Hotel Villas Flamingos

This review is long overdue, but while it’s been a few months since my boyfriend & returned from a lovely week at VF, we’ve reminisced about it nearly everyday since. As a couple of overstressed, overworked, and relatively “type A” New Yorkers in our mid-twenties, we take our vacations very seriously. If i’m going to spend a significant amount of my hard-earned money on something, you’d better believe I’m going to research every aspect of it extensively before making a decision. I did this when considering Holbox and then even more when considering VF, and I couldn’t be farther from regretting my decision. In short, everything about our stay was absolutely fabulous. Here’s why: - The location. As others have mentioned, VF is one of the furthest hotels from the center/ downtown Holbox, but this is actually one of its best features. Not only is it extremely quiet and stunningly beautiful, but it’s on the best stretch of beach on the island. You can walk for miles out on the sandbar, often without seeing anyone else. We felt like we had the whole beach to ourselves at times (aside from all the wildlife! I even spotted a flock of flamingos on our last day!) and it was magical. And unlike the majority of other hotels in Holbox, VF is actually ON the beach— there’s no sandy road separating it from the water. Also, you can easily walk to town in about 15 mins, but if you don’t want to, it’s easy to take one of VF’s bikes in for free or take a super short and super cheap taxi. - The accommodations! We stayed in a bungalow cielo and my god, it was enormous and just stunning. The pictures online don’t do it justice! The outdoor shower, the massive indoor shower, the huge balcony right over the beach, the view, and my god the jacuzzi. The AC worked perfectly, great water pressure in both showers, and the bed was very comfortable. This room was not cheap and was definitely a splurge for us, but again, definitely worth the splurge! I would stay in (and pay for) the exact same room again in a heartbeat. - The food! As New Yorkers— and forgive me for sounding pretentious—we’re no strangers to good food. It’s hardly something we expect when traveling because, well, we know we’ll always have access to tons and tons of world-class restaurants and delicious cheap eats at home, so food has never really motivated us to travel. And yet, the food at VF sincerely impressed us! We didn’t plan on eating at the hotel as often as we did, but after a couple of standout meals and dishes— the octopus tostada, grilled octopus, pescadillas, and flank steak— we were hooked. Very reasonable prices, and the drinks were also fabulous— very strong and spicy! - The staff! Everyone, I mean everyone on the staff at VF treated us with unprecedented respect, consideration, and friendliness. Juan in particular stands out for always remembering my drink order and my affinity for the restaurant’s special “spicy sauce”, and he always made sure to bring me extra regardless of whether it came with my meal. Everyone though was just so pleasant and always remembered our favorite drinks, where we were from, and our breakfast preferences, everything. I was sincerely impressed! Basically, I could go on and on about how wonderful this hotel is. My boyfriend and I have both been lucky enough to travel around the world extensively, and yet VF truly stands out as one of our favorite hotels (and holbox as one of our favorite destinations). We’re already planning to return again next year :)

We will definitely go back to Isla Holbox and to Villas Flamingos. Beaches were beautiful, able to walk as far as you want on the beach which is not true in other parts of the Cancun region, breakfast was great, staff very friendly, nice pools, great to have bikes, paddle boards, and overall relaxed vibe.

