Catalonia Royal Tulum

My wife and I went here in February, before the Corona virus reduced air travel. this place has the best white sand beaches.. very relaxing pool side area with walk up bars and restaurants within steps of the pool and beach. Overall a very relaxing vacation. the only negatives were the fact that they did not have top shelf liqueur and you couldn't even pay extra for it.. They wanted you to tour the facility first, sales pitch, etc.

Great place--been a few years since I was there-great beach. Beach service was great---water is excellent--walks on the beach each direction are excellent. Topless is allowed. Would like to go back soon.

Overview: - Lovely Hotel, fantastic staff, great location, pristine beach, clear perfect sea, food management questionable. After reading a previous post suggesting that this hotel is not suitable for vegetarians, we were obviously very concerned. I immediately wrote to the hotel asking for reassurance that we would be catered for. I received a very reassuring response from Daniel, whom we got to know very well later on. Previous posts have described the merits of the Hotel, layout, lovely treelined walks to the beach, animals, beach, etc, so I will concentrate mainly on the staff and food. The staff were exceptional. We were welcomed on our arrival by Arturio who booked us in and helped us get a room on the upper floors. We wanted this as we were there for 14 nights and there is more light at the top - the lower rooms can be a bit dark. The room (1203) was great, roomy, clean, bright & colourful (not smelly), minibar stocked with drinks, savories water, etc. which was replenished every day. There were several venues to eat at different times of the day which did not require reservations. The Mexican and the Italian had very limited vegetarian choices and the food was very bland. The Asian was the best food for us, but unfortunately the seating arrangements were ridiculous. It was more of a lounge bar seating where the table was too low and the chairs were unsuitable for dining (you couldn't get your legs under the table!). It was also outside which was good and with no mossies worrying us this time of the year. I should say they were willing to offer some alternatives for us, but when you look at Mexican and Italian food alternatives it's really all the same (pasta is pasta no matter how you change it's title). The real issue is the buffet which is used more at breakfast and lunchtimes (as well as evenings). Food labelling was present but not always accurate. We found on several occasions the wrong label by the wrong food (potatoes labelled beef!). Also they were incomplete. It would describe a salad but omit the tuna, for example. None of the labels indicated whether the food was vegetarian or not. The worst issue was the terrines which were divided into two with vegetables in one half and meat or fish in the other half. Obviously all the steam, condensation and smells mixed together so often we were unable to have the selection we wanted. I think this is very poor food management and is unacceptable in a modern hotel. I would worry about people with food allergies. We had to ask regularly if the food was vegetarian and apart from the fact there was a language problem, they obviously don't get what vegetarian food is. I also asked whether the lovely little desserts contained gelatin - no chance getting an answer on that one! On the second day we reported our concerns to Daniel who is Customer Service and he proved to be the gem of the hotel. He said he would sort the issues out and helped us as much as he could. Things improved in the specialist restaurants immediately, but sadly he couldn't influence the chef to improve things in the buffet. There are two buffets, one by reception and the other by the pool. Also by the pool is a pizza / burger cafe which broke the monotony, but again the food was bland. The service was also very slow here. The other gem of the hotel was the juice bar on the beach manned by Wilbert who made fantastic juices. The pool was a good size, enjoyable to use and had a swim-up bar. I went for a walk on our first day to the pool at 9am. Not a free bed in sight and no guests in sight either! This carried on for a few days until the guest numbers started to dwindle due to Americans returning home I suspect because of the Coronavirus. Overall, a good holiday, lovely Hotel, great staff, but get that buffet sorted out, because that is what would stop us returning there again.