The Fives Beach Hotel and Residences Playa Del Carmen: Great family vacation spot

This resort ticked many boxes for our group. Food, pools, service, location. All very good. Lots of wildlife which my child loved. Small downside would be the beach as the water is rocky and there was a lot of seaweed but no other complaints aside from that.

Excellence Riviera Cancun: The Excellence really is excellent,

On our 4th visit to the Excellence Cancun, we discovered this resort has actually become even better. As always, the staff really does make the difference and we cannot say enough good about each and every one of them.

Friendly Fun Vallarta: Wonderful resort!

Everything was great Great food, great service, clean rooms, very friendly staff. Loved the activities and live entertainment. This was my first time here and I would definitely come back and invite all my friends.

Bahia Principe Explore Akumal: Terrible customer service

The hotel itself was nice the grounds were beautiful. The system for getting people around was great. But when issues came up their customer services was terrible. There was not enough staff the could speak English. Were bumped from staff to staff several times.

Sunscape Dorado Pacifico: Wonderful resort

WE just returned from a 11 night stay at the wonderful Sunscape Dorado Pacifico in Ixtapa. The resort was great. Rooms were comfortable, food was great and the staff were excellent. The beach was great and the pool and swim up bar was great. There was enough of a variety of food to chose from. The only problem we had was in the bar inside the hotel. The poor bartender had to call the entertainment director to change the channel on the TV. For some strange reason, he wouldn’t let it stay  [... read more]in the bar area.

Iberostar Selection Paraiso Lindo: sharing my experience

Know what you are getting yourself into. I always search out larger resorts, as I enjoy wondering around and can feel the space, rather than a smaller setting. We stayed at the Lindo section of the 5 Iberostar resorts that are adjoining. The Del Mar and Beach seemed to be the older section, and the Maya the newest of the 4. The Lindo and Maya section offered interesting courtyards to access your room, as the Delmar and Beach were just boring apartment buildings with hallways. So an obvious upg [... read more]rade in hotel design. We had access to the Beach and Del Mar, but were restricted to the Maya, however did share the pool with them. Then there was the Grand Paraiso, which seemed like a total different hotel. Design and decor was a major step up, rather opulent compared to the others. Their beach was almost equivalent to the combined of the other 4 building. Some of their rooms were directly on the beach as the other 4 resorts were separated by a mangrove area, giving it a more rustic and natural element. Maya, Lindo, DelMar and Beach's rooms closest to the ocean, which you would think to be the better and more expensive, were not the nicest at all. Our beach bar and snack bar were excellent, however there was a lot of watering down of the drinks. Not a bad idea for the early day consumption, but still disappointing in flavor for some drinks. Found the rooms be to large enough, beds were very comfortable. The balcony was a solid waist high enclosure, so little sitting down and people watching. The restaurant booking was very easy. Your building concierge can make all the reservations for the week. Steak house very good 1st time, second time was very disappointing. The french restaurant was a lot of show, with little food and flavor. The jambalaya was our best meal of the week. Interesting enough we were booked 2x in the Maya section restaurants. We also had access to other Iberostar resorts in the neighborhood. So we went and checked them out, as you could spend from 10AM to 6PM at those locations. Playacar, slightly older again, but a nice wide beach. Cozumel, which was a step down for sure. 4 room buildings, looking very tired, small beach and a dilapidated counter at the swimup bar, missing large sections of the tile, exposing the cement, unacceptable lack of maintenance at that resort. We traveled to that resort for a snorkeling excursion, booked on the beach at the Lindo resort with DresselDive. After traveling 2.5 hr to get to the diving location, we were told the winds and ocean conditions were too strong to be able to go snorkeling/diving. Traveling back and forth used up the day, however we were told the next day we would be fully refunded, which was done on a manual visa transaction slips. They took the funds electronically, why not process the credit in the same manner? It has been 2 weeks and no credit has shown up yet. After several emails to dresseldiving, just received a response that they would be looking into this. Also there was lots of wild life roaming around. Coatis, peacocks, lizards, flamingos. Several peacocks were rather noisy, keeping us awake one night. I was not displeased with the resort overall. It had lost of nice areas to sit and go to. The coffee shop, which made nice specialty drinks, had a roof top (open)terrace, a sports bar, several other bars. I personally like to be outside, so when I go on vacation where it has a pleasant outside temperature, I want to feel that. All the restaurants and buffets were closed in, the buffets had a lot of windows, the restaurants not so. The world is a large place, so many other places to go an see, so I would not return to the resort. I am understanding that the hotel chains all have their own theme and design. I prefer the colonial feel to a place and I felt the Lido gave me that. And I have realized that a 4.5 star rating is the minimum I would like for a resort. I like a rustic feel, but not rundown and old. Pictures make it often nicer than it really is, so be very careful not to underpay for your vacation experience, as a little more could make all the difference. However the same resort, same room, same perks all have different rates, depending when you book.

