposure to variety of activities and food. Grandchildren loved multiple pools and slides. Endless food at the buffets in addition to ice cream shops and included drinks at multiple bars. Unique experience swimming through cave in underground river at Xplore. The Mexico Spectacular show was very entertaining (adults). Safe environment and extremely clean facilities including guest rooms. Drinking water and towels everywhere. Bus transportation to parks and airport were always on time and comfortable.

Was absolutely disgusted with the 'free' 90min timeshare presentation. We went originally because we had wanted to buy a package to stay at the resort that included access to the parks, and despite repeating that many times, were repeatedly offered a timeshare that went up to 100k USD and then down to 22USD as we repeatedly said no. We lost over 4 horus of our holiday, went through 8 different sales reps, and at one pointe one of the sales reps got quite aggressive and tried to guilt trip us into buying, saying that 'we clearly just came for a free breakfast', that 'he was only trying to do his job', and that 'our minds were already made up'. Several times we tried to leave and they kept saying that the buggy (the room where we were was really far from the entrance) hadn't come yet. It was only after I stood up and started getting angry did they then finally take us to a long quee to get out 500mxn deposit and taxi back. The experience was so traumatic that it put us off even ever visiting Xcaret, something that I had been really excited to do since I love theme parks. Absolutely disgusting behaviour, and it is a complete scam designed to trap people into debt. NOT worth the free breakfast, or free anything. Get out of there.

Anallely at the toboganes pool was amazing for poolside service! We had such a wonderful and relaxing trip. We did two days at the parks, but my favorite day was spent relaxing by the pool sipping on my favorite drinks and new drinks I’ve never tried! I got tanned and treated like royalty!