My family and I stayed for two nights during a Mexican long weekend so the hotel was 100% full. The hotel is well situated, with direct access to the beach, and about 10 minutes south of downtown Veracruz, or about 5 minutes north of Boca del Rio. It's a relatively new hotel, and the pool would be one of the best features, being large, and basically right on the beach. Every room has an ocean view. However, when we booked no one told us that there are rooms at the end of each hallway with better balconies - there was no attempt to upgrade us to a better room on the phone when we made the reservation.
The major lack service we had was that our room was not cleaned until about 5 or 6 pm on the day we were there, even though we had left the sign on the door at 9am asking for the room to be made up. We called housekeeping and asked at the front desk before the room was finally cleaned.
Another suggestion would be for the hotel to install ice machines on each floor. Hard to believe that one is paying about MXP$1700 per night for a beach hotel in a warm climate and there is no ice machine on each floor. To get ice, one must go down to the bar on the main floor and ask for it. Both times I went took about 10 minutes, as there was no one at the bar either time. There's an ice bucket in every room, but no convenient way to get ice.
Kudos to Marconi, the bellhop. We asked for a folding bed to be brought to our room, and he ensured it happened promptly, and stopped me in the lobby the next day to check and ensure everything was alright. He was the only staff member that really made us feel special during our stay.
All in all, we would probably go back, but after having stayed at the Holiday Inn in Boca del Rio, I can't say the Camino Real is worth the extra 700 or so pesos per night.
- Camino Real Hotel Veracruz
