Information on and reviews of Tequila Beach

[kellygirl3]

This island had a pier so we just got off and headed straight down the pier. They have a great set-up here. I would say in another couple of years this is going to be a really great spot. There is still a lot of construction going on but it looks like they are doing it right. They have a pool with a swim-up bar and lot of shopping right at then end of the pier. We had booked Tequila Beach for the day. We had to take a bus to Muhuhual for $3 per person. Once there, Tequila beach is a short walk. The water was incredible clear and blue and we spent $25 per person for all you can eat and drink all day. We also rented a Sea-Doo and my husband loved it. I still have bruises – we had to go way out to ride and the water was really rough and of course my husband wanted to hit each wave full speed. It was terrifying – I think he may have been trying to kill me. You know – throw me off the boat and no one would ever find me. I was tough though and I held on for dear life. Warning to everyone – we put a lot of sun block on and still got really burned.

My son and a friend spent $15 for a boat ride out to a reef for about an hour of snorkeling. They loved it.

The rest of the group hung out at tequila beach. They played great music and danced and drank and had a great time. The Muhuhual village and shopping is a short walk and we all did some shopping there. The prices were good.

I am disappointed I was not able to get the massage on the beach. I really could have used it after the sea-doo ride but we ran out of time.

[newistcruiseaddict]

$25 for all you can eat and drink...alcoholic beverages? Did you book this in advance or once you arrived? What did you eat?

[kellygirl3]

newistcruiser:

 

We did book in advance through costa-maya tours.com - we got the Sailor's pass which is all you can eat and drink for $25. Just mention the cruise-critic discount.

 

The food included things like Nachos, Burgers, Quesadillas, Guacamole, etc. The drinks were Pina Colodas, Margaritas, Shots of Tequila, Beer - etc. They were strong. We had no problem keeping the drinks coming - we just kept tipping the waiter. We definately got our moneys worth!

 

There were some in our group that did not book ahead and were able to get the same deal right there. Just make sure and mention the cruise-critic discount - it saves you about $15.

[CORONAONTHEBEACH]

Great info on Tequilla beach. I am going there on the Liberty cruise on 4/22. I have heard great things about this port and hopefully we get to stop there as I have heard in the past when the water is rough, ships have a hard time docking. My wife and I also did the $25 sailor pass for all you can drink and eat. How was the food? Was it worth it? How much was the wave-runner to rent? Thanx!

- CORONAONTHEBEACH

[kellygirl3]

Corona,

 

The food was pretty good. It was not as good as on the boat but the nachos had spicy cheese and jalepeno's and the guacamole was pretty good. My sister had chicken quesadilla and it was good. Nothing spectacular but it was fine for the day. I was pleasantly suprised that the drinks were really good. I was afraid they would be watered down but not so.

 

The sea-doo was a 2-seater for $90 for an hour. I think this was a discount when I mentioned cruise critic.

[CORONAONTHEBEACH]

kellygrl3,

Thanks for the info! Sounds like a good deal and a great beach to hang out at. I just hope we are able to dock there without any problems.

[Stormeka]

Thanks for this information! I just went and booked us some beach time :D He's not a drinker so I got him the First Mate and I got the Captain's Pass!

 

We leave on the 1st so I hope our email confirm comes. Glad I had some money stored away in my Paypal account!!

 

One question: Can we go anytime we want. I'd like to not have to get up at the crack of dawn.

 

Thanks!

[kellygirl3]

Thanks for this information! I just went and booked us some beach time :D He's not a drinker so I got him the First Mate and I got the Captain's Pass!

 

We leave on the 1st so I hope our email confirm comes. Glad I had some money stored away in my Paypal account!!

 

One question: Can we go anytime we want. I'd like to not have to get up at the crack of dawn.

 

Thanks!

 

Yes - we got there around 10 and there was hardly anyone there. It did get a little more crowded as the day went on but not bad. There were plenty of beach chairs available all day. HAVE A GREAT TIME!!!

