Love Love Love this place!

I have always said i would never go to the same resort twice...well i stand corrected. I would absolutely go back here again. Absolutely beautiful, so much to do, food was great, beds were comfy, staff was so friendly. The only warning i would give is that you must like to walk (which we do) because this place has soooo much to do if you are willing to take a few steps to get there. Deb

Great resort, would return

Great resort, very clean and well maintained rooms and common areas. The buffet food was actually really good in comparison to other all-inclusives I've been to in the past. There was a lot of great amenities on the resort such as snorkeling and sailing, which we enjoyed. Towards the end of our stay the seaweed that drifts up to shore was quite severe, but the resort worked hard at clearing it best they could throughout the day. My only real complaint was that some of the servers will basically [... read more] corner you into writing a review of them if they see you have your phone. I was sitting at the buffet table and the server came up and put a card in front of me to scan and stood over my shoulder telling me his name and what to write and it was rather uncomfortable. All of the front desk staff were lovely. Overall it was a great experience.

Average

Barcelo Review Poor communication, both WestJet and Barcelo. Advertised with bathrobes and slippers in the room - not here. We booked the Tropical and the bus guy could not find us on the list, wonder why. We got to reception and were told we were moved to Colonial because Tropical was full and computer reassigns automatically. I had read about this in other reviews so insisted we stay in Tropical and they “found” us a room. Also try to find a WestJet rep at the hotel - nonexistent. They us [... read more]e contractors we found out from the Transat rep but no indication of what hours they are available. Be prepared for a lot of walking! No maps as handouts for directions, only enlarged air photos in a few places throughout the resort for you to figure out. Our room was 400m from beach and 400m from buffet restaurant. The resort is huge but lots of spaces for people to spread out. The Barcelo bus was fun riding between locations but only 10-15 minute walk from one end to the other. Room was nice although showing wear and tear, the sink was falling off, bathtub was chipped and repaired, coffee maker plastic parts broken, cabinet doors loose and misaligned, balcony door did not lock, water damage on ceiling in bathroom, lack of circulation fan so towels never dried. Dining service was great in most a la cartes but lacking in the buffets. Lots of food choices and yes some were not kept hot but most were fine. Pool/beachfront bars open only until 6pm and then only lobby and theatre bars open. Lobby bars did not all have the same selections, Tropical the least. Pool bars also had different choices, draft beer at one, Corona cans at another. Lounge chairs were always available somewhere all the time, just the prime ones were saved by early risers. Sad to say some people saved both beach and poolside chairs and hardly stayed at either. Towels were not always tracked so people took lots and left a lot laying around unclaimed by sunset. The beach has palm trees for shade so chairs moved around with sun. Sandy part of the beach was quite narrow and seaweed washing up from constant wave and wind action. Maintenance staff removed most of it every day but always some to walk over. Limestone rocks in the water and on the beach made walking in a hazard if you could not see them but nice and sandy bottom further out from shore. Schools of fish in shallow to see as you waded out. Snorkelling not great except at north end along coral fingers. Visibility best in morning before water stirred up. Ocean and pools were warm and warmed up throughout the day. Entertainment was top notch but not very family friendly with lots of skin showing on the women and lots of ass wiggling. Acoustics not great with volume too loud and lots of echo in the theatre so could not make out the lyrics to songs and announcers spoke so fast could not understand them. Overall a decent resort but not up 4 star standards.

Great resort

Very clean and well maintained grounds. Ala carte restaurants were excellent-large portions of food. Lots of options for walking, shopping and exploring right on the property. Overall very nice place for a sunny destination vacation.

Fabulous week away

We loved everything about the barcelo maya tropical. The beach was beautiful, pools were great, friendly staff (front desk, housekeeping, bars, buffets, restaurants). The food was very good and there was no issue getting restaurant reservations at decent eating times. There was never an issue getting beach chairs either at the pool or beach. Lots to do if you wanted - overall, a great week away

