Beachfront Hotel La Palapa

Adults only hotel right on the beach very good air con bar with good cocktails delicious free breakfast interesting well cooked snacks attentive staff 2 mins to hot corner bars restaraunts shopping market Whats not to like Only minor problem ocean comes close to the loungers so only about 12 available on the beach more at a higher level Thanks to David at the bar all the cooks Ruby Isis and the evening guy at reception see you next year

Let me start of by saying that it wasn't perfect and it wasn't cheap but I really loved the hotel and I would stay there again during non-rainy season. Location is fantastic - easy walk into town. My friends said they could hear the nightclub at night a little, but I could not from either of our rooms. It's also quiet because it's adult only and it's not a walk-through hotel like some others along the beach. Tide coming up high isn't an issue because they have beach loungers above their tide wall. Rainy season was a problem. Beach sludgy (understatement - you cannot walk to the water) and water turbid. :( The hotel even went so far as to chainsaw down part of their seawall to get more water flow (so perhaps this is an unusual occurrence?). They said it was from the sargassum coming up from the East coast but almost seemed like at least part of it was from the flooding runoff pipe (from the town roads) just up current. Beaches to the right (above the pipe) were fine so we just walked over there. Only one day there was no hot water in the queen room but it was fine. Other days it was scalding. The rooms are otherwise wonderful. The main big suite is to die for. :) There were some issues with the toilet tanks not filling up unless you open the back and jiggle the hardware. Any time we had an issue, someone was up right away. Good service. There are solar torches, but batteries are all dead. No coffee maker, just an espresso machine. 5 gallon hot/cold drinking water. Also there is drinking water refill provided on the property which is really nice. Beware that there is a steep tight spiral staircase leading to the top suite on the 3rd floor. I had to keep my purse to the inside to manage it. Would not dare carry my luggage and can't imagine doing it after some drinks for someone in poor health. Isis is wonderful and runs the place with care and consideration. We switched rooms (by design because we wanted the big suite and it was not available our entire stay) and she made sure we were never "homeless" during transition time. There's always someone to help you with your bags if you need it (there's no lift as it's just a small place). The service at the bar is hit or miss. One waiter was on top of it, the others don't come to see if you need another drink; you have to ask. For the price of the hotel, the service should be better. Breakfast (also served at the bar) is very good and they have a great menu selection. I loved the avo toast in particular. You get coffee and fresh juice, too. This is one of the reasons I chose this hotel over others and I was not disappointed. I was worried when I booked because they don't "promise" a beach view like the one in the ad. The rooms with 2 queens are on the bottom floor and we got one near the bar so it wasn't the best view in the house but it was just fine. The one next to us may not have had a view but that would be the only one I think. All in all a great place.

The website pictures of La Palapa do not accurately represent the place. Our room was satisfactory but we could not use our balcony due to the vast quantity of muck that smelled like sewage on the extremely small beach. The so-called beach was very small and also unusable. We had to find other beaches/beach clubs to go to, some of which required you to pay to be there. We had no water one day of our stay but were told there would be buckets of water on each level to flush the toilet. When the water did return later that evening, it smelled like sewage and there was only cold water. In addition, the toilet ran loudly off and on all night. We were never shown the “wellness area” pictured on the website. The outdoor shower was inoperable. The free breakfast was very good, but the open air restaurant was located by the smelly beach which made eating there unpleasant. The staff were very nice and apologetic about the conditions. We had to leave after the third day, the day with no water, because of the smell and general dissatisfaction with the place overall. Since we had to pay for the 6 days upon check-in, we requested a refund for the remaining 3 days. We were referred to the General Manager who was in Italy. After numerous emails he finally agreed to refund us, but only via PayPal. Or we could get a voucher good for the next 12 months. No thanks. I opened a PayPal account and was told I would have the refund by the next day. All I received was an email from someone trying to scam me out of the $595 refund amount. It is now 3 days later and I still have no refund. I held off posting a bad review in hopes they would do the right thing by refunding our money, but since they have no desire to be professional and do the right thing, the truth needed to be posted.

Being this my 5th time at Holbox, I didn’t hesitate to book her once again. And once again , LaPalapa de not disappointed. Rooms always clean and with working AC. Friendly staff which is always eager to help. The only “bad” thing that happened on this trip, was not the hotels fault. It was Mother Nature, a sea of sargasso had come up to the hotels beachfront, and it was terrible, it was so bad , that we could not even go into the water, even less stay sunbathing on the lounge chairs because the smell was unbearable. And this was the very first time I’ve seen this on all my trips to LaPalapa. It wasn’t helping having breakfast either because the stench was really bad. I don’t know how the beach is today, but in May, it was incredibly bad. Luckily for us, Holbox has miles of beaches to enjoy. We when towards punta mosquito , but the situation was similar, just head towards punta cocos, those beaches were in better conditions. Remember, all beaches are public here. Other than that, I would still highly recommend Hotel LaPalapa! I always come in the end of May , and there ain’t too much tourists, you have the island basically to yourself. Enjoy.