[garysol1]

newistcruiser:

 

We did book in advance through costa-maya tours.com - we got the Sailor's pass which is all you can eat and drink for $25. Just mention the cruise-critic discount.

 

The food included things like Nachos, Burgers, Quesadillas, Guacamole, etc. The drinks were Pina Colodas, Margaritas, Shots of Tequila, Beer - etc. They were strong. We had no problem keeping the drinks coming - we just kept tipping the waiter. We definately got our moneys worth!

 

There were some in our group that did not book ahead and were able to get the same deal right there. Just make sure and mention the cruise-critic discount - it saves you about $15.

 

 

I am confused. Looking at *****.com the Sailor pass is for kids only. The First Mate Pass is $25.00 with discount as noted but only includes non-alcoholic beverages and snacks. No burgers. In order for me to book something like what you are talking about with Alcohol and burgers would cost me $55.00 for the Admirals pass. Am I missing something here? I just received an email from the tour company saying the Cruise Critic discount is $5.00

Thanks

Gary

[Stormeka]

I am confused. Looking at *****.com the Sailor pass is for kids only. The First Mate Pass is $25.00 with discount as noted but only includes non-alcoholic beverages and snacks. No burgers. In order for me to book something like what you are talking about with Alcohol and burgers would cost me $55.00 for the Admirals pass. Am I missing something here? I just received an email from the tour company saying the Cruise Critic discount is $5.00

Thanks

Gary

 

Yes you are right. It is usually just too darn hot when it comes to eating on the beach for us - so the First Mate and Captains Pass worked for us. But if you wanna have a meal - you're going to have to get the Admirals pass.

 

I'm satisfied with being able to drink ;)

[sstephy]

newistcruiser:

 

We did book in advance through costa-maya tours.com - we got the Sailor's pass which is all you can eat and drink for $25. Just mention the cruise-critic discount.

There were some in our group that did not book ahead and were able to get the same deal right there. Just make sure and mention the cruise-critic discount - it saves you about $15.

 

I've read that costa-maya tours.com has an office in the port by the shops. Did your friends buy their pass right at Tequila Beach or in port?

 

Also, how far/long of a walk is it between Mahajual and Tequila Beach - or are they right next door to each other? Is T.B. between the pier and Mahajual or do you walk past Mahajual to get to TB?

 

I'm sorry for all of the questions, but don't want to turn the wrong way and never find it. :o Believe me - it would happen. :D

[chris1974]

I just got to say for the money value, this beach was ok, but I thought that the wait staff and bartenders were alittle to be desired. The person that said about the tipping, that is exactly what you had to do to get any kind of service good or bad. The nachos, pico de gallo, and guac were good, but the the other food we all thought wasn't very good. The beach chairs that you had to rent had cracks in them and one actually broke while my husband was sitting in it. The waiter tried to make him pay $35 for the chair and my husband basically said no and the waiter said he didn't speak good enough english. The waiter was going to talk to manager and nothing more at that point came of it. Later while the 2 husbands and 3 of the kids were out snorkeling and by the way that was $15 and they loved the snorkeling. They all thought that was great. But anyway while they were gone a gentleman and I think he must of owned the chairs started giving me a hard time about the chairs. They had given us 2 chairs piggy backed for my husband who had just planned a sitting a few mins. when the chair broke. I told him the condition of the chair and that he needed to back off. Later I found out that when you rent the chairs you pay the waiter who pays the owner/manager of the beach who pays the person who owns the chairs. I think there was alittle more to the story than the broken chair. The waiter and him talked and the waiter came up and asked me if I was happy now. When we tried to order food for the kids who had the same all you can eat and drink as the adults the waiter said they couldn't order an entree. We had to go talk to the cashier and manager to get that straightened out. There were also topless girls on the beach, but it was spring break. The water was very warm and it was nice on the beach, but our waiter would take forever to come and check on us and the bartenders who got tipped would take the money paying customers and leave us with wristbands waiting. Not somewhere we would go again and there was 8 of us.

