Occidental at Xcaret Destination: Okay resort

Perfect location. We enjoyed our stay. The weather was great and the park entrance was so close. Food is subpar. Do not go there for the food. Old building we stayed in, needs to be remodelled. Also, the Royal level and club level much nicer. Be prepared for sales. Service was excellent.

Barcelo Solymar: “ The New Cuba”

Or at least that’s what the Sunwing agent tried to explain to me at the resort because there were no toilet seats in the main building washrooms ( in the men’s washrooms) I booked my trip through trip Central as always I looked at the pictures and trusted their 4 Star rating. I’ve been to Cuba well over 10 times so I know what to expect or what can be expected while I’m there. I go for the beaches, the weather and for the Cuban people. That said, I have never experienced such a. disappointing ho [... read more]liday in all of my travels to Cuba. We could not get my door to the room to close properly and the safe in my room wasn’t working. I lost the whole first late afternoon and evening., having to stay in my room while they worked on the safe which they were unable to fix . I lost numerous hours over the next two days having to wait in my room while they worked on my safe we’re having to travel to the lobby and wait on staff to come to my room with a key that would open my safe.. There was no water, hot or cold in my room on the first day or night, which happens in Cuba. However, they sent me to a hospitality room to have a shower and it was disgusting. There was no soap or shampoo, no towel and the room and shower hadn’t been cleaned in weeks. I asked my Sunwing rep for assistance i.e. moving to another room or another resort preferably. She told me that this was the new Cuba. That they can’t get toilet seats and things have changed a lot since Covid. I don’t think that she knew that I’d mean to Cuba five or six times post Covid and every resort had toilet seats, and had staffed that would clean rooms and provide towels, etc. She told me that if I was switching resorts, it would be my responsibility to cover the cost of transportation and differences in resource pricing. She was constantly looking over and agreeing with the hotel relations officer, and not supporting me at all. I’m travelling to Cayo Coco at the end of the month with a group of friends … it will be interesting to see what the conditions of the resort are there. The Solymar should be rated as a 3 - 3.5 at best. If you are recommending this trip, your client should be made aware of the conditions there

Occidental Caribe: Upgrades and repairs much needed.

The resort was fine but the staff lacked emotion, no smiles and most could not speak English and finding someone that could was almost impossible. The food was always cold and the lineup for (hot) breakfasts were long. The resort itself NEEDS repairs to the rooms. Lamps were broken, shower heads were clogged, electric outlets were loose in the walls. The maids walk into rooms after 1 knock without waiting for a reply.( I got caught with my pants down) literally. They need more staff around the p [... read more]ools for drinks. There was only 1 per pool.

Allegro Cozumel: Great location

The beach is beautiful plenty of loungers as well as the pools. Rooms are dated but comfy beds and linens. Staff are amazing very attentive and friendly. The grounds are kept extremely well very clean. Cons: not pleased with the food at the buffet. Usually cold lacking variety. The restaurant booking was frustrating,had to line up at reception desk to book daily for only 2 reservations permitted for 7 day stay. Only 3 restaurants to choose from. The Mexican was disappointing, food was cold and [... read more] awful. Asian was good but hard to get into. The bar drinks were good and many choices. Mini refrigerator was stocked daily with soda, water and beer. I’d recommend but be aware that the buffet needs improvement was disappointed with that. Love the feel of a smaller resort.

Royal Hideaway Playacar: a real disappointment

The resort is very well kept by their staff. The grounds and beach are beautiful. However there is room for improvement. Poolside umbrellas and lounge chairs should have been replaced years ago. The resort feels dated. I was on vacation with my brother and our wives. Each of us became very ill for a minimum of 2 full days. Food poisoning was the issue for us. The concierge was made aware. Needless to say - this ruined our vacation. We will not be returning.

Barcelo Maya Palace: Love this resort

Beautiful beach you can snorkel or just enjoy the view. Food is amazing in restaurants or buffets and great entertainment. Our 3rd time stay. Many guests we talked to had been repeat guests just like us. If you want to be active and like a beachfront resort this is the place.

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Colonial review

Hotel looked clean, and well maintained. The 2 areas, to my opinion, that needs improvement is in the food and animation. Food was OK, but got bored very quick with the options we had in the buffet. Animation was absent. Big gap between the dinner and the evening show.

