My friends and I just got back from the most incredible stay at the Cozumel Palace, and I am so excited to get to share a review and breakdown of the cost in this blog post!
We spent one week in Cozumel. Cozumel is an Island off the coast of Playa del Carmen. There is an airport on the island that you can fly into, which I recommend, or you could fly to Cancun, drive an hour to the ferry, and take the 30-minute (VERY bumpy) ferry to the island. We flew into Cozumel and while it was a little more expensive, it was so worth it for the convenience.
The island is small and takes about 30 minutes to drive around. There is one road that goes around the island and one that runs through the island, which is about it! Us four girls felt very safe walking downtown during the daylight to do some souvenir shopping.
Cozumel is known for its amazing snorkeling and scuba diving! The side of the island with all the resorts is mostly rocky due to all the coral reefs and the other side of the island has some sandy beaches.
Cozumel Palace is located about 15 minutes from the airport. There is no sandy beach. To access the ocean you jump off of the dock and swim right in. I am a huge beach girl so I was worried about there not being a beach, but the coral reefs we were swimming in were so amazing that I didn’t even miss the beach!
Transportation:
We had transportation to and from the airport included with our membership stay, which made it very simple! We walked out of the airport, found the worker holding up a sign that said “Cozumel Palace” and then we were on our way! Once we were at the resort, we didn’t leave much except to walk the 15 minutes into town on our last day to buy souvenirs.
Rooms:
All of the rooms at the resort are ocean-facing so you are left with a beautiful view! The rooms were spacious (and that’s saying something when 4 girls are sharing one room!). There was a whirlpool in the room, which I don’t think is necessary, but we had to use it one night to say we tried it. The room came FULLY stocked with alcohol. There was tequila and vodka on tap plus beers/seltzers in the fridge. We didn’t use most of it, but if you want to party it is there for you. Our bathroom was big with lots of counter space! Our housekeeper was so sweet and would organize our bathroom every day!
Food:
Cozumel Palace has 4 restaurants. One breakfast buffet that was SO good. In the buffet, there was also a chef who would make omelets, breakfast tacos, etc. There was one lunch restaurant and one lunch buffet. I wasn’t a big fan of the lunch options, but lunch is my least favorite meal anyway. The palace has 4 sit-down restaurants for dinner.
Bugambilias: This is their amazing Mexican restaurant! We loved this place so much we ate here three times!! Our servers were so attentive and they would stay and chat with us! It was fun getting to know them! I had the most incredible steak tacos every night. They were just too good to pass up! The churros were filled with dulce de leche and dipped with chocolate sauce!
Momos: This is their Asian restaurant and this was our second favorite place to eat, so we went here twice! There was a variety of meal options from sushi to dim sum to ramen! The cocktails were great as well!
Gondola (Italian food): We ate here one night and it was good, but I would rank this third in line. If you go here get the Risotto. My friends and I got one to share and then we each got our entree, but the risotto was so much better than the entrees we chose!
Flamingos (American): This restaurant was good, but I would rank this last. I enjoyed eating other cuisines on the trip rather than what I eat at home all the time.
Pool:
There is one very big pool at the resort. You can get chairs that face the ocean or the pool! There is a swim-up bar as well, which is a great way to meet people. There was volleyball twice a day in the pool and that was always a big hit!
Swimming:
As I said earlier, there is no beach, so you would just jump right into the ocean to swim. Right when you jump in there are amazing coral reefs with all kinds of different colorful fish swimming around! This was a highlight of the trip for me because it is unique compared to other resorts I have stayed at! No beach no problem here!!
Gym:
The gym could use some work. It was pretty small, hot, and lacked equipment. 2/4 treadmills were not working. This is the biggest area of improvement for this resort.
People:
The workers were incredible and went above and beyond to make you feel welcome and included. By the end of the week, some of the workers even knew our names!
Random Facts:
This resort is relatively small and has an older age demographic. Even though the resort is small, it didn’t feel crowded. We never had to wait in line for dinner and the 4 of us were able to find a spot at the pool each morning! We were the youngest people there and my friends and I are in our 20s. All of the guests were nice and we even made some friends! This resort is owned by The Palace Resort company. With that being said, when staying at Cozumel Palace you also have access to Playacar Palace, which is their resort in Playa Del Carmen. Once you take the ferry over to the mainland the resort is right next to the ferry terminal. We spent a little bit of time at Playacar Palace but we honestly weren’t impressed. I would stick to Cozumel Palace.
The Cost:
We spent $911 per person on the room for a week! The Palace Resorts has a membership program, which is essentially their version of a timeshare program. If you book through a member (which we did) you get the cheapest room rate, a resort credit, 2 free mani/pedis, 2 free massages, 2 free swim with dolphin activities, and 2 free stingray swim activities, plus free transfers to/from the airport! Our friend’s parents are members so they helped us book our stay, but I have seen Facebook groups where members will also help other people book their stay using their membership. We didn’t even use all of our resort credit because there were certain activities you could use it on and we wanted to have time to relax! We ended up doing the Tulum Mayan Ruin excursion with the resort credit! My friends and I also used the free mani/pedis and massages! We didn’t do the swim with dolphins or the stingrays. Each of us spent about $150 during the week tipping the various workers!
Overall, we had a lovely stay in Cozumel and would come back! I loved the island. There were a lot of tourists, but it was also a little more off the beaten path than a place like Cancun or Playa Del Carmen. The location of the resort was perfect, the staff were friendly, and the pool and ocean were wonderful. I would highly recommend visiting Cozumel Palace!