[mattsydnjoshsmom]

Are you saying you had to pay to rent beach chairs after paying for the all inclusive???? If so....I'm not too happy about this!

[GB Chicago]

When we did the wave runners the guy told me $45 per person/$90 total. I charged it on my visa which he said was ok but he would have to put it through as pesos. Underneath the $1080 in peso's he hand wrote $90. Big surprise - my Visa bill says $100. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt that this was just a harmless error in the conversion rate on his part. Any one else have this happen?

[dforeigner]

When we did the wave runners the guy told me $45 per person/$90 total. I charged it on my visa which he said was ok but he would have to put it through as pesos. Underneath the $1080 in peso's he hand wrote $90. Big surprise - my Visa bill says $100. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt that this was just a harmless error in the conversion rate on his part. Any one else have this happen?

 

Does your visa carrier charge you to convert foreign transactions into US dollars? Most credit card companies charge either a fee or a percentage. Also, if you feel this to be a mistake, if you have the transaction receipt with you, scan it and email it to your credit card company. Ask the service rep when calling to contest this charge which email address to use.

[GB Chicago]

thats exactly what i'm doing. I think its the conversion rate he got me on - just thought if more cc boarders knew this maybe they would stop. My bet is they hike it up to cover what visa charges them. Its only $10 so I wont stress. Thanks for the reply

[fdmdj83]

We were just at Tequila Beach Club on March 29. We (the five of us) had the first mates pass, since I wasn't sure about drinking any of the frozen drinks...but I figured we would drink enough canned soda and bottled water...this was going to be a short day since we had to be back to our ship by 2:30. When we first arrived, which was about 9am, we were greeted and shown around the place. They asked us where our beach towels were, which we thought were supposed to be included in the cost, and supposedly the towels were no longer included in the price, but they honored it for us and let us use their towels...Also, we assumed that the package only included mexican snacks, like nachos, but they let us order a burger, quesidilla from the menu at no extra cost. The food was okay. It was was $118 plus a $24 deposit for the five of us. Rather pricey, really, but I wanted to have something set up on this island ... even though, I'm not sure if we really needed to purchase the whole package thing....We also rented a wave runner for one hour at $90...we paid cash. The kids had a blast! The water was rather rough, but someone went out with them on another wave runner in case they needed help, which they ended up transferring to another runner because the water was so rough their first runner died on them. Anyway, overall, if we visit Costa Maya again, we would definitely consider Tequila Beach Club. I thought the grounds were very well kept. The place is close enough to everything else in the village, but is secluded also. I also liked the idea of having a locker to use. We took a walk into the village and was able to leave a lot of our personal belongings in the locker. The village was a very "hoppin" place. If you want a massage, you can definitely find one there. We were asked probably 20x while we walked thru the village, but we had one at Cozumel. If you don't mind a lot of people, there were a number of restaurants and bars in this area, but I liked Tequila Beach Club because it was a little bit more secluded and the beach area was nice size.

[rwillis9]

thats exactly what i'm doing. I think its the conversion rate he got me on - just thought if more cc boarders knew this maybe they would stop. My bet is they hike it up to cover what visa charges them. Its only $10 so I wont stress. Thanks for the reply

 

I am glad that you are checking into it. We did their snorkel tour and were less than thrilled. The guide jumped in and swam off. He did his own thing. My wife was having trouble with her mask and as I am trying to fix it, I get hit by the pontoon boat that is ankered. The captain was oblivious to the people in the water. The current was very strong, so they should have taken our safety more seriously, and then they got miffed when I did not give them a great tip. :eek:

[brich669]

We were at Tequila Beach on the 29th of March. We booked over the internet with cruise critic discount and for 2 captain's passes and one sailors pass. I paid $68.00 total. I was expecting this to include snacks all day and alcohol drinks and soda for the whole day. When we got there it also included an entree. We did not have to pay for any chairs, our waiter, JUAN, was great. We never had to look for him to bring us a drink, he always came to ask us before the previous one was gone. Food was plentiful. We did pay for the waverunners. The water was a little rough, but it made it even more fun and the staff was great. As far as Tequila Beach, I would definitely recommend it and I would do it again the next time I am in Costa Maya. There was 7 of us there ranging from 16 to 40 and every one of us had a great time and this ended up being our best port. Thanks to Otto and Juan.

