Barcelo Montelimar: Nice grounds, limited signage, lines for meals

It was nice for the area however everyone here is vacationing from the area. Received several dirty looks from other Spanish guests, limited service cause we are not local and long waiting lines for Meals. Locals and guest didn't want to interact with us let alone say hello.

Occidental at Xcaret Destination: Very nice resort

We really enjoyed the fact that the resort is located within an eco park, interesting animals, however mosquitos were quite bad so beware. Food was excellent in a la carte restaurants ( we ate at the oriental and Mexican ones) and you don't have to make any reservations. Buffet was also good. Friendly staff. One complaint is that some staff are pushing to sign up to an info session to become a member of the Barcelo hotel chain, unless you are considering buying into their time share don't waste  [... read more]your time. The resort is very convenient if you want to go to the XCarat park which is right by the resort or X-Plor park, for which they offer a free shuttle. We went to The Xel-Ha park and Tulum combined. One disadvantage is that you lose half of the day to enjoy the park because visiting Tulum takes up 2 hours (approximately). We got caught in stormy weather so couldn't appreciate the snorkelling as much, but it is hard to predict when you book a few days earlier. We still had fun though. Beach is very small and can get busy but snorkelling in the cove is great as well as along the shore by the adult pool.

Barcelo Solymar: Good resort

Amazing beach, the hôtel is average. The food is not that bad but it's not great. I had the suite and there's these tiny little ant's that you can barely see on the floor. Overall, I had a great time and I recommend this resort.

Barcelo Solymar: Amazing!

I loved the hotel the only thing is that the food was so bad the people are beautiful and sweet and I can't wait to go back.. the clubs were fun too but leaving the hotel is better to get good food as well

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Disappointed and scammed

The property is beautiful but thefood is very poor unless you go to a la carts restaurants! One night in the buffet they had "North America night - had US flags hung everywhere and offered fried foods ... didn't come to Mexico to get American food. At the stations where they cook your meat, fish, hamburgers - they add lots of salt and oil. The food was similar to Cuba even though the hotel claims to be 5 star. It only shows as a 5 star as the waiters watch for opportunities when you are actually [... read more] happy and hand you a survey then so the results are skewed. Extremely slow check in with not even water offered to help tired hot guests. We were bumped from our room as well as several others due to double booking rooms. Beware - upon arriving at airport we were offered excursions at reduced prices in order to hook us into time share presentation - thankfully we got out of it or it would have taken an entire day!!! Extremely long walks to buffet. Poor signage to everything - easy to get lost. Expressed multiple concerns to management - completely ignored! Check out was ridiculous -not only did the employee try to delay us so that we would be forced to take a taxi, the excursions booked at the hotel get registered as a room charge - we purchased excursion for $109 US but upon checkout we were charged $127 US per person and we had 6 people!!! Arguing would have cost us even more so we just offered up the money in complete disgust. Don't book Xel-ha - it's a 9 hour exclusion unless you want to pay to go back to hotel. And by the way. If you really want to go - don't book through hotel. Take a taxi there and only pay $89!!!! Per person. Limited choices for entertainment. Disappointed!

Barcelo Solymar: Satisfactory

Mixed between families, couple retreats, and college aged party seekers. Staff were okay, cleanliness was nothing impressive. Food was terrible and made me and my friends very sick. The nicest staff members were the maids. Bars arent open late, big downside. Beware of getting ripped off by locals! Dont pay more than 2 pesos for a beer or a pack of cigarettes.

Occidental Costa Cancun: Wonderful resort with wonderful staff!!

We (the whole family )love this resort because everywhere you look, it's clean. Our room was a good size one, and was cleaned up everyday. The beach is a little bit small, but it doesn't get overcrowded; the water is so clear, it doesn't matter how many people are in it. But what really impressed us the most, are the staff and the people working in the restaurants, be it at the buffet or the a la carte. We would like to say thank you, to Jose at Claraboya restaurant, he made our dinner/lunch [... read more] there more interesting. He is very friendly & welcoming. The food in all the restaurants are delicious! I personally thank the Entertainment Staff also, for doing a great job, especially the aqua aerobics, and the Dance lessons at 4:00 pm, that I really enjoyed a lot, thanks to Brandon & company. The daily evening shows were also fantastic, they really worked hard to entertain the hotel guests. Thanks again, to all the staff at Occidental Resort Cancun, my family had a great time!

