Grand Oasis Tulum Riviera

We stayed at the Grand Oasis Tulum for the first time. We enjoyed the resorts amenities it! The food in the buffet was very good and lots of choice. The a la carte restaurants were also good but it was a bit confusing at the makitaco restaurant. We were unclear on the menu items as the headings were unclear.
We enjoyed all the pools but did feel the two pools on the adult side by the outside bar was very outdated and needed matinance. The paint, surface was pealing alot.
The servers and staff were awesome! We were a bit disappointed with all but one bar closing by 5-6 pm, and no beach side service. I loved the family side and adults only pool!!! The snorkeling was a great treat as well☺️ [Details]

This may have been a 4 star resort originally but that ship sailed years ago. It might rate a 3 star in Cuba. We waited for an hour and an half after our 3pm checkin only to find our room had no towels, soap or shampoo and smelled mouldy and of sewage. Our upgraded junior beachfront suite was dirty (we actually paid more for this) had little or no water pressure and we didn't have hot water until our last day. The front desk and management were useless and we were told that the problems were being fixed daily. Other guests were told that their problems were unique and were the only ones experiencing them, not true at all. The smell of cigarette smoke was disgusting and there was no control of where they could smoke. The bathroom smelled of sewage until we plugged the floor drain although we needed it because the shower leaked. To top it all off, the bed had bugs, our arms and legs looked like a pin cushion. This unit had not been touched since it was built. The resort fee was $1,480 pesos (~$125 cdn) which was piracy. The timeshare sales people were like a flock of vultures. The resort had two sections, the old general public section and the new members only section, hence the push to upgrade at checkin and the sales team. The all inclusive “premium” alcohol was one draft beer (terrible) and Smirnoff vodka (when they actually had any). The food and service could definitely use some improvement. Everything was very cheap and basic. The only positive thing was the great beach and the fantastic weather we had. As we agreed with our neighbours, this was an expensive camping trip. [Details]

The hotel is quite big. There are actually 2 resorts. Older, true Mexican and newer, modern.
Ours was a corridor labyrinth; however it's in a nice setting. Quite a few swimming pools and the restaurants. The best part is the beach. On a calm day you can swim with fish without snorkelling.
The food was excellent and the personnel is very obliging. ( they could speak more English ). Our room was quite spacious and always clean.
It could be a more entertaining there. Not much to do for young people.
Overall experience was satisfactory. Stands to its **** [Details]

This resort is very run down and is, in its current condition, at best a 3.5 stars. There are a number of health and safety issues like dirty pools without proper filtration ( only 1 of 7 pools we saw had filtration working), uneven or broken tiles on walkways and in pools (people tripping or cutting themselves in dirty pools), lack of hot water, broken toilets, pooling water on stairs and hallways without proper signage, broken door locks, no visible lifeguards on duty, and the list goes on. There are not enough lounge chairs for the number of guests on site, terrible for older guests and mobility challenged individuals as you had sit on a towel on the beach and you are hounded by time share people who are trying to sell you on this run-down property. Had to pay the equivalent of $125 approx. Canadian ($1295 pesos Mexican - $185 MXN per night) at check-in for environmental cleaning fee yet the rooms, site and pools are dirty. Kinda of a rip-off. Our room smelled of sewage all week but at least we had hot water in it, some other guests we met had not had hot water for 6 days! Note that the resort basically shuts down at 11pm each night and the availability of food or alcohol is basically non-existent. You can get coffee ... who drinks coffee at 11pm... not me. We arrived at hotel at 1am and they turned on the light over the reception but everything else is shut off. The positives are mostly good food, friendly service, a la cartes without reservations and nice beach but rocky. We had upgraded to a beachfront room through our travel provider but did not get what we paid for. I think they give people the worse rooms so they can get you to upgrade again with them at $700 CAD more. More rip-off. If you book this place, go in with very low expectations and do not pay 4-4.5 stars prices. Note: Had the check a box Recommended for but I do not recommend this property. [Details]

Hotel was very clean. Staff was excellent. The food was great . there wasn't much to do on the resort the entertainment was a little slack. No music around the pools. [Details]

In reality there were two levels of room, one were the newer renovated and cleaner, closer to the main lobby and the second were the older rooms with stained bathtub, nonfunctional balcony doors, no icing machines in the site and farther from the lobby. I understand the resort reserves the rights to keep the better rooms for VIP or booking mades through agents for commission so not as surprising. [Details]