[MercedMike]

Currency conversion rates are always screwy. Vendors frequently use whatever rate they want to. Typically it does NOT favor the customer. Surprise?

 

I just googled the conversion and got

1,080.00 MXN

 

=

 

98.1818 USD

 

which is about 11 pesos to the dollar. But your guy was using 12 pesos to the dollar. Happens all the time. When you travel abroad, you can stress out over exchange rates, or forget about a few bucks. Me, I'm not an international banker so I don't worry about it.

 

;)

[CORONAONTHEBEACH]

Brich:

Great review....I am going there on the Liberty Cruise on 4/22. Can't wait, my wife and I both got the Captain's pass for all you can eat & drink. We are looking to rent wave runners as well. Is there any bartering there or is it just a flat fee? And for how much?

Thanks again for the review!

[fdmdj83]

Actually, just to clarify...I was in error. We had five people with First Mates Pass...$25/per adult and $18 for one child totalling $118 for 5 people... this included non-alcoholic drinks, snacks, lunch, chairs, and towels. We also paid $5, refundable locker fee.

[Muscle Car]

I was apprehensive to write this review for several reasons #1 being that I am new to the boards and thus I really didn't think that anything I wrote would have much clout, second because I never like writing negative things especially on my first post.

 

So my review is as follows:

 

We arrived around 10:30am to Tequilla Beach Club. I had purchased two Captain's pass's on the CCM discount and was very happy that I had since the total came to only 25 dollars a piece. Otto was very gracious in accepting the cruise critic discount even after I book passed the deadline.

 

At any rate I digress, when we arrived all was well and I completed the payment for the rest of the ammount and proceeded to the bar for my first drink. After ordering an extremely watered down frozen drink I decided that beer was going to be my drink of choice. No problem, mixed drinks are a hard thing to keep when it is hot. Well upon switching to beer I was asked to pay for my drink, I showed him my bracelet and the bar tender insisted that I couldn't have anything but the mixed drinks. After explaining that I had a captain's pass he agreed that my beer was indeed on the house and that I was fine...and then proceeded to have a hissy fit when I walked off. I was later told by another bar tender that the other bar tender didn't want to serve me because I didn't tip him.

 

I am not a cheap person and will tip even in instances where things are all inclusive just like this, however when I am hounded every time I want a drink for a hand out I tend not to be as generous.

 

Snorkeling:

We paid 20 dollars for a trip that was slated to last for over an hour. When we got on the boat we were told it lasted 30 minutes, when we got in the water it actually lasted around 20.

 

We took a small pontoon boat for a 15 minute ride out to the site. Some very rough weather was causing some fairly good surge to come over the top of the barrier reef we were to snorkel on which in turn made for very choppy water and extremely strong currents.

I am a certified diver with several years experience in different water conditions and I knew from the second we arrived it was going to be too rough for the folks who had little to no experience. I entered the water first along with a few of my friends who were with me. All of us had our own equipment and thankfully so as having a "Dry Snorkel" and a good set of fins was a must. We had a 12 year old kid almost get drowned after being struck by the pontoon boat, his father had great difficulty in the water as well, and as for the rest of the folks...I honestly didn't see them in the water for much longer than 5 minutes. The poor kid who almost drowned immediately went back in the boat after my friend had to help the kid back in since the boat captain and guide did nothing. At one point the Captain even told the floundering kid that he needed to "just swim to the other side of the boat." His father got back in with him and since the water was pitching the boat so much he slipped and cut his leg very deeply to which the captain again did nothing to help. Myself and our group went out to explore the rough waters of the reef and take some pictures all the while we never saw the guide again maybe because the water was too rough or maybe because he just took off on his own.

