Occidental at Xcaret Destination

We just returned from a weeklong birthday celebration at the Occidental at Xcaret. This hotel exceeded our expectations in so many ways. The food at all the a la carte restaurants we tried were fantastic. The Seafood and Italian were exceptionally good! The pools were huge and meandered all through the grounds. No rooms were far from a pool. The beach was incredible too. We ate breakfast everyday at the oceanfront buffet, and then found beach front chairs. Be warned though, you do need to arrive early to reserve chairs. There is really great snorkeling to the right of the adult pool, but this is only available if conditions permit. Great beachside drink service! Shout out to Consuela and the excellent drink replenishment! As many others have pointed out, the wildlife is plentiful here! Iguanas and monkeys everywhere! Overall, thoroughly enjoyed our stay here, and cannot wait to return!

We had an amazing stay at Occidental at Xcaret. The staff were friendly. The food was great. It was a great vacation for our family. Would highly recommend this resort for everyone wanting to be centrally located but somewhat isolated in Playa del Carmen

We traveled as a family of 6 - 2 parents and 4 kids all adults except 1 who was 17. We stayed in bldg 18 and the kids were in building 19. The PROS of this place are the beautiful grounds, the wildlife, the ruins you can find on the grounds, the ground and cleaning staff, the beach and adults only portion of the beachfront, its proximity to Xcaret and the cleanliness of the rooms. The CONS that we noticed were the food, the towels for cards exchange program, the front desk staff, the constant attempts to do the time share option, the information regarding entertainment. To expand, the one problem we experienced and witnessed that needs to be addressed immediately is the food issues. From our group of 6, 5 of us got sick which we can only surmise was a food issue. The kids all bounced back within 24 hours, but I got it near the end of the trip and had it for 3 straight days. And while we were there we talked to other families that were experiencing the same and most trips to the bathroom typically meant you were hearing someone in 1 of the bathroom stalls not doing so good. I know we were not isolated in this, so if enough people write in about their experience I hope they realize they have a problem. Which they should do because they have one of the most beautiful resorts we have been to. The walking required to get from our bldg to the beach was welcome by us. We got plenty of steps in to burn off calories, but if it would have been too much they have plenty of ground transport to take you around. The front desk staff were not helpful and not a pleasure to deal with as opposed to some of the amazing waiting staff and grounds workers. All happily greeting you. We really enjoyed going for drinks with Eduardo as our waiter. He was excellent at his job. The other disappointment was never knowing what was happening each evening for entertainment. It would be as simple as having a tv channel that advertises what is happening, or slipping under our door the activities, the locations and times of events going on. We had no idea at all what was happening, where it was happening and when. When we did ask our personal concierge desk at our bldg they gave us some itinerary which contradicted another we received from someone else. That was disappointing. Overall the kids said they had a good time for their first experience in Mexico, but for mom and dad, we have been to 5 other adult only resorts in the past, and we would not make this resort a priority based on our other experiences. Getting as sick as we did will likely leave a bad taste (literally) that will be hard to forget.