Great family resort!

Resort is huge with lots of stuff to do for everyone! Pools are amazing along with the beach! Food was good with good a la cartes. Only disappointment was the uncomfortable beds, poor air circulation and mould in the bathroom.

A Wonderful Family Vacation

The Barceló Riveria Maya Colonel Resort was just beautiful. All the members of our family had wonderful, pool access, rooms. The staff were very attentive and the food provided at all the dining rooms were excellent. There was something for everyone.

Great resort

This is a great family resort for all ages. Clean, friendly, good food, perfect beaches for swimming or snorkeling. It was our first time in Mexico, we will definitely return. The grounds are beautiful and well kept.

Great relaxing holiday!

The beach at the Barcelo Maya Grand complex is HUGE! We never had a problem finding a lounge in either the sun or the shade. There are some hidden rocky areas entering/exiting the ocean so use caution and watch where you’re walking. Alcohol isn’t available in the morning so it was disappointing to miss out on mimosas and coffee with Bailey’s at breakfast. We found that the Colonial/Tropical buffet was better than Caribe buffet for breakfast. There was always something to satisfy  [... read more]for lunch at Mariachi or Captain Morgan beach/pool buffets. We ate dinner at 5 of the a la carte restaurants (Mexico Lindo, Santa Fe, La Trattoria, Kyoto, Mare Nostrum). Our favourite was Santa Fe (steakhouse/meat) – the beef tenderloin was DELICIOUS! Our least favourite was La Trattoria (Italian) – the same disappointing, paper-thin crust pizza served at the buffet. We also really enjoyed the wings, ribs, jalapeno poppers and mozzarella sticks at Strikers. Service at the restaurants was prompt. Drink service at the bars was sometimes slow when only one bartender was working. Theatre shows were OK – we only attended two (Michael Jackson & Magic/Circus) as the theme of the other shows didn’t appeal to us. Something this complex lacks is LIVE entertainment. There are two piano bars (Colonial and Beach) where a pianist played two sets at night (7:30-8:15pm and 11:15pm-midnight) – we saw posters for 3 different pianists during our one week stay. Aside from that, there was very little going on in the evening – no singers or instrumentalists in the lobbies, no mariachi band at the Mexican a la carte, etc. The “live DJ show” at the mall wasted a stage that would have better suited a full band. For being such a large resort, we found it was surprisingly compact and easily walkable from Beach to Tropical (we have no mobility issues and enjoy the exercise). I would recommend this resort.

Great week in Mexico

First off, I usually never would visit the same resort twice. But this place made me want to go back again next year. Rooms were clean, Food was really good, but could be served at a warmer temperature. Would be my only complaint on food. The wait staff were top notch. Resort grounds were beautiful, Beach was always kept super clean. One of the best trips we have had.

Got it All

It’s our second time to this resort Love it ! It’s a beautiful area with clear beaches , palm trees, sun and warmth Staff are incredible Food is delicious No complaints at all The mall inside the hotel has some very nice vendors

Barcelo Review

When we arrived at the Colonial we were upgraded to the Palace. This review is about the Palace. Grounds: Large ( Shuttle comes every 15 mins to take you around). Rooms: Nice and big. AC isn't as cold as other resorts, the coldest it got was 19 degrees. Food: Really good we stayed at the palace and the buffet was really good and the Coral for lunch was good also. Pools: They have an "Adult only" pool its quite no swim up bar, and cabanas you pay for. They also have a kids pool and l [... read more]ap pool. I spent most of my time in the large pool with the swim up bar. Big enough you don't realize others are in it. Beach: Not really sandy, hard rock under some sand. Ocean: Was very wavy and rocky, with lots of fish and sea turtles. Chairs: Lots of chairs near the pool and beach. Bonus hammocks too! Nightly entertainment: We did 3 out of 7. If you have a chance see The Magic Show and Micheal Jackson. So well done! Wifi: Don't waste your money, It works great for day one then it was very choppy after that. Maya Mall: Sports bar has great munchies and large TV to watch sports and a bowling ally. Maya Mall also had shops and a skating rink ($5 USD for 30 mins). Car Rental (Alamo): Miriam was GREAT! So helpful and full of information. Car rental was easy and great price, make sure you pay extra for them to gas up your car. Don't get scammed at the pumps. Air Transit Rep: Wasn't super helpful, I asked where I can rent a car and she did the sign of the cross over me and said don't do it. Its not safe. I rented the car with zero help from her, was so easy and very easy to drive in in Mexico. Download an offline map on your phone and go. SO EASY! Over all a great stay. If you like large resorts this is the place for you. Enjoy!