Barcelo Maya Caribe: Excellent Resort

This is a large resort. You have access to the sister resorts and are all walkable. The food was excellent. The rooms are a little dated but are very clean and comfortable. My grandson has food allergies and the kitchen staff was able to provide us with separately prepared food. The beach is beautiful and you can walk a good distance. However water shoes are a must. There are large rocks under the water you can't see. Once you get in the water 100 feet or so there is nice sand. There is no bar [... read more] service at the beach but service is available at the pool. The staff were pleasant and accommodating and worked very hard. Thanks to all the resorts staff. The Xmas eve diner was something out of this world. The food and decor was amazing. Thanks also to Kevin Dupuis from trip Central who handled my booking . He is always available when i have questions.

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Fantastic resort

We loved our stay with our two children. The Beach was beautiful and we absolutely loved the snorkeling off the beach. We saw many fish and swam with sea turtles. Our room was very clean and comfortable. The grounds are so well taken care of and we didn't find anything was far to walk to. We all enjoyed the food and felt that there were enough choices for everyone. We were there over the Christmas holidays, the feast on the 24th was out of this world. The staff were very friendly. We had an exce [... read more]llent stay. The only thing was that the pool wasn't very warm however we did travel over the winter months so I guess this is to be expected.

Occidental Arenas Blancas: Awesome vacation

Our 5th time at this resort , was there in May 2025- at this time the AC did not work anywhere and the food/drinks were limited but this time Nov 2025 things were alot better. Rooms- were very clean, the AC did not work well they changed our room and it still wasn't working that well. Beach- Amazing, sand is soft like flour, always place to sit on the beach in the shade Food- was very good, fries, chicken nuggets (like Mcd's), pasta, hamburgers, hotdogs, rice, stew, awesome Bfast, pl [... read more]enty of food ect.. every day, Drinks- always something to drink Staff- Very nice and helpful Would highly recommend and we will return

Barcelo Maya Palace: Great Resort, Great Beach!

Big clean beach, with many different activities for kids and adults. Large clean pools, great staff and service. Billiards, Table Tennis, games, water sports (Sea Trike, Kayak, ...) included. Many bars and Buffets with good variety.

Barcelo Maya Caribe: Still a great resort

We returned from Barcelo Maya Caribe a week ago, after a 10 day stay. This was our third time at this complex, previous 2 stays were at the Tropical. The grounds are still beautiful and well maintained, although there are less colorful plants around the palm trees than before. Rooms and bathrooms were a bit dated but functional and very clean. We loved the bed sheets! The mini fridge was restocked daily and we always had enough towels in the bathroom . Food in the main dining room was just ok [... read more], not as good as on our previous visits, the choices were limited but we always found something to eat. The food in the main buffet was not warm enough, especially at dinner time. We ended up going to 4 a la carte restaurants: Italian, Mexican, Spanish and Japanese. All were great! We have to mention that the resort is very clean and that service through out the resort, from every department, was excellent - thank you Barcelo! Entertainment team, especially Joseph and Marianne, were awesome. We really enjoyed their energy and effort in including everyone in the games and aqua aerobics in the pool. The pools are amazing, huge and well maintained. Plenty of lounge chairs available around the pools and on the beach. The beach has eroded over the past few years, more rocks and coral on the shore, but still good access to the sea. We recommend wearing water shoes. Would we return there? Yes!

Barcelo Ixtapa: Good luck finding a chair by the pool

The hotel and their staff were great. The only complaint I have is why post a sign that says no reserving chairs and you absolutely nothing to enforce it I literally had to wake up at 7 o’clock in the morning, just so I can get a chair by the pool ….it was ridiculous On most days, I had left the pool by 1:30 to 3 and people that had reserved. The chairs hadn’t even shown up.

Barcelo Maya Beach Resort: Great resort!

The food was good, beach is nice, and the pool activities were fun. I loved that the resort itself is small, but all the other Barcelo resorts on the grounds are available and accessible, which gives you so much more to see and do without ever leaving the grounds! We were told about the sea turtles at the pier, but didn’t get to swim up to them because it was too windy. Would definitely come back here again for a longer stay.

Barcelo Solymar: Barcello solamar

I'll start off by saying all the staff were great aseral is amazing guy who brought me to my room but all the front staff and security were great not big on the food but I ate out at restaurants mostly and I do understand it's tough for Cuba for things so very understandable .I'll be back again soon

Barcelo Maya Tropical: Amazing resort

The hotel was beautiful and clean. The staff friendly and very accommodating. Good at the buffet was plentiful and delicious. I loved this resort and perfect place for a family vacation. Would definitely come back.

