Caribe Blu (formerly Hotel Lorena)
We had the best time ever in Cozumel! We stayed seven nights at Caribe Blu. They had just changed the name about a month prior to our arrival (7/19/03 to 7/26/03), so we sometimes still had to tell the taxi drivers Hotel Lorena so they would know where to take us.
We highly recommend Caribe Blu and would stay there again in a second. With that said, this place is not for everyone. This was our first time in Cozumel and we came with the desire to do some serious diving. This hotel was perfect for that! We did 17 dives in 5 days!
Caribe Blu is located South of downtown. Im not exactly sure on the distance. I know that it was South of Scuba Club and not as far South as Papa Hogs or El Cid La Ceiba. I had read that you could walk to town (I think it said 1 ½ miles) and that it would take about 30 minutes. We had planned on doing this some of the time, but never did. It was just too hot and we were tired from all the scuba diving we were doing. Wed rather pay the $5 to take a cab than to sweat to death or pass out! The furthest we walked was from Cinco Soles to Chedraui and that was far enough for us!
I think we ended up doing more diving because of our location. I know that if we had stayed in town we would have paid more money to take cabs and we would have had to lug our dive equipment back and forth. We had originally looked at staying at Villas Las Anclas because they also did a package with Blue Angel Dive Shop also. However, after we found out we would have unlimited tanks for shore diving and the dive shop was right next to Caribe Blu we opted to stay there instead. We do not regret our decision.
Caribe Blus rooms are tastefully decorated, have tile floors, two double beds, a large bench area for suitcases and such, mirror with large counter, a phone, a TV, bathroom, air conditioner, and a balcony or patio (1st floor only). We only paid $50/night for this room. We recently stayed at the Hyatt Newporter in Newport Beach, CA and had a room that was very similar (but smaller and actually not as nice as this room) where we paid $170 for one night!!! Of course we were disappointed there, but for this place for $50 a night we thought it was perfect. We found the room more than adequate for our needs. Essentially we were only going to use the room to sleep in. I know that some people are much pickier than we are however.
That being said, Caribe Blu does have its quirks for those who are picky. We had a sliding glass door for our balcony. The glass door worked fine, but the screen door did not it kept coming off the runners. We didnt really care, because when we were in the room we had the air conditioning on, so we needed the glass door closed anyway. The TV is also quite interesting. You can only get like two channels in the room. We also found out that you are watching whatever the desk clerk is watching down in the lobby on the big screen TV. We didnt figure this out for a few days, since wed only watch TV right before we went to bed. One night wed watch a movie on HBO we loved watching the American movies in Spanish with English subtitles and the next night we couldnt find HBO. How we found out this was the case was one night when we were watching a movie and all of a sudden the TV starts changing channels right before our eyes! We thought it was possessed or something. We tried to change it manually and couldnt find it. Finally Ronny called down to the front desk and asked Edgar Donde esta HBO?! It was changed back in a second. The whole thing was quite humorous! Theres also a show that we really liked to watch that was hilarious. I dont know what it was called, but it was similar to the American version of Americas Funniest People/Pets. They had some crazy stuff on that show!
We also did not have a refrigerator in our room and we really would have liked one. However, if you ask at the front desk they will give you a cooler to keep in your room. The first one they gave us was just one of those styrofoam ones and we found out the hard way that it had a BIG leak! After the ice melted there was a pool on our floor the next day. We just took it back down to the front desk and they gave us a real plastic cooler. That one worked just fine. They also have a big refrigerator in the lobby that everyone can use. I know they have one, but I never saw it. We also just wanted the convenience of the cold sodas in our room, so we just used the ice chest.
I know that a lot of people have written things about the beds in Cozumel not being very comfortable. I have to agree that the ones at Caribe Blu were very hard! Of course we have a really nice big king sized bed at home so its always kind of difficult to adjust to other beds for us. This one was much harder and smaller than the one we normally sleep on. That being said, it definitely wasnt the worst bed Ive slept on either.
I really liked the grounds of Caribe Blu. Downstairs in the lobby there is a room where guests can hang out. It has a big screen TV, books, chairs, and tables. The front desk people Maya and Edgar are super nice and helpful. Edgar even offered up the computer to me one night and said I could check my e-mail. Theyre really nice people.
Out back there was a nice pool that was right above the ocean. They had some palapas with a few chairs that you could lay in. I know someone else had said that they are lacking chairs and was wondering if they still were the answer is yes. They only had 4 chairs, so I suppose they could use some more. However, again it wasnt really a problem for us because when we used the pool there were only two other people out there.
The other great thing about Caribe Blu for diving is that Blue Angel Dive Shop (read posting) is right next door and Castaway Grill is right next door to that. B.A. and C.G. actually share a patio with tables, chairs, and palapas. It was really great because we could just walk down the stairs for breakfast, bring our gear with us and be ready to board the boat for diving.
There is a really easy entry for shore diving right in front of Blue Angel Dive Shop. There is rock cut away and you can actually sit down right there to put your gear on, flip over, kick fins/snorkel out and then drop down. Its only about 20-30 feet deep all along the coast from there south and its great diving! At that depth we could stay down for almost 2 hours on one tank! We loved doing this dive!
So for us Caribe Blu was the perfect hotel. For you it may not be it depends on what youre looking for in a place. Wed go back there in a second.
