Despite its name of Catalonia Tulum, this resort is located in the Riviera Maya, just past Playa del Carmen, about one hour from Cancun International Airport.
The Catalonia Royal Tulum Hotel is an adults-only resort that did not leave a very good aftertaste in my mouth. I visited this all-inclusive hotel recently, and here is my honest opinion about the Catalonia Royal Tulum Hotel: the hotel itself is nice, big and beautiful. The staff is friendly, reception was quick to give us our keys. Our room (king size bed, for two people) was spacious, with a lovely outdoors terrace overlooking the jungle, which we loved. The room was clean, the bathroom impeccable, and the mattress and pillows were comfortable. So far, so good.
The beach is acceptable (not the best, since the best beaches in all the peninsula are in the Cancun Hotel Zone), the pools are pretty clean, and the grounds, to be honest, are beautiful with overgrown trees and mangroves.
The trouble started at dinner time: we ate at their steakhouse, and our steaks were probably cut from a brontosaurus: the meat was terribly hard and tasted old. The mashed potatoes were cold, and the bread they served was also cold. The lemonade was made from concentrate, not from fresh lemons, and the white wine was tepid. I inmediately asked the waiter why the terribly hard ribeye steaks, and he said it’s because all the food is premade and then put in a salamander over, which keeps it warm until someone asks for that dish. Terrible! I can understand the food at a buffet being premade and maybe being a little cool, but cool old premade food at a steakhouse? That’s a crime!
Then that evening, as we left the steakhouse, I had taken some bread with me (I knew I was going to be hungry later, since we barely tasted our horrible food), and there was a pack of coatis lurking on the path to our room, which we didn’t pay much attention to. Picture this: I am walking, talking to my husband, and the bread is in my hand. A coati jumps from a tree, straight for my bread, and takes not only the bread, but a chunk of my finger with it! I ran to my room, washed my hand carefully, and called reception. I told them what had happened to me, asked to speak with the hotel doctor to get a rabies shot, or to the coatis caretaker (if there was someone at all who cared for these animals), and I was told that I was on my own. If I wanted to get a rabies shot, I had to drive to the nearest town and try to fend for myself. By the way, nobody cares for the coaties, they are a wild pack that simply lives in the hotel grounds.
I asked to speak with a manager (note that I wasn’t complaining about the animal attacking me, I know these things happen and I was not upset, I was just concerned because THERE IS RABIES IN MEXICO! I got the same answer from the manager: I was on my own getting a rabies shot.
The following day we left the hotel and headed back to Cancun. I live in Cancun, so I knew where to go to get my shots (SESA, or Secretariat of Health offices, which then chaneled me to a Centro de Salud), and I dutifully got 5 consecutive rounds of rabies shots. But that’s me! What is a tourist to do, if attacked by a potentially rabies-carrying animal? The hotel staff is completely uncooperative and they simply don’t care. So if you are ever in a situation like mine, while visiting Cancun, ask to be taken to the nearest Centro de Salud, where they will request the shots and these will be given to you AT NO COST.
For its crappy food, and total disregard for guests, I rate the Catalonia Royal Tulum Hotel with ZERO stars.
