Paradise in Paradise (Tulum)

Member Name: goodspkr

Product:	Tulum
Date:	06/05/04 (149 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great food, Small, Only 5 km to Tulum ruins

Disadvantages: 75 minutes to Cancun airport

We just got back from a wonderful week at the Sunscape Tulum Resort. We wanted to share with others our views on this terrific hotel. Since this is a European website, Mexico is a wonderful country to visit. It has hard working people, a fascinating history and is a bargain. Tulum is on the Carribean Sea is about the furtherest south you can go in the Mexican Riveria.

The Sunscape Tulum is an all inclusive hotel (all food, drinks, etc included in the rate)located approximately 100 KM from Cancun and takes about 1.25 hours to and from the airport using private vans or taxi. It would definitely take longer if you were on a bus and dropping off other vacationers at other resorts.

I?ve thought a lot about the resort and who I would recommend it to. The clientele that we saw were families in their 30?s and 40?s and grandparents in their 50?s to their 70?s. There were a lot of young children (preteens) but not a lot of teenagers. If you?ve read other write ups people tell you if you are looking for a lot of loud nightlife, this isn?t the place for you and they are correct. Others say if you are looking for ?wow? it isn?t the place for you. They also are correct. But the Sunscape Tulum is a cozy and comfortable small resort (278 rooms) isolated from other resorts with some of the best food I?ve ever eaten. There is an understated elegance to it. It is in a word, charming.

When I saw the pictures, I thought the rooms look very nice, but I wasn?t crazy about the yellow walls on the buildings. After being there, I have come to the opposite conclusion. The rooms are nice enough, but the architecture is really lovely. The two story buildings all face a courtyard with a fountain in it and pot gardens with flowering bushes and cacti. Each room has a balcony or a patio with a table and two chairs and a hammock. Many people use this for breakfast (nice and cool) or later in the day to sit out and relax.

Walking aroun
d the grounds is easy and nothing is too far from the beach and the restaurants.

We stayed in a Junior Suite. The nicest part of the Junior Suite is that it is spacious. The furniture is rustic (heavy wood?not plush by any means, but there is plenty of drawer space). For two people it is big. The normal rooms (deluxe) are smaller, more like a normal hotel room. The big difference beside the size is that the Junior Suites has a bathtub, while the deluxe room has a shower.

All rooms also include a hairdryer, robes and slippers, a digital safe, a refrigerator stocked with coke products, fruit juices and beer and water, and a coffee maker. There is a TV in each room and although you can?t use the sleep timer with the remote, you can set it on the TV itself. The air conditioning is a bit loud and when I supplemented it with the fan, my spouse would tell me she was too cold.

Some people have complained that they didn?t get turn down service (we did though not every night) and their ?newspaper.? There are free newspapers at the reception area and in the Hacienda Buffet in the morning (I met a few people and mentioned this to them, and they were surprised?they hadn?t noticed).

The complex by the beach is really lovely. The beach itself is fairly large for the size of the resort. There are more than enough lounge chairs on the beach. In addition, there are approximately 20 hammocks strung up at various spots on the beach. There are a lot of palm trees on the beach as well, but only one area where there were enough to provide shade all day long. The sun is really intense, so we stayed in this area and got our sun in long walks down south of the resort.

We enjoyed the birds in this area on our walks. On numerous days we saw flocks of pelicans (up to 12 in a group) flying overhead. There were three albatrosses we saw every day and seagulls and sandpipers as well

The pool is a simple rectangle and loc
ated right by the beach. If you want liquor and lunch service, it is easier to get it if you are at the pool. We never got it on the beach (although others did), because I just as soon go to the bar and get it myself. Besides in a previous trip we got a couple of 20 oz mugs and it was easy to get a drink that would last an hour or so.

The sand is a mixed bag. There are places that are deep soft sand and there are places were the sand is shallow and mixed with small pieces of coral which tends to be hard on your feet. When we walked we stayed close to the water and walked around the areas where the crushed coral was. There are also areas on the walk where there is a lot of seaweed. The beach to the south is not wide (perhaps 40 feet deep).

