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Reviewed April 3, 2007

Okay, the good parts first: The bungalows are very tasteful, spacious and nicely decorated. Dinner was excellent, the staff very friendly (the owners sometimes a bit overwhelming) and everything overall clean and efficient.

The bad parts: The place is located in a rather muddy Mangrove-like forest that looks very unattractive. Only a couple of 100 yards away is an extremely noisy street with lots of truck traffic at night. Sensitive sleepers better take that pill! The breakfast was outrageously expensive for what they offer. Worst coffee in my life!

Overall a good choice for a one-night-stay if you want to check out the nearby archeological sites. The owners are more than happy to help you. True history enthusiasts those two!

Date of stay: March 2007
  • Trip type: Traveled with friends
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4  Thank LaurentCL2
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Reviewed January 24, 2007

If you are in the hospitality business, your business should centre on your guests. The “dream” in Rio Bec Dreams is that the guests will conform to the owners needs, rather than the other way around! The business seems to centre around the owner’s needs, rather than the needs of the guests.
There were some things I liked about my stay, but other things that made me sorry I stayed there at all.
THE GOOD: Great food, and great social environment. Before eating the great food, you can hang out at the bar and meet other guests. As this area is not frequented by your regular tourists, meeting other guests is a good and fun thing.
THE BAD: On their website, they say that they are in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, that they own 50 hectares of jungle, and that you get to stay in “jungalows”. All this is true, but it is misleading.
The actual accommodation is in a sort of garden which is nothing like a jungle, although it does have trees (one species only) that do grow in the jungle.
The rooms are very close to the highway. I fell asleep to the sound of trucks passing by, and woke up with the feeling that I had heard trucks passing by all night – not constantly, but enough to disturb my sleep.
Ultimately, I pay for a good night’s sleep. I woke up feeling tired and not entirely relaxed.
Rick is hospitable, and Diane pretends to be. But at dinner she will say something like “no one wants to eat breakfast before 8:30, do they. Anyhow, I won’t be up by then”. This attitude is not hospitable, it is not compatible with running a hotel and restaurant. I was unimpressed. The toilet block has the faint smell of sewage. Not nice. The jungalows are OK, but I’d not want to be in one in a driving rain storm. They have screens, but no windows you can close.
When I arrived, Diane asked me why I had not made a reservation. When I told her I had in fact sent an email she told me she had been too busy to respond to emails lately! She has another business on the side, and guests are supposed to accept that as an excuse for bad service. I met another couple who had sent numerous emails and left phone messages that were not returned, so this was not an isolated incident. (They stayed else where).
I ordered a packed lunch. I must say, it was nicely packaged and presented, including a frozen water bottle to keep it fresh. It was tasty. However, it did not meet my requirements: it was not filling. It was not what we had discussed the night before. It was Diane’s idea of what it should be, not what I wanted.
I had wanted to stay at another place for a different experience (a real jungle camp about 50km away). I made the mistake of telling them this the night before. By neglect or by intent, they wasted my whole morning with slow service. Because of this alone, I am tempted to give them the lowest rating, but that would be unfair – the hotel does have positive points as I have mentioned.
They say they give lots of information. This is true to some extent, but the tour they suggest for Calakmul is silly – they suggest you go around the park in the opposite direction to what the park suggests. There is no advantage to this. It is just confusing because the maps and arrows in the park are designed to go the other way around.
In summary: I recommend eating dinner there (the food is great, show up early for a drink and meet some of the guests). I do not recommend their packed lunch although it might work for some. I honestly think there are better places to spend the night, and can’t recommend that you stay here.

Date of stay: January 2007
  • Trip type: Traveled solo
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3  Thank oOntario
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Reviewed January 16, 2007

During our 2 trips to Mexico (in 2004 and 2006) we stayed in Rio Bec Dreams. In 2006 we just had to come back there. It is a wonderful place!!! The jungalows and cabanas are amazing and Rick and Diane know a lot about all the things there are to see in the area. I loved this place so much that my boyfriend decided to propose to me there once we returned!!! The bats are one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and Calakmul will always be my "happy place"... Rick and Diane, thanks for all the great memories... and we'll be back!!

Date of stay: July 2006
  • Trip type: Traveled as a couple
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2  Thank Marije
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Reviewed November 30, 2006

We made our reservation at Rio Bec last March. We chose it over other options specifically because we wanted to see a “bat cenote” and because Diane committed to taking us and our two children (aged 4 and 8) on a full day tour of the nearby ruins.

When we arrived Diane suggested two tour options for the following day and asked us to let us know which we would prefer. We were then taken by a member of the staff (who spoke only Spanish and did not know anything about bats) to a bat cenote 40 km away. Seeing millions of bats fly out of the cenote was thrilling but it was also a bit dangerous to have bats bouncing off our bodies. We left after one bat crawled inside the shirt of our four-year-old (fortunately, he was not bitten). Most people know that bats carry rabies (and worse). Common sense would dictate a safer viewing location than the one we were taken to.

When we returned from the tour, hungry for dinner, we were told that we had not been expected back that early and that dinner would take an hour to prepare. This type of thing is fine for two adults but when young children are hungry.... and you are the only guests in the restaurant …. it is a bit off-putting.

At dinner we told Rick that we had chosen the Calakmul option for our tour. He told us that the tour would not work out. He printed out information on the ruins in place of the tour. Diane went over the information with one of us but we were given no apology or explanation for why our tour had unilaterally been cancelled. This was extremely disappointing after having arranged the tour eight months ago.

In general, Rio Bec Dreams is a dream in progress. They have started a pretty garden which will eventually be quite nice, and the cabanas are well maintained and clean. The food was delicious. However, Rio Bec is located on a major highway and the sounds of trucks down-shifting all night made it difficult to sleep as the rooms do not have windows, only screens. The room rate does not include breakfast, which is expensive (our total for breakfast, lunch, dinner and lodging was over $230!). We did not use the shower due to an advertised water shortage. And while the decision to locate the drainage pond from the toilet near the path to our cottage may have been environmentally sound, it was aesthetically unpleasant. To be fair, Rick and Diane said they were understaffed, which may explain some of the items mentioned above. However, all in all, families with children would do well to look elsewhere.

Date of stay: November 2006
  • Trip type: Traveled with family
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5  Thank ATL_Mommy
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Reviewed September 29, 2006

My husband and I stayed here on our way from Palenque and on our way thru the Rio Bec region to the Caribbean. The owners are English and Canadian and offer great lodging, food and hospitality in the heart of the jungle. The rooms and the restaurant have so much character and are beautifully decorated. They offer two types of accommodations 1) jungalows with shared bath and 2) private cabanas with private bath. My husband and I opted for the jungalow and absolutely loved it. The jungalow has a hand painted sink, bed with mosquito net and a private porch. The shared bathrooms are clean and extremely cute. Keep in mind you're in the middle of the jungle and can hear wonderful wildlife. The location is an ideal route if you are visiting the Rio Bec Mayan sites. Diane and Rick are extremely knowledgeable about the Maya, the entire region and can give you recommendations for lodging along the coast and throughout the Yucatan. The food was absolutely amazing and the owners are able to provide excellent boxed lunches for your daytrips to the ruins. This was definitely some of the best food that we had during our stay. Diane and Rick were wonderful and made our two day stay magical. Highly recommended if you are on the highway 186. Stop for lunch or dinner and you may find yourself staying the night.

Date of stay: August 2006
  • Trip type: Traveled as a couple
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2  Thank Hawaiianlady
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
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