Sandos Playacar - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

25833 reviews

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  Miriam at Avenue Bar the best Mixology and bartender

  Amazing vacation in Playa Del Carmen We loved our week at Sandos Playacar Playa Del Carmen. The food was often great. The Italian restaurant was our favorite dinner place. The expansive breakfast buffet had a wide variety of food including custom made omlettes. The staff was excellent. Particularly the head waiter at the breakfast restaurant and the Bartenders Miriam and José at Avenue Bar bar. Miriam is the best Mixology in the Riviera Maya 2025 !!! She is amazing and her drinks are in incredible, we enjoyed !!! The water was clear and the weather was perfect.

  Dec 29, 2025
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  Vacation

  Jose at the avenue bar was the best bartender I’ve had. We have been here before and he remembered us and he welcomes us as if we come home every time. You have to get the electric lemonade from him while your here.

  Dec 29, 2025
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  I don't think enough is done to keep teenagers out of the small children's play areas

  There are some kiddie water slide areas that are designated for children 10 and under, but every day I saw teenagers randomly entering, in a big group or with siblings, and acting/playing like they owned the place. We intentionally went to the kiddie slides near the lobby because that kiddie slide area is much quieter than the one by the ocean. That precaution wasn't enough though. My kid went down the slide, sitting up, and a teenager jumped into the slide and barreled down quickly after them, slamming into my kid so hard that my kid's mask shattered and they got a huge gash on their head that needed multiple stitches at the hospital. At no time during our almost weeklong stay did I see any staff supervisory presence near the kiddie water slide areas - - even if it were to come in the form of a resort host who gives older kids a friendly, "hey, we want you to have fun, but we gotta keep this area for the little kids". The only staff I ever saw around the pool areas were people working the bars and the towel booths. When our incident initially happened and my kid ran to me screaming and crying with a bloody face, I looked around for any staff person. Despite my kid screaming in pain for several minutes, no one came to help us except another guest who graciously accepted my request to please find a worker who could call and ask for a hotel medic to please come. After we returned from the hospital, I went and spoke with a manager at customer service. I was not satisfied with the response and felt that they were just trying to say the same old canned responses to make me go away. Needless to say, we spent way too much money on this vacation where the community rules don't really matter. A few other review points I'll share: -we stayed at a time when the resort was either at or near capacity, and it was impossible for us to get a restaurant reservation most nights, despite being a small family. I struggle with having paid peak season high costs and the hotel being okay with not being able to provide me with the amenities they talk up the most in their advertising. The buffet was okay with packing people in like sardines, so why can't the restaurants extend their hours or add in some extra tables when the resort is at capacity? -Overall, I get the feel that this resort really caters to their timeshare members, and everyone else gets what's leftover. -The hotel does not provide personal flotation devices for children, nor floaties just for fun in the water. If you want to have these for your kids or yourself, bring your own. -The hotel gift shop sells sunscreen and bug spray, but the prices are at least three times what you'd spend at home. It might be worth looking into ordering items from Mexico Amazon and having them delivered to the resort.

  Dec 29, 2025
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  Fabulous Guest service employee Lore Moreno above and beyond customer care!

  Lore Moreno was our angel in Sandos Playacar. We had ran into issues with our room, and being able to get in contact with the front desk. Particularly one night we came back from our excursion extremely late. I was left on hold with room service for over 30 minutes. Nobody answered it was 11 o’clock by the time I got down to get Sevices. She was actually packed up and was leaving for the day because night ended and she actually dropped. Everything was able to get us cokes and everything to refill our refrigerator because it was not filled for several days and place our order for food and stayed an extra 20 minutes to assist us, even though she was not working.. In addition, there was another night where our keys weren’t working and she dropped everything to make sure that our keys were working and make sure that we can get into our hotel rooms. She made our stay at sandals Playacar very enjoyable and feel that she’s one of their most valuable employees there. Thank you Lore for your fabulous service to us and all your customers. You are the best that Sandos has!!

  Dec 29, 2025
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  Rough Experience at Sandos

  We came here for a family reunion over the holidays. There were about 11 of us, but could have been more. It was a mix of young adults, elderly and kids. We initially picked this place for price, safety and multiple activities/restaurants. In summary, there were highlights to the resort (beach is beautiful and the weather was nice), the buffet is really good with multiple selections, they do pretty good evening production, and the staff work very hard (i.e. Etyar, the head of concierge did his best everything to help us each day for reservations or support), but there were three major concerns noted 1. The resort was severely understaffed given the holiday season. a. Check-in was over an hour long, with only 1-2 people available for the check-in. Also at check-in, limited instructions were given about the hotel and how to access our hotel rooms via bands due to the shortage of staff and increasing guests being checked in. Also they did not mention anything about our group concessions as we booked through a travel agency and were allowed certain perks (none of those were provided upfront or at all) b. When a family member called the guest services, no one picked up. This was noted on multiple occasions. Luckily I had the direct contact of the head concierge when we had a potential medical emergency. c. Activities scheduled throughout the day (i.e. Zumba at 1:00pm) did not occur, because no one was there. d. All on-site restaurants were booked up for reservations, prior to our arrival, even though the restaurants were 50%-60% capacity at all times. They would not take walk-ins. I had to work and follow-up with head of concierge each day for available reservations to secure for our family. 2. Safety Concerns, especially for the elderly a. An older family member (mid 70s) had a fall due to lack of lighting during an evening concert. Luckily, she was only scrapped badly, no broken bones, but when my cousin tried to contact guest services, no one picked up. Luckily the (head of concierge) did respond immediately in case a paramedic was needed. b. In early mornings, there is no lighting in the hallways. It is pitched black and an iphone or flashlight is needed to walk around. This presented as a hazard for anyone walking around in the late evenings/early mornings. c. In our building, there were only two elevators, one was not functioning for the whole trip, and on our last day, the second one was also not functioning. Luckily my cousin and I were able to carry our check-in suitcases down and our elderly family members were able to still walk certain distances, but if they were unable to travel, without the use of an elevator - that would be a handicap issue. 3. Missing group concessions discussed via e-mail a. There were agreed upon concession with our travel agency and Sandos, but those were either only partially fulfilled (after follow-up from myself) or not provided at all. b. In addition we requested each family be located in the same building (there were only be 5 rooms needed), but this was not done and one family member ended up in a different building and another one had to request to be changed out. Overall, the staff work hard to do there best (especially Etyar the head of concierge), but they are understaffed, which is leading to larger concerns of safety, maintenance, and quality of service.

  Dec 28, 2025