Occidental at Xcaret Destination: awesome experience

Our family had an amazing time on this trip to Grand Xcaret, starting with the highly proffesional help of Robyn from tripcentral, all support and reminders, flight and hotel staff. Thank you Robyn and great people at Grand Xcaret! There were few small inconvenients during arrival (far suites between family members - fixed, room problems - fixed) but overal great people, very proffesional, polite and giving their best, unique hotel by design, atention to details, amenities, nature, events, fo [... read more]od and drink, everythin first class. Big thanks again and atrongly recommend it, specially families

Barcelo Solymar: Air Conditioning Nightmare

My wife and I have been to Cuba 5 times and stayed at Barcelo Solymar/Arenas Blancas 3 times. The Resort Staff, Beach and food were great considering that it's Cuba. The Solymar Buffet is very crowded but there seems to be enough food. The only problem that we had was that the Bungalow we reserved had no Air Conditioning and it was leaking from it. After 2 days they moved us to another that had A/C at first for about three hours, then it quit around 4 pm and quickly the temp went to 34c. That [... read more] evening one of the Technical staff went onto the roof, came to the Lobby and said that it was fixed at about 11:30 pm. We went back but it still was not on at all. We missed the alacarte the two times that we reserved due to A/C problems,standing in line at the front desk. We slept with the windows and doors open to survive and had to listen to people that were passing by screaming and some arguing throughout the night. A lot of people cannot handle their liquor and have no consideration for others. The 4th day we were moved to a room in the main hotel that kept it's A/C throughout our stay but had no hot water. We did not complain about that since A/C had become most important, especially during the Cuban summer weather. I actually contacted the Hotel two weeks prior to our trip to make sure that we would have A/C since my wife has COPD and were assured that it would be fine and a memorable vacation.They would not even tell us where the Hospital was located when my wife had problems with her breathing. Fortunately , with her puffer's and going off Resort to restaurants with A/C , she regained her breathing. I spent so much time and went back and forth to the office more times than we were moved about this problem that continued to re-occur . Not to mention that each time there was a line up of people. The experience is unforgivable and we will never stay there again, nor recommend this hotel. Our rep from Transat told us it was a common problem and that he will be informing the head office. Beware if you choose this hotel, hopefully it does not happen to others.

Barcelo Solymar: Best 2 weeks of my life!

This is definitely not a family resort. Good for young people looking to have a great time. AC works, and rooms are generally clean. It's cuba and you can expect some things to be less sanitary than what you are used to at home... The beach is beautiful! Definitely the go-to resort for partying and having a wild time !

Occidental Costa Cancun: Amazing resort

I had a great time at the Occidental Costa Cancun, the people were great very hospitable. We went to various tours and when we came back they treated us great. The food was great in all the restaurants they had. We enjoyed Mexican the most. I will look forward on going back. Yolanda and Mauro Argumedo from Toronto, Ontario. Canada

Occidental Costa Cancun: Average resort

The resort beach is very limited (in terms of available sand and sea surface); also there is intense motor boat traffic in the close proximity of the hotel beach which rendered it more than inconvenient; thus the solution was to go (via public transportation-bus-which is reasonable in terms of cost and schedule) to other public beaches (i.e. approx 20, 30 min away from Occidental Costa); had we known this "detail" about the resort beach we would have probably picked another resort; for example t [... read more]here is Occidental Tucancun about 15 min drive away from the Occidental Costa with a nice private beach; bottom line for people (like us) who assign importance to the quality of the resort beach we do not recommend Occidental Costa Cancun; another negative (not that important to us but it may be for other people) was the fairly poor (lack of) daytime animated activities (i.e. sport competitions, dancing classes); also, this resort has no night club; thus for people interested in a late night dancing they would need to travel outside the resort; not a major issue for us but it would have been useful to have these clarifications before booking; on the positive side: all three a-la-carte restaurants were quite good, the buffet menu was ok in terms of food quality and variety; good service, friendly waiters, bartenders, receptionists etc

Occidental at Xcaret Destination: Great vacation at Occidental at Xcaret destination

