El Crucero Tulum

The "EL CRUCERO" was the best place I stayed at throughout my backpacking journey in Mexico. The price was well in my budget and the staff was extremely friendly and helpful. They went well out of there way to ensure that I had a great visit. This hotel is one that I would return to again, and definitely suggest to others passing through, to stay at. Thanks for the great time.

Right across from the entrance to the ancient ruins. Nice grounds, good food, attractive restaurant and bar, but the room was beyond rustic. The owners very accomondating, but will choose a more upscale room next time.

I stayed at El Cruceros dorm for several nights and thought it was really cool for the laid back backpacker looking for a cheap sleep with atmosphere. The 85 peso per bed fee means I can languish in groovy Tulum for as long as I like, and if I see a gecko lizard on the ceiling ,I consider it a guardian spirit sent by the jungle to welcome me! The room was an old Mexican motel room ,with a fan,and working shower and toilet.I was given fresh linen and a towel and housekeeping tidyed up daily...good enough for cheap skatin' backpacky rabble like me! The room was a place to sleep,outside the hammmocks and huge flowering tropical flora are wonderful.Crucero has a really nice Mayan Palapa Hut bar too.The owners are very nice ,and run a clean kitchen with purified water used in cooking and coffee.This is IMPORTANT!!! Eat there even if your passing through for the day,there are some seriously dodgy eating establishments around Yucatan! Be careful .

Also Tulum is in the jungle.You must wear long and light clothes with good repellant in the evening. The bugs are nasty(no see-ums,mosquitoes and biting flies!) People allergic to bees should be especially vigilant.If you haven't guessed...budget Cabanas are Camping!

I kind of hope that El Crucero focuses on the hostel approach in the future. We are not a fussy bunch, we want to sleep cheap and spend our money on Cervezas!! Maybe they could be the first Yucatan Hostel with air coinditioned dorms!! So anyway ,hostel types head over for lovely gardens,hammocks,happy hour specials and walking distance to the beach and ruins!

Upon my first visit to the Riviera Maya, I intended to explore the area around Tulum, extending from the Sian ka'an Reserve to bays and cenotes south of Playa Del Carmen. The Hotel El Crucero is a perfect point to begin each adventure, and a relaxing and comfortable place to rest at the end of each day's exploration. The grounds are landscaped artfully with an impressive variety of flora, which made walking the paths between the buildings a lot of fun, especially at night, when the hammock palapas are lit up and the grounds have an energetic, romantic aura.

El Crucero is equipped to provide for the unique needs of a traveler in this often challenging environment. There is a lively and breezy restaurant and bar in an open-air palapa on the grounds, where the owners can often be found making new friends and excellent food and drinks. A dive shop between the restaurant and the reception rents all sorts of gear and bicycles. Most importantly, the rooms are smart! In my room, a "cyclone" fan in the window was poised to blow a cooling draft over my bed at night. While many head straight for the cabanas, I found them to be interesting but less comfortable. I appreciated both the comfort and the privacy offered by El Crucero, along with the economy and efficiency of the accomodation there.

Many among the staff are bilingual, and knowledgeable of destinations and routes around Tulum. They are familiar with time tables for buses, shuttles, and taxis, and will schedule taxis to pick you up when you are destined for the many points of interest without phone access in the Riviera Maya. The Owners, Mark and Sharon, as well as their manager, Lokio, are open to getting to know your individual needs, and are willing to invest a particular interest in seeing to it that you accomplish your travel goals.

Mark loaned me a dive tube so that I could swim out to the reef and dive in Bahia Tankah. That was one of the best days of my trip, and I will always remember how he facilitated the day with advice and equipment. Getting to know a new place can be exhausting! It's not easy to plan everything you will need. The staff at El Crucero obviously have a lot of experience with anticipating the needs of their guests. This hotel is a little oasis for travelers along the Mar de Carib!