Unfortunately my mother had a very expensive (approx 5000$) gold bracelet stolen from the safe in our room. We kept the 'do not disturb' sign on our door the entire time, we were on the third floor (no balcony), and there was a security camera right in front of our room because we were in front of the elevator. When trying to get an investigation into the theft we got the run around by management, and now they will not answer our calls. [Details]

Way smaller hotel than appeared. Restaurants weren't what was expected either. Some staff was fabulous, some were grumpy. Not a place I'd recommend to other travelers unless you were looking for something very small. [Details]

Overall Grand Oasis Tulum resort met our vacation needs. Our first warm holiday with our 5 year old twins. Pay the little bit extra to get the ocean front room as it was on ground level and steps away from beach side pool and beach. Would not recommend people to stay in the Grand Tulum Lite. Never seen the rooms but no action. Honestly we walked there every evening before we had supper just to get some exercise...beautiful walk but that facility looks like it has been deserted. Tables are set in the restaurant but there is no staff to be seen. Rooms were clean. We had one lengthy power outage but felt the resort recovered well. We were still able to eat at the restaurants that evening and the grounds were cleaned up quite quickly after a wind storm the following warm. Apparently power goes off quite frequently when the winds get up due to aging infrastructure. Would not recommend this for a adult group or adults only unless all you want to do is relax. Not much for activity or night life. [Details]

only buffet to eat pass 5 pm, no BBQ food, everything cooked or fried, and they shut down everything at 11:00 pm even the lights [Details]

We had a great family trip. Kids had a blast at the Kids Zone. The whole family enjoyed the beach and resort grounds. Everything was well kept and the nightly entertainment some nights was pretty awesome and unique. The coffee bar was great along with the sushi bar. Service was friendly, overall a 4-5 star experience. [Details]

Had an excellent vacation from check in to check out. Was upgraded to Adults only section and was really worth it. This included 2 other restaurants. [Details]

For the price expected more,only one (1) snack bar ,front line ( service desk,bartenders very difficult to understand poor english skills) [Details]

Great experience! Beautiful place, I would go back!! [Details]

My family's experience at the Grand Oasis Tulum was fantastic. I have nothing negative to say. The staff was so friendly and helpful. The food was excellent. The buffet offered a great variety of both Mexican and other kinds of foods. It was very fresh and delicious. We were very impressed. The Sarape Mexican restaurant was also excellent. The waiters there were wonderful and the food was also delicious. The rooms were clean and comfortable. My son used the Kids Club and we were impressed with how well organized they were and how friendly and engaging the staff was. Spike, Brenda and Ilse were wonderful. Noeli at the coffee and me shop was delightful and made delicious coffee drinks. The beach is one of the best along this area of the riviera. The snorkelling was great. So many colourful fish. Reef is just a short distance from shore. AKumal bay is only a 5 minutes away where you can see the sea turtles. We would definately return. [Details]

Not clean, horrible service, no air conditioning in room, poor food. would never go again. [Details]

Most staff were great. However, the front desk staff had extremely poor customer service. Half our vacation was lost to switching rooms and being treated poorly by front desk. The hotel has many issues in their rooms with maintenance, i.e. connecting rooms do not have doors that can lock, leaking air conditioners, significant mold. The location and snorkeling is great. Food is similar quality to what you will find in an all inclusive. The kids pool had good facilities. However, there are many other hotels you can go to in Akumal for similar pricing that does not have such poor customer service and you will have better rooms. Would suggest Bahia Principe Tulum, Akumal bay Beach or Secrets instead. Also, we found the Iberostar Paraiso to be very good but it is a bit further from Akumal. [Details]

very good. staff very friendly. great food. rooms are very clean. beach is wonderful ! great snorkelling. even saw a black stingray !! lots of nice colourful fish. swimming pools great for kids too. [Details]

Nice resort, well maintained. Numerous uniform Lifestyle Vacations staff walk around and try to engage you in their membership to Lifestyle Vacations. We participated, definitely a time share and was very "scam like". This was very suspicious and we were turned off. All other aspects of the resort was very good. beach was nice sand, but water shore was rocky and coral, not nice for walking in the water. Lot of fish. Danger of sea urchins, black sea urchin, long-spined sea urchin, very dangerous. [Details]