I just visited Holbox with my family for 4 days. I travel frequently and sometimes get a little frustrated with on-line reviews as, often, less experienced travelers just sometimes don’t have a good frame of reference. Trying to compare a hotel in Holbox with a hotel in, say, New York is apples and oranges. If you’re visiting Mexico, and particularly a small village like Holbox, you have to have a different set of expectations. With that said, let me give it a shot. I did a lot of research for this trip. I spoke to a number of friends who had visited Holbox before and read every possible review we could find on every hotel on the island. In the end, we were very pleased with Villas Flamingos. We spent a good bit of time back and forth from the town to the hotel and stopped in many of the other spots we had considered. None compared, in my opinion, to VF. The rooms at VF were not super fancy, but they were clean, comfortable and as advertised. The pools and grounds are absolutely beautiful and well-maintained. For example, the paths were raked every night so we would leave footprints in the sand when leaving our room for breakfast. When we’d go back 30 minutes later, the paths were raked again - but we never saw any workers. Very discreet. The views are incredible and even the rooms further from the ocean are still only, maybe, 25-30 yards away. The best part about VF was the location - by far the best spot in Holbox. Many of the most popular places are located all in a row on the same stretch of the island. The main road for the island runs between the hotels and the beach. Although it’s really just a sandy path, the amount of pedestrian and golf cart traffic was really unappealing, not to mention all of the hawkers and vendors that were a constant bother. The beaches for those hotels seemed very public. However VF sits at the end of that stretch and the road cuts in and behind the hotel instead of running between it and the beach. So, the property is much more intimate. The view from the property is directly into the sunset, so you get amazing views in the evening. The tiki style bar sits right at the edge of the ocean and serves up, quite literally, the very best hand shaken margaritas we’ve ever had anywhere. Thanks to Bordon and Alejandro for those! The restaurant is decent, although you’ll want to visit the town for most of your meals anyway. The hotel is a little further from town than some of the others because it’s at the end of the stretch, but I didn’t mind because it offered more privacy. A taxi (golf cart) was about $2.50 into town and took 5 minutes. If you aren’t averse to a little exercise, you can take the hotel bikes - a 10 min easy ride. My only negative for this review would be the service. However, you have to take this with a grain of salt as it is a small Mexican village. Mexico is on its own time and, relative to other places in Mexico, it was about par for the course. But, I’ll give you an example: My 2 kids wanted to SUP, so we went to the front desk and were told that they would be brought down to the beach momentarily. After an hour we did not see them and had to go inquire again. This time we were told that they were all being used. However, I knew where they were kept. When I went to check, there were plenty available so I drug them down myself. No big deal, but you have to expect some things like that. We had a couple of issues like this. The staff is very friendly, but just suffers from a little miscommunication now and then. In summary, I would highly recommend VF. It’s not a 5 Star relative to, say, the Peninsula in Chicago, but I think it’s a 5 Star in Holbox terms. If I return, I will definitely stay here again and would have no need to research anywhere else. As an aside: I would highly recommend going to see the bioluminescence as well as grabbing dinner one evening from some of the myriad food carts in and around the town square. Milpa was an impressive restaurant in town. I was disappointed with the whale shark tour - 4-hour round trip boat ride in very choppy seas and you get to stay in the water a total of 2-3 minutes while a shark passes quickly by, if you’re lucky. You can get a better view at an aquarium and save yourself a ton of money.

We stayed here recently in July and after months of planning this vacation, I feel I should leave feedback. There was basically no wifi internet, sending a simple email was a struggle. The staff is really attentive and dedicated, but ordering food or room service takes forever and ever. We arranged transportation through the hotel and it was really expensive and the car was underwhelming. Per previous mention, the staff are sweet, and the beach is really lovely, we are happy we visited Holbox it had been on the list for a long time.

All the people that works there are wonderful. Our weiter called Purush was an amazing person. The place is Lovely, I love the fact that they're a small little hotel, no big hotels are allowed there and the give you discount if you're Mexican. That's very nice. I really really recommend this place. Amazing service, delicious food, clean and very comfortable, what else do you want for vacations?

We had the most amazing night ever! Food was great and the room was just lovely. We had a private pool/jacuzzi with a lovely view, the bed was very comfy and the bathroom was an experience in itself! We had an outdoor shower and a lovely “normal shower” but everything was much better than expected and we expected a lot! Personnel super nice and superb location. We are so looking forward to stay there again!!

Where to start... The grounds are lovely and impeccably maintained. The staff is friendly, attentive and didn't miss a detail. The views are unparalleled on the island. We loved that there is no road between the hotel and the beach and that it was farther from town. Not that the road is busy... sand and golf carts only, but for us, we like a bit more peace and quiet and were happy to take a taxi into town. The food was very good and reasonably priced at the restaurant. We took advantage of the free SUP and charming hammocks over the water. The rooms are very charming and island feeling. We went with our 2 adult children, so we opted for two rooms to have some more space which worked well. The staff put us in the same little building, which made it nice for coming and going. Bring bug spray to combat the nighttime mosquitos, but the hotel staff even thought of that detail and has some bug lotion at the bar and lobby for use. We would stay here again in a heartbeat! Loved our 4 nights there!

This is such a lovely place!!! The installations are great, the private beach is a little piece of paradise on earth and all the employees are always willing to help in the most kind manner. I will gladly return to this hotel as soon as possible.

My husband and I came for our 10th Anniversary so we splurged a little bit and upgraded to a pool room. For us who usually stay budget room, this was luxury. The room was nicely decorated and had all the extras from a huge comfy bed to robes. Service was over the top with a maid coming twice a day to clean up and bring fresh towels and water bottles. If we come back I would probably just get an ocean view room. We had our own little plunge pool but it really was unnecessary with the infinity pool 20 steps from our porch. They assigned a waiter to the adults only section we were in and Ivan catered to our every need bringing us food or drinks. The beach here is the prettiest I have ever seen and the nicest to walk on for miles and miles. I would recommend taking the free bikes to town every night to explore different restaurants however the food at the hotel was very good too. I would definitely take the free kayaks out to the right all the way down to where the river comes out. We saw lots of beautiful flamingos and other birds. All staff was very friendly and a pleasure to get to know. Truly a paradise to stay in and we cannot wait to return.