Valentin Imperial Riviera Maya: This place is it - stop looking

Instead of writing a short story or worse a novel with chapters, I'm going to actually do a review: Pool - 3 of them. Main pool, lazy river pool, small pool exclusive to Transat silver members. Each pool is awesome in its own way. Main pool is loud, lazy river is quiet. Exclusive pool very quiet, can get chairs any time of day and just a 30 second walk to main pool. Guess what we did a bunch of days... Beach - the beach is large and amazing. Powder white sand. Lots of seaweed but it is cleaned [... read more] several times a day. Lots of cabanas for shade - get there early, by 7 am if you want your pick. By 7:30 if you don't care which one you get. Yes, people put a towel and leave for the majority of the day, deal with it, everyone does it, so you do it too. The water is always rough, this isn't a place you will go snorkeling, if you enjoy waves, you'll enjoy the water, we did. **Footnote for pool and beach cabanas - there are "privilege" packages which are expensive, but it gets you your own shaded bed at the beach or pool, complete with name tag so you don't have to worry about reserving early. However, the beach "privilege" cabanas are in front of a part of the beach where you can't really swim, you gotta walk a minute or two down to where you can swim. That would be irritating to me if I didn't know that before buying it. (also with privilege you get lobster at any dinner restaurant for free - $50 for everyone else)**** Rooms - we got the silver junior, huge jetted tubs in all rooms, Bluetooth speakers in ceiling, a NESPRESSO coffee machine with little coffee capsules in every room(amazing). We had a king size bed, very comfy, luxurious. Room service 24/7. Room service is not the greatest, they don't get your order right all the time, but if you want a quick burger or wings, or breakfast, it's more than decent enough. Bathroom is very nice - double sink. Private balcony is awesome and it has an area with a clothesline to dry your clothes. The turndown service is amazing in the evening. Food - the food is well done overall, better than many other resorts. Breakfast and lunch at either of the 2 buffets near the main building or by the beach. Lots of seafood and meats, cold cuts, pasta station, omelette station, meat station, a donut Wall, pastries , all kinds of oils and vinegars and spices, and salad bar is great, lots of variety. ***Sidenote - if you're doing Keto, you won't have an issue keeping it up here*** The baguettes are otherworldly. You won't tire of the food, it's awesome. There is no buffet at dinner. They have a bunch of restaurants, no reservations , just walk up to it. You may have to wait depending on how busy it is, like any restaurant in any part of the world. Italian - awesome, french - great, surf and turf - really enjoyed it, Asian - amazing and can also reserve hibachi show as well, recommended. Didn't try mexican or Indonesian. Service - it was great, everyone very attentive and wanted to make your stay as great as possible. I didn't feel the need to tip all the time to get great service. Worst part of the trip - the coffee , seriously, what's up with the coffee at the buffet or restaurants? I couldn't drink it, undrinkable. My feeling is that it is made with regular tap water and that's why it maybe has this off-putting stink and taste. Total speculation though on why the coffee is so bad.... Best part of the trip - you have to dress up, long pants, closed shoes, elegant dress at every dinner restaurant or be turned away, so you felt like you were going to a fancy place. The entertainment at night was exceptional, really really great... I'd recommend this place without reservation...

Ocean Riviera Paradise: Luxury escape

Never been to a resort that had so much wildlife onsite. It was amazing. The food was incredible. Lots of variety and tons of it. Also, the resort was exceptionally clean and the staff were attentive and polite. The beach was raked every night and workers even loaded seaweed into wheelbarrows to cart away. The location was extremely secure and was surrounded with other resorts. Never felt uncomfortable.

Sandos Playacar Beach Resort: Great Resort - Second visit and enjoy it!

The beach is amazing, clean and not crowded. The staff without exceptions makes the experience special, they are always smiling and happy to help with anything you need. The Select club bar in the lobby have better drinks them the other ones on the beach, I recommend a visit. The adult section is located in the front of the resort close to the beach, although not renovated, the room was clean and equipped with the amenities we needed. The Mex restaurant was our preferred, delicious food and  [... read more]no big lines.The Argentinian has tasty steaks and deserve a visit as well. If you don't want to wait for dinner, the buffet is always a good choice There is a bar on the beach with good snacks and a server who brings drinks all the time, nothing better than this Sandos is a good size resort with enough space and activities to keep you entertained without the massive crowds of other big hotels

Barcelo Maya Caribe: Lovely resort

This resort is the best. The grounds are beautiful and spacious. The pools are huge and the lap pools are such a bonus. The rooms are clean. The staff is super friendly and helpful. We had an issue with our room but it was dealt with very professionally and timely and to our satisfaction. The food is super and lots of variety.

