Just spent seven days at the El Coz and sad to say we were not all that pleased. I emailed Pedro Armin two weeks prior, and followed up with a phone conversation with him one week prior to our arrival. He assured me that a room with two beds on the sixth floor was reserved for us. When we arrived we were told we were on the second floor. After some discussion we were sent to a room on the sixth floor with a king size bed.
At this point I'll add that we were three females and I had been very specific about the number of beds needed. My daughter and her daughter were travelling with me and though I love them dearly, I didn't plan on sleeping with them for a week! So we slept together the first night and were moved to the correct room the second day. I didn't detect one iota of remorse from anyone we spoke with and we really kept our nice hats on through the entire thing.
Finally in the right room, we discovered that unless we kept the room at subzero tempature the floor sweat and water stood on the floor. My grand daughter felt on the slick floor twice, The beds are hard as bricks and the pillows were rocks. One pillow smelled of mildew, everything was damp.
Breakfast was the best meal of the day. The rest of the time the food left a lot to be desired. The Veranda was reservation only and we gave up on the quality of their food after the second try. We actually stayed at an AI and took a cab offsite to eat or ordered pizza.
The pool tile is broken in both pools and at least two people we know of cut their feet on the jagged edges, including my daughter.
The entertainment just wasn't.
About now you think the seven days was all bad...it wasn't. The wait staff and maids were outstanding. Very nice, friendly and willing to help in any way. We tipped good but we got good service. They earned it.
The water in front is awesome and full of fish to see. The guys in the buffet will give you bread to feed them.
The highlight of the week was Fernando with the Mantaraya Snorkeling Tour. He gives first rate tours, gets in the water with you and leads the way making sure you don't miss a thing. Don't snorkel with the big boats go with Fernando... he takes only eight at a time.
Would we go back.. no. Sorry, we've been to better AI's.

El Cozumeleno is exactly what is advertised, a great family-oriented hotel. My wife and I took our 5 year old son and my mother on a 5 day vacation. We had a fabulous time. The only bad part was that they had lost the reservation for one of our two rooms. However, since I had a print out of the reservation, they honored the price and had a room available.

The restaurant had very good food, although it was a little bothersome that you had to get up early to make a reservation each day. You cannot make a reservation for the following day, and they filled up quick, since they are the only restaurant (besides the buffet) at the hotel. The buffet was pretty good, but not great. The food gets old when it is the same thing over and over.

We participated in most of the activities, including miniature golf, renting waverunners, scuba diving, snorkeling, etc... They were all fun; no problems. Scuba diving at the Palancar reef was phenomenal; multiple nurse sharks, turtles, many fish.

If you are into shopping, it wasn't bad, but not great. The best deal that we got was from one of the small carts set up on the beach on the east side of the island. The stores in town have the price jacked up with the assumption that you will haggle for a better price. I purchased an abalone mask for $20 at this cart. In town they were $50.

Finally, don't bother converting USD to pesos. Most places gave prices in USD and would convert to pesos (if you had them) at a "less than favorable" exchange.

