This hotel is MUCH better than it's star rating.

My wife and I started with a 4 day reservation (Feb 15th) for a 2 week stay on the island so that we could have plenty of time to evaluate where on Cozumel we should spend the rest of our vacation. We found that staying the whole 2 weeks at the Flamingo was a deal could not be beat.

No, not a 5 star resort, but this hotel does a lot for a very attractive price (under $75 a night). This 3 story hotel is built with most rooms facing a central courtyard with a fountain. There are some rooms on the ends of the courtyard that have small balconies. The courtyard rooms are shaded, quieter and darker while the balcony rooms are bright, get more noise from the street (it is a fairly quiet street though) and get more heat from the sun. The rooms have nicely updated equipment. New A/C units (worked great), new cable TV's, new bathroom fixtures, etc. Most rooms have 2 double beds but they found us a room with only one bed which gave us some added floor space that was nice.

The hotel is located 2 blocks from the main Plaza in San Miguel (5 minute walk) and it is just a bit further to the ferry dock. It is a couple of blocks from the waterfront and although there is some sand on the rocky shoreline, I would not call it a beach. The location is perfect for enjoying the restaurants, festivals, bands and services of the main town. We were here during part of the annual Carnival celebration and almost every night there was free entertainment on the plaza in the form of bands, Carnival costume contests, dancing contests, fire dancers, etc. so we had a great time and the hotel was a perfect base to operate from.

Restaurant (The Aqua) was great. Our room included a free breakfast that included eggs and tasty fresh orange juice. I loved their chicken burrito (best i've ever had).

Service was very personal and friendly. Tom the owner and Rosie helped us with every need from finding a rental car to great restaurants to finding fun things to do. David at the bar became our friend and even whipped us up a special gourmet dinner in the kitchen one night. Housekeeping was very good. I dropped a wad of about $70 in pesos one night. I had forgotten all about it the next day until we came back in the afternoon to find that the maid had carefully put it back on the nightstand for me and had even declined to take the $3 maid tip we had left for her because it was not in the envelope meant for tips to the maid. I think that is very rare to find this kind of honesty in other parts of Mexico.

Negatives? Almost none. There is no pool or beach. The rooms are lacking dressers (Tom, the owner says he is working to add them in the near future). Each Saturday a live band really rocks the place and we loved it. Others may not. The hotel is not fancy but does everything else very well for a great price.

We booked part of our stay through an online booking engine. I would recommend that you email Tom the owner/manager, and ask if he can offer you a special rate for the length of your stay. I think you will get a much better deal than is available through the booking engine.

If you are looking for a good hotel stay in Cozumel, I recommend the Flamingo.