This placed lived up to all my expectations. It's right next to the ruins, just a few minutes walk away. The bungalows are in excellent condition and very well kept. We only stayed their one niht andwish we could have stayed more. There are several pools at this resort and I suggest to stay away from the main pool because it gets busy with tourist, but the other ones are usually pretty quiet. If I have one complaint is that the prices at the restaurants are high.

This is a great place to stay and get some rest in between sightseeing the ruins.

You could not be closer to the archeological site -- the Hotel Mayaland is actually located inside it. The original bungalows are scattered around its lovely gardens, with some newer rooms in the building that contains the lobby and dining room. This place has been here for a while -- it shows in the large trees and mature plantings.

We stayed in a room in one of the bungalows. It had a beautifully carved door, wooden shutters inside the screened windows, and a stained glass window in the bathroom. One of the several pools was just outside our front steps. The beds were comfortable, and the air conditioner worked well.

There is a terrace outside the dining room, which is another nice place to eat. Our group arranged a special early breakfast one morning in a building closer to where we were staying. There are facilities for meetings in still another building. Free Internet service is available near the main desk.

The hotel is especially convenient if you are going to the Light and Sound show at the ruins. The viewing area is a very short walk away.

If you stay here, or elsewhere in the area, I recommend visiting the cenote Ik Kil. It's a short trip by car, and is the most stunning place to swim we've ever seen. The changing rooms are new, large, and beautiful! There is also a restaurant and a large shop.

We stayed with two children (9 and 6) for one night in mid-April for about $162 on Expedia. The hotel, rooms and grounds are lovely- at one time this must have been a beautiful and exclusive hotel - but these days it is in need of some attention to both physical infrastructure and staff. A few improvements will hopefully allow this place to reclaim its former glory:

* The front desk staff were less than helpful. It seemed a bother to have to check us in and when repeated calls to the bellboy to get the luggage were not answered we carried it up the 2 flights of stairs ourselves (my husband in a full-length leg brace due to recent knee surgery). No map or guide was provided upon check-in, there was no information folder in the room and we kept having to return to the same unfriendly front desk clerk to ask questions.

* The grounds are nice but the pool is badly in need of a new deck with unvarnished, splintery boards and no safety railing. We were deluged in the afternoon by a tour bus crowd. None of these people were staying at the hotel - it appears as though the Mayaland has an agreement with the tour company to allow them to use the pool for a few hours. There was a big pile of dirty towels (with no clean ones in sight) and only 8 lounge chairs available for this large group (plus actual guests). The waiters studiously avoided taking an order (we finally had to go to them to order snacks).

*There are peacocks, and peacock droppings, everywhere, including the floors of the hotel hallways and the dining patio. These loud and pesty animals (not native to the area) were the source of most of the loud night-time noises we heard.

* We thought it strange that a hotel of this stature charged us $3.30 per bottle of water and $3.25 to use a small bag of coffee for the coffeemaker. Surely the Mayaland can provide two free bottles of water and a bag of coffee to its guests? Even the most modest places we stayed in the Yucatan did this.

In terms of the bungalow we stayed in, this was fairly nice and spacious, and pretty clean - though they could have been better with netting/protection to keep the bugs out. Location right next to Chichen Itza was great, very easy to get there before the mass crowds in the morning.

However, restaurant really lets it down, though wouldn't take much to sort it out. Tries to be elaborate in its service and presentation, but then doesn't get the basics right. Whilst we watched an elaborate display of a caesar salad being made from scratch in the middle of the restaurant (with gallons of oil when we overhead the lady ask for very little), my wife had to send her undercooked fish back, and the table next to us were complaining about being given the wrong meal (which the staff then argued about). At breakfast I was delivered 'bacon and eggs, sir', at which point I had to point out that there was no evidence of any bacon anywhere on the plate. Too many staff wandering around doing their own thing and no-one making sure things were happening as they should...