Huge resort with lovely grounds

Best feature is the grounds and pool, Lots to do but really an all inclusive plus....lots of things were added costs. Kids pools were great and the one with the Pirate ship was nice as not as busy as it was 20 AM dollars each unless under 6 and over 60. No alcohol served there though. Buffet was better than the restaurants except for Japanese, it was fabulous and not to be missed. Rooms were okay but not as large as other resorts. Had garden view which was fabulous, quiet and lots of animals sho [... read more]wed up which delighted my grand daughter. The place is so big you spend a lot of time lost., they do not give any paper maps and the ones on their website and on line suck. Most people wander around asking others where everything is. Lots of staff do not speak enough English to help you out. Staff was great otherwise. Pool really lovely but be prepared to get your drinks at bar and there is no service at beach. Beach is beautiful with lots of palms but its rocky so bring water shoes. It was very rough for week we were there but still enjoyed the beach. Room was really clean when we got there but the cleaning after that was not great. No face cloths and bath mats were size of a cell phone! Had to call for more coffee, water and beer. We left a note for more beer and we got some so that was great. We booked 2 beds as there were 3 of us, but got one bed and no compensation or apology. My daughter and grand daughter swam with the dolphins and it was well organized with little wait time and good viewing. You can go into the area and just watch if you like. There are 2 large red double decker buses that go from one lobby to another and to the 2 malls in the place. No matter which way they go they will get you to your lobby and from there you walk to your actual 3 storey building. Each hotel on site has a different lobby and then their own buffet, kids pool and accommodations, restaurants and bar. Some you can go to no matter where you stay and others are exclusive....you could swim in the pool but they will not serve you in the bars or buffets. It really takes 2 or 3 days to figure out the place and you pretty much have to go to your lobby to find out what and when the shows are. The kids club was nice and each activity was about 40 minutes and you can leave the kids there and pick them back up.Shows were not till 930 so did not attend but kids shows were at 8.We took a private day trip thru Kay Tours to ruins, lunch and Cenote with Juri....highly recommend them and ask for Juri too. She was great.

Wouldn’t book here again

Unfortunately didn’t love my stay here. The agent who booked told me there was no kids water park at this one but the others connected would have it- nope ours was full of kids and water park- room was dated which we were aware of and said it was fine as long as clean and still nice it was a 5 star so I wasn’t concerned - shower was terrible rusted parts and sink was cracked. The most uncomfortable beds and pillows I’ve had on a vacation. Hotel staff were not friendly I was really disapp [... read more]ointed in the service only a few were friendly and nice. Foe the price we paid and what we got I would never go back or book through trip central again. The food was good and weather was great so that helped.

Bad Customer Service

Public areas were maintained well but Customer service was extremely bad, guests arrive from international locations and may reach hotel late in night and may leave early in the morning, restaurants should be able to serve some food. Guest cant stay or leave with hungry stomachs. Mosts of the trips outside hotel either start early in mornings or end late in the evenings. We could find food before leaving or after coming back coz restaurants are closed. And when we ask for food staff at restauran [... read more]ts were laughing as if they are giving food from free. Dame we paid to stay at hotel.... We opted the hotel thinking its 4.5 stars we were treated bad for the money we paid....

Barcelo Tropical 2023

We have just returned home from 2 weeks at the Tropical. This was our second trip to Barcelo and We will def be booking again, requesting the VeraCruz builiding on the 3rd floor. Reg Room was perfect for us and again we had zero issues and zero complaints. We had 9 a la cartes and only booked 6 as honestly the many Buffet varieties around the resort and Room Service were plenty. Ask Jose Pascar (sp?) at the Tropical swim up bar for a Jose Special and then ask the young bartenders Albend [... read more]ro (sp?) and Jorge are fun to watch try and duplicate them. Some of the less experienced Bartenders and Serving Staff will be guided and trained in time, so be gracious and patient and remember you are on vacation! The pool women who serve endlessly and tirelessly are so lovely and keep you hydrated and a smile, tip and thank you go a long way. Vanessa and Guadalupe in the main buffet never let the water, coffee and beverages go empty and were genuinely kind and didnt rush the meal. The garden crews are amazing to see how they keep the grounds lush and vibrant and the beach team… wow what a job they have and do daily! We cannot say enough good about our experience as we feel we got great value for our cost!