Sandos Playacar Beach Resort: Very nice time

This resort has beautifully manicured gardens and the general grounds are very well maintained. It is a very deep narrow resort with a lot of walking. We enjoyed our daily commute to the beach (8 mins) but it would be tiring for young kids or elderly and in which case there were golf buggies to take people around the resort. The pools were in very good shape ... no cracked tiles etc and grout generally very clean. As with many resort rooms, it did smell musty but got used to it. The room we [... read more] had was near the main lobby and was quite spacious. It had louvered panels between the bathroom and bed area which was aesthetically pleasing but if you needed to use the bathroom at night the entire room lit up for those sleeping. I really appreciated the efforts on the resort to minimize garbage... NO STRAWS! and they reused the drink cups several times for those guests who did not bring insulated mugs from home. Single use water bottles were nearly non existent as well. Water cooler jugs were in each room however it would be ideal to bring a reusable water bottle from home to take water with you when you were out of your room. The buffet had so many options to choose from at breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as a variety gluten free products. The a la carte restaurants were very nice too. No complaints about any of the food! The only small complaint would be that I read somewhere that the resort was 60 kms from the airport which is a little deceiving. Our mini-van trip from the airport to the resort was over a 90 min commute with stops along the way to drop other guests at different resorts.

Iberostar Selection Paraiso Lindo: Best vacation

We stayed here as a family of 9 in three different buildings the last week of March 2019. Everything exceeded my expectations. The staff were always smiling and willing/wanting to help you. Little things make a big impression. There is a door separating the bedroom area from the entry door &bathroom. What a fantastic idea. We had no complaints. Absolutely everything was spot on. In fact we are starting to plan our next stay which will be two weeks. A shout out to our Trip Central rep Caro [... read more]l Webber for having tons of patience with all of my crazy questions and requests. We have been using Trip Central since starting to do All Inclusives and highly recommend them.

Ocean Riviera Paradise: Very family friendly resort

We were travelling with our 3 young kids (4,2,infant) and the resort was great for our 4 & 2yr old. They loved the splash park and the service around the pool was great. The boys enjoyed the nightly entertainment events as it was nice that they had stuff geared towards the kids. They absolutely loved the ice cream shop and their best friend Karen who always served them up with a smile. There was plenty of food choices which made it easy but we didn't really have a chance to partake in the a  [... read more]la carte offerings. Wait times were long in some cases and we can't wait around with little ones. Sakura was also a task with a very long wait line for reservations..needless to say we didn't go there. We found the beach to be rocky so we ended up more around the pool with the kids. We did find the service to be a little slow in the buffet where we did most of our eating.

Ocean Riviera Paradise: Highly Recommend this resort (especially for families)

This is a newer resort and it shows - everything was in great condition! The room was large, the beds were amazingly comfortable, good sized balcony with table/chairs, exactly how it looked on the website photos. The resort property is large enough that you get a little walking in during the day, but not too big. Multiple pools offer options; one has huge water park for kids, one is "adults only" which is nice and has the adult entertainment, one is for everyone. There is a pool right on the  [... read more]beach - the beach was great, sufficient number of comfortable lounge chairs, a pool and restaurant right on the beach, pleasant music playing but nothing too loud and crazy. The food was fabulous! Multiple restaurants, 2 buffets, the guacamole was to die for!!!! The only negative is that there weren't enough staff in the buffet in the mornings (coffee was a bit of time coming on some days) but that was the ONLY thing that could have been improved upon. There's a cute "street" down the middle of the resort with restaurants on one side and shops/casino/coffee place/gym/spa/ice cream shop/bowling alley - felt a little like an upper scale shopping district. The front desk staff were always available and helpful. The entertainment at night was exceptional by resort standards. There was always something really fun happening before the shows that entertained the kids and then the actual shows were amazing. I have traveled south quite a bit, Cuba, Dominican, Mexico, Bahamas - and this is in the top 2 resorts I've stayed at. If you have a family with smaller children this is the resort for you. Although, having said that, as 2 adults travelling there was enough separation for us to not feel as though we were surrounded by kids all the time either. A really nice balance.

Hyatt Vivid Playa Del Carmen: Lovely experience

The hotel was beautiful, spacious, friendly staff and great food! The romantic dinner on the beach was delicious. Lots of entertainment at the hotel, delicious fresh juices in the morning and wide variety of alcohol 24/7. This trip could not have been better. Only downside was there was a lot of seaweed in the water but the hotel did its best to clean it up everyday and if you walk a little further down the beach the amount of seaweed gets less.