We had the best time ever in Cozumel! We stayed seven nights at Caribe Blu. They had just changed the name about a month prior to our arrival (7/19/03 to 7/26/03), so we sometimes still had to tell the taxi drivers Hotel Lorena so they would know where to take us.
We highly recommend Caribe Blu and would stay there again in a second. With that said, this place is not for everyone. This was our first time in Cozumel and we came with the desire to do some serious diving. This hotel was perfect for that! We did 17 dives in 5 days!
Caribe Blu is located South of downtown. Im not exactly sure on the distance. I know that it was South of Scuba Club and not as far South as Papa Hogs or El Cid La Ceiba. I had read that you could walk to town (I think it said 1 ½ miles) and that it would take about 30 minutes. We had planned on doing this some of the time, but never did. It was just too hot and we were tired from all the scuba diving we were doing. Wed rather pay the $5 to take a cab than to sweat to death or pass out! The furthest we walked was from Cinco Soles to Chedraui and that was far enough for us!
I think we ended up doing more diving because of our location. I know that if we had stayed in town we would have paid more money to take cabs and we would have had to lug our dive equipment back and forth. We had originally looked at staying at Villas Las Anclas because they also did a package with Blue Angel Dive Shop also. However, after we found out we would have unlimited tanks for shore diving and the dive shop was right next to Caribe Blu we opted to stay there instead. We do not regret our decision.
Caribe Blus rooms are tastefully decorated, have tile floors, two double beds, a large bench area for suitcases and such, mirror with large counter, a phone, a TV, bathroom, air conditioner, and a balcony or patio (1st floor only). We only paid $50/night for this room. We recently stayed at the Hyatt Newporter in Newport Beach, CA and had a room that was very similar (but smaller and actually not as nice as this room) where we paid $170 for one night!!! Of course we were disappointed there, but for this place for $50 a night we thought it was perfect. We found the room more than adequate for our needs. Essentially we were only going to use the room to sleep in. I know that some people are much pickier than we are however.
That being said, Caribe Blu does have its quirks for those who are picky. We had a sliding glass door for our balcony. The glass door worked fine, but the screen door did not it kept coming off the runners. We didnt really care, because when we were in the room we had the air conditioning on, so we needed the glass door closed anyway. The TV is also quite interesting. You can only get like two channels in the room. We also found out that you are watching whatever the desk clerk is watching down in the lobby on the big screen TV. We didnt figure this out for a few days, since wed only watch TV right before we went to bed. One night wed watch a movie on HBO we loved watching the American movies in Spanish with English subtitles and the next night we couldnt find HBO. How we found out this was the case was one night when we were watching a movie and all of a sudden the TV starts changing channels right before our eyes! We thought it was possessed or something. We tried to change it manually and couldnt find it. Finally Ronny called down to the front desk and asked Edgar Donde esta HBO?! It was changed back in a second. The whole thing was quite humorous! Theres also a show that we really liked to watch that was hilarious. I dont know what it was called, but it was similar to the American version of Americas Funniest People/Pets. They had some crazy stuff on that show!
We also did not have a refrigerator in our room and we really would have liked one. However, if you ask at the front desk they will give you a cooler to keep in your room. The first one they gave us was just one of those styrofoam ones and we found out the hard way that it had a BIG leak! After the ice melted there was a pool on our floor the next day. We just took it back down to the front desk and they gave us a real plastic cooler. That one worked just fine. They also have a big refrigerator in the lobby that everyone can use. I know they have one, but I never saw it. We also just wanted the convenience of the cold sodas in our room, so we just used the ice chest.
I know that a lot of people have written things about the beds in Cozumel not being very comfortable. I have to agree that the ones at Caribe Blu were very hard! Of course we have a really nice big king sized bed at home so its always kind of difficult to adjust to other beds for us. This one was much harder and smaller than the one we normally sleep on. That being said, it definitely wasnt the worst bed Ive slept on either.
I really liked the grounds of Caribe Blu. Downstairs in the lobby there is a room where guests can hang out. It has a big screen TV, books, chairs, and tables. The front desk people Maya and Edgar are super nice and helpful. Edgar even offered up the computer to me one night and said I could check my e-mail. Theyre really nice people.
Out back there was a nice pool that was right above the ocean. They had some palapas with a few chairs that you could lay in. I know someone else had said that they are lacking chairs and was wondering if they still were the answer is yes. They only had 4 chairs, so I suppose they could use some more. However, again it wasnt really a problem for us because when we used the pool there were only two other people out there.
The other great thing about Caribe Blu for diving is that Blue Angel Dive Shop (read posting) is right next door and Castaway Grill is right next door to that. B.A. and C.G. actually share a patio with tables, chairs, and palapas. It was really great because we could just walk down the stairs for breakfast, bring our gear with us and be ready to board the boat for diving.
There is a really easy entry for shore diving right in front of Blue Angel Dive Shop. There is rock cut away and you can actually sit down right there to put your gear on, flip over, kick fins/snorkel out and then drop down. Its only about 20-30 feet deep all along the coast from there south and its great diving! At that depth we could stay down for almost 2 hours on one tank! We loved doing this dive!
So for us Caribe Blu was the perfect hotel. For you it may not be it depends on what youre looking for in a place. Wed go back there in a second.