El Dorado Royale: A Beautiful Resort

This resort was set up very well. The layout makes it feel more spacious then a single series of buildings. It is surrounded by lovely gardens, pools, fountains and the restaurants are each located in their own area. You can do plenty of walking as the resort is connected to two of it's sister resorts and you can eat at the restaurants in the other resorts as part of your all inclusive package. Regular shuttles go back and forth for those less than avid walkers. The food was excellent and t [... read more]he service was very good.

Grand Decameron Los Cabos: Royal Decameron San Jose Del Cabo

Had a great time at this hotel.enjoyed the smallness of the hotel,proximity to San Jose,shopping across the street and wonderful beach.Food was excellent with a good variety.Went on the Plus Program and were very happy with our room,the fact that we could have breakfast on the beach everyday and didn’t require reservations to the A La Carte supper.The staff was excellent in all areas of the hotel.It fit all our needs.

Hotel Castillo Huatulco: Hotel Castillo

The hotel was located right in the little town of Huatulco with a regular shuttle to their Beach Club. I enjoyed being in town and meeting the locals as well as vacationing Mexicans who patronize the hotel. Lots of fellow Canadians too which was nice. The hotel and rooms were clean and the staff were all polite, friendly and helpful. The food was mostly Mexican and quite good most of the time, with a few mediocre offerings. My only criticism was the lack of breakfast cereal choices and poor qual [... read more]ity of sliced bread (much like Wonder bread whether white or "brown"). Also no plain yogurt available - choices were fruit varieties and way too sweet for my taste. Beds a little hard but that is often the case in hotels. You need to ask for an extra blanket or turn the AC off or down as the bed coverings were pretty thin. A reasonable value but I've had better, so about a 7 out of 10 overall.

Grand Oasis Sens: Rate it as 2

Too many stairs, not clean. Had VIP room and felt like a regular room...pool on our deck was never cleaned...liner was spotted with rust and white spots...deck very frailed, husband went through the deck and needed first aid. We arrived an we weren’t on the list...no rooms...the put us in the basement with no luxury...bar fridge empty, bathtub was draining and lot of mold everywhere. We asked for a new room and finally got one 3 days later. So our first three days was spent mostly in the lo [... read more]bby looking for service for the price we paid. Positive note the food was amazing and so were the drinks. Thank god weather was nice throughout the week. It made up for it. Would never recommend this resort.

Unico 20 87 Hotel Riviera Maya: Beautiful Resort (shame about the beach!)

Unico is a beautiful resort. It's well laid out, the grounds and the pools are lovely, especially the hidden pool. For an all inclusive resort, the food was really good, especially the breakfast buffet. The rooms are very clean but a little musty. The staff are amazing, especially Carlos. If you don't care about the beach, and enjoy spending an entire week by the pools, this will work for you. Unfortunately, for me, the beach was a great disappointment. The seaweed was overwhelming and un [... read more]fortunately the resort doesn't seem to have the equipment necessary to clean the beach. I know it's a losing battle with the seaweed but I know other resorts do a better job.

Bahia Principe Explore Akumal: Nice Resort.

