Doug & Jules ~ Belleville, Ontario, Canada
Sandos Playacar Beach Resort
July 2009

We stayed at Sandos Playacar Beach Resort & Spa March 7-14 2009 and had an absolutely fantastic time and would not hesitate to recommend this hotel to anybody! We have traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos and Cozumel and found the atmosphere and the staff at Sandos to be outstanding!!!!!!. The staff were extremely friendly throughout all of the resort and very helpful if you needed anything. The hotel and grounds are beautiful and well maintained. Our room was bright, cheerful and spacious and we had an amazing view of the ocean and large activity pool. There is something for everyone at Sandos, whether you want the activity pool, quiet pool or adult only pool in the Riviera Section or of course the beach!. The Web Relations Team, Michael Smith, Cinthia and Martina are a credit to the hotel and were so helpful with any requests and questions that we had prior to and during our stay. As were all of the staff at the Customer Service Desk in the beach section. Hats off to Pablo, Victor and Myra of the Animation Team, we miss you already!!!!!!!. They and the rest of the team were fantastic and work so hard to make sure that you have a good time. It was nice to see that they get all age groups involved in their activities and we enjoyed participating very much. Thanks for wearing the crazy Canada Umbrella Hats that we gave you, you all looked great in them. There are several A-La -Carte Restaurants, we did not try them all but Le Gourmet (French) and the Asian were our favourites. The filet mignon and crepes suzette in Le Gourmet was delicious and the T-Bone Steak in the Steakhouse was also very good. You cannot go hungry at Sandos!!!!!!. The ocean is gorgeous, the colour is amazing, the only disappointment and it has nothing to do with the hotel is the erosion that has occurred with the hurricanes, but they are doing everything possible to save the beach and just to the right of Sandos when you walk on to the beach is a beautiful long stretch of beach that is perfect. Dont be afraid to book at Sandos it is a great hotel we loved it and for the first time in all our travels are talking about returning to the same hotel for a second time, that say's it all. We miss you all at Sandos and we hope to return again next year only this time for two weeks, one was not long enough!!!

ARRIVAL
Absolutely gorgeous resort. My husband & I traveled with 2 other couples. We did not book the ROYAL club but one of the other couples we traveled with did. Upon arrival we received a welcome beverage (delicious) & we were booked in long before the ROYAL couple was, in fact we walked in and immediately checked in. We were immediately transferred to our Hacienda room (gorgeous – although located a few minute walk from pool & beach) via golf cart style transportation. The welcome crew was extremely friendly & informative. We had booked our package with Signature Vacations & were to have a standard room, the 1 additional couple had booked for the ROYAL club (we did not) we ended up with much superior accommodations. The Hacienda suite was gorgeous (sunken living room,King bed, balcony etc) & the private pool was a wonderful feature. The other couple ended up with a room overlooking the beach BUT the room was much smaller & we received all the benefits they did.

RESORT SERVICE
Housekeeping daily, although often not until mid afternoon. Mini fridge stocked daily. We requested coffee & breakfast a few mornings of our stay & it was delivered promptly each morning for the time we had requested.

BEACH & RESORT GROUNDS
We found the resort to be extremely clean & very beautiful. Grounds men were out every morning for maintenance & upkeep (absolutely no noise or distractions experienced from them working). The entire resort has bricked walkways and each Hacienda complex has a private pool (which is cleaned each morning). The beach was beautiful & the best on the strip. We found there was always lounge chairs available & did not find it necessary to “save” a bed each morning. The water was beautiful, just as anticipated. Even though we were not ROYAL members we did not have a problem getting towels each day, I even forgot one of my towels on the bench outside the main building & upon returning from my daily excursion the concierge was kind enough to get me back my towel card (so as to avoid having a fee). There was a separate section away from the larger pool that offered a smaller pool and was an “adult” only pool.

BARS
The resort had 1 beach bar, 1 pool bar & I bar located directly across from the Buffet restaurant. We frequented the beach bar mostly. The service here was quick, friendly & delicious. On a few days we even had service directly to our lounge chairs. Only a few times did we use the service of the pool bar (this is not a swim up bar) and each time we found it friendly, quick and just as delicious. As for the bar located across from the buffet, we found the service here to be a bit slower & eventually started to order 2 drinks each with every order. The atmosphere of this bar was lovely & busy each night.

ENTERTAINMENT
Truly exceptional. Each night the resort hosted live entertainment & each night it ended with the entertainers socializing and dancing with the guests. Located just outside the main building was the disco bar. Although we did not attend, we did observe the nightly bustle of the disco.

BUFFET & A’LA CARTES
The buffet offered a wonderful variety of foods…western & local cuisine. We found that each day offered a lot of the same BUT always had a nice new variety to choose from as well. As for the A’LA Cartes we were not a ROYAL club member BUT were able to enjoy each of the restaurants no problem. Our personal preference was for the buffet due to the variety BUT the service & food of the A’LA Cartes was very pleasing. The coffee of this resort was DELICIOUS!!!! One of the A’LA Carte restaurants did serve as a buffet during the day for breakfast & lunch should you choose to change up your routine.

ON SITE SERVICES

SHOPPING: The resort offered only 1 small store. The store offered a variety of essentials as well as clothing, toys & souveniers. The service here was good, but being it was the only one on site it was generally busy. DAILY EXCURSIONS: As for excursion options, there was a tonne to pick from and the gentlemen working in the office there were EXCEPTIONAL. I was hoping to take one particular excursion near the end of our stay and the time spaces were not convenient for me, as I had another booked for later in the day. The gentlemen in the office went out of their way to get me a space that worked, and even went as far as calling the company to make arrangements. TRANSPORTATION: Taxis were always on site & if one was not available the concierge would immediately radio the front gates to have one brought in. The cost to travel to Playa del Carmen for a day of shopping was only $5.00. HOTEL BONUSES: I took in a massage one day, TRULY a wonderful experience. I was not able to have my massage on the beach as they were full…but was escorted to the spa and had it there. LOCATION: Within minutes of shopping at Playa Del Carmen (10-15 minutes walk should you choose) & minutes outside the resort was a smaller shopping complex with in the Playacar community.

OVERALL SATISFACTION
My husband & I are exceptionally satisfied with our experience of this resort. We will return & look forward to enjoying our stay again next year. I highly recommend trying this resort, I feel that it exceeded all our expectations and left us rested & relaxed. 5 ***** I must agree!!!! I would although liked to have seen a few more boutiques on site.