Mahekal Beach Resort - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

4150 reviews

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  Ups and downs

  As the titel say this hotel has some ups and downs. I will try and be as objective as possible. The hotel itself is great. Perfect location, great vibe, and very relaxing bungalow feel to it. Own private beach and several pool areas. Rooms are quite small and not 5 star, but if you arent to fuzzed about that then thats no problem. I loved the roof witch wasnt insolated at all so could hear both wind and waves while sleeping. I had halfboard and i recomend that you dont take all inclusive. Breakfast is just ok. Definitely not 5 star. Lunch at Fuego is to recomend. Good value with a 3 course included in the halfboard. Evening is ok at Fuego, but quite similar to the lunch and prices higher then the quality admits. Las Ola retaurant in the evening is not to recomend. Basic buffet and quite bad. Better to go outside the resort and try new places in the evening. My main issues are these. Pool needs better cleaning. Food need improving, mainly in La olas. Staff is to much after tips. Even at breakfast they expect tips(even if i did all the work, exept bring a coffee). We had 4 weddings on campus during our stay. 3 just outside our room, so quite noisy until 11pm. I asked for a recomendation for an airport transfer and they recomended 1 firm that was twice as expensive as everyone else. The one i ended up booking( that was great) by the way was litterally half price. We bought a halfboard package. I informed the hotel that we would be arriving late so we wouldnt eat in the first eventing. I asked during the stay if we could have a lunch during our day of checking out since we paid for it and also informed them well in advance. They said no, and offered a take away burger once we checked out. So they wanted us to sit and eat in the lobby or airportshuttle. I found that very bad since we acctually did pay and inform them in advance. I also asked to check out 2 hours later then normal checkouttime. I understand if you have new guets coming that that wouldnt be posible. But now they werent but still asked for 60 us dollars extra for that. For 2 hours!!!! And finally we got 1 room key for the whole family. They werent able to give 1 extra since they didnt have any extra keys. Hope this review helps you. And i guess all hotels have some good and some bad.

  Jan 23, 2025
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  Unforgettable stay!?

  Lovely hotel we spent an unforgettable New Year’s Eve the food was amazing & top service, unbeatable location in front of the ocean,love the spa was a lovely experience thank you to Monse the manager, simply the best stay! Thank you to all the team Tere at front desk,Raul F&B manager,Chef Chulim,Sofía our server,Mr Bonilla the GM you all make us feel so special . Thank you !! Definitely come back!

  Jan 21, 2025
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  Not worth it

  I guess it's all about what you're looking for. If you want to be in the heart of downtown Playa del Carmen, then this is a great location. I was willing to pay the extremely high price per night because I wanted a beach front property with a direct view of the ocean. I thought there would be more beach. Instead, the waves pretty much wash up onto the porch/deck. Because of this, people are right outside of the deck, walking by and giving zero privacy whatsoever. Also, the middle of the resort is split by the public beach access area. So, loads of people just camping out, drumming, making noise all night long right outside. My recommendation if you decide to stay here is to book a second floor room with an ocean view. That way you get some privacy and maybe some peace and quiet. The smell was the absolute worst for me. It was difficult to go to sleep with that smell and it also woke me up in the night, it was so strong and so bad. It was a combination smell of sulfur and sewage. All that being said, the staff were fantastic, the service was great, they do have lots of security guards to try to keep safe from all wandering people. The resort itself is so cute and other-worldy. Too bad about the proximity to the public beach, the lack of a real beach area, and the obnoxious smell. The food was ok. It was fine. Some things we ate were delicious, others were a bit of a miss. The drinks were fantastic. In the end, I feel like the price for what you get just doesn't seem worth it.

  Jan 21, 2025
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  Gorgeous setting, perfect location, incredible service,.

  This trip was beyond our expectations. I didn’t know what to expect of the beach based on other reviews, but the resort has 3 beach areas, each with different qualities; all are gorgeous. They have bar service on the beach- so luxurious. Beaches are cleaned daily and surf was pretty chill most of the time- enough to feel fresh and brisk, but waves are a manageable size for our kids (under 10) to swim in. The heavenly color of the ocean on a bright day was so beautiful it was hard to believe. Our kids got their faces painted beautifully by Valeria and Ilen, not once but twice, and also did their aqua dance class. Little things like this made us feel like there was enough going on that we didn’t get bored on days when we didn’t leave the resort. However, the location is incredible- lush jungle setting right in the middle of Playa, with access to fun restaurants on Avenida 38. Our kids painted pottery with Xilo every day. She is a beautiful and gentle soul with remarkable talent. The pottery they did looks amazing, as Xilo paints outlines on some of the pottery so that novice artists can have something to work with. She covers it all in a shiny glaze so the finished product is the real deal. Making souvenirs themselves is that much more memorable. Food and drinks were fabulous and Antulio and Manuel were incredible servers. Halfboard (“Modified American Plan” was ideal, so we could take one of our meals in town when it felt like it. I’m so grateful this place exists. I believe that it’s worthwhile to go to a place that is so beautifully and thoughtfully handcrafted (each building is literally sculpted by hand), staffed with genuinely kind and caring people. Sometimes when traveling with a big family, Airbnbs are tempting, but I know they have a detrimental effect on cost of living and can actually detract from the local economy. I’m glad we stayed here instead, and we want to come back!

  Jan 21, 2025
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  Our recent visit

  This is not our first visit to Mahekal Beach Resort. I would venture to guess it is about our 23rd or 24th visit dating back to 2010. Things have changed including the management in the past 2 1/2 years. Lots of changes in staff, way of doing business and some changes not for the better. We like to go around the Christmas and New Year, but the prices have become unheard of, so we go after the holidays. The pool water at the Fuego pool is always too cold to even go into the water and no matter how many times we say something COLD it will be. This is a big drawback. The grounds are in need of weeding and the palms need to be trimmed and the coconuts cut off. We just dodged a coconut falling off one of the palms while walking from our room to the restaurant. So nice seeing Ruben, Enrique, Manual, Zuri, Mariano, ismael, and many others who take great care of us.

  Jan 19, 2025