Absolutely beautiful!!! This was our first time in Cozumel and I have to admit, we were a little nervous during the cab ride from the airport to the hotel. So much of the island is still under repair (or the repair hasn't even begun) from last summer's hurricane. But we were in awe when we arrived at the resort. It is in emmaculate condition. The staff is so friendly and welcoming (although we did have a bit of a run in with the concierge in our building. He was very pushy and cocky, but he was an American, not a local.). We stayed seven nights, there were 12 of us, and our friends got married on the beach (beautiful!!!!). The food was wonderful. A few recomendations: Sunblock, sunblock, sunblock!!! Everyone has different skin types, I know, but I wore 45 SPF all week and came back with a pretty dark tan that I keep getting complemented on. I highly recommend the Jeep tour. You get to see so much of the island and the tour guides are great. Take a few insulated mugs with you for cocktails and beer. Our drinks were warm before we were half way through (and we don't sip). Guys, remember to take at least one pair of long pants for the restaurants. A couple of our guys wore shorts and tried to bribe their way in with a few big bills and it was still a no go. The food is worth wearing pants for an hour!! Finally, tip well!! Not because you get better service if you do, because they deserve it!!!

We just returned from a 7-day vacation at The Occidental Grand in Cozumel. We had a wonderful time and after surveying the other hotels on the island, we are absolutely certain that this is the best hotel on the island.

Drinking Water: This was a major concern of ours when traveling to Mexico, but the Occidental Grand has purified water for their ice/mixed drinks and the water they serve in the restaurants. We noticed that they even had their soda machine hooked up to a 5-gallon jug of purified water (for the carbonated water). The water and ice at the bar and restaurants is completely safe. They also provide liter bottles of purified water in the refrigerator in the room. So don't let that be a concern. We did not get sick.

Grounds: The hotel property is huge. There are about 12 different buildings and it looks like a golf course resort. They have worked extremely hard to replant following last year's hurricanes and the grounds are immaculate. There were tons of palm trees, blooming flowers, vines, pottery, and other greenery. The landscaping itself is something to behold.

Rooms: We had a nonsmoking king-size bed room. It was very spacious. Since it was a ground floor room, we had a nice patio with two chairs and a table and a view of a row of blooming purple flowers and greenery. We enjoyed watching the lizards in our "backyard." Our room also had a small table with two chairs and a very spacious bathroom. Everyone raved about the showers (on trip advisor before we left) but no one included a picture. I have attached a picture with this review. The entire bathroom is marble. The toilet is located behind a wall of opaque glass. The shower is marble and tile with a glass door enclosure and terrific water pressure. The rooms were extremely cool (temperature), clean, and spacious. Several of the days, our maid left an animal on our bed made out of clean towels and flowers--I think it depends on who cleans because we didn't get one every day. We did have a few small problems with our room, but these were resolved as quickly as possible. Just keep in mind that Mexican time is different than American time (ie, two hours can really mean six hours), things happen at a more leisurely pace down there. Also---make sure if you have a maintenance problem that you go to the front desk---do not ask the building concierge (these are the timeshare people), because they will not follow up on your request--we found out the hard way.

Timeshare People: Each hotel building has a "concierge." Do not be fooled, these people are employed by the hotel to sell you packages for which they make a commission, they are not truly a concierge. Just tell them you are not interested and they will leave you alone. They will try to offer you free cab rides, free car rentals, and more in exchange for breakfast and a sales presentation. While some of them are honest, some of them will mislead you by making you think they work for the hotel, but they will not make restaurant reservations, contact the front desk, or call maintenance for you--even if they say they will.

Restuarants: There are 6 restaurants on the hotel property. The 7th restaurant, A La Carte, is only available for Royal Club members.