We had great expectations of this hotel due to the good reviews on Trip Advisor, however soon after arrival we began to have second thoughts. Firstly the Front Desk/Reception did not direct us to the proper area for check-in. We had booked and paid for the Sian Kaan Room which included several privileges and extras, or, so we thought! As we were early our room wasn't ready, this was fine, we were quite prepared to wait until the posted 3pm check in. Right off the bat, the front desk tried to charge us for a safety deposit box and internet service which were included as part of our extras. They showed us a map of the resort and then spent several minutes explaining to us all about the nightly shows they had, never mind where the restaurants are and which ones we could go to. Then, out of the blue, the telephone rang, which she answered. When she got off the phone, she started servicing other customers, never to return! The room was not ready until 4.30pm, when shown to the room it was smelling very strongly of air freshener which made me immediately suspicious. My instinct was right, about an hour later the room smelled like we had just smoked a packet of cigarettes. I spoke to reception who told me it was a non smoking room, in fact the whole building was non-smoking.

We went to see the concierge regarding this problem she said that they would look into it. The next morning we went for our 11.00am welcome meeting which was shown on our card from our tour operator, to be told by the tour operator's reps the meeting was at 9.30am. Who got it wrong?? Not us!! Apparently the tour operator reps told us it was the hotel!! In the end, no welcome meeting.

As each day went by, the smoking problem became worse, our room smelled disgusting. The hotel offered us a room change, not what we had booked or paid for, in fact a big down grade with no offer of compensation. We refused as we knew from the cleaning staff that there was a room vacant down the hall, the same as we had paid for. By midweek we were completely smoked out. I went back to the concierge and asked to change rooms as we had found out there was a room the same becoming vacant. Again to be told that was not possible as there was none vacant and if we wanted a room change our room had to be packed and vacated immediately. We were leaving for an excursion trip we had booked within 5 minutes, the concierge said that if we wanted a different room we had to miss our trip! This was not happening.

The next afternoon at about 5pm we were smoked out, I managed to see from outside someone on the 3rd floor smoking, we called the concierge and reported this. Again we'll look into it was the reply. At 11pm that night we were smoked out again, I took the law into my own hands and went door knocking....The culprits had no idea (why would they) that they had caused so much misery and said that they were leaving tomorrow.

Tomorrow came (day 6 of our vacation) and the smoking issue got resolved, not by the hotel staff or management, but by the culprits checking out. It was nice breathing fresh air in the room for a change. Again, or so we thought! Later that day, a pungent sewer smell started which resonated in the room for the rest of our vacation.

A few times each day, we spoke with the concierge, pleading for action on the smoking. We also asked to see the hotel manager. The response was that the manager was either not in, or unavailable.

In Mexico it is illegal to smoke indoors. However, there are no restrictions in the resort on any outdoor patio, around a pool, in any corridor, or on the beach. If you are a non-smoker, you will only escape the smoke inside a restaurant or in the lobby. Note, if you want to get to the non-smoking restaurant or the non-smoking lobby, best to run fast, hold your nose and not breathe. Everywhere else is open season. If you are a smoker, this resort is the closest thing to paradise. The resort makes absolutely no accommodation for non-smokers.

The rooms...we met many couples that had to change rooms for a multitude of reasons. Smoking, sewer smell, A/C issues, noise, flooded bathrooms, etc...for us, initially, our 46 inch television was not working, but we got a working 32 inch by the end of the day. If you care about the environment and saving water, taking a shower was always fast as the water was, at best, lukewarm. The word on the resort was that there was a direct pipeline of water from the swimming pools. An FYI, the swimming pools are truly beautiful at this resort, but we never saw anyone swimming in them over the whole week. Why? Ice cold water. Security wise, our safe in the room was not bolted down to anything. Yes, you read that correctly! We also heard of several people having items stolen from their rooms.

The beach...over the first few days, we saw several people with injuries, ie casts, bandages and the like. As the week went on, we saw paramedics come to the resort twice for injuries. The sea can be rough, is rocky in places and has many spiny creatures to step on. If this scares you from going in the sea, choose the pools, but remember to pack a wet suit. If you still opt for the beach and want a beach chair, make sure to set your alarm clock for 7am to be up to find a chair to that already does not have a towel on it, otherwise you will be shut out.

