The Landmark is truly beautiful and well-maintained with excellent staff. A few points I would have found useful to know in advance are:
- The rooms really do look like the walkthrough on the website. One thing that is hard to tell is where the balconies are; we had a three bedroom unit and the big balcony was on the side, but still had a nice ocean view.
- The walkthrough doesn’t show the laundry room, even though I found it to be one of the beat features. It is right near the condo door, so you can drop off wet and sandy things without making a mess of the rest of the place. There is a lot of space to store pool floaties, snorkel equipment, whatever, while still having access to the utility sink, washer, and dryer, all of which are in great condition. They give you laundry soap (and will give you more if you need it). There is no drying rack, only the dryer, but it has a no heat setting.
- The water in the kitchen is filtered but really does taste weird and salty. It was ok to cook with, but we had to go to the grocery store for bottled water even to make tea and coffee.
- Maid service is daily. Some sites seem to say it is only weekly for some reason.
- Grocery service arranged by the resort is no longer available and I found it difficult to arrange a timely delivery on my own. However, a taxi to the grocery store is cheap. There are ample taxis waiting outside the grocery store for the return trip. Buy about twice as much water as you think you’ll need.
- The pool is not heated, but it tends to be warm. There are shallow parts good for small kids. However they treat the water, it is very mild. My daughter usually has a huge eczema flare-up if she gets in any pool, but she lived in the one at the Landmark with no problems.
- The Landmark-dedicated section of the Money Bar beach area is small. If you really want to go to the beach, get a beach club day pass somewhere further south on the island. If you really want to snorkel, go on a tour.
- Checking in and out went very smoothly and quickly.
- For some reason, there were people loudly talking and putting trash in the trash bins outside the hotel at around 2-3 a.m. every day. I think it is from the Money Bar. It woke me and my husband, but not our young child, so some people can sleep through it and some can’t. There is also music at the Money Bar from 6-9 on Friday-Sunday. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t restful either. It is impossible to talk if you have dinner at the Money Bar during those times. Overall, the noise issues weren’t terrible, but they were annoying, especially since they were related to the Money Bar, which is owned by the same people, and, thus, entirely within their control. I couldn’t help feel a little bit taken advantage of; there are enough posts that they should know that the noise is an issue for most guests, but it seems like once they have your money once, they don’t care. There is especially no excuse for trash noise at this price point.
- The Money Bar had a decent amount of variety and the staff were super nice. We ended up eating there most days.
- Even with the Landmark staff helping us, we were not able to manage a safe car rental. The first car (delivered to the hotel) had no working driver-side seatbelt, the check engine light came on, and the car would not accelerate after that. The replacement car had a flat tire. We gave up and asked for our money back. This isn’t the Landmark’s fault; they did the best they could, but don’t rely on a car rental.
- We also had a bike rental from Rent-a-Bike Cozumel. The bikes were fantastic, and probably would have been great if we were all adults, but I had a five-year-old in a bike seat on my bike. The other tourists on mopeds and in car rentals on the beach access road were completely unsafe (as opposed to the taxis and other locals, who were safe and courteous) and we ended up not using the bikes much as a result. I would only recommend bikes for older teenagers or healthy adults with good reflexes.
- We used taxis mostly and they were honest, friendly, and safe. The folks at the front of the hotel or the security gate outside will call them and we never had to wait more than 10 minutes, and usually not more than 2 or 3 minutes. You will need your own booster seat for younger kids. I recommend a Bubble Bum.
- Sign up with the Landmark to access better deals. That’s what I did and I paid about a third of the usual rate.