Fantastic experience

We travelled to the resort the last two weeks of February and first few days of March 2023. We stayed at the Tropical, in the Veracruz building, about mid-section, top floor facing east towards the Barcelo Palace. Our room was listed as a "Superior room run of the house" and I can say it was a great room, spacious, clean, well furnished and everything worked as it should, hair-dryer, TV, A/C the works. Perfect. There are six total resorts on this stretch of beach, all operated by Barcelo and i [... read more]nter-connected by pathways which are easy to figure out and well lit at night and there are enough bars, shops and night-life to keep you entertained. The pools are situated between each resort-pair and also mirror each other so you can choose which you want to hang out at, however if you want a good lounger you will need to rise earlier to claim your spot. The pools are well maintained and clean. The beach has loungers to spare so show up anytime and you're bound to find something suitable. The beach itself was a bit of a disappointment but we soon adapted and still had a great time. It's primarily a coral beach so the sand is peppered with small objects, remnants of coral that jab your bare feet. Bring water shoes if you have them or purchase them at the beach store behind the pool or if you're careful bare feel will do too. Also the depth of the beach isn't what we are used to, it's a very short distance from the palms to the water and there's a bit of a drop down to the water's edge so if you have mobility issues that could be an issue. And there're rocks too just under the surface that will require some dodging. When approaching the water look for the dark spots and just walk in between them that's where the sandy bottom is and you'll be fine. The buffets were good, ample food and well prepared, well staffed by pleasant, helpful and happy people just want you want. The a la carte restaurants were all amazing, best food I've had on vacation that I can remember, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Make sure you take a pair of slacks and collared shirt for these as no shorts or t-shirts are allowed, though if I were the establishment I'd relax the rule allowing nice bermuda-style shorts as well. All in all we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would come back to this resort in a heartbeat. Have fun!

Disappointing Experience

1. Staff was not friendly 2. They were not accommodative 3. Same food for all meals and days 4. Drinks were very poor and service was below average 5. distinguished service between white and non-white race

Not as expected

Kind of disappointed with the service. No sea view room offered as given in the email. Service not as expected. Room keys not working very often. Bar servers not friendly. Would not recommend others friends.

Excellent resort for all age groups

This is a fantastic resort !! The grounds were beautiful and well kept, the pools were gorgeous and there were so many that you never had a sense them being crowed, lots of water areas for both kids and adults. There are so many things to do at this resort that you can’t possibly be bored and in our case may want to add a second week to your vacation in order to do everything. Our room was nice, comfortable bed and all necessary amenities were available. The A la cart restaurants were f [... read more]abulous!! We had delicious meals at the five that we went to and I’m guessing the ones we didn’t try were equally good. We tried 5 different buffets and the all had lots of choices and a nice variety of food. Any staff that we interacted with were friendly and accommodating. I would highly recommend this resort and we intend on returning next year.

Decent hotel

It’s a decent hotel but nothing special. The food was just ok, restaurant food was not good at all. Beach was very rocky and impossible to swim but pools were nice. The grounds are well maintained but rooms are very dated and some things in the room were not working well like closet door wouldn’t open. Service was good if you tip. Overall decent resort but I’m not sure it’s worth the price

Great resort

Very well kept resort. Grounds are beautiful. Beach is nice and well maintained. Rooms are comfortable and clean and the food is excellent. Only qualm is entertainment. Not very exciting around pools during day and the bars could use more variety of mix.

Great place!

Well kept grounds. A lot of walking. Lots of room. Did not feel over crowded. Very safe. Staff was very friendly and helpful. Very clean….well organized. Nightly entertainment was fun. Drinks were plentiful.

Amazing trip!

We just spent a fabulous week at the Barcelo Maya Tropical hotel. This was our second time staying at this resort (2019) so we knew what to expect. The first time we stayed was for a destination wedding without our kids, this time we brought our two daughters 6 and 10. We opted for an oceanfront suite at the premium level, I highly recommend the premium upgrade. Premium gives you a private check in, private lounges in each resort, a la carte dinner every night booked for you in advance, room  [... read more]service at any time, and top shelf alcohol. The resort is very well kept and staff is always ready to accommodate. Food was always fantastic, my only issue would be an extra charge for real red wine(there is a house red wine included in all inclusive). Kids loved the water park, pools, beach, and kids club. The nightly entertainment for us started a little late (usually 930pm) but is well put together shows. Really the only negative thing I can say about Barcelo is the extra charges for certain things at an all inclusive. These include real wine, larger water park, bowling, merry go round, x box on large screen for example...I feel these all should be included in the all inclusive, that's my take. Overall fantastic resort, fantastic trip. Highly recommend.