DINNER:The Sonora Grill and Los Olivos require reservations. Reservations can only be made at the front desk between 9 am and 5 pm and it is advisable to make your reservations a day or two in advance to get a good time. Keep the ticket you receive at the front desk for proof of your reservation and make sure to have them write the date and time down in case there is any question. We liked The Sonora Grill better than Los Olivos. The Sonora Grill is a steakhouse with several cuts of steak along with bbq chicken and a fish en papilliotte entree. I had the fish, it was pretty good. My husband had the NY strip. We thought the menu at Los Olivos was very limited and complicated, but the tiramisu there is great and the waiters did a fantastic job of turning it into a birthday cake and singing happy birthday to me. La Posada and La Piazza are also open for dinner. La Posada is a huge buffet with anything you could possibly want to eat: fish, chicken, beef kabobs, salad, vegetables, rice, and plenty of desserts. At night, La Posada usually has a theme night. On the nights we were there it was Caribbean one night, Mexican one night, Seafood buffet one night, and International buffet one night. I really loved the decor in there and the staff was so eager to please. Sometimes they had a spanish guitar trio walking around serenading the tables with songs. They also have outside seating in a garden area which we enjoyed at breakfast. La Piazza is a rooftop pizza place. The tomato basil soup there is very good. The pizza is different, because it is cooked on a wood fire, it had a smoky taste and the sauce was very tangy, but it was an interesting experience and the sunset from there was very pretty.

LUNCH: There are two options for lunch -- La Posada (opens at 12:30) and The Beach Club (opens at 12). La Posada at lunch is much the same as dinner minus the themes. You cannot wear wet clothes or your bathing suit into La Posada. It was usually pretty empty because most people choose the Beach Club for lunch. The Beach Club is right on the beach (in between the beach and the pool). It is also where the bar is located that serves drinks to the pool and the beach during the day. It is covered outdoor seating (it was very cool up there under the fans) and they offer hamburgers and hotdogs, grilled chicken, vegetables, rice, salad, soup, fresh bread, and more. We ate there on most days because you can go in with your bathing suit on and grab lunch without going too far from the beach or the pool. We especially loved the coconut ice cream and the fresh bread.

BREAKFAST: La Posada serves breakfast starting at 6 am. They have wonderful coffee, wonderful pastries and danishes, and a selection of fresh fruit, cereals, and hot items from the buffet like omellettes cooked to order, hash browns, and sausage. We enjoyed sitting on the outdoor patio at breakfast and listening to the birds. It was very peaceful and the restaurant staff (at all the restaurants for each meal) were so nice and courteous.

Activities: The all-inclusive package includes nonmotorized watersports like kayaks, windsurfing, snorkeling, and sailing lessons. We took advantage of the kayaks and borrowed some life jackets to go snorkeling. We also scheduled a few other activities through the dive shop (parasailing and the glass bottom boat ride out to the reef). The boats don't always show up promptly, but the service was good. They even offered cold bottles of purified water on the boats.

Wildlife: There are lots of creatures to see at the hotel -- crabs, bats, lizards, geckos. iguanas, and we also saw two black snakes. Also the gnats are bad out on the beach and the mosquitos are bad at night so be sure to pack some bug spray. If you have to buy bug spray in the gift shop, it is $10 and you cannot pack it in your luggage on the return trip because it is an aerosol can, which is prohibited.

Entertainment: The hotel offers nightly shows in the piazza square. Some reviews have said the nightlife is cheesy or nonexistent. It depends on what you're into, we thought the evening shows were very interesting. One night they did a Mayan dance ritual, one night we saw a Caribbean ballet, and one night we toured the cultures of South American countries learning about their native rituals through music and dance. They set up chairs in a theater style setting and also have a mobile bar that serves drinks. One of the nights we walked up to the pool and noticed that they had black lights on, the bar set up, and some techno music playing and people were sitting around on the lounge chairs which had been draped in white linen. It was like an outdoor club.

Pools: There are two pools (a third pool is private only to Royal Club members). One is closer to the hotel buildings and is nicknamed The Relax Pool. During the day they have soft jazz playing and it's usually pretty quiet. The other pool is next to the beach and is labeled The Activities Pool. That is because the hotel staff has activities there from 10 to 5 each day (such as water polo, darts tournaments, ping pong tournaments, water aerobics, etc). We enjoyed that.

