My husband, our 12 and 18 year-old sons, and I booked Dreams Tulum based on the reviews on Tripadvisor, for our first Mexican vacation from Feb 19-26. We are so glad that we did! Dreams Tulum was almost perfect!

The bad - we had reserved two deluxe oceanview rooms, but when we got there, they only had gardenview junior suites available. They suggested that suite was an upgrade to a deluxe room, however, we had our hearts set on an oceanview room, so it was a big disappointment for us. The natural cenote near the patio bar smelled like sulfur or something. It was not a sewage treatment plant as one tripadvisor reviewer mentioned, but a naturally ocurring wellspring. Well, natural or not, it did not smell pretty, and we walked really quickly through that area.

The great - everything else!

The beach was a bit rocky until you got into the water - but we had water shoes (thanks to everyone who mentioned them in their reviews!), so we had a wonderful time. For the record, we did not see any topless sunbathers anywhere!

The rooms smelt oceany-musty at first and once again reviewers suggestions about Fabreze paid off. One quick spray around the room, and everything was great! The rooms were very spacious and clean. There were a number of mosquitos in the rooms - we took bug spray, and that fixed things. The water in our bathroom sink smelled sulfury, but our sons' room didn't at all. The boys' room had a leaking ceiling, but it was fixed within half an hour of us reporting it. Other than that, there were no problems at all with the rooms.

I cannot say enough about the staff. They were friendly, helpful, remembered our boys wherever we went; they really made the Dreams experience excellent. Freddie on the beach was an excellent waiter, as many of you have mentioned. The entertainment staff was great - especially Fabiole, Omar and Annie. Esteban the concierge has an amazing memory and went out of his way to help. Regina the hostess at the buffet and restaurants was absolutely delightful. All of the staff were friendly, and made us feel like treasured guests. We took along dollars for tipping; it was a wonderful idea. Thanks again, members!

We ate at the buffet or room service. The food was delicious, plentiful, and had lots of variety. Room service was prompt, and on the two occasions that they missed part of our order, they rushed the rest of the items out to us right away. We didn't go to the restaurants because they required long pants for the guys (and we were just too relaxed to try to conform!), and often had a 30 minute wait. But others there seemed to enjoy it, and would drop by the bar and have a drink while waiting (they gave out little blinking beepers to tell you when your table was ready). As for the no kids under 12 policy in the Italian restaurant - it was great to have a place where we could have gone to escape from the kids if necessary. Luckily, all the tykes we saw were really great, and seemed to be having a great time. We were not bothered in the least by the young kids.

There was enough entertainment to keep all of our group happy. My only little complaint is that I would have liked to have had more dancing. There really was only one night (the beach party) where there was dancing, and that was really too bad since everyone seemed to enjoy it the one night.

Our oldest son (18) would have preferred more nightlife, but managed to keep himself busy by playing volleyball, and socializing. This is definitely the place where you go if you want relaxation, pampering and quiet!

Thank you everyone for your reviews, tips and suggestions. They really paid off for us, and made a great vacation fantastic!

If you have questions, I'll do my best to answer them!

Stephanie

My wife and I stayed at Dreams Tulum (formerly Sunscape) this past week. We went with her sister's family. They have stayed in another all-inclusive resort nearby the last 2 years, but it was closed after hurricane Katrina damage. They were quite dissapointed, and felt that Dreams was much inferior in many ways.

I have read other reviewers stating that they were turned away due to over-booking. Although this did not happen to us, I heard that it was happening while we were there (Feb 16-21). There is much construction going on, but it has halted due to financial difficulties, and the expected additional rooms have not been completed.

One of the biggest disappointments was the dining. They have a large buffet dining room which is open for all meals. This was okay. But the other five restaurants were not so good. First of all, 4 of the 5 are only open for dinner, and although their website states that each restaurant closes on 2 nights a week, they in fact are closed 3-4 nights a week. Two of them, the Asian and the Sushi places, are very small rooms. The Asian has only 8 tables that seat 2-4 people. The first night I tried to go there, there was a 2 hour wait. Well, no wonder! All the restaurants are understaffed, resulting in long waits and mistakes in food orders.

The evening entertainment is sadly lacking. I'm a musician and therefore admittedly picky, but the groups that were brought in to perform while we were there were quite inferior.

Some daily activities are included in the price, but many are extra. While we were there, the ocean and wind conditions made the water too choppy for kayaking and boating. The sand on the beach was okay, but to go into the water means walking on rocks, so there wasn't much swimming at the beach. The 2 pools are very nice. The spa is advertised online as having quite a list of services, but we found that only one thing is offered each day.

