We ended up staying at Villa Tulum having arrived in Tulum and finding all the places we wanted to stay were fully booked.

Villa Tulum was recommended in the Lonely Planet Yucatan guide as a high end hotel with 'beautiful pool and gardens', so we thought we'd be safe. How wrong we were!

Unfortunately this property did not meet our expectations. It was overally quite a depressing stay. The hotel block is not attractive and the rooms, although very spacious, do not have balconies or terraces and had some cleanliness issues, as did the stairwells.

The 'beautiful pool' was bright green and looked like a great home for large reptiles! The gardens were pleasant enough.

We paid £35 for our 1 night stay and did not feel this was value for money.

The hotel and restaurant were virtually deserted even in peak season which should have been a warning sign, but we were desparate for somewhere to stay and dusk was fast approaching!

The whole place just needs a bit of an overhall / refurb and a bit more attention to detail, and the pool issues sorted out. It is a decent location on the main road between the beach and town, although a fair hike to either.

However I would like to pay credit to the owner / staff of this hotel, who were polite and friendly and went out of their way to retrieve a valuable item I left at the hotel after check ing out.

Even with this being Tulum in high season, you expect more than a dirty room for MXN 1250 a night. Room 13 had stains on walls, other peoples´ hair stuck on the shower tiles, a dirty sink, loose wires where a bedside lamp might one have been, not all lightbulbs either installed or working. The bathroom was poky - anyone over 6 foot tall will struggle to sit on the toilet! The feeling was of a once smart hotel now badly managed. The palapa restaurant played thumping bass until late, whcih appeared to be for the benefit of the bar staff as there were no customers! Several staff were uncooperative, and this was not a language issue as I speak Spanish.

The one redeeming feature was the attractive pool and garden, but there is no excuse for such shoddy service.

We were at this hotel because our friends recomended this, they offer room,spa services and breaksfast and it was wonderfull ,the spa place is in a traditional palapas but the spa service it was better than any We took in our life,the therapy of watsu inside the water was wonderfull,the rooms could be more clean and they need better service at the recepcion of the hotel the lady from the spa recepcion was really helpfull(Ms.Roxana)they are 2 miles from the beach and at the entrance from the tulum town,the price was good we pay $ 845.00 thats included 5 nigths 10 breakfast,6 therapies( 2 watsu,2 mayan clay massage,1thai massage 1 hot stone massage)they are near from the arqueological zone,we rented 2 bikes and we can go and enjoy all the place,We hope come back soon...

Norma & Alfred Ramirez
izcra@terra.com.mx

We found this hotel via the corresponding website, which looked very nice, so we did our reservation on line. Reality was however different, a shower with only cold water might be healthy but does not correspond with our European opinion of comfort at the price imposed. Complaints were not considered seriously. We also visited Cabañas Tulum located on the beach, which showed more comfort then this hotel at almost half the price.