Caracol Village
We stayed at the all-inclusive Caracol Village Resort located about 4km north
of Playa del Carmen. It is difficult to rate
the resort overall objectively, since we've never stayed anywhere else, whether
in the Mayan Riviera or elsewhere. In general however, we enjoyed our stay.
The strong points were the pool, the friendly staff's nightly entertainment,
the free shuttle into town, and the abundant friends we made who joined us from
Ottawa. The weak points were the beach, being understaffed and the a la carte
restaurants. The buffet restaurant was a strong and weak point.
Although the resort was rated as 4 star, some of the deficiencies made it more
like a 3 star. It was a decent deal at the discount rate we paid, but would
have been disappointing at the 60% higher rack rate.
All-Inclusive
For those unfamiliar with the all-inclusive concept, it typically means
that all food and drinks and many activities are included with the hotel
stay. This means that while at the resort, you never have to carry a wallet.
As well, the extra cost of food during the trip (zero) is known ahead
of time. These two advantages are the principal reasons for going all-inclusive.
The worth of this approach depends upon a number of factors. First, food
is not cheap in most of the places we visited in the Mayan Riviera. Our
restaurant costs would have been the same as the all-inclusive hotel and
food. So, unless you're planning on staying somewhere different every
night of the week, or don't care about money, all-inclusive is the way
to go at a resort in this area. The downside is that the food and drinks
may be sub-par.
Food and Restaurants
Caracol Village has 4 restaurants - 1 buffet and 3 a la carte that must
be reserved in advance. You can only visit the a la carte restaurants
once during the stay. We weren't able to visit them at all because they
were all booked up by the time we got to making reservations.
As for the buffet restaurant, 'La Laguna', it was hit and miss. Initially
impressed, Ross discovered a large piece of plastic packaging in a taco
mid-way through the week. While the variety at the buffet restaurant was
good, and it had a weekly rotation so that the same theme didn't occur
twice during our stay, it was easy to get bored of the food by the end
of the week. Having said that, some of the theme nights were pretty good.
Other Points
The nightly entertainment was generally pretty good. The day-time activities
staff would usually perform skits or lip sync Broadway musicals fairly
well.
The beach was rocky underwater and a real disappointment. Fortunately,
better beaches were only a few minutes walk away.
During the last 2 days of the week when we stayed on the resort, a bevy
of activities were available to keep us occupied, including water polo,
volleyball and kayaking.
All in all, we enjoyed ourselves, and liked the resort, but if you're
expecting a really classy resort, look elsewhere.
