My husband and I went to Cozumel, Mexico a year ago and stayed at Fiesta Americana Cozumel Dive Resort the hotel which I am reviewing.

Location

This hotel is located at Carretera a Chankanaab Km. 7.5,
C.P. 77600, Cozumel, Quintana Roo.
The phone number is 866-597-9330 and the website is http://www.fiestaamericana.com

Cozumel is divided into 3 sections: San Miguel which is essentially the “downtown” area where the shops are located; the hotel area north of San Miguel along the waterfront where some of the most luxurious hotels are and new ones were being built. These new ones have golf courses, my assumption being they are trying to lure in other- than- snorklers and divers to Cozumel. The third section is the southern zone which is where Fiesta Americana is located and hotels have been developed there as well. These hotels are the closest to Parque Chankanaab, (which I reviewed) Cozumel’s main attraction.

The hotel is a 15-minute taxi ride into town which will cost you 50 pesos with a tip, which is a little more than $5.00 each way. You will find yourself going into town most evenings, but the $10.00 is worth it versus renting a car or motor scooter for the time you are there. You don’t need to spend the money on either, this is just my opinion and experience.

About the hotel

The cost of the hotel was $126 per night.

This hotel has 228 rooms including a cluster of thatched roof cabanas. I will tell you right now that these cabanas look really cute, but for some reason are located in an area down hill from the hotel itself and there is an awful smell in the area. I would not want to stay in one of the cabanas.

The hotel is across from the Caribbean Ocean with a pedestrian footbridge across to the beach, one of the two restaurants and one of the two pools. The restaurant in the beach area is where breakfast is served. We stayed at the Fiesta Americana in Puerto Villarta, which was luxurious so I was quite disappointed with the Cozumel hotel. I must remind you that Cozumel is a diving/snorkeling destination. If you are going there for any other reason you have picked the wrong vacation spot, in my opinion.

Check-in

We were greeted by a less than enthusiastic desk clerk who told us the room we requested with a king-sized bed would be an extra $20 a night. When we vetoed that, he decided to upgrade us for free. This same person was often at the desk and he was less than enthusiastic or honest when changing dollars into pesos.

There are all-inclusive packages including food and diving and we took neither but we did buy a coupon book for $99.00 which basically entitled us to 5 days of breakfast for $99 for the two of us rather than $150 for the two of us without the coupon book. You can find places to eat for breakfast at a much more reasonable cost and if you do rent a car or scooter you may want to save the money. This was purchased at check-in time.

The room

All rooms face the ocean, which is very nice, but the rooms are just adequate. They are clean but simple. We had a king-sized bed with very simple furniture. Rather than a refrigerator/bar, you will find a basket of food items which will cost you money if you eat anything. You will not find an iron or radio. You will find a hairdryer. Housekeeping services were excellent and came in the room twice a day leaving chocolates on the bed. The toilet is so close to the wall (and we found this in the bathrooms by the pool also) that if you are a large person you will have trouble....seriously!

The air-conditioning in our room and I am assuming all the rooms, is the noisiest I have heard. If I weren’t so tired from the heat during the day, the noise would have kept me up. We did have plenty of hot water though. There is a sign at the sink that says the water is not filtered so be careful! All the water in the restaurants and bars are filtered and that is true in most of the restaurants you will find in the guidebooks.

When we got to our room, the bellboy (Note: The charge for him is added to your bill so even though we felt badly and did tip him as well as the housekeepers, you should not have to, you will pay for it at the end of your stay. You are not told of this, but we knew about it because the Puerto Vallarta hotel does the same thing.) took us out to the balcony, which truly does have a beautiful view only to find the lightbulb not working. He assured us someone would be up to fix it. No one ever came and it wasn’t worth our time to complain and get it fixed.

Amenities

The pool has a swim up bar as well as a wading pool for children. There were few children there. They say they have planned activities in their Fiesta Kids Club for children 6 to 12-years old from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Baby sitting is an additional cost; you can get a crib at no charge.

The lounge chairs on the beach are actually comfortable and there are plenty of them along with fake trees for shade.

There is no nudity allowed on Cozumel according to the literature, though we did find one beach while exploring one day on the East Side that did allow nudity. Don't expect to take off your top at this pool or beach.

All the hotels are built on the West Side of this island because the East Side is very, very windy and the seas too rough in which to swim or go out in a boat. It is a rocky island so bring water shoes with you. You will need them.

In spite of some of the literature that says there is a fee for snorkeling equipment, there is no fee. If you can, though, and have your own equipment – bring them along because you will have opportunities to snorkel elsewhere and there will be a fee in other places. As I said this is a diving destination and if you dive, there are plenty of diving boats leaving all morning long right from the dock.

The hotel also has other activities during the day such as water aerobic and sand volleyball which are free of charge.

Other information

One major advantage to this hotel is its location. I already mentioned the park but it is also an incredible snorkeling area. We did not go on any formal tours because we didn’t have to. The glass bottom boat, for instance, comes to this hotel as do other snorkeling boats.

Here are two tips we just happened to get from an American standing by the hut where you get your snorkeling gear: The Fiesta Americana has bicycles free of charge. Take them out and bike less than 20 minutes to the Chankanaab Park. You will save money on a taxi or tour and it is an easy, easy bike ride. Obviously if you cannot bike, then taxi over there.

The other tip is if you stay here, take out a free kayak and kayak just a bit to the right of the hotel. That is a major snorkeling and diving area and you can get there easily and for free. If you are more comfortable, then at 11:00 each morning (Check the board, the times change.) a guide will lead you out for a one-hour tour and he will feed the fish. We saw 6 giant parrotfish as well as the largest barracuda I have seen including those in the British Virgin Island. I do not dive and my husband doesn’t any more but Cozumel is supposed to be one of the best diving and snorkeling areas in the country, second perhaps to Australia.

There is a gift shop and boutique available from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Parking is free for hotel guests.

The food

Breakfast is very good there, but it can’t compare to our hotel in Puerto Vallarta and if you are reading this and have not done much research yet, I will urge you to consider Puerto Vallarta rather than Cozumel unless you are going purely for the diving.

We ate dinner at the hotel the night we arrived at the one restaurant and it was just ok. It was over-priced actually and can’t compare to the other meals we ate in Cozumel so only eat dinner there if you have to. Again it is worth the $10.00 to go into town. Thursday nights the hotel has a Fiesta Buffet for $38 and it is advertised and open to the public. If you are not staying there, they recommend reservations but I don’t recommend the buffet. The entertainment was only fair and the food was also just fair. We would have enjoyed a restaurant and entertainment (although entertainment is hard to find) in town.

My final thoughts

Even if you are going to Cozumel to dive, I still would not recommend Fiesta Americana Cozumel Dive Resort. The food was not good, the beach was very rocky, customer service was not great and in general the hotel does not have much to offer. If you are planning on diving all day long and being out each night, and can get a good rate here, it won't be so bad. Other than the location, though, it doesn't have much to offer.

Again, unless you are going to Cozumel to dive, go to Puerta Villarta. I highly recommend it and the Fiesta Americana there was really nice.


To read more about Mexico, please visit these reviews:


Cozumel

Chankanaab Park

Fiesta Americana Cozumel Dive Resort
Puerto Villarta
Mexicana Airlines





Recommended: No