Catalonia Royal Tulum

Resort was average. Entertainment was terrible. Staff spoke very poor English. The pool has zero shade so spending more then ten minutes in it you will burn. The layout of the resort requires a lot of walking.

My husband and I have been to CRT 6x's annually. We have so many fond memories and have met countless new friends along the way. CRT has been great for us and each year we start dreaming of our next year's return to this little gem of a resort as soon as we arrive home. It breaks my heart to say that we were COMPLETELY in love with CRT until our last visit in May 2019 - in which this love was indeed soured due to being lied to by the resort management. We upgraded to Privileged for our first time. After a couple days, we found we weren't really finding any value in being upgraded. We went to management to ask to be downgraded and to have a partial refund. They refused a refund stating the card already processed and they can't perform refunds now. Seriously?? That's not how credit cards work. I suggested a cash refund and they denied us that as well. Instead, they offered a bottle of champagne and fruit, which never showed. Additionally, CRT has changed their liquor serving hours from 11am-12pm. You can not get a mimosa or bloody at breakfast anymore unless you're going after 11am as a standard guest, or after 10am for people who have paid to be upgraded to Privileged. When asked about this, they will tell you it's the Mexican law. Another fib from CRT management. The real reason is they did not obtain a permit necessary to serve regular hours. The reason for them not obtaining their permit is unknown to us, but our guess is to save money. There are plenty of other resorts in the area that I confirmed with that they serve before and after these "law hours" during the same time period we were there. Another note, which can't be faulted to anyone but Mother Nature: The seaweed is so thick and stinky, no one could enjoy the beach. It seriously looked like a scary movie out there. The staff tries very hard to clear it, but without a tractor it's a losing battle. No tractor allowed because of turtles nesting. The crystal clear waters and white sand beaches that we once adored so much are more and more a distant memory each visit. I would like to say that although we weren't happy with management this trip, we were delighted with ALL the bar, wait and entertainment staff! They are truly AMAZING!! They are all so friendly, happy to help, prompt and we love being around them all. They made our trip enjoyable, despite the issues we had with management. Some special THANK YOU's to: Rosario who always has such a sweet contagious energy about her. She can put a smile on anyone's face and is great at her job. To Eric, at the pool bar. He is so helpful, attentive and always made us feel at home and comfortable. Of course there's also Rosa, who is the life of the pool. There was also a woman host/greeter at the morning buffet, who I named "A Ray of Sunshine". I got her name, but didn't write it down. It started with a Q. Her smile was a great way to start the day.

My husband and I stayed at the Catalonia Royal Tulum for 4 nights in April 2019. The resort itself is breathtaking and the staff are, almost to a person, exceptionally helpful and kind. We flew into the Cancun airport and booked transportation (with lunch and drinks included) through Canada Transfers (we're American, but the service was excellent!). It was about an hour trip to the resort, which is a bit long, but we enjoyed seeing a bit of the area. Our check-in experience wasn't amazing, but it was one of the only unpleasant staff interactions we had (almost everyone else went above and beyond to be helpful and welcoming). The gentleman who checked us in was also speaking to someone else on the phone for the entire conversation. When he finally handed us the map (which is outdated and wasn't available in English, only French/Italian), we tried to ask questions and he was very short with us. We're easy-going people, but it was frustrating to see that the people being checked in next to us with a different staff member were having a much more positive experience--they were handed complimentary cocktails and were able to ask questions of the staff. Our room was not ready when we arrived, so we left our bags with at the well-staffed entrance and were shown around the property by one of the timeshare staff (the people dressed head to toe in white). He was very helpful, walking us through the beautiful grounds to the lunch buffet by the beach, where we enjoyed a snack and drink while waiting for our room. He walked us back after the snack and discussed their vacation club and that there was an info session the next morning. Recommend saying an immediate "no" if that's not your thing (it certainly isn't ours); we were pleasantly surprised that we weren't pressured again. The resort itself is incredibly beautiful. It's not like anywhere else I've ever stayed; nothing about it feels generic in the way all-inclusive resorts can. The jungle walkway is GORGEOUS, especially at night. The high-ceilinged, open-air lobby is a wonderful place to relax and enjoy a drink in the evening; we spent one rainy afternoon there, just reading in the comfy chairs with drinks in hand. The beach is lovely, with clear, warm water. We booked the trip through CheapCaribbean and upgraded at the time of purchase to a Privileged room. Not sure what the non-Privileged rooms looked like, but we were very happy with ours. It was spacious, with a beautiful spa-like bathroom, comfy bed, and big balcony. We requested a top-floor room (third floor) based on TripAdvisor reviews and were happy to be able to see the sky over the trees. Note that there is no elevator. Be ready to climb stairs or request a first-floor room. The Privileged rooms came with free bottled water and snacks daily, which was a nice perk. We were overall perfectly happy with the food at the resort. We felt that the breakfast buffet in the lobby was probably the best food we had. There's an enormous selection of breakfast and lunch options. The Mexican restaurant and the steak place were our favorite dinner options. The Italian place and Tao Cat (the Asian place by the cenote) were fine. We found that most of the meals with any significant amount of cheese just didn't taste right; I don't think most cheeses hold up that well in the humidity (although the actual Mexican cheeses we had seemed fine). Drinks never disappointed. We loved some of the fancy cocktails at the lobby bar, where there was never a wait. The Strawberry Basil Daiquiri by the pool was fantastic, too. The pool experience was a mixed bag. The pool itself is beautiful and the water was never too crowded because it is huge, with lots of room to spread out. Even when there was a full-blown game of water polo happening with guests and staff on one end, you could peacefully swim in the other two-thirds of the pool with no problem. The issue with the pool is that there simply are not enough pool chairs for the number of people at the resort. Other reviewers are not kidding about showing up at 6-7 am to reserve chairs. This practice is supposedly not allowed, but it clearly is not enforced at all, because even arriving at 9:30, there wasn't a single open lounge chair. My recommendation to the hotel would be to add a cubby storage area, maybe along the wall of the gym/spa, where guests can put their bags/towels if there are no pool chairs free. We simply had nowhere to put our belongings while we swam and so we frequently couldn't go swimming, because 100% of the chairs around the pool were "reserved" with others' towels on them (often with no people in sight). I was really unhappy with that, and the lack of effort to either enforce the no-reservations policy or provide an alternate place for guests' belongings was a major turn-off for me about the otherwise lovely resort. It's an issue the resort needs to address but clearly has not. We booked two tours through the staff at the desks in the lobby close to the buffet entrance (a half-day morning trip to Tulum ruins and a half-day trip to snorkel in cenotes). Super easy to do, and we enjoyed both very much. You just sit down and tell that what you're interested in doing and they have recommendations for you. Both tours picked up and dropped off at the hotel with no issues. Overall, we really enjoyed our stay at the Catalonia Royal Tulum. We hope that the pool seating/lack of storage issue will be addressed, as it really was the one significant downside to an otherwise great experience. Thanks to the great staff for a lovely vacation!