A return to the el crucero post emily and wilma, was a return "home" of sorts. Extraordinarily friendly and courteous local staff and new owners make a stay

at the crucero in room, under the barside palapa, or in the simple garden a

tranquil private or more socialable visit. Restaurant menu reasonable and

bike rentals (ruins and carribean 500 m from el crucero) and tours available in house. An art gallery with thoughtful and elegant paintings and other mixed media, Enrique Diaz, is adjacent to the small 16 roomed, some themed with murals & a/c, hotel. In the past, the hotel had a more international youth hostel theme, now it retains that community feel with some of the same clientele along with mexican nationals, families, singles, and other travelers. Housekeeping staff is considerate, accomodating, and will provide fresh towels and linens upon request, probably earlier in the day, if needed. Still recommended, congenial, simple relaxed accomodations.

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Everybody praises the El Crucero. We were disappointed about it. Okay, they were affected by hurricane Wilma. So we disregard the things that were caused by that. But the bathrooms were not worth what we paid for one of those theme rooms. We had one of these foamed toillet seats. Ugh! The towels were their basic equipment. In the first night we killed a roach in the second night I found a scorpion under my backpack. They are poisonous in Mexico. That was enough. I am not really picky, but for 65 USD I expect more.

The restaurant is really good. If they would have clean coffee mugs for the breakfast.

My traveling companion and I happened on El Crucero after missing our bus stop. It was the best missed bus stop ever. There are so many things to see around Tulum, including the ruins that were minutes away and great beaches just down the road. The owners, Mark and Sharon, are great host that helped us see as much as possible while we were there. We met them in the restaurant are first night and ended up talking to them for a few hours and ended the night with them offering to bring us to visit a few cenotes. They took hours out of their day to bring us to two wonderful and very different cenotes free of charge. Such wonderful host! They made are vacation so much more rich and amazing. Not only are the owners great but they have great staff that always had smiles for us and helped us in anyway they could.

We stayed in a $30 room with a double bed, a fan, and a bathroom. This was all we needed and it worked great for us.

Our extended family of eight frugal travelers stayed at the El Crucero Hotel in Tulum, just North of the main intersection of Route 307 and the route to Coba. We chose El Crucero for its Tulum location and price - an air conditioned room for under $70. The air conditioners aren't as effective as US air conditioners that can make you cold, but you noticed the difference when coming in from the outside in mid-August.

The hotel is a complex of office, dive shop, motel-type strip of five rooms, and a two-story small building with some rooms and some hostel-type dorms. It is run by two US men. Walkways and parking lot are gravel. The room ambiance is like a 1950's mom and pop type motel before the national chains took over US lodging.

El Crucero has it's own restaurant - an outdoor restauraunt under a palapa roof with a full-length bar and seating for about 40 or so. Eating there, especially in the evening, felt like being on a movie set. A goal on our Mexico trip was to avoid getting sick from the food, which we were able to do at the hotel. El Crucero prepares all of their food using purified water, and serves 1-liter ice-cold bottled water for just 150 pesos. We stayed three nights, and ended up eating every breakfast and dinner at the restaurant due to the cleanliness and the reasonable price. You could eat a good breakfast for under $5, and a filling and tasty lunch or dinner for $6-$8.

It is old, but the new owners have been improving it since they took it over about two years ago. Some would call it tacky. Some would be put-off by seeing a dog, or a frog in the lobby. For us, it was affordable, air-conditioned lodging with character while we took a few days to visit ruins and Xel-Ha. (About 5 minutes from the Ruins parking lot and 10 minutes from Xel-Ha.) Why pay on-beach prices for days you are not going to be on the beach? Although we were on our own with rental cars, El Crucero can line you up with snorkel or dive excursions as well.

El Crucero is not for everyone. It is not a 5-Star accomodation, nor does it try to be. It doesn't fit a star rating system. But the longer we stayed, the more we enjoyed it. One room accomodated five people. Try that in the States for under $100. We would probably stay there again for its price and proximity. Check out their website and make your own decision.