We loved our trip to Cozumel and El Comumeleno.
I have read every trip report for nearly the last year and thank everyone who has contributed. Your tips and comments, good and bad have been very helpful.
My husband, 15 year old daughter, 12 year old son along with my in-laws made this trip with me the first week of May 2008.
At the airport, we walked past all the timeshare people and van drivers who I might add were very persistant. We took a left out to the line up of taxi drivers slightly off the airport drive and got a van for the 6 of us for 1/2 the price of the transport.
ARRIVAL: We weer greeted in the lobby with smiles and a punch drink. The bell boys took our bags and our check in was quick and painless. Martha was very pleasant. We had requested a north tower room, but as we were there before check in at 12:30, they were able to give us a room right away in the south tower. It was large enough and was the same or slightly larger than an average hotel in the US. The bathroom set up was very nice. We are all scuba divers and having the balcony to dry our stuff was great. The rooms were always cold and our stuff did not dry inside well. We were only give 2 sets of towels, but we left a note the next day requesting more towels and water and had 4 of each the next day. The rooms were kept spotless and everyone was so very friendly. The PEOPLE make this resort! Our room was 1417. Yes the beds are hard, but not unbearable. We had a door that connected our room to my in-laws and that was a bonus.
DIVESHOP: Jose was awesome. He helped to make our diving experiance top notch. The diving is Cozumel is the best and having a good operator like Ocean Tours and Scuba Du make all the difference. Hats off to you Jose! My 12 year old son did his open water certification while we were there and Luis was his instructor. He was an awesome teacher. I would recommend him to anyone. Every day we dove, there were always 6-7 divers at El Cozumeleno so the boat came to our dock to pick us all up. I really enjoyed the boat ride down to the El Presidente as it was great to sit out front on the boat and just enjoy ourselves. Jeobani, Sixtoe and Joshua were great dive masters. We saw lots of turtles and even a shark.
Divers: Divers are a special group of people. We truely enjoyed our time with our new friends we met on the dive boat. Tanna, John, Jake & Jeff, Fred and Bobbi Jo and Max. Hope you all arrived home safe and we hope to dive again with you someday.
La Veranda: This was so great. We only ate there 3 times, but next time will go more. The meals were 1st class. Fernando was great. The service was really fantastic and I would return just to eat more of the garlic bread. Yummy.
ISLAND TOUR: I walked out in front of the hotel and ask which of the taxi van drivers would take us on a tour of the island for 4 hours for $80. Allonzo said he would and we all headed to the other side of the island. We stopped at a shop along the way and bought blankets and then went to Coconuts. Coconuts was alot of fun and they have really great salsa. The view is breathtaking. My kids enjoyed reading all the signs and t-shirts. There was even a terrible towel and since our home is near Pittsburgh, that was fun. Allonzo allowed us to stop anywhere around the island and when we arrived back in town with time to spare, he let us shop and came back for us later. I would hightly reommend this to anyone and having someone else drive was nice.
Lobby: There are 2 computers in the lobby with internet access. This was very helpful as we could keep in touch with our familys at home without spending alot on cell phone calls.
PHONE CALLS: We set up our Verizon cell phones to use out of the country and only had to pay .99/min to make calls. This was a deal as the calling cards were about $10 for 5 minutes and it was difficult to find a phone that worked.
COBA: We took the ferry to Playa Del Carmen and then rented a taxi to take us to the mayan city of COBA. This was awesome. It was about $5 to get in and about 110 degrees. Take the bikes if you can as the walk to the great pyramid is over a kilometer. We were able to climb the pyramid and who knows how long they will allow that so do it while you still can. We enjoyed the shopping in Playa del Carmen and may go back some day just to shop.
La Mission: We only ate in town one night and that was at La Mission. It was very good and very reasonably priced. Great local Mexican atmosphere.
THEMED NIGHTS: We enjoyed the entertainment, but we were a bit disappointed with the food on the themed nights. As everyone has said, it is buffet food, but those are the nights I would go to La Veranda.
FOOD: THe breakfasts were fantastic. At lunch, I could have eaten the chicken fajitas every day and the garlic fish fillet was really good. The quac. was really good. I had the same meal everyday for lunch. Dinner was a bit more difficult, I did not starve and would not let this keep me from coming back. I would just go to La Veranda more or go into town.
BIRDS: The birds were as everyone said and ISSUE. They do their best to shoo them away, but remember you are dining outside and they have easy access.
ENTERTAINMENT: The mini golf was fun, the pool and beach volleyball were great. The snorkling was nice to do right off of the beach. We saw flounder and lots of fish right off of the beach.
TAXIS: My tip to you is to always set the price of the taxi before getting in as the taxi driver does not agree, he will change his mind and charge you more. The going rate is $5 to town for 2 and $1 for every person after that. (6 people to town would be $9).
We have such great memories of this resort and this vacation and I had only minor complaints that are hard to remember now.
The people are lovely and friendly. This resort is great and we are counting the days until we can return. Bring lots of small bills and plenty of $1 for tips. THe smiles you get are worth so much more!!!! I hope you have enjoyed reading about our trip and will come to see our new found paradise. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. KK