Barcelo Maya Tropical: Amazing resort

The hotel was beautiful and clean. The staff friendly and very accommodating. Good at the buffet was plentiful and delicious. I loved this resort and perfect place for a family vacation. Would definitely come back.

Occidental Papagayo: Pura Vida!

Both my flights with Air Transat went smoothly. There were very few people on the plane both ways. I imagine likely due to the scare of a strike that never happened—but worked for me! Airport shuttles were both good as well, drivers both timely, organized and friendly. Arrival at the resort: check in was quick, friendly but I could have used a welcome drink. This was the first resort I have been to where this didn’t happen. A ride to my room was provided but I wasn’t guided to my room a [... read more]s I have been in the past at resorts. The resort is beautiful and surrounded by nature. Everywhere you look, there is wildlife! Monkeys, parrots, iguanas, butterflies, scorpions and crabs. This was my favourite part. The beach, wow. Yes, it’s not white sand beaches but it’s Costa Rica. There was sand a plenty, lots of places to walk and sit. Swimming was great. I brought water socks and found that helpful. Not many people even used the beach—I felt I almost had it to myself the times I went down. There was some sort of bioluminescence the first night—so lucky to have experienced that! The entertainment at night was classy and perfect. Live music by the lobby. The staff by the pool, only visited them once for a dance (I was horrible but had fun) but they were also great. Energetic and friendly. They have a list of activities posted by the grill—where you get your towels. They don’t seem to follow through with every activity. I was hoping to get some water aerobics in to still exercise but be minimal pain on my body but it didn’t happen the day I planned to do it. If I wasn’t so booked up with tours/limited on time, I would have done more! Each and every person that worked there was so hard working and nice. What a great staff they have! Let me tell you when I read about the walking, hills and overall distance of things at the resort I was warned about, I didn’t believe it, but do now. Be in shape, be prepared. I do not believe I was fit/well enough to enjoy the resort as much as I normally would. Though, I didn’t use a shuttle as I could have to make it easier. Note there was a short cut from my room to the lobby with less stairs! If you can’t find it, ask! I was told on my last full day there. It honestly would be nice if the resort would ask about where you would like your room or if you have any mobility issues (I have a spinal condition) as I felt I was one of the furthest from both the lobby and the beach. I should have said something but didn’t understand the distance until the daylight on the second day! Food, was quite average. I tried the grill, lobby buffet and Italian. Note, I am vegetarian so my options are more limited than others. The grill didn’t have much that looked appetizing in my opinion, I only got chips, queso and a piece of bread there. I sorta thought it would be like many beach grills I’ve been to in the past and be made to order, but it was just another buffet. The main buffet was decent, but I feel they need to try quality of quantity. A lot of the food was cold. There were a variety of items but the same almost each breakfast and dinner. The fruit was lovely—plentiful, fresh and ripe. They had an egg/omelette station. I would have liked to have seen a pasta or stir fry station maybe. Instead, I had some cold spaghetti one night and generally had the same rice and some plain roasted vegetables. My last day, there was a really nice flavourful ratatouille I wish I got to eat more of. Booking the al la carte, that was a chore. I explained upon my 7pm check in that I had only 3 full days there and that the first 2/3 I was off the resort before 8am. Still, they said I had to book between 8-3. So the second day, I got back from my excursion before 3. I was still not able to book. Last day, instead of sleeping in when I didn’t have an excursion until afternoon, here I am setting an alarm for 730 to trek to the lobby to book dinner. At first, they said there was no availability, so clearly some rooms were able to book in advance. Then said there was the steakhouse. Im sure theres options, soup, mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables but I wanted Italian. They said it was fully booked but then ended up booking me for 830pm after I pleaded to them. There were only a few tables seated at the restaurant that night which had me questioning the fully booked aspect (maybe everyone that booked was in bed…?). Again, the staff was great, waiter was SO nice! The bread brought to the table with balsamic and olive oil was lovely. The caprese was missing balsamic and the cheese wasn’t good. The eggplant ravioli could have been good but was over cooked. The sauce for it and extra cheese topping was good. The dessert, tiramisu was tasty. It was nice to have a nicer more intimate, made to order dinner for 1 night rather than the buffet . The resort also limits your al la cartes. I was only able to book 1 during my stay. For $1800, I feel I shouldn’t be stuck with a buffet for every meal but 1 for 5 days. My