Chuan C.
Yelp
This hotel resort is near the north end of the Hotel Zone. It is mainly a vacation ownership property, with 80% of the guests being owners; we are not owners.
There are studio and 1-bedroom rooms, which they call villas with full kitchens and washer/dryer. There are 3 huge pools and 4 large hot tubs. There are 3 restaurants; the main one opens for breakfast and dinner while the other two opens 11am to 6pm. There is a spa and two 24-hour gym.
The staff throughout the resort and courteous and have service with a smile.
Check-in was very quick in the main building (building 5). They have a person handling your luggage from transport to room. They have many people at the check-in desk. We were assigned room 252, a 1-bedroom villa, capable of 4 people. This room also has a door connecting to the adjoining room. After check-in, they will inform the person to bring the luggage to your room. You will be introduced to your person concierge; ours is Daniel. He gave us info about the resort and some gifts: a beach bag, a grocery bag, and two drink tickets, either for Starbucks Americano and an alcoholic/non-alcoholic drink at the sports bar. There is free WiFi throughout the compound, including the beach area. There is even an ethernet cable in each villa; it is useful if your laptop has an ethernet port; have a port extender with
There are 14 8-storey buildings. They are connected by semi-covered hallways along the outward facing side. All villas are facing a beautiful compound with views of the ocean. All villas have balconies with a table and chairs except the ground floor villas. Every building has 2 large elevators that are quiet that you won't even notice that the doors open/close if you are not watching.
Our one-bedroom villa was reasonably large. We had a nice view of the main compound and the beach. The room was clean. There was a full kitchen, which included a full-size fridge-freezer, microwave, toaster, blender, plates, glassware, cutlery, dishwashing soap, etc. There is a rectangular dining table with 6 chairs.
The bathroom is huge with a double sink, shower, and a huge soaker tub, which sliding windows looking into the main bedroom. There are separate fronted glass doors for the shower and toilet "alcoves." The shower is a large space and has a rainfall shower head. A strange thing is that the closet and security safe are located inside the bathroom; hopefully, you don't steam up your bathroom too much!
The living room had a large pullout couch, which sleeps 2. There are convenient AC and USB ports built into the couch, but they don't work. There are enough AC plugs throughout the villa.
Our room had 2 TVs and 2 Blu-Ray players. The living room TV also had a sound bar and plugs in the front for USB and HDMI inputs. 90% of the TV channels are in Spanish; press the SAP button for English.
The scheduled cleaning would be on Dec 25; I only requested to clean the bathroom and kitchen, and she did a good job.
There are scheduled activities throughout the day and special dinners (like Christmas and Mexican Fiesta) at the main restaurant. See my photos for examples of activities, like salsa dance lessons, in which we participated.
There are 2 main infinity pools, a large water slide, a toddler wading pool, and several (very hot) large whirlpools. The main pool temperature was warm, exactly how I like it.
You can sign for beach towels and maybe snorkel masks for free. You can reserve suntanning chairs as long as you spread a towel on it. Even if you are late, you can still find some unreserved chairs in the pool areas and definitely in the beach area.
The beach is clean, with gray sand. There was very little seaweed problem in Dec; there was a huge problem during the summer, making the beach almost unswimmable and unsightly. There is a tractor that smoothens the sand at non-peak times like at 6am.
The Kid's Club has a charge: hourly, half day, full day, etc. There are 2 big rooms separating the children by age.
Mini golf is free. Pick up golf clubs from the Kid's Club or towel service. There are other games like tennis, table tennis, big chess set, etc. My son and I played chess (he has been studying and playing chess against the computer) for 2 months. We played mini golf and table tennis.
Oceano Restaurante, has breakfast buffet ($420 pesos = C$30) and a-la-carte dining options. It is open for lunch and dinner.
Nothing is free, not including bottles of water. However, if you go to the business centre and gym, you can get water there to refill your bottles. You can also find free tea, coffee and water in the owner's lounge.
There are 4 BBQ areas with 3 BBQ stations each for residents to use. There are also 2 tables in each area.
There is a small day spa and two gyms. The gym at building 5 is large. There are a few spots throughout the property where they can give you a massage on the spot.
Review 2022-142