My girlfriend and I stayed at Posada del Sol, the sister hotel to Posada Lamar, for 4 nights in early February 2007. After conducting a considerable amount of "research" on TA, locogringo, and others, we decided to stick our necks out a bit and choose somewhere we hadn’t heard much about because the price was right ($80/night) and some of our other choices weren’t available on the dates we were traveling.

In order to book, we contacted the property directly and left a deposit for 2 nights, which doesn’t seem atypical for Tulum's "eco resorts." I do wish we could have saved the $50 international wire transfer fee by simply leaving a credit card. In any case, "checking in" was easy - we just pulled up in front and said we were staying in room two and the nice girl in the shop/office put the key in the door while we were parking. Three quick things about the parking: 1) it’s somewhat limited 2) if you have something bigger than a compact, its going to be a bit of a squeeze, and 3) rent the car on a credit card with car insurance (see item 2).

The hotel is in a relatively dense cluster of hotels in a central location, and shares an 80 yard stretch of sandy beach with Conchitas and Azulik, which are situated directly to the north. The beach was clean and uncrowded, although it seems that Posada del Sol is a bit short on lounge chairs. They certainly don’t have the fancy beach bed set-ups of some other places down the beach. On either side the beach is bookended by large rocks. The rocks provided a nice place to sit in the evening, but didn’t allow for a long uninterrupted stroll. If that is what you intend to do, you might want to stay further south, closer to the biosphere.

It is important to note that some of the rooms are across the street from the beach (including ours) and they don’t say that explicitly on the website or anywhere else. It seems that if it doesn’t say ocean front, it’s across the street – which we found to be a little louder, a little hotter (no breeze), and a little less private. If you are going to stay in a room across the street, consider getting one of the ones upstairs. Our downstairs room was large and clean, with no frills and a very airy setup. I wouldn’t suggest sharing this particular room with somebody you’re shy with, but it was fine for us. The bed was very firm, and they provided mosquito netting which was very effective and added to the ambiance. As can be expected in most of Tulum, electricity was limited to nighttime use, and we had a few instances of minor maintenance issues, but they were handled promptly. My only real complaint with our room was that there were no curtains covering the windows at the foot of the bed.

Overall, I would say that Posada del Sol is a perfectly fine choice; however, if you are expecting to bond with the other guests or the hotel staff, or if you want to stay someplace with a restaurant/bar there are better choices. You will likely only nod hello to the other guests on your way to the beach or diving and only see the staff when you’re perusing the gift shop (nicer than most). If you’re looking for a reasonably priced, clean, central jumping off point, this is a fine one; if you need easy access to long beaches, lots of attention or something fancy consider other options.