Hotel spotlight: Occidental Xcaret all-inclusive resort
Occidental at Xcaret Destination (“Occidental Xcaret,” as there are a few Occidentals out there!) is a family-friendly, budget-conscious, all-inclusive resort along the Maya Rivera, Mexico. As parents, if that doesn’t sell the resort as a fantastic spot to take the kids, I don’t know what does. Occidental Xcaret is the closest resort to Xcaret, a natural theme park that offers a ton of adventure and cultural experiences. Together, Occidental Xcaret and Xcaret park pair perfectly for a fun-filled week in the sun.
Duration: 7 days
Traveled as: a family
Travel type: pleasure
Combined with: Xcaret Park and Xel-Ha Park
Driving along Mexico’s Maya Rivera, you will pass entrance after entrance to luxury hotel after luxury hotel. This area of Mexico is known for its jungles, beaches and coastal reefs (perfect for snorkelling). It’s a short drive to archeological sites such as Tulum and Chichen Itza. With young children who may not be up for a long snorkelling tour or may not appreciate ancient ruins, Xcaret is an excellent way to sample the nature and heritage this area has to offer. For families who plan on spending the week exclusively at a resort, Occidental Xcaret might not make the top of your list of all-inclusive resorts in the area. But for those looking to take advantage of Xcaret park, Occidental Xcaret is the perfect location at the right price-point.
Hotel information
The hotel
Occidental Xcaret was built in 2002, and taken over by the Barcelo group in 2015. It is the only resort that is walkable to and from Xcaret park. There is a Royal Club area, which operates likes a time-share, with it’s own pool and beach access.
Location
Occidental Xcaret is located between Cancun and Tulum. It is approximately 75km from Cancun (a 1.5 hour drive), and 60km (a 45 min drive) from Tulum. It is 15 minutes away from Playa del Carmen. Cancun airport is your closest international airport.
The best way to get from the airport to Occidental Xcaret is by hired car. There are many companies in the area where you can book transportation online in advance. We used Happy Shuttle Cancun, and we were happy with their service.
Rooms
The hotel has both standard rooms with double beds, as well as suites. The resort is big, with a total of 765 rooms in various complexes around the resort. There is a hotel “train” that circles the resort, to transport tired little feet from beach to room.
Dining
Occidental Xcaret has 11 restaurants. There are 2 buffet restaurants. The main buffet is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The beachside buffet converts to a surf-and-turf type a-la-carte restaurant for dinner. There is 1 smaller “fast food”/grill-type buffet near the pool.
Specialty dining includes a steakhouse, Asian cuisine, Italian cuisine, and traditional Mexican cuisine. All specialty restaurants require business casual attire.
There is also a fast-food taco joint and pizza joint, for those early afternoon or late night cravings.
Room service is available, but at a cost.
The kids enjoyed the buffet, as they love getting to see and pick what they want to eat. There is always a fresh fruit bar, and of course, desserts and soft serve ice cream. The main buffet has a different “theme” each evening, from Italian, to seafood, to Mexican. Our favourite was the taco spot, and even Lil S, who is skeptical of tacos, loved the food!
Beach
The Maya Rivera coastline is naturally rocky, so the beach is a human-made lagoon tucked away from the shoreline. It’s relatively small, but the waters are calm and perfect for children. You can also see tropical fish, but the water can be murky if there are waves.
Pools
There are 7 pools (some connected together), and an adult-only rock lagoon that faces the ocean. It gets pretty crowded pool-side, particularly in the afternoon. There are staff around the pool area who run activities such as dance contests and bean-bag toss.
On-site activities
Occidental Xcaret has a small kids club and kiddie pool, which was not very busy when we visited. It was quite small and not particularly impressive, and neither kid wanted to stay there for long. There is a small playground behind the club.
The resort has a ton of animals, from a deer enclosure, a flamingo enclosure, to wild monkeys, iguanas, and coatis.
Sports include a mini-putt course, 2 tennis courts, and archery. There is a gym, a spa, and a small arcade that takes cash only.
There are evening performances in the main atrium, from live music to Mexican heritage performances.
Occidental Xcaret does not offer water activities (parasailing, ski-doos, etc).
“Unlimited Xcaret Experience”
The Unlimited Xcaret Experience is a package offered exclusively to guests staying at Occidental Xcaret. It costs approximately $1000, and gives the family unlimited access to Xcaret park for your entire stay. As entrance tickets for the park would have cost us around $500, this was completely worth it for us as we visited Xcaret Park almost every day. We also liked that we could enter the park through 2 entrances directly from the resort, without having to walk to the crowded main entrance.
We may not have made full use of the package, as the package also lists a bunch of other things, such as VIP check in, unlimited speciality dining reservations, spa and hotel credits, etc. You pick up your experience pass directly with the Xcaret office within the resort, which did not seem connected with the resort at all. We did not eat at the Xcaret park (we came back to the hotel for lunch and dinner), but the Unlimited Xcaret package does include a 10% discount.
Occidental Xcaret vs Hotel Xcaret
There are 3 hotels around Xcaret Park. Besides Occidental Xcaret, the other two hotels are Hotel Xcaret, and Hotel Xcaret Arte. The Xcaret parks company owns both of these hotels. Hotel Xcaret Arte is adult only, so families looking to stay in the area will be deciding between the Occidental Xcaret and Hotel Xcaret.
Hotel Xcaret is a luxury hotel, and I would say the main deciding factor is cost. A one-week trip to Occidental Xcaret cost our family of 4 just under 4000 CAD. (We booked directly through the hotel website and received a discount. This includes the $1000 Unlimited Xcaret Experience package.) The same stay at Hotel Xcaret would have cost us 12000 CAD.
