Spectacular place!

My husband and I returned to this resort third time because we love this place so much! We took our friends with us this time and they've been also amazed by the beach, restaurants, evening program and disco, and also food. We loved to eat at the beach restaurant where you can enjoy the beach view. Personal working in this resort keep this place very clean and tidy. We can't thank them enough for making our vacation special every time we come here.There is everything you need! I would recommend  [... read more]this place to everyone.

Excellent Resort

The hotel was kept very clean. There was a number of Specialty Restaurants with very good food and the buffets had lots of delicious choices as well. The grounds and beach were clean and well maintained. Premium rooms had excellent customer services. All in all it was a great resort.

Great time had by all

Beautiful resort. Took a few days for them to get our rooms together (as we requested at booking) with the group we were with but eventually we were all together. Staff was awesome. Food was fabulous. All in all, a great place to stay.

Very nice

The resort was very clean, and nice gardens. The food was very good, you can’t possibly go hungry here. However I will say the al la carte dinner portions are way too large- so much waste! The resort is very large so if you have mobility issues I may not recommend as transportation is scarce. Many things to do here. The beach was ok- not as long and rock free as one would hope. The beach front at the colonial was the nicest and really the only option for swimming. Having the premium level was  [... read more]nice but lots of room for improvement here-was not able to get wine in the room unless you wanted to pay $50 US a bottle so we ventured out to a local store by way of taxi and got really nice wine for under $20 per bottle . The bars do not open until 11 am and the pool bars don’t open until 12 pm . Must be 18 or older to drink and to use the spa - was not too thrilled that our 16 year old could not use the spa . We were a party of 8 so we arranged our own transportation with Canada Transfers ( who were totally awesome in every way) to and from the resort . All though there was a lot of nice staff there is also a lot who could smile more and not look so intimidating or that you are bothering them.

Unforgettable First Visit to Mexico!

The hotel was spotless, the service was amazing, and the food was great!!! We had 5 a la carte restaurant meals and went to: Kyoto (twice), La Fuenta, Mexico Linda, Trattoria and Brasserie (this was on the Palace side so we just paid $20USD each for a very fancy meal). Guest services and reception were both very helpful! The best activities on the resort were tennis and paddle boarding - both free with the resort stay. We also really enjoyed the Circus show and the Mexicana show. The [... read more] seaweed problem was minimal and there was a crew working around the clock to clear it. It was also fun to drink at the swimming pool bar at Maya Tropical. I highly recommend this resort as it was seamless and beautiful.

Amazing resort

Very clean, good food, excellent nightly entertainment. Always something to do. The resort is large but if you don’t mind doing some walking there are many things to see. Staff is friendly. Check in was quick and easy.

So So

Hotel is nice and overall clean and services are overall good food is good a la carte restaurants are all good except Kyoto restaurant ( servers either don't listen or understand well what do you really want to have for dinner and also Steak restaurant's charging us for 2 can of Sapporo beer 68 dollars was not acceptable ) there are certain things they need to clean the stones and rock at the beach along the shore they hurt your feet really bad one of the biggest "why is it like that" question  [... read more]goes to liquor service starts 12 pm and ends 12 am so after midnight there is nothing to drink this is i think too much for people who goes there for vacation or have fun . Many things based on extra charges i never paid almost 300 dollars extra charges anytime in my life before

This resort for all people

I like this resort, This resort for all kind of people. I have access for all Barcelona beach, colonial, crabe, Tropical, I like the bus driving around the resort, Maya mall, sportsbar, we watched the raptors game on the big screen, if you have kids, all inside this resort. I gave 4+ for this resort,

Quite place to enjoy

Very quite atmosphere Service is very good Menu is original in many restaurants including buffet Room was well maintained for all aspects Personnel is well trained and carefully selected Plaisant experience

