We stayed at the Presidente for the second week of our honeymoon from the end of January to the beginning of February 2008. We had just come from a wonderful, relaxing week at a great hotel on Isla Mujeres and had high expectations for the Presidente based on the reviews that we read on Trip Advisor. There were some nice aspects of the hotel, but also some disappointments. I would not go back.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were given a beautiful room located right on the beach. We were thrilled, except when we stepped into the room, it smelled very strongly of mildew and was damp. I am very used to traveling in hot and humid locales having family from Central America and spending time in Africa and have never encountered this problem at a hotel. We tried to stick it out, but after several hours in the room, we were both sneezing and did not like the damp feeling of our sheets. We asked to change rooms and our request was granted without a problem. The second room was on the complete other side of the hotel. It was slightly better, but still smelled musty and was damp. We decided to just deal with it, but it was definitely annoying enough that we tried to spend as little time as possible in our room.

The beach was definitely the best part of the hotel. The beach area is huge with great snorkeling. It was great to be able to walk out of our rooms and directly onto the beach. The pool was nice enough. Pool and beachside service was not always consistent.

Beware of the annoying lady in the lobby who invites you to a free breakfast supposedly for the year anniversary of the hotel being open since Hurricane Wilma. She is really trying to recruit for a timeshare event. I did not really want to be in the lobby because I knew that she was going to start talking to me. My husband and I were annoyed that a 500 dollar a night hotel has someone bothering guests and peddling timeshares, but pretending not to be.

The hotel has a lot of extra added taxes. I read that these are taxes that are mandated by the government, but you should know that they will add around 100 dollars to your per night charge. We booked through the hotel. They quoted us a rate in US dollars. While we were there, our rate increased which the staff stated was explained by the fluctuating exchange rate between the dollar and the peso. This seemed strange. We felt as if we should have been locked into one rate and in pesos. I wonder if we would have had a dramatically lower rate if the peso suddenly lost value. I do not think that they would have lowered our room rate to accomodate the change between the peso and the dollar.

All the extra costs (cover charge at the restaurant and bars, raise in room rate depending on peso to dollar exchange rate) made us feel as if we were being a little bit taken. I don't mind spending money for a nice hotel room and I expect things to be expensive at this kind of resort. But, at the Presidente, it definitely seemed excessive for the product. At the restaurant, you are charged a cover rate of a dollar or two, even at the beach bar. The hotel does not seem to provide this service charge to their staff as they all expected tips.

We mostly ate dinner in town. We went several nights to a great Mexican restaurant La Choza. We also ate a HUGE lobster at La Casa del Pescador (Lobster House) which is a must if you are visiting the island. The enormous lobster dinner was around 80 dollars with tip. In the US, this would have been a dinner over 200 dollars. Another highlight was taking a snorkeling trip through Studio Blue diving shop located in town and across from La Choza restaurant. The diving shop's owner, Miguel, is friendly and helpful. We went on a four hour snorkel tour to three different reefs. It was really fun and we saw lots of fish. We also went to Chankanaab National Park for sunbathing and snorkeling. This was fun too, but arrive early because there are lots of cruise ship people in the afternoon.

So, I would definitely return to Cozumel, but I just did not feel that our stay at the Presidente was worth 500 dollars a night.