Barceló Mayan Riviera

The Hotel and grounds were very well kept. The only surprise we had was that the alcoholic beverages were not served until noon. We were told that it is a new law that was put in place by the Mexican government I would have liked to be informed of this before I booked. At 11:00 when the sun is out it would have been nice to have one of the specialty drinks. I had gone to the Bavero the previous year in the Dominican and was expecting the same experience.

Awesome resort!

This was our 2nd visit to the Barcelo Maya Grand Resort, the last time being 11 years ago. We loved this resort just as much this time as the last. Check-in and Check-out was quick and easy and we found everyone working on the resort very friendly and helpful. The restaurants were really good and we were able to reserve at 5 during our stay. The buffet was really good, and lots of variety. We were there over Christmas and besides being beautifully decorated for the season, they went above and be [... read more]yond to make Christmas special. We loved the beach and pool and never had trouble finding lounge chairs. We enjoyed swimming in front of the Tropical with the tropical fish. We had a great holiday!

Great resort

Very long check in, what made us very sad. Great hotel otherwise. Good la carte restaurants and good entertainment group. Great girls with at kids club. My daughter loved going over there. I change my car every day because it didn't lock a door.

Excellent for a relaxing vacation

The resort is well maintained, clean and organized. Staff, polite and thankful, are working very hard all the time. Different varieties of food give you the choices to adapt to your preferd diet. Nice free shows everynight. I will defenitely go back again.

Barcelo Maya Colonial

Some a la carte restaurants were excellent, others were mediocre. Buffets were OK. Snorkeling was better than I expected. Service all around was excellent. Well staffed. HUGE resort. Stay at 1 and play at 4 although each of the other 3 are virtually identical to the one you are at. haha. Good value for the money. Entertainment was not to my liking. Extremely loud and would have preferred more latin american music. I would go back again.

Awesome resort

It was awesome! Only thing I would say is that internet not available only if you pay, which for a 5 star resort I feel you should give for free, I have been to other resorts also 5 stars and had internet for free throughout the entire resort, even in our room! But everything else was awesome! I would definitely recommend this hotel, and I definitely will be back!

Great resort with lots to do!

The hotel grounds are spacious and beautiful. Very clean. Perfect for sandy beach strolls and your daily workouts! Great atmosphere for kids of all ages. For kids 10 and under, recommend staying at the Barcelo Maya Beach resort which is to the left side of the property. Beach there is shallow for some distance ahead and has great kids zone with babysitting and activities on site. Great plus is that you can use all resort property no matter where you stay with exception of food/drinks at Barcelo  [... read more]Maya Palace which is to the left side of the resort. Also that right hand side of the resort (Caribbean and Beach section) is less windy so less waves and calmer sea. If your kids are older, they will enjoy Colonial or Tropical section of the resort which is in the middle of the resort. Beach there is more rocky in some spots, so wear swim shoes. However, it is so much more interesting for snorkeling and swimming with the turtles!! Some kids enjoy more waves which you get there too! There are about 3 water parks for kids 12 and under or so. And one bigger waterslide and serfing that you have to pay for. 3 other ones are free. Beach resort has a pool with swim lanes for those who love their water excersize. Kayaks, wake boards are also available free of charge. Seadoos you have to book and pay for separately. Food is amazing everywhere and pretty much the same in terms of selection across the resort no matter where you stay. Restaurants are so worth it!! Desert is much better there than in buffets. Our fav was tempura ice-cream with mango ice-cream deep fried. Yum!! Carribean and Colonial theathers' acoustic is very bad. So take free shuttle or walk to Palace side for better experience. Palace theater has proper walls around it, better sound. Others are open with a roof overtop. Resort has a mall with everything you need there from clothing to swim gear. Bring your googles or snorkeling gear or you will pay tripple to purchase at the resort ;) Highly recommend swim shoes to avoid rough rocks in the sea or long-spined sea urchins which hide in the rocks. Very painful as spikes are hard to get out and may need to go to hospital for that!! Easy to avoid though once you know what to look for. Standard or superior hotel rooms are ok. Clean but dated and need reno upkeep. But it didn't bother us as we were barely in the room. Cleaning service is thorough and prompt. Premium front suits by ocean seem nicer. However there is no rooms on the ocean itself. These are more by the pools that face ocean. Grand Resort is a new adult section opening in Dec 2019 seem very nice and brand new of course. It is located in far right hand side of the resort and next to the Beach resort area where beach is calm. Beautiful and perfect location for weddings actually. We saw one practically every day ! There are 2 locations they host weddings and we loved by Caribbean and Beach, right hand side of the resort as it is very quiet and not so windy. We enjoyed our stay this Nov 2019 and will definately consider coming back here again!