Beautiful resort

The grounds are gorgeous at every turn. The food is spectacular and everything I tasted was delicious. The waiters at the buffet and the a la carte restaurants are very detail oriented and really take care of you. I liked the Santa Fe steak house the best, and the Kyoto, Japanese. There is a fair bit of walking as the resort is quite large and it takes a day or two to get your bearings. Pools are well maintained and drink service excellent. I had my 7 year old grandson with me and at check [... read more]-in was informed that only a king size bed was available on a third floor. I prefer top floor, as no one is directly above. I booked 6 months ahead and still did not get the 2 double beds requested. Disappointed but I accepted this. The rooms are showing their age. My sliding patio door was almost impossible to open and close without hurting my hand. I called about 4 times before it was fixed. You need to get a bit upset so they will act on it. The beach was vacant as there is much seaweed. Only 4-5 people in the ocean! No one in the hundreds of beach chairs, a strange sight indeed. But the pools are beautiful and I didn’t mind at all, no one else seemed to either. There are lots of shaded areas by the pools, so no need to get there super early. Staff are great and always helpful. They are hard workers and deserve any tips given. This is a well run resort, IMO, but not for people with mobility issues. i.e. have difficulty walking a lot. You might gain a few pounds however, the desserts are wonderful!

What a Great Vacation!

My Fiance and I traveled to the Barcelo Maya Colonial during the week of May 19th - 26th. We had a great time, the weather was fantastic and all the people at the resort were super friendly. The rooms were a little musky, but you have to expect that in a tropical destination. Book it and enjoy! Cheers

Great stay!

The hotel grounds really felt like paradise with all the palm trees. Even though it was a big resort (not our ideal), everything felt close-by. While the beach was not the greatest (lots of seaweed and rocks) the pools definitely made up for it. Lots of games and entertainment throughout the day and night. The breakfast and lunch buffets were great with plenty to choose from. We recommend making reservations at the restaurants for dinner (buffet was not great for dinner). Highly recommend Kyoto  [... read more]and Tokyo restaurant and the steakhouse.

Fabulous place

The hotel is great and the grounds are quite large. The beach setting with the mature palms makes you feel as if you are in paradise. The standard rooms are well equipped and clean. I would air out your room and leave the sliding door ajar with the fan running. The restaurants, and many to choose from had no issues. The pools are quite large and great for all the guests. Walking throughout resort was made easy due to a barrier free ground level and elevator. The only item I wish they could addre [... read more]ss is the access into the ocean. A pathway cleared of rocks and marked for a safe entry and exit into the ocean for newbie's.

Barcello Resort in Rivera Maya, Mexico

The staff members that help make this trip so enjoyable and service was above the others were Leticia, Nawel Bouteraa, Guillermo Lobato, Demetrio Chi and at the Buffet tropical in Maya tropical was Edilberto Roberto.

Awesome Vacation Resort

Barcello Colonial Beach Resort was excellent. Rooms were air conditioned, grounds were lush and green, pool was amazing and the food was good. Beach was lovely even though seaweed washed ashore daily.... no big deal. It was sunny and hot for our 7 days with a lovely breeze coming in off the ocean. Loved the fact that the pool and beach were next to each other. Would go again for sure!

Stay at one, play at all!

