Nice hotel - clean, good view, nice sunset, fun little lagoon, pool. Service, food & location not so great. Nobody wanted to help with our bags (even though we paid for bellhop service in advance). We had to wait a couple of hours for them to "prepare" our room, only to walk into a flooded one. Nothing was within walking distance. Front desk clerk sold me internet service even though he knew the internet was down. Then they refused to refund my money until I'd bugged them over hours of time. Patti at the spa was a wonderful person. Security guard was great - gave us a 5am wake up call even though we never asked for one. He was correct though...we were running late. I probably would not stay there again.

Playa Azul is a wonderful small resort. Most guests are middle-aged couples or young honeymooners looking for a quiet, relaxing vacation. This is the perfect place for it. The rooms are spacious and attractive (and our bed was very comfortable). Every room has an amazing ocean view. The beach area is beautiful and smartly divided into smoking and non-smoking areas. There is good snorkeling over the rocky bottom just a few feet into the water in front of the hotel. If you prefer more sandy bottom for swimming or bobbing around, there is a great spot along the stretch of beach just to the south of the hotel, which is also where jet skis can be rented. The water is amazingly clear and clean and, unlike many tropical places, refreshingly cool (around 75 degrees I'd say). In fact the ocean water is so great, we never went in the hotel pool. The dive shop at the Playa Azul Beach Club next door rents snorkeling equipment, though as a guest of the hotel you can get equipment for an hour per day free. Fishing boats, parasail boats, dive boats and tour boats will pick you up at the hotel's pier. Taxis are always waiting out in front of the hotel to take you into town (it's an eight minute, $5 trip). The free breakfast buffet is served on a large covered terrace that looks out on the water. There is a wide variety of food and it's all good. My wife and I particularly enjoyed the Mexican breakfast casseroles, which were new to us. Lunch can be eaten here or at the outdoor Palapa Bar on the beach (the nachos rock), or you can eat under the huge palapa at the beach club next door. That beach club seems to be a favorite of the locals. The food is good (try the tomato salad, the guacamole and the club sandwich), the margaritas are strong and the wait staff is very friendly. The hotel staff at Playa Azul likewise is friendly, gracious and helpful. These folks are Mayan and courtesy is important in their culture. If you bother to greet them with "Hola, como esta usted?" and leave a small tip for the maid each day, they really appreciate it and will go out of their way to make you feel at home. My wife and I enjoyed our experince here so much that we've already booked another trip.

My husband and I stayed at the Playa Azul May 11-15, 2008. We selected the hotel based on the other reviews and the free golf (cart fee only) deal at the Cozumel Country Club.

The hotel was well-kept and attractive with a great location North of town, away from the crowds. We enjoyed the small size (50 rooms) as opposed to the bigger resorts.

The staff was very helpful, courteous and friendly. The rooms were clean, not fancy. The linens and towels were ok-not fluffy and luxurious by any means. Beach towels were included, so you don't have to bring your own. We had a balcony overlooking the pool and the water, which was beautiful. We didn't go in the pool, as we were there for the snorkeling, but it looked clean. The dive shop had scuba lessons in the pool in the morning.

The complimentary breakfast was delicious. There was a variety of cereals, rolls, fresh fruit, different casserole type dishes, sausage, bacon and a chef that would make eggs, omelets, pancakes and french toast to your order.

The area directly behind the hotel by the water had a nice sandy area with lounge chairs. There was a small outdoor bar immediately next to this area, and a large outdoor bar area where they had live music Sunday afternoon. Watch out for the Margaritas-they make them strong there. There is also a rental place for scuba gear which has snorkeling equipment that is free to use for hotel guests for the first hour.

The actual beach area is small and has a rocky ledge on either side of it. We spoke with the people who rented the scuba equipment and asked where the best place to snorkel would be? They directed us to an area south of the hotel by a large condominium high-rise (looks like it had been through a hurricane and had seen better days-didn't get the name of it). It was a short walk over there and we found an aluminum ladder off of the pier area that we could climb down to get into the water. The current is strong and we barely had to use our fins to move through the water. It carried us back to the beach in front of Playa Azul. Along the way, we spotted a small sting ray at the bottom of the water, and schools of various tropical fish and a few sand dollars that had made their way there. We had a lot of fun with this and got out of the water and headed back to the ladder and did this "loop" quite a few times. We didn't see tons of fish here, but it was a good time.

