Sandos Playacar - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

25861 reviews

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  Very Disappointing Experience – Poor Organization and Service

  Very Disappointing Experience – Poor Organization and Service This was, unfortunately, a very disappointing stay. The hotel is massively overcrowded, making it almost impossible to get a reservation at any of the restaurants. We arrived late in the evening and were left without dinner, as there were no available dining options. Room service is extremely limited, and to make matters worse, no one answers the phone — we tried repeatedly without success. The reception experience was particularly frustrating. I was very poorly treated by a staff member named Ramses, who was unhelpful, dismissive, and failed to provide even the most basic information about the hotel, restaurants, and logistics at check-in. For a resort of this size and category, this level of service is unacceptable. The situation became so absurd that we had to order Domino’s Pizza — while staying at an all-inclusive hotel. That alone speaks volumes about the lack of organization and guest care. Additionally, the hotel is enormous and very difficult to get around. Distances are long, signage is unclear, and overall mobility within the property is inconvenient and exhausting. Overall, the hotel is poorly managed, overcrowded, and fails to deliver even the most basic expectations of an all-inclusive resort. I would not recommend it, especially for guests expecting convenience, organization, and proper service.

  Jan 03, 2026
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  Elitist resort

  Check-in was not a pleasant experience- very long queue and no information given about the hotel at all. We had a family room in block 9. It was extremely spacious and clean but the bathroom had some black mould and the bath tap ran brown water so we did not use it. We only got to eat in the main restaurant as all the other places were fully booked. We enjoyed the food at the buffet, high standards of hygiene, good choice and good for people like me with dietary requirements. Best thing about the resort are the animation team especially Laura, July, Alan and Romario. I did the 9am stretch and breath work class (mostly on my own). Romário’s class was very powerful (words of another guest) and I felt rejuvenated afterwards. Laura I will remember your fun energy and July your elegant and sophisticated touch to the classes. I loved that there was a discotheque on site but it was very cold and a few people did not stay long. The shows were mostly of a very high standard and the highlight was the samba bateria on the beach! The new year’s eve party was about average - they did go to a lot of effort with the show and fireworks. We loved the variety of animals on site and my husband even saw a snake! We booked the snorkel trip via Nicolas at the resort for $50 and that was okay but we were not lucky to see sting rays or turtles. Now the downside and the reason for the 3 star rating. None of us liked the elitism at the hotel. It was the first time I had seen such segregation at a resort (and i have been to over 100 all inclusives all over the world) . An adults only quiet section is acceptable but to have bars and pools based on status is truly awful and for that reason I would not recommend the hotel to anyone. There was no aqua gym at our pool one day so we attended the one in the adults only section (we are adults) and then got told off! Surely it’s better to have more people doing aqua than just two! Also it leaves a very bad taste when the hotel want to charge you for using the facilities on the day of your checkout. Most all-inclusive are happy for their guests to use the facilities once leaving their room. Hope this review helps you make the right decision for your stay and I’m happy to answer any questions.

  Jan 03, 2026
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  Loved my experience!

  Have to say was a great experience. The food was awsome at the buffet as well. If you are able to get into the special food venues it is incredible food. I was at pool bar on family side have to say Julio Mac was a great bartender and a guy who made me laugh he was incredible at his job always went above and beyond every day!

  Jan 02, 2026
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  Mostly mediocre

  There are two great things here: the grounds are gorgeous, and the wristband is the room key! I loved both of those things every day. And the beach here is lovely. Beyond that, meh. Our “ocean view” room was smaller than a “junior suite” usually is, and looked into a courtyard. Shower door didn’t close. The place is not well laid out, so the adults only sections criss cross with the family sections. The food was fine, but not great. The house wine was so terrible we took a cab into town on day two to find a liquor store. (They do have an extensive wine menu from which to BUY better wine - by the bottle only - and we did that too.) Often long lines for food & drinks because not all spaces were open. No clue why. And “all inclusive” but tip jars everywhere. One day they ran out of towels an hour before closing. Etc. This is a resort that is pretending to be upscale, but isn’t really.

