hd0519
Registered
I just got back from a ten-day vacation with the family (wife and two kids) at the Sunscape Tulum. We had a wonderful time and my wife is already talking about going back in April. This was our fourth trip to the southern end of the Riviera Maya and our first stay at the Sunscape. Prior to this trip we had stayed at the Robinson Club (now Club Maeva Tulum) twice, and last year we stayed at the Royal Palladium. This time we were looking for a smaller resort with a quiet, family oriented atmosphere and we definitely found it at the Sunscape. This was the best of our four trips and we will definitely return.
If you're looking for discos, jet skis, palatial grounds, freeform pools with swim-up bars, lots of planned activities, and a wild nightlife - you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for good food, a smaller property, a safe place for the kids to play, and the kind of personalized service that you can only find at a smaller resort - I can definitely recommend the Sunscape.
General Comments
As virtually every reviewer on tripadvisor.com has already commented, the food is very good. Other things I liked; no wristbands, no towel cards (take as many as you want and leave them wherever you feel like it), no vouchers or limits on eating at the specialty restaurants (Mexican, Asian, Italian, and Sushi), generally very good food and drink service, and non-crowded facilities. There's a great shallow water reef for snorkeling about 250 yards off the beach and the beach itself is very nice and pretty large considering they only have 240 rooms.
Kids Club
Our kids are six and seven and spent very little time in the kids club but they did like it and we were pretty satisfied with the staff. We liked the fact that they could go to the club at 5:30 PM and watch a movie (Finding Nemo, Lion King, Brother Bear etc) while we got ready for dinner. Our kids also participated in some of the outside events in the evening like the mini-disco and camping night where they played in tents on the beach and roasted marshmallows over a campfire. We spent a lot of time with another couple that had a two year-old boy. They took him to the club several times and were very satisfied. Their only negative comment was that the club is closed for siesta between 1:00 and 3:00 PM, which didn't work out very well with their boy's nap schedule. My guess is that if you tip somebody at the kids club you can probably get whatever schedule you need.
Dive Operation
Just to let you all know, I've only been certified for a year and my total diving experience before this trip was five ocean dives. All of my dives have been on the Riviera Maya - four at the Palladium Grand for my OW certification and one at the Robinson Club for my Discover Scuba dive. I found the diving and the dive shop at the Sunscape to be pretty similar to my experiences at the other two resorts.
The on-site operator is Maya Diving and as far as I could tell they are not affiliated with any of the bigger operators. I took a peek in the back room and their compressor appeared to be very modern and well maintained. I brought my own gear so I didn't use their rental equipment but they seemed to have an adequate supply and it all appeared to be typical rental gear in good condition. They have one open boat that can carry up to six divers (plus crew). I was a little disappointed that they didn't have a sunshade on the boat but I don't think we made a boat ride longer than ten minutes so it wasn't a big issue.
The dive operation reflects the smaller size of the resort in both good and not so good ways. The staff is small and has to support both the diving customer as well as the non-divers who just want to check out snorkeling gear for an hour. At times it seemed a little hectic and disorganized but there were also plenty of times when I was the only customer in the shop (and once I was the only customer on a dive). The best part about diving at a smaller operation is that they were very flexible. I walked in several times and asked them what they had scheduled for the day and they said, "Whatever you want to do". They have two scheduled daily dives (at 9:15 AM and 2:15 PM) and a scheduled night dive every Tuesday night. My suggestion is to try for double tank dives in the morning slot because often there were a lot of Discover Scuba folks on the afternoon dives.
My priority on this trip was spending time with the family (all non-divers) so I only got in five dives. I'll be going to Cozumel in December for a dedicated dive trip so my goal at the Sunscape was to just log some fun dives, checkout my new gear, and work on buoyancy skills. That said, I enjoyed all my dives very much and had a great time. I went to Tankah reef (max depth 10.5m, avg. 8.2m) three times (once at night), El Rancho (max depth 22.5m, avg. 17m), and Canones (max depth 11.5m, avg. 9m). Visibility was about the same as I've seen at other Riviera Maya dive sites, normally 10 to 15m. Tankah was my favorite site, the shallow depths allowed for long dives and we always saw at least a couple of beautiful spotted eagle rays there. Tankah also has several nice swim-throughs and a large variety and quantity of aquatic life. Canones was also very nice with tall coral formations like narrow canyons that were fun to swim through.
One of the things I didn't do (despite the frequent urging of the dive staff) was a cenote dive but I did take the whole family on a cenote snorkel tour that we arranged with the dive shop. We went to Nahoch Nah Chich and it was absolutely spectacular. The kids had a great time despite the cold water (I would take a wet suit if I went back), and it was probably the highlight of our entire trip. We'll be back next year (or sooner) and I will definitely do a cenote dive next time.
