If you love animals, you will love this resort! The resort is in the middle of the jungle, so there is lots of wildlife and beautiful tropical scenery! We saw birds (including waterfowl, peacocks, and a pelican), fish, turtles, coatis, raccoons, iguanas, agoutis, anoles, monkeys, and feral cats. We were in heaven! We did do an outside excursion to go snorkeling in the ocean one day, but you realistically could keep entertained staying solely at the resort. We snorkeled in the main cenote next to the hotel and saw cool fish and turtles. The food was good - our tip is you can go to the steakhouse in the Royal Elite section after 6 pm. The food there was EXCELLENT, by far the best on the resort, and they had a great mariachi band one night we were there. There is entertainment every night on the resort - we did some live band karaoke and there was a cool Michael Jackson tribute in the theater (unfortunately we only caught a little bit of that). There are huge family-friendly areas (great kids pool area), but as we were a couple, we mostly stuck to the Adults Only Select areas - our room was a short walk from the Adults Only pool, which was very quiet. (Admittedly, this was right at the beginning of the coronavirus scare, so it was probably less crowded than typical). The Adults Only beach area was great, with big beds on the beach to lounge on and hammocks, etc. The Adults Only sections have premium alcohol, but honestly, my top-shelf-picky boyfriend had no complaints about any of the bar areas in the resort. There are a few cool ruins on the property you can walk or bike to. There is a little farm-animal area where rescued farm animals live (pigs, sheep, bunnies, a donkey, etc.) There is a feral cat colony & the ferals go wherever they want - we had a few that were our buddies that we ran into several times during our stay. Our favorite area was the Deer Park, where a herd of deer are kept amidst a bunch of iguanas and coatis and monkeys! You are not supposed to feed the animals, but on our last day we gave the coatis and monkeys a few pieces of fruit and they were all over us. A very precious memory indeed to have 2 wild monkeys reaching up to hold my wrist. I loved the coatis - what a cool little animal that I never knew existed - kind of a mix of a raccoon, anteater, and monkey! And the agoutis were fascinating too - kind of a mix of a little deer and a rodent. There is only one reason I didn't give this resort 5 stars, and that was the beach. Although beautiful, it was rocky and not very welcoming for swimming. My boyfriend ventured out a few times, but I only went in once and found it hard to walk (even with water shoes). I wish we had done a day trip to the sister resort Playacar, because the beaches look awesome there. I enjoy being out in the ocean with a sandy bottom, and this resort does NOT have that - we did not walk farther down to see if the adjacent resort was any better (although I heard it was). My boyfriend took his snorkel gear out there one day but was not impressed - he said the water was cloudy right off the resort. So, other than the ocean area being not really good to go in, we had an awesome stay at this resort. Also, just a warning to travelers - don't get roped into people at the airport trying to get you to do a tour of their hotel in exchange for a free excursion. We stupidly listened to one of these people, and although got a free excursion, it was huge waste of precious vacation time.

My boyfriend and I decided to take our first all-inclusive vacation at Sandos Caracol Eco Resort in February of 2019 and we were not disappointed. With many activities to choose from and most of them being free, we always had something to do. Drinks were great and service was quick. The only downside was the beach was pretty rocky, so it was difficult to swim without water shoes. (It was still beautiful though.) Food was delightful and there are many restaurant options. We spent most days at the buffet due to our eating habits and were completely satisfied. What topped off our trip was the friendly staff and very fun and interacting entertainment team. To our new friends Ricardo and Emilio, you guys made our trip! Thank you so much for getting us out of our comfort zones and trying to involve us in all of your daily activities, we had a great time! We would definitely recommend this resort to our family and friends, and will absolutely be back in the future!

Already looking forward to a return trip! Select Club beach services were more than worth the extra for the package. Victor & Ernestina were helpful, personable & professional. Dinner at the Brazil Restaurant was such a tasty and fun night with Jesus, Juan, Alejandro & Pedro, we returned twice. The Eco setting included monkeys in the tree tops, cenotes and multitudes of birds. The theatre production was on site for 2 nights of the week in natural settings, one on the beach and the other in the Mayan Ruin's site describing Mayan history in a memorable experience. Mexican Fiesta night included long, walkways lined with tables of Mexican varieties of food, live music and games for children and adults.