The biggest problem is that the land south of the resort is privately owned and mainly jungle. All along the way a lot of garbage (plastic containers, rope, etc) has washed up and no one takes responsibility to clean it up. But the walk is still nice (just keep looking out to the water?the garbage is actually pretty far up on the beach). You can walk about 10 minutes south and you will come upon 3 houses. Keep going another 10 minutes and you come upon a large fallen tree in the ocean. Another 20 minutes down the shore is a piece of trash art that someone put together. Beyond the trash art is another small bare bones hotel that has a lovely lagoon and some good sized lizards that like to sun themselves on the rocks near it. We went as far as we could (trying to get to the Tulum ruins), but another 10 minutes down the beach you run out of beach and it gets to be a cliff. We were trying to walk to the ruins one morning and when we got to this point there was a road through the jungle. We walked it and got to the highway. There is an old road paralleling highway 307 which I believe the bike tours take to the ruins. We walked the final mile and one half to the ruins, but the heat was intense, so
I wouldn?t recommend it.

So as you can see if you add up the times I?ve given you, it pretty easy to take almost a two hour walk on the beach. The horseback riding also comes down the beach. One nice thing about it is that they have sacks to catch the horse droppings so the beach is free from any ?road apples.?

People talked about the water trampoline, but didn?t describe it. It is round and yellow in color and perhaps 10 feet in diameter.. It has a slide that is banana shaped that was aimed toward the beach when we were there.

The Beach Bar is fun (it is the bar with swings on it). The roof is octagonal and there are 13 swings around the bar. However, it is far to the south, so we didn?t use it very much. While we were there, additional chairs were located by the bar with small tables.

The main bar to me was a delight. It is wonderfully laid out with a large Cheers type bar surrounded by bar chairs and tables and chairs both undercover and out in the sun. There is a walkway to the north of it and another seating area on the north side of the walkway. So it is very big with lots of places to sit and meet people, both under cover and under the sun.

The main plaza is right to the west of this bar. There is a huge birdcage they put out in the daytime with some parakeets in it which they took away when they would have vendors come it (about every other night). Right off this plaza is the main reception area to the north and the chapel and the Asian restaurants to the south. Just beyond this plaza is Casanova?s Italian Restaurant to the south and the Hacienda Buffet to the North.

Most everyone raves about the food, and I?m about to do the same. Our favorite restaurant was Casanova?s. We heard that if you weren?t there right when they opened, you would have to wait until 8:30 or 9 PM. We didn?t have that experience until our last day. We ate at Casanova?s four of the seven nights we were th
ere. We ate once at the Mexican Restaurant (in the evening and twice in the daytime), once at the Asian Restaurant and once at the buffet. We also had room service for lunch on our last day there.

We obvious found everything about the Italian Restaurant to be terrific. There is a great menu (although it doesn?t change). Some people complained about the sizes of the portions at the sit down restaurants, but we found them more than adequate. You can have a five course meal in Casanovas plus bread and drinks. If you can?t fill up on this, you need to see Jenny Craig. I?m a fussy eater so I ate just two of the courses (the prima patti and the dessert). Jackie is Italian and loved the shrimp antipasta. They have about 6 antipastas, two soups, 6 pasta offerings and 4 meat (chicken, lamb, pork and beef) entrees and four seafood entrees. All the courses were not only good, but the presentation was as good as you will find anywhere. The desserts had a choice of five. Jackie really liked the tiramisu while I liked the strawberries and ice cream. We also tried the cannolis one night. They were good, but not as good as the others.

There is a wine list you can order off of for an extra charge, but the house wine was okay. You can also order lobster for an addition $27.50 US.

The restaurant itself is kept relatively cool temperature wise and it is nicely furnished. They don?t hurry you along so you can have a nice relaxing and romantic dinner there.

The Mexican restaurant is an outdoor restaurant that is open for lunch as well as dinner. It is really quite different between the two. Lunch is more like a Bennigans. In the evening it is fine table cloths and beautiful Mexican china. Jackie didn?t care that much for the food there. She likes Mexican food, but just didn?t care that much for Maya Mexican food. However, the Mayan coffee is worth going to see all by itself (quite a presentation).

The Asian Restaura
nt is the simplest in décor. The food is good, but the desserts were quite limited. The presentation again was in line with a five star restaurant. We did not eat at the Sushi Restaurant.

We also used room service once (when we were leaving). The food, presentation and service were great. The meal came with linens and when we called telling them we were needing to leave soon, it got there quickly (about 25 minutes after we ordered). It was very nice sitting on the patio eating lunch.

There was entertainment during the day and every night. During the day they had by the pool stretching classes, water volleyball, Spanish classes, dance lessons, bingo, etc. Additionally they had cooking, bar tendering, towel folding, over by the main bar. They have a cinema (really a conference room) where they have a 5 PM movie for kids (things like Finding Nemo) followed by an 8 PM movie which alternated between being shown in the cinema or on the beach. At 9:30 PM they would have a live show or activity (beach party, casino night) and this alternated between the beach and the live show theater. This entertainment is there if you want to take part, but it isn?t necessary if you are just there for the sun and ocean.