Iberostar Waves Paraiso Beach: Solid 4 Star Resort

Beautiful grounds and pools. Food is great at buffets. Staff are friendly and helpful. Great place if you have children. The beach is beautiful, they grade it all the time to remove the seaweed. Lots of activities at pool and beach. Nighttime shows at the theatres. If I had to say something negative I would mention the lack of shower curtains in bathroom; makes it difficult to share the bathroom. Our room had a musty old smell but the room itself was clean.

Barcelo Maya Caribe: Good Resort

Friendly staff; ground floor rooms were noisy after 11 pm at night since the revelers were getting back; washrooms were dirty (restaurants and towel service areas) and could use a system similar to Ontario, Canada whereby the cleaner signs a sheet located inside the washroom every hour (i.e. that the washroom has been serviced);

Bahia Principe Explore Tulum: Nice Resort, Great Staff

The room was comfortable and large. The resort is quite large but I didn't find it overly hard to get around. I did not use the pool, don't like loud music. Never had a problem finding a beach chair which is important to me. The beach has some rocky areas, but you can navigate around them. A La Carte restaurants were good. Buffet always had something good to eat. Staff at the buffet restaurant are very friendly. A little far from the airport.

Ocean Riviera Paradise: Amazing resort

This was our second time staying in Ocean Riviera Paradise. The resort is very beautiful . It is a big resort ,very clean and a lot to do. The beach is very nice too. We stayed in ElBeso adult only. Rooms are clean and nicely furnished. Food is exellent in all restaurant .We did not visit the Mexican restaurant this year. The staff is very helpful also. The only problem here is if you have a problem walking and you want to go to the beach you have to take a trolleys and you have to wait a long t [... read more]ime till they come. If you are in privileged club they go always almost empty but they do not stop for you.

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Amazing resort

Loved everything about this resort. Friendly staff amazing beach! Lots of shopping and things to do! We swam with dolphins right on the resort. We had an amazing seven day trip and plan to take the family back in the future.

Ocean Coral Riviera Cancun: very nice hotel.

everything was good all areas food was good but sweets not at our expectation. Shows at night some good some not that good.all area around was clean and every day they maintain that cleanliness throughout the day. Time share representatives very bothering. Activities plenty to go.

Bahia Principe Explore Coba: Enjoyable resort

We enjoyed this resort, friendly staff and the food was great. Enjoyed using the Tulum resort as well. Nightly entertainment was good. If we were to stay again we would definitely prefer to be closer to the beach and would stay at Tulum.

Royalton Hideaway Riviera Cancun: Good resort but..

The hotel itself was beautiful. Good food (most restaurants) nice pools, the adults only hideaway section was the best area for us. The beach was full of sea weed and wasn’t the nice blue water. This was by far the busiest resort I’ve ever been too. Good and bad thing. So many kids and teenagers running around. It sucks cause the adults only section is so small and the resort itself is so big so you want/ need to leave the adults only section. Again good for the resort, a con for adults. The [... read more] entertainment was great! Both the adults only section and the regular sections entertainment was always good and different. The dorado was the best restaurant with the best food, in the adults only section! Would recommend. We ate there 3/7 nights. Buffets were awesome for breakfast lunch and dinner. A huge selection. Con: was always PACKED!! Like lineups. The hunter was another awesome steak house. Great food!! Service was great everywhere. The staff was super nice and always helpful! Overall would rate it 4/5. It is expensive though, on the higher end of Mexico stays.

Catalonia Playa Maroma: Loved this place!!!

I have nothing but great things to say about this resort! This was our first time in Mexico and we weren't sure what to expect, but this place blew us away. Super amazing and friendly staff, great food, beautiful beach, large pool, extremely clean.... We thought the Grill restaurant was by far the best, we ate there twice and it was amazing. We also loved the little taco truck and sausage stand beside the pool for lunch. So many good food options.

Grand Palladium Kantenah: Amazing resort

This was an wonderful resort with excellent facilities, restaurants, and activities for all ages. Would definitely go back to this resort in the future. Was a great vacation with all family members to celebrate an anniversary.

Iberostar Waves Paraiso Beach: Very nice resort!!

Just got back from iberostar paraiso beach resort, it was amazing , the food was great. The beach was awesome,the room was spacious, and very clean. Had a awesome sunny week away...would recommend this resort...