Almaplena Boutique Hotel

Magnificent piece of nirvana! By chance we happened to find this beautiful boutique hotel on Trip Advisor. We chose beach day passes and a homemade, aromatic, authentic meal that surpassed any five star restaurant! Owners were extremely hospitable, and the entire crew went above and beyond the call. The scenery was spectacular, the water amazing and it was the perfect ending to our week. Long western Caribbean trip.

We did the day pass for 2 coming from the Costa Maya cruise port. It was like $100 for one adult and 1 child with drinks, lunch and taxis included. This place is like paradise. The are so few people here and the view is amazing. There is a lot of sea grass, but people do work on raking it up. If you can swim out beyond it, the reef is really nice. Just pass the buoy is a good reef. It's pretty close to shore and really decent for a swim to reef. We brought our own snorkel gear. The drinks were good - I only had beer but other people had mixed drinks and were happy. There's a small pool as well is you don't want to walk over the sea grass. The food was really good. Homemade guacamole. Nachos and tacos. The owner made sure our return taxi was on time. The wifi was strong. I would absolutely do this again when we're back in Costa Maya. Oh and no one selling services or trinkets along the beach.

Absolutely terrible. We are seasoned cruisers and booked this excursion through their website since we wanted to enjoy the beach at a nice resort. We paid for 2 “all inclusive” reservations, front row seating for two, and 2 massages totaling to $312. We got: -no running water -we paid for an all inclusive. We were limited to 3 liquors (bottom shelf) -no juices for mixed drinks -no ice -paid for a front row bed and only got loungers that weren’t even set up -pool was stand still water with dead bugs and super dirty -paid for massages and staff was not available there. They had to call them in. It took about 2 hours to finally get someone and it was only one person that came. We were a group of 7 and out of the 3 massages paid, only one was given. -massage was not on the beach as advertised, it was by the kitchen/dinning area surrounded by people. No covering available as advertised (I was exposed 😬😳) -restrooms were gross with poop in them because they didn’t have running water available and super dirty. Smelled foul. -food was ehh and not all you can eat as they say. -all lights were off -staff was not uniformed -staff and manager were not aware of our reservations -not the ambiance that was advertised -snorkel gear that was an added feature but was not available when asked for it -we entered the place with no greeting whatsoever

Almaplena it's a place were you can keep in touch with the nature and at the same time have the confort to reach peace. The rooms are beautiful and clean, the staff it's very friendly and you feel very safe there. Unfortunatly we had some days with sargazo but the staff every morning clean up all the beach which doesn't ocurre in other places were the sargazo stays there several days until the bad smell takes over it. In Almaplena you don't have this problem because the beach was always very clean and the water had incredible colours. The breakfast it's very complete and the restaurant give meals on a reasonable price for what they offer. We didn't have any plan and we were thinking to visit other places but when we escape from Tulum (where we have been only one day because it was too crowdy and wasn't what we were looking for) we arrive to Almaplena just to do a stop and continue our trip, but of course when we find out this place we didn't want to go anywere else and we stayed the rest of our holidays. It's a little bit far from the village and you cerntainly need a car but for sure it worth it completly. A place to comeback again soon!!!

We spent 3 nights and enjoyed the rooms and the restaurant. Unfortunately the weather was bad during our stay (very windy) so we could neither enjoy the sea nor the beach. And there is nothing else to do at Almaplena as it is very isolated. We couln’t even walk along the beach as it is full of sargasse and plastic…

We took this excursion to try something different, on our own, and we were very disappointed. We only stayed an hour or so before getting a cab back to the ship. First the owner was welcoming and the place was very clean, and maybe if the weather was better than we could ignore the screaming kids and work around the 4 feet of sea****, but it was impossible. The place is about a 20 minute ride away from everything, a long cab ride, the beach was full of sea****, and the pool was about the size of a big hot tub and 5 boys age 6 to 12 ran the place, screaming, fighting and yelling. You know the kind of scream that travels. The parents ignored them, the owner was doing errands and the staff couldn’t help us. I asked the mother if she could ask her son not to scream so much, we were about 100 feet away, and she ignored me. So before we (retired teachers) decided to discipline someone else’s children, we left, plus we worried about their safety being in the pool, fighting, without adult supervision. The place had really no guests besides the 2 families of the boys, a few staff and us. Again under other circumstances, this might be a great place, but not for us.

The staff was incredibly helpful and the grounds offer a wonderful peaceful beach retreat. My excursion was in a slower period (November). Cab was ready for convenient transport (go ALL the way thru all gates) if you are looking for a beautiful low key spot - this is your place!!

We stayed at Almaplena for four nights, marking the end of our Christmas holiday, and it was the perfect ending for our trip. We didn't want to stay in the centre of Mahahual, and for us, being away from the crowds was just perfect. The staff are genuinely lovely, and there was just a nice atmosphere the whole time we were there. The absolute highlight was that the reef was swimable from the beach. I didn't understand why everyone wasn't snorkeling the whole time. Almaplena lent me a mask and snorkel (they didn't even charge) as I'd left mine at a Cenote. It was truely fabulous and we must have snorkled for close to 15 hours in 4 days. If you don't want the noise and crowds of town, come here.