Stay at Hemingway Resort. The beach is so beautiful and peaceful. The cabanas are rustic and romantic. We stayed ocean front in the Buho cabana and it met our needs perfectly. Hot water was a little hard to come by, but it was clean, the decor darling, and watching the sun rise over the water from bed every morning was unforgettable.

A word of caution though, you may want to avoid eating meals there other than the free breakfast (assorted bread with papaya jam, followed by fresh mango, pineapple, melon & papaya). The food is good and portions are big, but be prepared to pay premium NYC prices which may lead to some sticker shock when settling up on your last day.

There are no menus; you just sit down and ask for a meal and they bring you what they have without mention of price. When we first arrived we had an amazing cold seafood salad, put together with the catch of the day: octopus, scallops, squid, barley and pico de gallo topped with a jumbo shrimp. It was the freshest-tasting seafood we'd ever had, caught that morning by local fishermen. The next night we had dinner there: pasta with scallops followed by an enormous fillet of salmon with thinly-sliced potatoes on top. With no refrigeration on the premises, we couldn't take home leftovers. Looking at the itemized bill before checking out, that seafood salad was $32 and that pasta was $38 and that salmon was $44 which we were not prepared for.

A couple of other restaurants that were delightful (and less of a surprise when the bill came) -- for a five-star dinner, Hechizo, run by the classically-trained chef/son of Austrian emigres, where we had one of the best meals of our lives, and for authentic Mexican, Don Cafeto, great mole & pickle salad.

When we first arrived everything was quiet and the beach was calm. We settled in at 10 pm and the power went off shortly after -- thats when the fireworks started. A bus full of drunken men showed up screaming and yelling and carrying on. Glass shattered over, and over again as we heard shots of "Falvo! Ed! Falvo!" Followed by loud obnoxious laughter. It was so loud that we heard one of them getting yelled at by one of their friends but it continued until 4 am. The next day we saw a man in a rubber mask and an orange prison jumpsuit running shackled through the complex. We don't know if he was with the group, but we bet he was from one of the problem cabins. One cabana had dozens of empty beer bottles and cans on the porch and grating filthy rap music playing at all hours. Despite this we still liked our vacation a lot. We lost a brown sock and Claudio was more than happy to give us a new one.

This place is not worth the money. We arrived late afternoon to find the office closed and the one staff member we managed to locate wandering around the premises didn't know anything about our arrival. So of course we were given the worst room. For a place with only 10 rooms I expect them to at least know someone was showing up. Our room had a strong odor of sewage, nearly impossible to stand in the bathroom. When we asked to switch rooms due to a late night party next door, we were told we had to wait for the owner because both the owner and manager were offsite (for what turned out to be two days). We didn't bother to wait around and left for a much nicer place for the same price in Akumal.
What are we paying for? Certainly not attentive, knowledgeable staff, a manager on site, reliable food or even morning coffee, or a properly functioning sewer system. A place without basic amenities that smells of sewage and lacking the capacity to properly care for its guests cannot charge this much for a room, no matter how eco it is. For the price, I'll take the three-room condo with the kitchen, ocean view and attentive management, thanks.

Upon a recent vacation to Mexico, I booked a reservation with “LocoGringo.com”. Their website and description of a hotel did not match the services received upon our arrival. The room had fecal matter in the waste basket when we arrived, the room smelled of sewage and there was a loud generator as well as a very noisy party adjacent to the complex that was not moderated by the security on site. The manager was not on site and the guard at first told us they were "closed". This was our welcoming party. As we were in a foreign country and had no other place to stay, we spent the first night in the hotel and then decided to go in search of somewhere we could sleep.

After a full day of international travel followed by a sleepless night, we were not very pleased with our accommodations...

The manager of the hotel was not available or on site from the time we arrived on the 21st of April until when we left in the evening on the 22nd. .

I had contacted the “LocoGringo.com” people and actually went to their office in Akumal, Mexico in hopes of a resolution, but they informed me that they had already paid the hotel owner and I would have to clear it with her. As she has no phone number and is completely aloof, this is more than difficult to do. After spending a day trying to get in contact with our "friends" at Locogringo.com, I was given the run-around and finally had to contact my credit card company

In hopes that others will not make the same mistake- I recommend the Hacienda de las Tortugas in Akumal, just to the north. Roberto is a very attentive Manager and the rooms are very comfortable with a full kitchen, pool and ocean view. They were the same price as the dump we stayed in at Tolum...

Best,

Jesse