Vultures...not a bird problem here, but the Lifestyle timeshare salespeople. In most places, no means no. Not here.

Internet service...if it is included in your package, you won't have to pay the $30 US fee for five days of use, and it is only good for one device. When working, the speeds are fast. However, we noticed that the internet was mostly down, and on the few times when it was up, we could not get a signal inside the room.

With all of this, this resort has a lot of potential. You won't go hungry. The food is decent in most of the restaurants.
Apart from the ghost-like management should you run into a problem, there are many staff members that went above and beyond. Hipolita and Cesar at the beach, Mayra at the dive centre, Ezekiel in Italian restaurant, Miguel in the Steakhouse and Alfredo in the Sarape Restaurant. [Details]

GRAND OASIS TULUM - had great service in the restaurant and in the Customer Service Rep wondering around the foyer. Most staff went above and beyond. The front desk supervisor (Isabelle)was terrible, she was rude and made little efforts to service the issues that we had with the rooms. The rooms were old, and the AC did not work well, which made for some uncomfortable sleeping arrangements. I am still wondering why 2 beds were pushed together for 4 people.Beach was nice. [Details]

My wife and I had a very enjoyable experience at the Grand Oasis Tulum. Having read a number of negative reviews we were a bit apprehensive but all went well. The staff, food, beach, excursions were all excellent. It is a calm resort not a party resort which is what we wanted. No disappointments what so ever. [Details]

The hotel was beautiful,rooms great,the roof top balcony w/ bar and jacuzzies was really nice. Beach very nice, the hotel is directly on the beach. The pools where nice, it is a small to mid size resort. 20mins to Tulum and 30 minutes to Playa de carmen. Take the local shuttles, much cheaper. The staff very nice and helpful. My partner and I didnt care for the buffet food, But we heard the resturants were really good, we did a a lot of travelling outside the resort so we did not eat at any of them. If you look at pictures we had an ocean front room, but no balcony or the windows didnt open, but still very nice. They have balconies with pool view and maybe some ocean view too. [Details]

Absolutely not one complaint about this place. We stayed on the grand side, which I recommend then you can enjoy the other great areas you see in the photos. If it was up to me I would tell the resort to do away with the 2 tier resort system and just have it all access, then maybe the areas would been used and enjoyed by more people. Great beach great staff great food. No theft issues or shady things. Sometimes the room tap or shower had a tendency to go cold or too hot. One night we didn't shower cause we never got hot water back. Although its a piss offm minor issue and no place will be perfect. Also, I wish places didn't charge you for use of the room safe or WiFi. [Details]

We travelled with 2 other couples and when we booked the trip in late December we understood that it was a bit of a gamble because the Grand Oasis Tulum was only "re-opening" on January 4th, 2013 so there were many unknowns. As the month of January progressed, we became quite alarmed at the negative reviews on Trip Advisor for the adjoining Oasis Tulum (there wasn't a separate category on Trip Advisor for the Grand Oasis Tulum). We had booked Gardenview Rooms, but were given beautiful Oceanview Rooms and gold bracelets (we still aren't sure why, but we guess that it was because we actually booked the Grand Oasis Tulum rather than upgrading from the regular Oasis - just a guess). As VIP (gold bracelet) Grand Oasis customers, we were treated like royalty: special area in the breakfast buffet seating (mimosas, smoked salmon, fresh berries, etc.), an amazing lobby with an espresso bar, infinity pool, rooftop beds and cooling pools, free wifi, access to some different ala cartes than the Oasis customers - ate at La Careyes 3 times (twice for dinner and once for lunch) - so yummy!! The rooftop beds and cooling pools were a favorite spot for our group. The resort has excellent service and wonderful staff - Guadelope (server), Hipolita (server), Ricardo (bartender), Liberato (bartender), Marianna (omelet station), Noe (waiter at La Careyes) to name a few. The rooms were gorgeous, beds very comfortable (pillow top), and the beach was fantastic - protected from the crashing waves by the coral reef, so calm for snorkeling. The resort is a short 45 minute walk or 2 minute collectivo ride to fantastic snorkeling in Akumal Bay (sea turtles, fish & sting rays). They were still working on some aspects of the resort, but we viewed our stay as a "soft opening" and were very pleased indeed. [Details]