We stayed at Akumal Feb 18 for 7 days. Overall we enjoyed our stay. The food in the buffet was very good, always a nice selection. We didn't try any a la carte restaurants because we don't like having to keep any type of schedule while travelling and you had to reserve a time. We did hear from other travellers that the food in these restaurants was good. The pool and beach areas were nice. We did however have to play the towel game some mornings to get pool loungers. On mornings we di [... read more]dn't, chairs were hard to get. The staff were very friendly everywhere on the resort. Good drink service around the pool and beach area. Our room was nice but a bit musty smelling. Its a tropical place and we were on the ground floor so a little hard to avoid. I wouldn't give the room a five star. It needed some updating for sure. Our stay was very relaxing and enjoyable. Thanks Bahia!!

Azul Ixtapa Grand Resort: Nice resort with some flaws

The grounds and Hotel are very well kept and the staff is fantastic, the a la Carte’s were very good, although booking them was difficult (we were told they were full but when we checked they were always half empty). The other flaws are: food at the buffets is just so-so. The night time entertainment is basically none existent. Also the towel check out-in process is very time consuming. Lastly you can not use the facilities at the lower end Azul next door. So if you are expecting to check out  [... read more]the pools or get a drink, you can’t.. first time that we have seen this policy...

Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya: A Little Disappointing 2nd Time Around

We enjoyed our first visit to Sirenis so much last year, we booked it again for this year. We did expect a ‘welcome back’ or some recognition that we were return visitors, but nothing. In fact, after arriving at the resort at 1pm we waited until almost 4pm for a room. We had made a room and building request when booking our trip, but that wasn’t considered at all. We were in a building we didn’t like (far from where we like to go- it’s a huge resort), and as a married couple they gave  [... read more]us a room with two double beds. We asked to have. Room change with one bed and they told us one wouldn’t be available until the next day. Then they did find us one in another building. We had a third room change, to get into then building we had requested over a year ago. That was picky on our part, but with being there before, we knew what we liked. The rooms smell very mouldy, but I hear that’s the norm in the resorts. I’m not sure? The beach was beautiful, a massive amount of seaweed but they were working HARD for hours in the sun daily to get it removed. The quiet pool was never actually quiet - way too many screaming children. I have five children, nothing against children, but keep them out of the quiet area. It seems most parents just did what was convenient for them, not abiding by resort rules.The lazy tube River was my favourite mostly. Parents just let their kids run through the river without a tube, passing us, yelling, swimming under us. The smoking on the beach was pretty rank but we just moved spots. The entertainment was always excellent and well done. The little market on Saturday and Tuesday was neat, same things as last year, but the hounding to buy was annoying after a while. After being bothered on the beach so much by people asking us to book spa times, massage times and trip excursions, there was little patience left for selling tactics. Not very relaxing. We took a Transat free trip to Tulum and stopped at a Jewelry Factory and Tequila tasting. Jewelry was neat but they do a speech and a salesperson takes you around the whole store and follows you the entire time- hard to shop and prices were way too high for what it was. The tequila tasting was neat, informative and interesting. Way less pressure to buy, but still there. Tulum was neat, had went last year so was quite similar. We did walk the recommended trails this year on the resort. They are very far from the buildings and on a part of the resort that has some condos and some development but not populated much at all. We saw the cenote on site on the trail and the biotanical gardens were really enjoyable but we didn’t last too long because of the bugs. Did you know there were scorpions there? I didn’t ! Until some lady was stung on the toe on the resort, then I was paranoid! Lots of neat animals to see on the resort. We only did one a la Carter this year because we prefered to do things on our own time and didn’t like the scheduled dinner time. We went to the Brazilian restaurant and it was excellent. The beach bar was our favourite. The buffet was always good, lots of options. The best thing, however, about Mexico is the people. They are always kind and friendly. Our room was always so nicely cleaned. When we left and checked out there was not a ‘how was your vacation, how was your stay, hope you come back. Although the resort is nice, we won’t likely return next year and will find a new resort to try.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Never use Trip central

