Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark3311
LeedsTyke, I am glad you had a wonderful time at the Sandos Caracol. We are headed there in January and I understand the Sandos is a very large property. Would you recommned asking for a particular building or area that is more convenient to the restautrants and beach area. Also any other tips would be appreciated.
|
Yes it is quite a large resort. There are over 70 apartment buildings spread over resort. All have three floors with 8-12 apartments in each block. As they are all spread, it is pretty quiet depending where you are. If you PM me your email address, I will send you a map of the resort. We stayed in apartment block 74, which is about 5 min walk to beach front, but we were near the lobby. Most nights we went into the lobby bar, but there are nine bars across resort in total. The lower numbered apartment blocks are all near the beach, the higher numbers towards the rear of resort (lobby area). The Sandos select properties are also towards the rear, but someone I talked to who paid the extra for the select weren't very happy with the extras you got for the extra money.
Also, didn't try any of the three a-la carte restuarants, as the three buffets were all excellent! And I'm not keen on having to eat at a set time, there are three sittings for the a-la cartes, either 6.30, 7.45 & 9.00(all p.m) and you just book which sitting at which a-la carte with the concierge. The a-la cartes were either Japanese, steakhouse or meditteranean. Both the Japanese and steakhouse sounded very good though.
The main pool at front of the resort tended to get quite busy, but there are two other pools which were very nice and quiet. The adult pool and the relax pool. Also, plenty of Palapas on the beach. Even if you were down after 9.00a.m you would sdtill be gauranteed one. Also, don't worry about what people have said on TA about the rocks in the sea, this is not really an issue even though there are rocks, you can see them but there is plenty of area in the sea where there are none and you can wave hop. There is a man made reef about 150 foot out you can swim out to, and the fish are awesome in the sea too. If you take a breadroll out you can feed them - they will even try and eat straight from your fingeres which was pretty cool.
You can get a free bus into Playa four times a day (and back again), but a taxi is only US$10 (plus a couple of dollars tip, try speak a bit of Spanish with Taxi drivers
). There are plent of trips you can book with the water sports down by main pool, the catamaran to Isla Mujeres was excellent, I would advise that. If you go, request to be on catamaran called Albatros, Ask if they remember 'Engand' - thats what they called me as I had a soccer jersey for Mexican team Cruz Azul and one of the guys was a Cruz Azul fan so I agreed to give him the Jersey after the ride. They kept my glass topped up all day (even though it was a free bar
).
If you have any more questions, just ask away. I have lots of pictures, and will get round to posting a 'photo' trip report at some stage. I need to sort my camera first though as I got sun oil in it
(may need to buy a new one) and it keeps turning itself off. Finally, any negative reports on TA, I would ignore them as this really is an excellent resort, the staff really do go above and beyond the call of duty!!! Have a great trip...
Jason (aka LeedsTyke)