This is our 2nd time at this resort in the last two years. The grounds were well maintained, as well as the pools, there were lots of leaves and berries in the pool some days, but there were 3 staff in the pool trying to clean it when we were there. I expect it is a big job to maintain the pool with all of the trees surrounding it. We upgraded our room to a suite in the Royal area as we were there celebrating our 5th anniversary. The suite was perfect and so big with ocean view and on a corn [... read more]er, so we had two balconies. We ate at all of the restaurants and had not complaints, we had sushi at the Oriental a la carte which was good. The sushi at the snack bar was also very good, and the chef came out and made us some special sushi just for us when he saw that we were enjoying what was in the buffet. The restaurant at the Royal area had the best food overall, breakfasts, lunch, and dinners were amazing at this restaurant and all of the staff were amazing. Room service was also available but we did not use it. They made us a Mexican fiesta dinner one night which was awesome and we had a full seafood dinner another night which was also amazing. We did not swim in the beach area this time, but it looked very clean from the beach snack bar. Overall this was a great spot for our 5th anniversary and we did spend a day at Xcaret next to the resort which we also enjoyed very much.

Occidental at Xcaret Destination: Simply said : Go elsewhere, save your money, worse than two star !

Where should I start... 1. Bad location 2. Mediocre service 3. Food choices: bad 4. Speciality restaurants : horrible 5. Amenities: worse than two star 6. Access to services limited unless you upgrade to some "BS" royal club. 7. Tours and excursions: overpriced as compared to what they cost outside the resort. 8. No beach at all !! 9. Tiny pool with a congested swim-up bar. All in all, I suggest you, readers, to go elsewhere. Not worth the money. Probably we would have had more fun  [... read more]and entertained better had we booked a regular hotel in the city of Playa Del Carmen and ate where ever we wanted and did what ever on our own.

Occidental Cozumel: Beautiful resort

Amazing resort with beautiful landscaping. Kids loved the pool and the resort crew and activities. Half days excursions were fantastic. We went for snorgling and fishing and saw all kind of fish: Dolphins, stingrays, octopus,... definively a resort for nature lovers.

Barcelo Maya Tropical: Great resort

It's amazing for family trip ! So manny things to do, we will definitely be bringing the whole family next time. We enjoyed the spa and gym area. So manny pools. The beach was spectacular. We loved the food and the buffet. The only thing I would say is do not forget to bring long pants if your are a man as it is required for special restaurants.

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Nice family resort

PROS: -Great layout with a smart design idea to cover path walks from buildings to restaurants/theater. No need to worry about rain or too much sun. -Never short of a natural shade or lounges on the beach. -Clean resort, well maintained. Clean, spacious room, nothing extraordinary. Unfortunately on the ground level very smelly :-( -Nice for snorkeling CONS: -Can't say the food is bad, but not great definitely for this resort level. More grilled fish would be good. Better organized [... read more] restaurant with a clear sign where to look for certain food. -Many additional costs for all inclusive resort (bowling, surf ride, pirate island...) -The beach is short if you like long walk on the sand. -The Dolphinarium is so expensive (the 80$ US just to pet dolphin), it is shame to earn so much money on poor animals)

Occidental Arenas Blancas: Great Resort!

The swimming pool was beautiful. The Italian food (a la carte) was yummy! The buffet had lots of options! The maid did an excellent job of making our sheets and cleaning the room! The staff were very friendly. Thank YOu!

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Great resort!

Absolutely a fantastic resort that I recommend to everyone! Great food, good service, nice beach (even with some occasional rocks). THe restaurant a la carte are on high demands so book them upon your day of arrival. We were able to book 5 out of 7 restaurants since we stayed for 10 days. We tried the Italian, Steak House, Mexican, Japanese and Sea Food. You've got to try the Japanese for sure. The sesame sauce is great and the show is A MUST! Please be advise that the resort is 80 minutes aw [... read more]ay from the airport, but it is still worth it! My family and I were sad to leave after ten great days! Daniel and Family!

Occidental at Xcaret Destination: Beautiful and Clean Resort

We booked this resort for our honeymoon and were very pleased with the layout and cleanliness. The staff were always friendly and the food was very good. Beautiful pools and beach and we never had to reserve lounge chairs as happens at other resorts. That was so refreshing! Our room was nice and cool and always well maintained by housekeeping although it would have been nice to have more than just 2 beers stocked in our fridge. The entertainment staff could have used some help on their chore [... read more]ography and should have had some interaction with the guests outside of the hour of their show. It also would have been good to have a schedule of activities. I found it hard to figure out what was going on around the resort during the day if I wanted to get involved. Otherwise, I would definitely recommend this resort and we will definitely be booking again!