Wouldn't Go Back

Hotel grounds were beautiful, MINUS the 5 dolphins held inhumanely in captivity (small pool). They literally sit there and stare at the ocean. They can smell it. They can see it. Simply Cruel. One look brought me to tears. How do other guests celebrate this? If you'd like to see dolphins or show them to your children, please book a boat and show them how Dolphins LIVE not how they are tortured. That IS Torture. As long as that remains an attraction, I will not pay to visit any Barcelo  [... read more]location. Shame on you Barcelo. Boycott. Other than the cruel and inhumane treatment of the dolphins, the hotel is lovely and the beach is beautiful!!! Simply breathtaking. The rooms are average and they do have a strong musty smell (you read it in other reviews). Both the Colonial and Tropical buffets have the same stench, but it's less potent in the Colonial than the Tropical. However, you have access to the buffet in the neighboring resort (go through the Maya Mall) and there is no musty smell at all. Though we did find that one has less food variety than the musty Colonial. Food variety is very good, but all food is very bland. No salt or garlic used in anything. If you want some kick, head over to the sauces station. I enjoyed the salsa verde (green one) but it was not always available. Very disappointed in the flavors. Given it's Mexico, I was expecting at least some garlic or even a hint of spices. Nothing but bland (no salt used even). I found better spices used in Cuba - no kidding. There is no night life. Period. The shows are, sorry, but they are horrible. Completely horrible. Hard to stay awake through. Solid Pass. The disco, well, we heard better music coming from the wedding celebrations on the beach. Epic Fail. Great resort for family travel - it's bedtime after dinner apparently. Not such a great plan for anyone that wants to enjoy nightlife. And I'm not a big party person but I do enjoy one night of dancing/partying while away. There were 3 disappointments in the room. First, our coffee maker exploded one morning. Slightly dangerous much? The machine was replaced that afternoon and we did have to go without morning coffee (not pleasant). Second, someone that works for the resort, either housekeeping or the person that stocks the fridge, or the person that leaves you chips... One of them broke the stand-up dresser's door. They didn't fix it. They didn't call it in. The whole thing was hanging outward and holding on by the bottom screws. I have a nice bruise from walking right into it. It was repaired within an hour of calling it in. However, where is the pride of work? Someone that works there broke it while doing their job and they simply left it for the guest to injure themselves? Yuck. The third disappointment was the shampoo dispenser in the shower. First, yay that they think to provide shampoo, conditioner and body gel!! Kudos. However, the shampoo container must not have been properly installed. When washing my hair (with my own shampoo - we didn't use theirs), my elbow gently touched it and the whole dispenser flew off. Broken shards of plastic all over the shower with shampoo in my hair, trying not to step on the shards, while cleaning them up and rinsing my hair. Fun times. There was also a very unpleasant waiter in the beach grill and I'm being nice with that word selection. On Saturday the 23rd, just after 4pm, after spending the whole day in the sun, heat exhaustion kicked in and I needed water and food. The beach grill was between the beach and our room. So, we headed to the grill and the waiter that was working the open side refused to give me water, even though I told him I was about to pass out. He got very angry with me - while I'm trying not to pass out, I'm sweating, my head is spinning, color is dropping from my face. Why? Because I wasn't wearing flip flops. Someone was clearly having a bad day (not me, I got the ocean!!!). After a brief and very unpleasant back and forth (for a glass of water), the security guard came over, at which point the waiter passed me the glass of water. Security asked me what was happening, I said I needed water and wasn't feeling well. The waiter then said something to him in Spanish and I heard the word "Punta". The security guy started to tell me that I needed shoes and I simply said all I need is water. I finished the glass and we went back to the room so I could lay down, cool off and hydrate. I then asked my friend what that word I heard the waiter say, meant. WOW!!! You're kidding me. WOW! We did have some very pleasant resort staff that show they care about their jobs and the guest experience: Horacio (bell boy) started us off with smile and service - Great job! You rock! Thank you so much!!! Martha and Cindy in the gift shop (Maya Mall), Amazing!!! So much fun to interact with. Luis in the grill bar (yes the same one with the waiter, hence why I was so surprised about the water)… Luis in the grill bar is simply Awesome!!! Thanks for taking such good care of us every day you were there!!! :-) And of course, the Air Transat resort rep, Alfredo or Alfonzo, sorry I'm horrible with names... now that is service! He's very patient, uncovers what you are looking for and walks you through the whole process. Being that we were two women travelling alone, and hadn't been to Mexico before, he made us feel like Air Transat was with us the whole way and that we were always safe. He gave us some goods tips for when we went out on our own. The best was to turn over our Hotel Bands so they were white and the hotel name wasn't visible. That way any potential scammer wouldn't be able to identify where we were from. Brilliant. I could have gotten the excursions cheaper elsewhere but after dealing with him, I'd rather spend a little bit more based on service and we did so, happily. Overall, I would not return to the Barcelo Maya Colonial. I don't appreciate being called names by staff when I'm in the midst of a medical issue (heat exhaustion could have gotten a lot worse). I found the musty stench too overpowering; especially when you are trying to eat. The flavors were lacking despite the variety of food selections and I will not support Barcelo for as long as they hold any dolphins as inhumanely captive as they do.