We didn’t feel our experience was negatively impacted in any way staying at the Occidental Xcaret. In fact, one of the aspects we found most convenient was being able to walk directly to Xcaret Park via our hotel (there is also a gondola that takes you there along a canal, but it is slower than walking!) One of the resort’s direct entrances takes you from the beach area/kids area of Xcaret Park directly to our own resort’s beach, which was super convenient. Hotel Xcaret is further from the park, and has a small boat to ferry guests to the park that actually passes directly through the Occidental Xcaret.
With how much time we spent at the Xcaret Park, we would have felt guilty about missing out on the resort itself had we actually splurged on Hotel Xcaret!
Xcaret Parks access
A consideration is if you stay at Hotel Xcaret, you can access all of Xcaret’s parks for free. The Unlimited Xcaret Experiences only covers the flagship Xcaret park. Xcaret group runs 7 other parks in the area, including Xel-Ha (the natural water-park), Xplor (adventure park), Xavage (adrenaline park), Xenotes (explore cenotes). Assuming each of these park entrances average out to $500/visit, it may make Hotel Xcaret seem more appealing. Our kids were too young for most of the other parks, and we did not want to overwhelm our vacation with too many day-trips. The only other park we booked was Xel-Ha, and found between chilling at the resort and visiting Xcaret’s main park, it was more than enough adventure for us!
Occidental Xcaret may not be right for you if:
…The beach experience is important
As we mentioned, Occidental Xcaret has a small, manmade lagoon. If you are looking for a long stretch of white sands beach with unobstructed ocean views, getting to read a book or nap on your lounger in peace, this is not it.
The beach is great for those with little kids. The lagoon is relatively shallow, calm, and small enough we could relax on the beach and keep an eye on the kids while they swam in the water. It’s also a good little spot to try out some snorkelling, as there are always schools of fish in the area.
… The dining experience is important
We are not foodies, and were generally satisfied with the variety at the resort. (Apart from the fact that Daniel had a night of stomach upset after eating at the steakhouse.) Honestly, any place where I don’t have to think and meal-plan, cook and clean is a win in my books. However, we were not particularly wowed by the food and dining experience. We would not recommend staying at the Occidental Xcaret if wining and dining is important to you!
…You are looking for a more intimate, boutique experience.
Occidental Xcaret is *large*. The atrium and main building is ginormous. It doesn’t always feel that way, because there is plenty of nature on the resort to explore, but it’s definitely not a boutique experience.
…If your kids spend a lot of time at kids clubs.
Honestly, this kids club was pretty underwhelming.
Prepare for:
…An extra-long check in process
As far as we could tell, the front desk is dead quiet all through the day, then 3pm check-in hits and boom, it’s pandemonium. This also coincides with when most of the travellers arrive, but the check-in process is unusually slow.
If you arrive early, check-in in advance. Then you only need to pick up your wristbands (they act as keys) at 3pm. We luckily arrived early enough to check-in and have lunch – when we went to collect our wristbands, the line was at least an hour long.
…Time-share pitches
As part of the Barcelo group, Occidental Xcaret participates in a time-share program (their “Royal Club”). There will be at least one staff that will offer to drive your family around – to the beach, or to tour the grounds – and pitch their time-share presentation. We were only approached twice, and most of the staff are fairly subtle about it, but it can still be a turn-off.
… Lots of walking
Occidental Xcaret is big, and the grounds are extensive. I would say it takes a good 10-15 minutes to walk from some of the rooms to the beach. There’s a lot to do on the way, including nature trails to walk, animals to spot, and ruins to explore. But it’s a fair distance for little legs, particularly if you’ve just come from a day at Xcaret Park.
The resort does have a little train that circles the grounds every 15 minutes or so, for those that want to wait for a ride.
… Staking out a good spot by the beach if you plan to spend the day
The beach area is “tiered” (several levels as you walk down to the beach), so there are actually plenty of loungers, hammocks, and even a few day beds. However, if you want a spot on the actual beach – and we did, so we could keep an eye on the kids – it’s good to get there early. The loungers free up as lunch time rolls around, so heading to the beach in the afternoon is a good option, too.
Bottom line – why you should choose Occidental Xcaret
Easy access to Xcaret Park
I don’t want to say our favourite thing about the resort was the neighbouring Xcaret Park, but having the park in walking distance allowed us to have the perfect week of doing activities and actually being able to relax. We were able to head over the the park after breakfast, while it was still relatively quiet, and return to the resort for lunch. In the afternoons, we could lounge by the beach, or choose an area of Xcaret to just hang out while the kids played (eg. the Kids World!) There was one night we wanted to catch a show at Xcaret Park. We were able to enjoy dinner before walking over to the theatre, and even grab an ice cream on the way back! Since dining is not included at Xcaret Park, we were able to easily have all our meals at the resort.
We didn’t have to deal with the stress of planning how to visit Xcaret Park, and we could come and go as we liked, which made a huge difference in our Xcaret experience.
The cost
Occidental Xcaret is a great way to enjoy Xcaret Park and the Maya Rivera without being cost prohibitive.
The animals!
Seeing videos of curious monkeys climbing onto balcony railings may have sealed the deal for this resort. The staff bring over parrots from Xcaret Park every morning, but the best part are the wild animals that roam the resort grounds. Monkeys, deers, and tons of coatis, iguanas, and agoutis – the kids kept a running tally of how many animals they encountered throughout the week. Monkeys on the way to breakfast? Iguanas in the courtyard? The kids loved having the jungle experience without leaving the resort.
Thinking about traveling to Occidental Xcaret? Drop us a line!
