Sandos Playacar Beach Resort and Spa - All Inclusive - Playa del Carmen

- Don't expect to do any work -Internet is expensive and lousy! - Don't expect front desk people to be polite, they have not been hired or trained properly. - Don't expect to eat healthy or tasty food, you get what you pay for. - Don't expect to relax, loudspeakers everywhere will prevent you from doing so, as will the myriad vendors (within the hotel!) peddling stuff at every step of your way. - Don't expect extra services to be priced fairly, they're extremely overpriced (parasailing for two: $140!).

I suppose it could have been better, but we didn't pay top dollar. Then again, we never felt like we should have paid more to get more - hence the five-star rating. We stayed at Sandos Playacar on a six-night trip. I personally thought we spent way too much time on side trips (Tulum, Chichen Itza, Xcaret). We tried all the restaurants except Brazilian. I strongly recommend the Steakhouse and La Gourmet (French - Adults Only) and would avoid Mexican. Wasn't too hard to get reservations; just need to plan ahead. Can't say enough about the service. These folks are genuinely interested in providing the best experience - hard to spot a fake smile or a sign of frustration (we tried our best with four pre-teen boys with picky eating habits and preferences). We would like to go back; would like to spend more time "doing nothing".

We had a wonderful stay at Sandos Playacar. The staff was so nice and friendly and the service was excellent. Very clean! Overall great experience.

Upon arrival, we were assigned a junior suite room in the "new" part of the resort. The problem was the "new part" is so far away to walk. Shuttle service was slow. We requested to move to a new room and were given a poolside room, which was much, much better. Accommodations were clean, but small. Location was very convenient. Food was average, but plentiful. Burgers at the beachside grill are great! Service was good. Overall, a very fun, safe place for a family vacation.

Thomasso the concierge, made our trip. He upgraded us to select because it was our second time at the resort. Our room had a view of the ocean and was about 200 yards from the beach and pool. Great quick vacation. Everything went perfect.

We had a great time at Sandos. The service at the front desk was a bit slow. The entertainment staff were wonderful. They went out of the way to make sure that guests were having a good time. The food is definitely mediocre at best, and the ala carte restaurants were not all open during our stay, which was disappointing. Overall, it was a fun vacation and we would go back.

We spend one week as couple had great time and good vacation.Strongly recommended .

Me and my fiance need to get out of new york and decided to go visit playa del carmen for the first time. Just by chance a friend of mine suggested we stay at Sandos All inclusive. I did some research and found out that there are 3 different Sandos Hotels in Riviera Maya: Sandos PlayaCar, Sandos, Eco resort, and Sandos Caracol. Well thank goodness I read a review recommending Sandos Playacar out of all of them because Playacar happens to be the newest Hotel out of the three and it was amazing! We had such a great time and the food was delicious. There was not one day we were disappointed by the food. And we are foodies so we love food. We chose to stay in the Junior suite with jacuzzi. The room was spotless and kept that way for the 8 days we were there. We also had a new owel animal" everyday surprising us when we got back to the room. The AC never failed, we actually ahd to turn it off a couple of times because it was so cold. Also the staff were so friendly. [...] we received a letter upon arrival personally signed by the general manager welcoming us to the hotel. They also gave us $40 to use in their spa for whatever we wanted. The night before we left they surprised us with a chapagne bottle and chocolate covered strawberries in our room Complimentary! We were taken back because it was so unexpected. So back to the food, the best place to eat is the Festival buffet. They have the most variety.They have a wide variety of fresh squeezed fruit juices, at dinner you will find lots of seafood, fresh shrimp, calamari, and fish. The food was just yummy. The pool is alot of fun and every night they have tons of activities and performers to keep you busy until about 12am then after that the party continues in their disco (if you're up for it). During the day i highly suggest you rent their bikes and take the 10 min ride into playa del carmen (5th avenue) for some sightseeing, people watching, and great shopping. There are tons of restuarants and things to see down there. The resort lies in a secure location because it's located inside of a gated communtiy. There are residentail houses (very beautiful) and other hotels that are located in the community of Playacar. But it's safe enough to walk around because there are only 2 entry points into the community and both with security guards 24 hrs. I felt safe and enjoyed my stay there. I was never bored and if you have kids they won't get bored either because they have a kdis activity lounge stocked with ping pong tables, fooseball tables, jenga, a couple of nintendo Wii,pool tables I mean I was impressed. Hope this review helps because I just picked this hotel on a whim and was grateful when it turned out to be so good. Oh another note, the specialty restaurants are so good. We ate at the Asian place, the Gaucho steakhouse, and the french restaurant. The best one we thought was the steak restaurant. All of them had yummy food but we love steak so we particularly enjoyed the milanesa at the Gaucho.

All inclusive. Kid's club was lacking...kids complained of being bored. But there were lots of things for us to do as a family.