tours were all with the company Frank the Tank. With my short time, I wanted to make sure everything was set before I got there, and I did just that. Deposits were made easily via PayPal and I paid the rest in credit at each excursion (you can pay cash as well). Each member of his team was absolutely fantastic. Knowledgable, kind and fun. I enjoyed learning about Costa Rica on the drives. The country to include health care, education and have monkey/wildlife bridges over roads is fantastic. The country was very clean—how amazing for the people and all the animals. The guides all made me feel welcomed and safe! The river safari was amazing. I was able to see iguanas, so many birds, monkeys and crocodiles. I tasted coffee on 2/3 of my tours and wow! I am a flavoured creamer and all the bleached sugar kind of girl, but I even enjoyed it black. It was made nice and sweet with some real unbleached sugar! I will be incorporating this into my life back at home, saying goodbye to adding white sugar when possible. There was a meal served on all my excursions. All were good. My favourite was the first soda on the River Safari day. I enjoyed the family style meal presentation, the flavours were good and the drink, tamarind was delicious! The pico and guac on the catamaran was also yummy! It was nice to have fresh tasty guac! The pottery demonstration was nice to see—I love art. I am more about experiences over souvenirs but that pottery was beautiful and so I treated myself to a hand crafted, carved, painted clay shot glass—so much better than the mass produced glass ones you see many other places. My second tour was the Rainforest day. We stopped at a waterfall first where I bought another souvenir. This woman hand painted each individual shirt—how cool! I respected and adored her art and got one! Both my shot glass and shirt have a sloth on them! The sloth was my absolute favourite part of my trip and I was so happy to have seen one in the wild. For me, a once and a lifetime experience, I will treasure that. It was beautiful. It was nice to be able to get in and swim right in front of the waterfall! Breathtaking. You can leave your belongs (wallet) in the car so they are save. I always get worried about that swimming and travelling alone. Hiking through the rainforest, bring good shoes! I did! My Keens (hiking sandal with closed toe) were perfect for this. There were hills and it rains (duh)! Each step was worth the beauty I took in. The hanging bridges, an experience for sure, wild! We saw toucans, toad, frogs, snakes and a sloth. The guides knew we were bummed we didn’t see monkeys but they pulled over on the road on the way home and we saw a big group of them! That was awesome! I was very grateful for that. The catamaran pick up was easy—right off the beach of my resort. They have a smaller boat to bring you to the catamaran. The drinks were delicious and a plenty! It was a bit more party than I expected but I had fun! I liked how we had a small group compared to the large party boats I saw. I enjoyed the more intimate/more personal experience. We went by monkey head island which looked cool. We stopped at a place with a bunch of neat caves! As soon as we got there, saw my very first sea turtle. The snorkelling was underwhelming compared to other places I have been but I knew this coming into it. I was still able to see a lot of fish honestly—just not much reef life. Saw some turtles making some love during sunset—magical! It was fantastic. The boat went wild. Overall, I am glad I made all the choices I did. It’s always easy booking with Trip Central, Air Transat was good, resort overall was good and had good trips with Frank the Tank’s teams. Costa Rica was absolutely beautiful. I saw and did everything I wanted to with ease. Pura Vida! https://youtu.be/jYr8uKsm10M?si=Rev5xxPki_BhQpfk

Barcelo Maya Tropical: This is not a resort....It is a resort complex

The Barcelo Maya Tropical is part of a resort complex made up of six hotels. It is huge but at no time feels over crowded. The grounds and hotels are well laid out, groomed and maintained. Staying at the Tropical allows one to use the facilities of four others. That means the pools, restaurants, beach bars and theaters. There is a shopping mall and a local market on site. The whole complex is kid friendly except for the adult only Riviera Maya. There is also a bowling alley, mini putt and a casi [... read more]no. The food at the various hotel buffets is very good and varied but reservations are required to use the a La Carte restaurants. The beach is rocky so water shoes are advisable. There is also a Dive Shop on the premises that offers SCUBA training and rentals.

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Barcelo

Beautiful site and well kept . However huge site - especially with arthritis !! Would be nice to have staggered eating sites - not strict timing . Beach very steep and reef close by so not ocean swimming easily Personally we would prefer a site with 1-200 rooms max . Marble tiles are washed 1-2 / day - very slippery !! Also please mark off step down in central lobby ! Should mark with yellow/black tape and central railings Railings at pool entries would also supply safer entrances A [... read more]t bars it would be nice to have corn chips etc