I think that the biggest problem this resort has is that it is expanding beyond its means. There is not enough staff for the number of people staying. The staff works hard to please, but there are just too few of them to make it a success. You would do well to look elsewhere.

With my wife we have just arrived from Mexico, where we were spending 11 fantastic days. During our stay we had 3 nights at Dreams Tulum. The hotel definitely represents international 5 star level. Not good, but great, however not extraordinary (6-7 stars). We had a deluxe garden view booking, but we were the lucky ones who were given a free upgrade to the ocean front junior suite with corner view. (729)The room and the view were fantastic - particulary in the mornings with the sunup. From our L-shape balcony with a hammock you could have a beautiful panorama on the palm fringed beach and the main buildings with the in-site cenote. I can imagine that our experience wouldn't have been so wonderful if we had stayed in one of the garden view rooms in the backyard, but the buildings and the entire hotel interior is so nice with the authentic mexican feeling that I cannot image someone had bad feelings about the accomodation.

The food was absolutely top-notch. The mexican buffet is rich and delicious, and varied each day. Forthermore we had a dinner in the Italian restaurant, which is also a high profile dining spot with excellent service and food quility. Here you have to pay additional bucks for international wines, the house wines are for free (I think they are imported form Argentina).

Staff was more than kind, very polite and supportive. We were renting a car, we used the valet parking, and it was fast, did not take long time to get our car from the parking spot which is very close to the lobby. Use the in room safe, because in case if you leave any cash in room on the table or anywhere, the staff will take it away automatically percieving the amounts as bonuses for the services.

The best thing was without any doubts the beach. Snow Pearly white sands and palm trees, tourquise water and no rocks. Certainly, there are some parts of the beach where are rocks in the water, but it is well seen and you have options to choose the best parts of the ocean where you can have a nice bath and you can swim safely.

Pools are nice (4 out of 5), but not outstanding. The new pool is quit small and loud due to the children's corner and yes, the reconstruction is in place, it's an ongoing project, I think, even for months, but it did not disturb us in anyway. The hotel beach is about 200 meter wide, so you can easily find sunbeds and chairs where nothing disturbs your relaxation.

If you like ATVs, I definitely suggest you to try yourself out in an ATV tour organized by the hotel. USD 79 per person. During the 3 hour program you can enjoy the terrific power of the 250cc engine, visit an animal farm, and a very impressive cenote cave where you can snorkle and swim. Besides you can go the ruins of Tulum - it is 5 km to the south. It has wonderful surroundings with an excellent beach providing fantastic photo and bathing opportunities.

Last, but not least we spent our last night in Mexico in Cancun due to our very early schedule to the airport on the last day. My friend, if you don't want to waste you time and money, don't go to Cancun now. It is a dead city, each second building is being renoveted, the shops are closed mostly and the plantation is in terrible condition. Only a few main hotels are ready to welcome tourists on a regular level, but it is far(!) away of the quality surroundings and and pampering feelings what Dreams can offer for your money.

Hello travellers. My wife and I stayed at Dreams Tulum for two weeks in Jan. (8th -22nd ) and had a great time. We have read some negative reviews about this resort and decided to let people know that we are not sure if these people stayed at the same Dreams Tulum as us. We found it to be all and more than we expected and are going back next January for two weeks again. We had an ocean view room and found it to be very comfortable and clean. The staff were great and any time something was overlooked, it only took a simple call to the front desk and things were looked after. The beach is very sandy but wear water shoes when going into the ocean as it is very rocky. If you really want a nice experience walk south of the resort for about half an hour and the ocean is sandy on the bottom and you can really enjoy the water. There is a lot of debris south of the resort that we were told was the result of WILMA so hopefully it will be cleaned up soon.
As far as food and drink, we found it to be top notch. Our favorite resturant was El patio (try the carribean fish soup). The buffet is as good as you`ll find anywhere, and as we were there two weeks we tried each of the specialty resturants and were not disappointed. You must be prepared to wait a while to get in but they give you beepers so you have lots of time for a premeal cocktail or two. There is some construction going on as they are expanding the resort but we didn`t mind it. We look forward to going back to Dreams Tulum next year and would recommend this resort to anyone. We realize that everyone has different expectations and I guess every place has faults if you look for them but we`re going back for another two weeks next year so there was nothing to faulty here. ENJOY...FRED & CAROL Edmonton Alberta Canada..