We spoke to a number of families with kids. The kids seem to be having a good time and the parents were very happy with the resort. One couple had gone to the Moon Palace for their honeymoon several years ago and then brought their 18 month old daughter down to the Sunscape. We asked them how they compared. They said the Moon Palace was plusher in the rooms, but the food was definitely better at this hotel. They said the Moon Palace had 9 restaurants (twice the number of the Sunscape Tulum), but they had 6 times the number of people and rooms.

Another person we met at the Tulum ruins told us he was staying in Cancun. He indicated they had gone to Chichen Itza two days previous and now were on the trip to Xel-Ha and
Tulum. His complaint about Cancun was that it was so far from everything. I thought this put it in perspective. If you want to go to Xel-Ha, Xcaret, Tulum, Copa, etc. you are much closer staying in Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, or Tulum. If you want a lot of night life, Cancun is the place for you.

Tulum Ruins. As you heard earlier we tried to walk there on the beach, but ran into cliffs before you get to it. I?ve seen a number of people who said you couldn?t see the ruins from the hotel. Actually, you can. You do see some buildings that are going in first. The closest building is painted white and is easy to distinguish from the ruins. But if you see the white building look to the left of it and you will see the Castile in grey stone.

We did go to the ruins and learned a lot from it.

First of all, do it. It is beautiful. The scenery is gorgeous with these ancient buildings and temples overlooking the beautiful azure Caribbean sea. There is a lot of vegetation that has grown as well with small palm trees and bushes.

Many people tell you to wear a bathing suit under your clothes as there is a beautiful beach there. This is a great suggestion. As I said the sun is very intense and the water would be a great way to cool off.

Don?t walk it. It is too hot around the ruins and on the walk there. Even the biking could be pretty hot to do. I would take a taxi ($6 each way) or to collective ($1 per person each way). The ruins open at 7 AM and I would suggest going close to 7 as the bus tours won?t be there either.

One of the other amenities you get at the Sunscape is an umbrella in your room. Take it with you. It will give you your own shade as you walk around. Additionally take some water or soft drinks with you.

Wear sneakers to the ruins. You need a comfortable shoe that can handle walking on rock.

The cost of going to the ruins is 38 Pesos per person. In addition, t
he Mexican government charges 30 Pesos to take a movie camera in to the ruins (not a still camera).
If you stay at the Sunscape, don?t miss this. It?s close, inexpensive and really beautiful.

Finally a couple of suggestions before you go there.

Take some bug spray (Off, etc.). We had a mosquito in our room and it probably took a pint of my blood over the course of 7 days.

Use email vs calling home. You can use the hotels computer room a lot cheaper than calling anywhere from the hotel. They charge $5 per connection for using the phone. If you call home even using Mexcard, there is a $5 charge. If you get a wrong number or a busy signal, there is that $5 charge. Using their computer room costs only $9 for sixty minutes and your password and authorization code deducts the number of minutes you use each time. That?s actually pretty economical.

I like a big bar of soap, so I bring my own. The bars they have there are the standard hotel round bars.

If you want to shop for bargains, the hotel and Tulum are not the place to do it. Better to go the Playa del Carmen. Even better would be to shop at the Markets in Cancun.

Getting around (like going to Playa del Carmen) is quick and easy using the collectivos. They pass about every ten minute and are clean vans with great air conditioning. They hold about 14 passengers and one driver. The cost is only $1 to Tulum or $2 per person each way to Playa. These are a great bargain.

Get yourself a mug (you can get them in WalMart for about $5). We have 20 oz mugs that keep our drinks cold and hold a lot. They also are probably cleaner than the bar tenders can do trying to clean the glasses and tend bar.

Tip. The workers in Mexico seem to be very dedicated and hard working individuals. We were tipping about $12 to $15 per day. You will get great service even if you don?t tip, but tipping gets you even more attention. For ins
tance, we tipped well in Casanova?s and had the same waiter all 4 nights. One night we were talking about getting an after dinner coffee, but didn?t order any. After dessert, he brought us on his own a coffee drink that was pretty good.

Plus the bartender at the main bar knew me and what I like to drink (try the Mango daiquiri) and would just ask if I wanted the usual.

Finally, make sure the Sunscape is what you are looking for. For us it was perfect. The charm of the place, the great food, the smallness of the resort, the friendliness of the guests and the staff was what we wanted. If you are looking for nightlife, plush rooms, constant loud entertainment by the pool, and a close town that rocks, the Sunscape Tulum is not for you. We will go back.

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