My Wife and I stayed at The El Coz from 5/22-5/30 Generally I will say we had a Great time and loved the entire experience we had on Cozumel. Let me first say we have been to Mexico 3 previous times and loved every stay, so let's begin and I'm sorry if I seem to go on and on but we use tripadvisor quite often and really like the details.
1. Check -in was a breeze through no ones fault we were given a room with 2 double beds in the older building (North Tower?) we asked if it could be changed to a king we were told to try at 10am the next morning we did and at 10 am we were switched from room 410 to 411 no problem. Huge room with a wrap around terrace(sweet view for the golfer looks right down the fairway toward the tee box on the par 5 16th at the Cozumel C.C. But that's another review).
2. Grounds clean and very well kept every day. Always someone cleaning something.
3. Pools and Beach, I can't speak for the pools they may as well have not even been there for my wife and I are beach nuts, did'nt travel to Cozumel to sit at the pool. The Beach was a little small but that is to be expected on Cozumel, The water was Crystal clear every day 5 or 6 different shades of blue, lots of fish especially near the pier. Sitting on the beach the heat never felt oppressive there was always a breeze and sometimes a wind, we loved the beach. Yes there is waiter service on the beach.
4. Bars and Food. Remember its an A.I. if you are going on vacation for the food try Italy or France and don't go to an A.I. We never went hungry but there was nothing to rave about. The Bars had whatever you needed ask for a double a triple whatever but whatever you do make sure to ask Eduardo in the lobby bar for a Vampiro Extra spicy in the morning for a great pick me up. the beer was Dos Equis XX light or dark on tap always crisp and cold never flat from dirty tap lines.
5. Room was large and always clean and we had a fridge that was always full and ice cold actually had to turn it down due to frozen beers. AC wasn't great but there was a fan in the closet and that was plenty. If you need an iron just ask one of the maids we kept it for the whole stay.
6. Bellstaff always smiling and happy to help very friendly and helpful with finding luggage lost by the airline.
You must do a few things while in Cozumel First and foremost rent a Jeep from anyone you can get it from we used executive right down the street they picked us up and brought us back 66usd plus insurance optional for one day. the other side of the island is an absolute must must see. it is breathtaking and there are a few beach bars along the way Chen Rio and Coconuts. Cold Beer and Soda or Coconuts with straws we ate at coconuts the food was great and the View was even better Trust me on this it is well worth the trip. Also Downtown Cozumel I think it is called San Miguel don't quote me on that. it is a great little town a bar on every block quite a few places to eat. but you must try La Choza a bit off the main strip maybe 2 blocks but real Mexican food many locals, this ain't no taco bell. the food was delicious. A lot of great shopping for the cruise ships but wait till they leave at night then shop especially if you like to make deals tell them you want the island prices not the cruise ship prices the sales people are much more willing to make deals after the ships leave. My wife can attest to that. As if by magic things get cheaper when the boats are gone. But they don't stay open to long after the boats go so you may have to hurry.
And last maybe not a must do but we did it anyway take the ferry to playa del carmen its about 35 minutes and it cost 12usd each way, just ignore the timeshare people and buy your tickets from the ferry company. They always ask what do you have planned for tommorrow lets make a deal I always responded with " my plans for tom. is going to the airport. and they leave you alone.
Overall we loved Cozumel and the El Coz. We will return to Cozumel(Now our favorite part of Mexico by far)and when we do we will return to the El Coz Thanks for a Great and Relaxing Vacation