I would love to tell you what a wonderful time we both had on the trip, however my son had a medical condition that prevented us from going at all, I spoke to Wendy regarding the matter and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any kind of compensation for a trip in the future. The only thing I learned is how important it is to have cancellation insurance for the vacation otherwise like myself I spent just under $2500.00 for NOTHING. I feel responsible for not reading the fine print and not purch [... read more]asing some kind of insurance for this particular medical condition. Live and learn. If you had any clue this actually took place I’m sure you would not be sending me a review. Thanks for taking my hard earned money and no I promise I won’t recommend your service to anyone.

TRS Coral: Gorgeous Resort - Service Not So Great

The resort itself was absolutely stunning. We stayed in a loft which was really lovely. We had a partial view of the ocean and a lovely view of the TRS section of the resort which is the main pool and buildings. The service however was pretty awful. Our butler Cesar was awful. He didn't bring us a bottle of champagne when we requested it on our first day or book our reservations for the a la carte restaurants. He ead the worst. We met Chris (our butler on our second last day there) and he was wo [... read more]nderful. It's a new resort so the service isn't great but it is a lovely place to stay.

Grand Sirenis Mayan Beach: Exceeded expectations!

We had an amazing vacation and enjoyed every minute with our family. The food was on point. First stop each morning was the coffee bar followed by fresh crepes and croissant at the breakfast buffet. Selection at the buffet was beyond amazing with so many delicious choices. The a la carte restaurants also do not disappoint. Our kids loved the ice cream bar and multiple trips around the lazy river every day. We met so many nice people around the pool and enjoyed lots of cocktails and cervezas fr [... read more]om Carlos at the swim up bar. All staff we interacted with was beyond friendly; from the shuttle drivers and concierge staff to the cleaners and ground keepers. Our room was in the perfect location and was very nice and clean. We would go back to this resort in a second and we highly recommend this resort for your family. The entrainment staff are friendly and put big effort into fun activities around the pool and the shows each night. There was a lot of seaweed and they worked hard everyday to keep it under control. The beach isn't long but the kids had fun snorkeling. We had perfect weather for our entire vacation.

Grand Oasis Cancun: Grand Oasis Cancun

Restaurants are perfect. Diversity of foods and fruits and drink. Environment in this hotel is excellent. Employees there are very nice and polite. The shows at night is very attractive. We will go there again next year definitely.

Azul Ixtapa Resort: Good time!

The resort has great people willing to help you at anytime. The grounds were fine, room was fine and food was fine although it could use a little more variety in my opinion. The beach was easy to access and walk. All in all a very nice , relaxing vacation which we were looking for.

The Fives Beach Hotel and Residences Playa Del Carmen: Fives Azul pros & cons

Hotel grew on us for sure not typical large resort with huge buffets. Looked like toronto downtown hotel esp the restaurants Rooms very nice but time share set up with kitchen Well maintained and comfy 10 Restaurants Italian and Thai outstanding food decor and service All food was good to great service everywhere super fast and friendly Even room service 15 mins and great variety and adjust if they can Hotel was 1 hour from airport though told 30 mins Lobby small but efficient. [... read more] Can book specialty restaurants for week at one time. Very efficient did aps someday in bipuffet or restaurant even if booked at another Can stop and get tortilla or pizza or a bite all over The hotel caters to kids and so 1-2-3 bedrooms But not loud or crying. Even played modern American music by pool. Several pools all over so can be quiet or fun Dancing and pool aerobics fun and not intrusive So 9/10. Accept water was rough and mass amounts of seaweed most of time so was in pool 90%. But sandy decent beach and can do long walks. $30 for great beach massages vs $150 in hotel Very safe in property and tho public beach not an issue accept Sunday locals dominate with families and food and ugly umbrellas Very good value and 3.40 hr flight always nice. Enjoy Ps took 30 yr old daughter and she ended up loving. ESP massages every other day and food Spend extra if you can to get bedroom vs pullout !!!