 

Overall the site was very pretty, but the lack of safety and professionalism for the crew way overshadowed any benefits of the reef.

 

All of this, and then the captain grumbled when the injured father and son exited the boat without tipping. I tipped but was immediately met by a plea for more.

 

After arriving back at the beach we decided to get a lounge chair, and then thought again once we saw people who had fallen through them since they had cracked in half. So we opted instead for lunch. We grabbed a table on the quaint little area and sat back to enjoy the pretty scenery and good music. The atmosphere was nice and over all this was my more favorite part of the trip. We started out with a female waitress but after some sort of issue where she was almost fired ended up with a nice fellow who take care of us. The food was, well fine, but nothing to write home about. I ordered mixed fajitas and when they came out was told that the Beef had been over cooked so that is why it was white. Ahaha, well at that point I couldn't have cared less because I was starving and strangely quesadillas had disappeared from the menu so there really weren't many options left. Our waiter seemed to be busy and getting drinks before they were warm was becoming more and more difficult. He seemed to be largely uninterested in us and it showed with how little service we actually got.

 

After lunch a few decided to brave the lounge chairs again...which they were asked to pay for and then left alone. Also missing from the fray were the complementary towels, that is of coarse Tequila Beach was directly sponsored by Carnival in which case there were an abundance of those.

 

I being the fish that I am decided that contrary to what I had been told there was some good snorkeling in the water's right in front of the club. I strapped on my mask and snorkel as well as my fins and took the old underwater camera out for swim. Closely in toe was my buddy who had gone with us on the previous snorkeling trip and tends to enjoy my little side adventures especially since he was generally very underwhelmed by Costa Maya at this point.

 

Off we went into 3' and 4' depths of the water directly in front of the club, to what was unknowingly the best snorkeling of the day. We spend literally 2 hours out swimming in the shallows enjoying the beautiful marine life that was not even a 100 yards from the club. For me and my friend this made any and all faults of Tequilla beach fade away as we were seeing things in the relatively calm shallow waters that we didn't see on the 20 dollar trip and best of all it was free.

 

We returned after a wonderful little excursion to find that our friends shoes had been stolen as well as his fiance's sunglasses. My snorkeling bag had been opened and looked through but thankfully nothing was of any value in the bag. My friend who had gotten his shoes stolen asked the club personnel if they had a lost and found to which they were very rude and basically blew him off. He asked to check the boat to make sure that he had not left them in there. The response was that he would have to swim to the boat if he wanted to check because they weren't going to do anything other than point him in the direction. We ran into other folks on the cruise who had wallets, and other such things stolen from right next to their lounges just like us. Overall I was very dissapointed again, which was further topped off by a staff member trying to hock off some fake Cuban cigars and then hounding me to find out how much money I had on me. We were subsequently asked for more tips before we left and at this point hadn't received a drink in over three hours.

 

 

I would say that I was very disappointed overall with the club and the staff other than Otto. Otto was great but the staff was far from his level, and left me glad that it was only 25 a person and not more.

 

I will leave you with these three just to show you what was right in front of the club.

 

[hubofhockey]

Thanks Muscle Car, that's the type of review that hits home with me. I needed that one to know to avoid that one. Found another review in search engine on Maya Palms talking about seaweed and grass in the water. I am sold on Mahahual now and now just need to find the best snorkeling excursion there and probably use Pez Quadro as a base.

[brich669]

Corona:

 

We tried to get them to come down on waverunners, but that was pretty much a set fee of $45 for 1/2 hour $90 for an hour. Well worth the money though. We only did 1/2 hour and that was about all we could handle. The swells were a good 6' high and we couldn't be seen from the beach but we got some good air time and it wore us all out. We even tipped our guide because we had such a great time afterwards. As far as buying t-shirts etc. They'll bargain. We bought a Hard Rock Cafe Sweatshirt for $15.00 each. Saw them in the store for $75.00. It's well worth it the try.

 

I can't wait to go back to Tequila Beach. We had an awesome time.