One tip, bring insect repellent. We encountered more mosquitoes here than we've seen at other resorts.
If anybody would like more information or has a specific question, please post a response or send me an email. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions.
Doug
If you're looking for discos, jet skis, palatial grounds, freeform pools with swim-up bars, lots of planned activities, and a wild nightlife - you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for good food, a smaller property, a safe place for the kids to play, and the kind of personalized service that you can only find at a smaller resort - I can definitely recommend the Sunscape.
General Comments
As virtually every reviewer on tripadvisor.com has already commented, the food is very good. Other things I liked; no wristbands, no towel cards (take as many as you want and leave them wherever you feel like it), no vouchers or limits on eating at the specialty restaurants (Mexican, Asian, Italian, and Sushi), generally very good food and drink service, and non-crowded facilities. There's a great shallow water reef for snorkeling about 250 yards off the beach and the beach itself is very nice and pretty large considering they only have 240 rooms.
Kids Club
Our kids are six and seven and spent very little time in the kids club but they did like it and we were pretty satisfied with the staff. We liked the fact that they could go to the club at 5:30 PM and watch a movie (Finding Nemo, Lion King, Brother Bear etc) while we got ready for dinner. Our kids also participated in some of the outside events in the evening like the mini-disco and camping night where they played in tents on the beach and roasted marshmallows over a campfire. We spent a lot of time with another couple that had a two year-old boy. They took him to the club several times and were very satisfied. Their only negative comment was that the club is closed for siesta between 1:00 and 3:00 PM, which didn't work out very well with their boy's nap schedule. My guess is that if you tip somebody at the kids club you can probably get whatever schedule you need.
Dive Operation
Just to let you all know, I've only been certified for a year and my total diving experience before this trip was five ocean dives. All of my dives have been on the Riviera Maya - four at the Palladium Grand for my OW certification and one at the Robinson Club for my Discover Scuba dive. I found the diving and the dive shop at the Sunscape to be pretty similar to my experiences at the other two resorts.
The on-site operator is Maya Diving and as far as I could tell they are not affiliated with any of the bigger operators. I took a peek in the back room and their compressor appeared to be very modern and well maintained. I brought my own gear so I didn't use their rental equipment but they seemed to have an adequate supply and it all appeared to be typical rental gear in good condition. They have one open boat that can carry up to six divers (plus crew). I was a little disappointed that they didn't have a sunshade on the boat but I don't think we made a boat ride longer than ten minutes so it wasn't a big issue.
The dive operation reflects the smaller size of the resort in both good and not so good ways. The staff is small and has to support both the diving customer as well as the non-divers who just want to check out snorkeling gear for an hour. At times it seemed a little hectic and disorganized but there were also plenty of times when I was the only customer in the shop (and once I was the only customer on a dive). The best part about diving at a smaller operation is that they were very flexible. I walked in several times and asked them what they had scheduled for the day and they said, "Whatever you want to do". They have two scheduled daily dives (at 9:15 AM and 2:15 PM) and a scheduled night dive every Tuesday night. My suggestion is to try for double tank dives in the morning slot because often there were a lot of Discover Scuba folks on the afternoon dives.
My priority on this trip was spending time with the family (all non-divers) so I only got in five dives. I'll be going to Cozumel in December for a dedicated dive trip so my goal at the Sunscape was to just log some fun dives, checkout my new gear, and work on buoyancy skills. That said, I enjoyed all my dives very much and had a great time. I went to Tankah reef (max depth 10.5m, avg. 8.2m) three times (once at night), El Rancho (max depth 22.5m, avg. 17m), and Canones (max depth 11.5m, avg. 9m). Visibility was about the same as I've seen at other Riviera Maya dive sites, normally 10 to 15m. Tankah was my favorite site, the shallow depths allowed for long dives and we always saw at least a couple of beautiful spotted eagle rays there. Tankah also has several nice swim-throughs and a large variety and quantity of aquatic life. Canones was also very nice with tall coral formations like narrow canyons that were fun to swim through.
One of the things I didn't do (despite the frequent urging of the dive staff) was a cenote dive but I did take the whole family on a cenote snorkel tour that we arranged with the dive shop. We went to Nahoch Nah Chich and it was absolutely spectacular. The kids had a great time despite the cold water (I would take a wet suit if I went back), and it was probably the highlight of our entire trip. We'll be back next year (or sooner) and I will definitely do a cenote dive next time.
One tip, bring insect repellent. We encountered more mosquitoes here than we've seen at other resorts.
If anybody would like more information or has a specific question, please post a response or send me an email. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions.
Doug
))))