We also took a cab downtown to go shopping once day. It is completely safe to do this. The cab ride in our estimation was about 10 or 12 miles to downtown and costs $17 one-way. They are only allowed to drop tourists at two different places and when we were ready to return, the cabs were lined up waiting for occupants. The hotel has a policy that if they call a cab for you and it does not arrive in 3 minutes, they will pay for the ride. The cabs arrive very quickly because, according to our first cab driver, they only provide service to the Occidental Hotels (The Grand and the Allegro). We met a women in the airport who did not enjoy her stay at the Allegro.

Our stay at the Occidental was wonderful and we highly recommend it!

Just returned from Mexico on June 14th from our honeymoon. We stayed at the Occidental Grande Cozumel for 3 nights, June 4-7th. This place was awesome, the staff was amazing and the food was great. This place is smaller and has a boutiquy feel to it. The rooms are beautiful, and the bathrooms are very spacious. The water does smell like sulfur but that was not a big deal for us. Its just part of being on an island and we had plenty of bottled H2O.
I would absolutley recommend this place if you have small children. They have a kids club that the kids go to all day, while the parents can go off and do whatever they want. The staff from what we saw, was fantastic with the kids. We rarely ever saw kids around and if we did, they were in the pool.
The pool and the beach was also amazing. I would recommend the 2hr snorkeling tour on the glass bottom boat for $32/pp. You cant beat that price to snorkel in some of the best reefs in the world.
We also rented a scooter and went down to the port shopping. That was a really great time.
The Los Olivos Restaurant was incredible.

If you are looking for a night life and a big party scene, this place is NOT for you.

My family of 3 (with 2 divers) stayed at the Occidental Grand in mid May 2006 (non Royal Club). This was our first trip to Cozmuel and our first ocean dive after OW certification back home. My first impression upon landing on the island and seeing all the devastation from Wilma (most trees devoid of foliage) was me asking myself if I did the right thing. After staying at the Grand and diving with their onsite dive operator Dive Palancar, I can say a resounding YES!

The staff at the Grand was outstanding for the most part. The restaurant staff went out of their way to serve us and the selection of food on the buffet was plentiful, both at La Posada (the main buffet) and the Beach Club (full lunch buffet, not just snacks as listed on their website) . We took advantage of one of the other restaurants where you need a reservation, Sonoma Grill which was well worth getting dressed up (long pants, big deal). The number of reservations you get depends on your length of stay (2-3 days=1, 4-5 days=2, 6-7=3). You need to call Guest Services or go to their front desk between 9:30 and 10:30 and can reserve a day or so in advance.

There were a few downsides to our stay. My biggest complaint was the lack of information given to us at check-in, so be sure to ask for it. Plus we didn’t have a directory of services in our room (but one TV channel is dedicated to resort information). Later we found a daily itinerary from the front desk that lists what’s going on for the next 2 days. There was a consignor assigned to each building that had a desk on the first floor. They weren’t there all the time, but were helpful. Other reviewers have indicated that these were the time share representatives, but I didn’t see that. Those reps were around other areas (their shirts have Occidental Vacations on them, while the Grand staff have Occidental Grand). A couple issues with the room was the water in the bathroom had a sulfur smell, usually stronger in the afternoons. The staff does makes sure you have plenty of bottled water in the room and I believe all the water in the restaurants is bottled (ice, coffee, tea, of if they pour it from a pitcher). My wife was sick for one day, but we couldn’t pin that on the water. The rest of us didn’t have a problem. One final negative point was that the room always seemed damp, even with the air condition turned down to 65 degrees.

The up side to all this was the Dive Palancar staff, who were superb. Since we were certified but “beginner” divers we hired Juan as our personal Dive Master for the three 2 tank dives during our stay. Juan was outstanding, patient, and very helpful overall. We also bought a video from the onsite videographer, Yuri, who regularly records some dives. It was a bit pricey, but I thought he did a good job of capturing the dive and does a superb job at editing. It’s a great memory of our trip. Between the beauty of the reefs and having Juan guide us, our trip was extremely enjoyable. Can’t wait to return (now if I could only afford to go back once every month…..).