  Jan 02, 2026
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  The Good The Bad The Ugly

  The GOOD : the beach is the best that I’ve seen in many years. Stunning, soft, easy rock free water entry. I thought the several mentions of not needing to be up at dawn to save your chair were exaggerated. Not so. Tons of spots under towering palm trees. Grounds of this jungle Eco resort were beautifully kept. The staff were for the most part very friendly & accommodating. Other than the Italian restaurant, food was only tepid & asking it to be heated up only brought another-new plate- that was as cool as the first, all other restaurants varied from good to very good. The BAD : room on the family side of resort was far from the beach,adult pools,entertainment venue,most of restaurants. So we decided to pay over $700 more to move to the adult only section of this large beautiful resort. This first “upgraded” room- AC was busted & was locked on 15 degrees C (59 F) and we were shivering immediately. Opening the patio door condensed the mirrors & tile floors were slippery as a result. 2 visits from maintenance were not successful in fixing an issue that was admitted afterwards that was noted from the previous people in this room. So we shut the AC off all together. Heat did not work. Then! When I went into shower to see the black mold on the ceiling. (I’ll try to post pics & video-hope they upload). We were booked to move again the following day. I could not figure out the issue with the taste of the water from the in room dispenser (great idea in principle). After the second room gruesome taste, I realized it was old room temp water was sitting for ??how many weeks or months in the large dispenser. It was leaching from the plastic jug! So disgusting. Lighting was so dim that we had to call maintenance,again, to fix 2 of them so we could at least read. Never did fix the fan in the 2nd bathroom even after letting front desk know that black mold was in the future here as well. Could see more dark was painted over & was seeping through the temporary “fix”. The stair railing leading to the buffet building was swaying 6” back & forth, almost busted out of the concrete. There were 2 railings like this. Waiting for someone to fall, break a hip, lawsuit. The video I took was recorded by reception to send on to “someone”. 6 days later, one railing was STILL rockin”. Someone moved the wet floor dangerous sign back into the corner. Got tired of seeing it?? BUT the railing next door leading to the “Royal” level was fixed. Guess you need to spend tens of thousands on a timeshare to have a safe environment (?). There were only 2 shuttles-last few days only 1 as the other was needing repair. The shuttle only stopped & picked up at 3 places in the large resort. So at busy dinner times, there was a lengthy wait time as the lineup to use the shuttle was longer. More staff & extra shuttles needed to accommodate a place this size. Loved seeing the wildlife roaming free. But at the beachside cafe diner, the group of Coati crawling all over the tables was a bit much. Staff did spray clean the tables, but proceeded to place the clean wrapped utensils on the table with the fork/knife ends poking out. Then the. Kati were crawling on the cleaned tables. Suggest: maybe leave the utensils packs inside for people to pick their own when getting their self serve food so one could be sure they were clean(!?). The morning of checkout, we followed the man who came for our luggage. The lights were off, cost saving(?) and it was like being in a cave. Pitch black! Couldn’t see hands in front of face. And there’s no railings or elevators in these buildings, which we were not informed of when paying over $700 extra to move there. My friend has terrible knees. At least it was only 2 flights of stairs. Too tired to move again. My only thought was-what if this building would need to be suddenly evacuated?? Running your hand along the wall hoping not to fall down the stairs would be quite a disaster in a panic situation. The ATM was out most of the week. As it was on Isla Mujeres. And the market down the street. Don’t know why so widespread. If you want US$$ we were out of luck. So tipping was limited after I used up my US $. The staff ATM was functioning if you wanted pesos. The UGLY: we met timeshare owners, informed us that this resort is closing in 2026 as the front “adult” section buildings are being torn down for a big renovation/upgrade. This was not mentioned anywhere when I was first reading reviews on this site. SOOO they decided to charge us many hundreds of dollars to put us in a freezing,mold infested room, that had previous complaints!! (Someone did mention mold in a review here but management came back denying it so I ignored it thinking it was a disgruntled tourist. Now it’s me!). And serving toxic gross water for the rooms. And ignoring railings that are about to break off. And no lighting in the public areas for at least the last part of the night. Wild animals crawling over utensils that people are about to put in their mouths. We did have a great vacay as far as the amazing excursions, stunning beach, good food, friendly people. Shoutout to Jesse, the young woman in reception. She was inundated with lines of people all week. She was kind & patient dealing with all the “stuff” that this resort offers. BUT: Having travelled a lot of countries & different resort companies, we can without a doubt say that this first SANDOS experience will be our last. After several attempts to talk to management,after supervisors were not able to help us with a rebate of some sort for upgrading to an inferior room, the time that the manager was coming into shift kept moving. They ran out the clock until we left the resort. We are not interested in the standard response here“please reach out to us”. Attempts to see her/him while we were onsite there were not successful so that’s the end. We are telling everyone to AVOID SANDOS.

  Jan 01, 2026