We played golf for three morings at the Cozumel Country Club. This was a fun but tough course. When everyone says "bring lots of balls" they mean it! The fairways have lots of water hazards (including a large crocodile that we saw on Hole 11) and a jungle that takes golfballs and doesn't give them back. You may be able to spot where your ball landed in the jungle, but you can't retrieve it due to the thick undergrowth. I'm pretty sure I lost 6 balls a day on that course! Iguanas are everywhere. We also saw a javelina and her baby on 2 days, also lots of birds and butterflies. Monday there were a few cruise-ship people coming over to play golf, but they started us on Hole 10 and we didn't run into anyone for the rest of the day except for the groundskeepers. Tuesday we felt like we had the course to ourselves and Wednesday was a little busier than Tuesday, but compared to Houston golf courses, it was practically empty. We were able to store our clubs at the golf course so we didn't have to lug them back and forth to the hotel.

We took taxis around and it was about $5 USD to go to town and the golf course and $10USD to go to the airport. We took the airport shuttle from the airport to the hotel. Taxis can drop off at the airport but not pick up. We heard that you can walk to an area outside of the airport to get a cab, but between our luggage and the 2 golf bags, that would have been too much work and we were on vacation. The shuttle cost us 78.00 Pesos each from the airport to the hotel.

We did rent a car one day. There is a car rental place right across the street from the hotel that you can walk to. It probably would have been cheaper if we reserved on the internet, but we didn't. We did get the $11.00/day insurance for Mexico, but didn't spring for the additional insurances. It was kind of scary driving around town with everyone whizzing in and out of traffic on scooters and the taxis zipping around, but we lived to tell about it, so we'd do it again. We went to Corona beach and had lunch and snorkeled. We saw lots more fish, coral and underwater plants on the reef there. We tried to find Dzrul Ha which was supposed to be as nice as Chanknaab, but without a cover charge, but couldn't find it until after we snorkeled at Corona. Dzrul Ha beach/reef area is north of Chanknaab. Look for the signs that say "The Money Bar" and it's there.

It was easy to exchange currency at the ATMs located on the pedestrian plaza in San Miguel. Everyone knows where they are located. Even the Spanish-speaking only people that we happed to ask the ATM locations could direct us to one. it was nice to have both pesos and US dollars. We never had any problems with using one or the other and it is fairly easy to estimate the exchange rate.

For meals, we ate at the Lobster House that was directly across the street from the hotel. I didn't think the lobster was that great there-a little too over cooked for my taste, but maybe it was an off-night as we met some people there who say it's one of their favorite places to eat. We had a great seafood meal at El Capi Navigante-grilled shrimp and a yummy chile relleno at La Choza.

It was a great rip and we would definitely stay again at Playa Azul. Next time we will take an extra day to do a boat snorkeling excursion out on the reefs.

We (2 couples in our 30s) stayed at PA April 30 to May 4, 2008. We had a great time. We were there to celebrate our 10 year anniversary with some friends and have no complaints. It was a nice quiet hotel, easy to find and not too big. The food and drinks were great, nothing special but enough to help you relax. The staff was attentive. We had turn down service with chocolates on our bed each night. The view from the balcony is fantastic and the golf deal was great. Our wives took advantage of the spa and had a massage one morning while we golfed, $65 for about an hour that they thouroughly enjoyed. Some people really like the big hotels with all-inclusive meals and drinks but we really liked getting out and trying some other places- we liked La Choza, Pancho's Backyard and Trattoria Italian. We also rented a small VW convertible that was a lot of fun. One other side excursion we enjoyed was a trip to the other side of the island. The boogy boarding and wave watching was a lot of fun. All in all, our only complaint was that the beds were damp from the humidity. Not sure what could be done about it but it bothered my wife.