Amazing Resort

All I can say is this resort was well worth the trip. We did a family trip and our kids absolutely loved it. Food: Fresh always, always a variety a la carts were outstanding especially the Japanese! Beach: The most gorgeous beach we’ve ever been to in all the Caribbean, water was warm, waves were moderate sand was clean! So much life to the beach. Pool: So many pools to choose from all very clean and big - water park for the kids was also a huge hit for our kids! Rooms: Ro [... read more]oms were clean, we did have some trouble with our lock and the air conditioning but wasn’t a huge deal they fixed that very quickly. Only thing is there was a lot of humidity which made the covers damp. Overall an amazing trip - can’t wait to be back soon! Recommend this resort to everyone!

Nice with few issues

Comments on Restaurants and bars Drinks were good. Food was tasteless and bland...overall quality of the ingredients was standard Like the most I found that the staff was very attentive to any issue or question asked of them. Both service staff and housekeeping. I do not feel the restaurant staff should be eating at there stations while working. Saw this at Sante fe and buffet Beach and pool were beautiful, rooms were pretty standard.. Grounds and common areas were very well maintain [... read more]ed and clean.

Awesome week!!!

This is a great place to get away and re-calibrate, which is what my wife and I really needed. Very professional, well maintained and the theme restaurants provide a great end to each spectacular day!

Great vacation!

This was our first time in Mexico and our first all-Inclusive resort in years. The grounds and facilities were immaculate and very clean. The majority of the staff were excellent and took very good care of us. There were a couple of points about the resort that I had issue with however. First of all, I did not care for the Dolphinarium onsite. I was very surprised that in this day and age that they continue to have dolphins in captivity in a very small pool. This is something that I do not supp [... read more]ort and do not understand why the resort would continue this practice. Please end this. My other issue is that the activities are not available after 5pm. While we were there it felt like 41 degrees in the daytime so it was not cool enough to play games until later in the day. It would be nice to have access to the table tennis, bocce ball etc in the evening hours. The mini putt is free during the day but after 7pm it is available for $15 US per person to “pay for the lights”. Seriously? I can play mini putt here at home for $7 CAD per person. All of the activities in the 24 hour sports bar had a cost and were quite expensive. I would have expected that there would have been some activities there that were included. The buffet was fairly good however I would have liked more of a selection of Mexican food. The buffet heavily catered to the American palate. The restaurant food was excellent, especially the teppenaki, Italian and seafood restaurant. We took a half day fishing trip and had an amazing time and caught some really big fish including a barracuda and two large mahi mahi. Overall we had a very good experience at this resort and would recommend it to others.

Huge and wonderful resort!

Hotel staff were great! Very spacious and clean rooms. Grounds very well groomed. Shows were wonderful! Food was exceptional, especially the Capri Italian al la carte. If your going, you need to take the Mayan Ruins excursion aswell as the Rio Secerto. Both well worth going on.