Not a 5 star hotel but solid choice

I feel it would be unfair to be too negative about this hotel given the outstanding work done by the staff. The staff work so hard to keep it spotlessly clean and looking its best. The grounds are meticulously maintained, the pools are probably the cleanest I've seen at any resort (particularly given the number of guests using them) and the staff are attentive and eager to please. The food is meh at best. The buffets provide a huge variety of options and they work hard at it, but nothing taste [... read more]s good enough to finish, let alone go back for seconds. The a la carte restaurants are definitely better, but good luck getting a reservation during high season. We rushed straight to guest services when we checked in and could only get reservations for 3 of our 7 nights and only at 8:30pm or later! Needless to say, we never wanted to set foot at that buffet again. Overall we enjoyed our stay, but what disappointed us most was the extra charge for almost everything, which should not be the case at an all-inclusive. For example, charging for mini-golf after 5pm?? They have a huge TV with video games...for rent!! What is the cost to the hotel? Same goes with the water park, bowling, surfing activity, room service. I've never seen anything like that and we have stayed at numerous all-inclusives.

Very Good Resort

Stayed at the Junior Suite Ocean Front Premium level for one week, Dec 24 - 31, 2022. Almost everything deserves excellent marks: resorts grounds, hotel room, restaurants, buffets, amenities, tennis courts etc. Probably just the beach is a bit rocky for your bare feet in the water. Though I have one complain but it goes to the transportation company BD Expirience or WestJet since it's the vacation provider. I had a round trip private transfer between the resort and Cancun airport. My WestJet re [... read more]turn flight was delayed for about 1 hour and BD Experience refused to move the pickup time which was already scheduled more than 5 hours before the flight. Way too earlier in my opinion. I called to BD Experience at 8am, two hours before the pickup. They said it's too late to change the time. But how could I call them earlier if WestJet announced the delay during the night at 3am? Also I would expect that BD Experience would know about the delay and rescheduled the pickup time by themselves accordingly since they knew about my flight. As the result the driver picked me up at 10am as scheduled, I was at the airport at 11am and the flight departed at 4:45pm (original time 3:25pm). I spent almost 6 hours at the airport. So the private transfer was just waste of money on the way back.

Barcelo Maya Tropical has it all figured out!!

Well this is the first time we were at this resort and we had a very memorable holiday. 10 Days (mid to end of November 2022) of beautiful weather - even though our weather forecast showed thundershowers every day - we had rain maybe for 5 minutes and then rain clouds were gone. The grounds on the Tropical and Colonial is absolutely incredible. The grounds are so manicured and travel between all the buildings to get to the restaurants and events are very cool covered wide walk ways - perf [... read more]ect for rainy weather. The way that Barcelo is set up, everywhere you have to be (food, beach, shopping, front desk, bar, etc) is only 5 min walk from anywhere! So if you forget something in your room, it isn't a big deal to go back and get it. The beach is very nice indeed! With all the tropical palm trees on the beach, you can get as much sun or shade on where you park your butt. There are lots of lounges, but people seem to take extra lounges to put their extra crap on, so by 10 am there are none left usually. Put towels on early is a recommendation, or go to the resort beach to the south, they seemed to have more lounges on the beach. We are beach people, but the pools are very nice and they are very well laid out for relaxing as well. Great job on how the pools in relationship to the beach!! The bars are busy during the daytime as can be expected, but getting a beverage is usually within 5 min wait at the worst. The beach where the lounges are is very nice and is actually raked every morning - very cool. The only thing is where the ocean meets the beach. The erosion of the waves has left a drop off in a few places - no biggie at all. We bought some water shoes before we left - which were a blessing. They were cool water shoes - great for walking in and out of the water, walking to room, pathways. Get some!! As you got into the ocean there was 3'-5' of rocks and then sand again, so would have been a bit of a pain (literally) without water shoes. Not really the resorts fault from mother nature. I seen some staff cleaning up some of those rocks and within 2 days there were more rocks washed up. Food at buffet was really good we thought. Obviously there is always issues with buffets, but the resort has done an amazing job we thought for the amount of people that come and want to get fed. Yes of course you get the "not hot" on a few items but they had great variety and usually lots of food. I think they only ran out of bacon once on me, I just didn't wait 5 min for the new batch. Lol They always had the hot plate to hand make omelets, quesadilla, hamburgers, etc. Great job guys - Very tough job to make every one happy. Room was nice and clean and bed was good. Fridge can be filled up by just asking staff. Tv was a bit lacking - few English channels, but hey, we were not there for the tv. The only complaint is the drunks coming home at 2-3 am and feeling that waking everyone up was ok. Would have been nice to be able to adjust the speed of the ceiling fan - it was either full blast or nothing. We would highly recommend this resort to anyone and we met a few people that have been there that was their 14 and 5th time at the resort. I guess the only bad thing to complain about is the wifi. Wifi was exceptional throughout everywhere - even on the beach. Needy adult children and elderly parents back in Canada were much too accessible on your phones. :-)