- Mexico Holidays
- Riviera Maya
- Occidental at Xcaret Destination
Enjoying a fantastic location frontline to the powder-soft white sand and the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea, the exclusive Occidental at Xcaret Destination hotel is ideally situated, surrounded by an ecological and historical preserve. It is a perfect luxury 24 hours all inclusive refuge at 10 minutes from Playa del Carmen and offers a lovely garden and pool landscape as well as a wide variety of first class amenities and services. All a la carte restaurants, requiere prior booking, subject to availability and with restrictions.
Due to the surrounding area and the number of steps around the hotel, it may not be suitable for those with mobility difficulties.
My family and I spent 9 nights at occidental. The grounds first of all are stunning, we saw a family of monkeys several days during our trip on our balcony. We loved the wildlife and peacefulness of the resort. The pool and lagoon were great. However food could use some major improvement. While there are “ specialty restaurants “ they were impossible to book, they were always “ full”. Lunch buffet was horrible with the same foods being served EVERY day!! No option other than two buffets for lunch- one at snack bar the other at beach club. The lunch buffet was cold hamburgers ( that were also of poor quality) and cold hotdogs or food that looked like it was not fresh or tasted fresh very little variety for lunch. Dinner buffet was hot or miss poor quality steaks at grill. Not enough pasta selection, redundant left overs. Too much seafood not enough options. However location was perfect we booked because of Xcaret and because of the wildlife. We do love the resort and would come back in the future probably but the buffet needs improvement and we may select a new hotel because of that.but given the price and location it’s still a beautiful and lovely resort.
The staff never fails Is on point. There is a program that they offer regret not getting out. Will do in the future. I’m recommend people visit due to the nature and it’s peaceful.
Excellent! beautiful sceneries, food delicious, friendly staff, fun activities, enjoyed my stay and will definitely come again
We liked our time at Xcaret Occidental - despite the rain on and off for the first 2 days, but that cannot be helped. What a super green paradise it is!... It's hard to know your way everywhere on your first visit, but we did enjoy walking around on the paths surrounded by very tall trees and even in the hottest part of the day it was shady on those walks. And, of course, if you don't feel like walking to the beach or to the restaurants you can easily take a shuttle that runs pretty often while you wait in a well designed sheltered area with benches.
The star of the whole stay for us was the stunning cove/lagoon which is so well protected from seaweed and has crystal clean water and even large fish swimming around!... The bar at the cove opens at 11 am and there is music too, along with some fun exercises in the water. A little farther, there is a unique salt water pool surrounded by stone - that's quite an experience too. The whole area around the cove has lots of palm trees and places to relax and just savor the moment... The several swimming pools on the premises are very nice too.
As the resort is so stretched out, there are two buffets - one of them is near the cove: it's an open air buffet (with only roof and greenery for cover) but, amazingly, I've never noticed a single fly near the food stalls. I really liked this buffet (opened for breakfast and lunch - until 4:30 pm for lunch). On the day we arrived it was almost before closing time and we still found a lot of great dishes, such as baked salmon, very well roasted veggies (especially the colorful bell peppers), fresh mashed avocado (less seasoned than a normal guacamole is but just as I liked it - it was soooo fresh every time).
The lobby buffet (opened for breakfast and dinner) is pretty good as well - you can find everything you want to your taste. My favorite there was smoked salmon - very tasty! - among other wide varieties of foods; my husband loved authentic Indian dishes there.
We visited the Italian restaurant (you have to make a reservation) and it was very good as well. But, unfortunately, we were very disappointed in the Oriental restaurant - the food was not very good there and very little variety to choose from. The lobby area is very beautiful - with fountains and marble floors and the whole ambience is nice. But, surprisingly, the lobby bar is a very small affair, hidden under a staircase - had to look for it to find it...
Our accommodations were in Building 22, and our concierge Andrea Rivera was VERY welcoming and helping in whichever way was needed. At another time we had an informative and pleasant conversation with Michelle (another concierge at our building). We loved our room and its location. The building has a coffee room, so that you don't have to travel far in the morning (to the lobby or the cove) for your first cup of coffee. That was such a great touch - a nice coffee machine making different coffees and teas!..
We didn't buy the access to the Xcaret Park, but even without that we thoroughly enjoyed our nature walks around the spread out resort.
In general, service was very good and whatever we needed was addressed pretty fast. We appreciated that.
Great experiencia and full of fun with Yadira and David at pool
