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Insider Tip Address Location El Tukan Condotel ReviewThe El Tukan Condotel is a family oriented hotel which is centrally located right on 5th Avenue, close to all the shops, bars, and restaurants. Walking into the hotel, one gets a great first impression. However, the interior of the hotel generally fails to live up to expectations, much less the snazzy brochure. You immediately sense the upbeat carribbean atmosphere as you enter the outdoor bar and dining area. The outdoor area is extensive and continues back into the property through paths which meander through mayan sculptures, palapas, and a quiet poolside area surrounded with beach chairs. The pool area is small and gets very crowded, so you'll need to be out there by 8am to have a chance of getting a chair. The hotel bills itself as being only 200m away from the beach, and while this is technically true, the beach in question belongs to the Blue Parrot. The El Tukan beachclub is a full 6 blocks away, which is quite a long walk in the midday Playa heat. The hotel is much larger than it appears at first. The tropical entryway you enter on 5th gives you access to just a few of the nine buildings which make up the property (the rest are scattered around the area). It is here that travellers run into the problems with this hotel. With a reputation for overbooking, it is very likely that you'll have your room reassigned to one of the less desirable properties (if they are desirable at all by anyone, which would be a surprise). We reviewed several of the standard rooms located in the main building. These are reportedly the best rooms the hotel has to offer, and we were not impressed. The rooms themselves are quite spacious, resembling small apartments more than hotel rooms. However, the furniture is worn and ugly, the kitchens are depressing, the appliances are dated, there were many burned out lightbulbs, and the plumbing doesn't work as often as it does (ie: no hot water, broken toilets). The air conditioners are loud and if you are unlucky enough to get a room near a water pump, it gets even louder. And worst of all, some of the rooms smelled so badly of mold that we couldn't stay in them for more than a few minutes. It is for all of these reasons that your satisfaction or disappointment here can be like playing the lottery. You may get a great room near the pool and leave entirely satisfied. But more likely, you will experience one or more problems or perhaps even have your room rebooked at another building (which are reportedly much, much worse than the main property). The El Tukan is family friendly however, and even during the high season you will likely like a room here with more than enough space for the entire group. Nevertheless, we recommend that most travellers look elsewhere and stay at the El Tukan only as a last resort. Traveler Tips: : * Bring your own soap - the hotel provides one very small bar and that's it. External Sites
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* Average rate assuming double occupancy. Prices may fluctuate based upon vacancy. For exact prices, please check availability for your travel dates. |
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| All content copyright 2006, Gooroo, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | ||||||
Reader Reviews
Here is the information I think you will find most useful from our holiday, taken at the end of February into early March 2005.
My wife and I have stayed in all inclusives a few times, but wanted the experience of being in town, and doing different things, so we decided to stay here. I would suggest it is a 3 star hotel. A five star all inclusive it is not. I do understand the differences, and If you are willing to put up with quirks, and are laid back, then you will like it here. If you are demanding, and impatient, then don't even consider it.
In reading all the previous posts about this hotel I can say that they are all a reasonably accurate description of the hotel. So much of your happiness or disappointment will depend upon which building you stay in, so it becomes a lottery. We stayed for two weeks. We had some of the good, and some of the bad. I would give the hotel a pass, but not the highest recommendation. Hypothetically we would stay there again, but I think it is because it is "the devil you know".
Room numers start with the building number, so you can tell your building by the room number. There are 9 buildings. Buildings 1 through 6 surround the pool, and cenote area. This is the desirable area. Try to get into this area, and 90% of your problems just went away. They are all good rooms as far as I can see. You want a room looking into the centre pool area, other wise you will be facing the street. These main buildings surround a nice , but small pool area, and it was quite pleasant to sit at after coming back from the beach. Comments about not getting a lounge chair there are accurate. They all have towels over them very early, like 7 AM.
Building numbers 7 and 8 are accross the street west, and are much the same, but less desirable.
Building number 9 is a rat hole, accross the street south and not where you want to be.
The Standard room which is what we booked, should really be called an econo room. We were very disappointed with the first room, which was is in building 9. It was small, dingy, not well maintained, and not great. The toilet didn't flush properly and 2 of the 4 light bulbs were burned out. The air conditioner was loud. It had a hollow door with a flimsy lock. There was no balcony. The small windows gave a cell like feeling to the room.
We were told they were booked up and would be 5 days before we could change rooms. We followed this diligently, and ultimately they reluctantly found us a better room in another building. The staff is not really helpful in this area, and I am sure they are sick and tired of the complaints and seem to take the attitude that things should be done manyana. They as good as admitted they were overbooked.
Once we got over that, we got a satisfactory room, still a Standard room, but much larger and airy, in building 7. This room was actually okay - not great - but okay. I think a reasonable person would find it acceptable. We had a balcony with the view of the back of a small strip mall, which was covered in vines, soat least it was quite park like. The air conditioner was louder.
No reasonable person can really critisize the park like grounds and outdoor property, which is quite pretty and reasonably well maintained.
The meal deal is a good deal, and is worth it from a monetary point of view if you stay 2 weeks. Otherwise, like mentioned in previous posts, you will find having to eat in the same place to be restricting. Knowing that we were there 2 weeks, we took the 7 breakfast 3 supper deal, and alternated between eating there and going somewhere else - a good compromise. Food quality is quite good. Breakfast is buffet. Supper is off a special, very limited menu. For example, you could have soup or salad, not both, one entre, and dessert and coffee. People around you who were paying, had a much better menu selection. By rough count, we probably got something a bit over $100 USD worth of food and drink for the $71 USD meal deal.
Bring your own soap. They give you one bar when you check in about the size of my thumb. Thats it.
Our holiday tour rep told us the water in Playa is safe, but we shouldn't drink it because of high mineral content will upset stomachs, so the hotel gives you a couple of small water bottles, but after that you have to buy your own. Rooms do not include phones - so no wake up calls. No coffee machines. TV channel selection was good, with good English and Spanish choices. Most of the English channels had Spanish subtitles.
The air conditioner was noisy in both rooms. One night the people in the next door room were having a few friends over and they got noisy. It was a nuisance until I turned the air conditioning on, and we couldn't hear them any more -a small blessing.
The hotel is perhaps a long block walk from public beach access, near the Blue Parrot beach club which is very popular with the young crowd.
The El Tukan beach club is included and does provide free lounge chairs and Palapa's subject to availability. Availability is reasonable, especially if you are there by about noon, depending upon the weather. The hotel is NOT mere yards from the Beach club. Frankly, the beach club area is in about the best part of the whole Playa beach, so no complaints there, but it is over a KM walk from the hotel You go about 6 blocks north along 5th ave, and one block east, towards the water down a dusty road. You might consider renting a cheap car if you are adverse to walking long distances. Beach towels are provided, but you get them at the hotel pool, not the beach club. The ladies washroom usually had a line of 3 or 4 , patiently waiting the one stall. Waiters serve food and drink all day at competetive prices, and service was good. The beach is topless, and I would say perhaps 5% to 10% were. The further north you go, the higher the percentage of topless, but it never got anywhere near 30% or 50%
One thing, NOT related to the hotel was the Playa Deal Card. We saw it on the internet, and spent the 42 dollars for it. We expected to get lots of discounts at restaurants and bars. We were disappointed, and couldn't get our moneys worth. Some of the places had deals to entice you in off the street, but as soon as you showed the card the deals were retracted, and you could only choose either or. We used it once and saved about $10 at one place. Many of the places were hard to get to without transportation, or the deal wasn't worth much, and we just didn't bother.
Posted by: Steve | August 15, 2006 8:54 PM