This hotel is defiantly grand! Where can I begin. I will start off with all my PROS seeing I have way many more pros then cons. 1st pro being my biggest one, is the Kids club (BARCY CLUB)!!!!!! we only tried the "big" kids club, the one by the Caribe pool. Jazmin, Samantha, Dolce, Yoali, Andrea were the staff at this kids club and I cant not say enough great things about them. My kids ages were 6 & 8 which is an ideal age for the kids club. I originally drop my kids off for a few hours aroun [... read more]d 10am, and said Id be back by noon to pick them up. When I stopped back at noon they didn't want to leave, they begged for a few more hours. I even seen one boy being picked up by his mom crying because he didn't want to leave! All the kids were treated with so much love and respect you could tell the staff at this kids club loved there job! The kids club did so much stuff with the kids from crafts, to face painting, hair do's, to trips to the spa to get there nails done, taking them skating, to the pirates water park, the Mr.cook cook off, and so much more. Although all the kids club staff were top notch, I just want to give a special shout out to Jazmin. She created a special bond with my girls which is hard to find. we even talked to another mother who told us she was at this resort 3 years ago and her daughter remembered Jazmin and was asking her mother if she thought Jazmin would still be there. Sure enough she was, the little girl was thrilled with joy with seeing her again after 3 years, and told us Jazmin even remembered her. We also attended the mini disco a few night at 8:30pm at club ONE, where the kids would dance and play games for prizes. My kids even made up a song about how much fun they had at the kids club! I would come back to this resort just for the amazing kids club! Another pro was the Spa. We had a 50 mins couples massage on the beach by Cindy and I'm sorry but I forget the other girls name, we both left saying it was the best massage we have ever had. Then after our massage we were offered a free visit to the spas therapy room which gave you access to hot tub, cold tub, dry sauna, steam room, and an outdoor pool with jets. It was the icing on the cake! Passion Photos: we met Luis Puc around the resort and he stopped by every day he seen us to chat. he was very friendly and easy to chat to. He booked us in to get our photos done. We did book for 1 day but due to a sunburn on my daughters face I had to change the date and it was very easy and they were very accommodating to change the date. Our photographers were Melina and Bradly. I am still blown away at how amazing these two were, first they did the family photos, then Melina took the kids (because we know when parents are looking, kids get silly) and Bradly took the adults to start a video, then we switched. I wasn't expecting a video, but man oh man it was that added touch you didn't even realized you needed! now of course everyone least favorite part is going to look at the photos because you know your going to want to buy them all. they did offer a range of packages which we did settle on a mid range package that gave us some photos our video (which I'm still blown away by) and a photo book. Oh, and because my daughters face was still burnt, they edited all of the photos of her burn for me! Being Canadian the exchange kills us, so I did find the prices a bit high but that was mainly due to the poor Canadian dollar right now and the exchange rate! Now on to the food: All of the buffets are pretty much the same. Same food, different atmosphere. So just go to the one that is most convenient for you! For the ala carts we tried the two teppanyaki's, the steak house, the Mexican and the Spanish. The Mexican and the teppanyakis were amazing, the Spanish I wasn't a fan of, and the steak house the only thing I actually liked was the steak ( the white wine was warm, and the soup was cold) As for the pools: I noticed that the Caribe pool seems to be the "party" pool where all the young adults hung out, we started off at that pool but the people at that pool were there to party, so we spend most of our time at the Colonial pool which was the family pool because that is the pool that had the big waterpark for the kids. At the Caribe pool however Id like to give a shoutout to Teresa M, she was an amazing pool server. The days the kids were at the kids club we ventured up to the adults pool which is a hidden gem! The Beach: Down by the Palace there were sea turtles swimming right off the beach. There was also a lot of seaweed, but they did a good job of raking out swimming areas for people to swim Dolphins: we did swim with the dolphins, we went with the middle package that gave you a belly swim (you can negotiate). I was a bit hesitant at the beginning to do it, but glad I did. It was fun, the trainer that worked with Alex the dolphin was great. she answered all our questions and the kids had a blast finding out information on dolphins and touching there skin. Younger kids are aloud to swim with the dolphins on there parents back if they are a bit afraid. they took photos of us, but the photos were way overpriced, the photos were actually more expensive then the swim. Air Transat desk: My daughter was playing some games on my cell phone in the shuttle ride to the hotel which is about an hour, and put it in the cupholder on the side of the van. When we arrived at the resort we were so excited we hopped out the van and forget about the phone, when we realized the van was gone. Of course my first though was my phone is gone! I will not see it again. We went to the Air Transat desk and told them what had happened. They had made a few phone calls for us and sure enough in my disbelief they had found my phone and the driver would bring it back to the resort by end of day. the Air Transat desk called my room around 5:30 and told us they had my phone, they waited for us to run down at the end of his day to get it! Now for my biggest CON is a particular staff member named Jose. He worked at Strikers, the carousel, and the skating rink. For working in the kids areas where people are coming to spend there money he was absolutely horrible. I don't even really want to get in to it because I would be writing a whole book but he was the one person on the resort when I seen him I would actually walk away.

Lovely Resort!

Second time at this resort complex, first time we stayed at the Beach section and this time the Colonial section. We definitely return in the future as they are building a sixth "Adults Only" section that will be amazing! The entire complex is so clean and garbage free! We were very impressed.

Loved this amazing resort

Room was great and cleaned. Dinning room were excellent Grounds were very nice and very well kept. I thought it was a very beautiful resort. I also thought it was a huge resort. Some things were very expensive

Ok for the right price

The grounds and pools are beautiful. Resort is very large. Beach is dirty. Buffet food is meh but a la cartes are great. No free wifi except in certain areas during certain hours. Upcharges for some premium drinks (Malibu Rum, Baileys, good tequila). Rooms were decent with comfy beds. Service was poor to ok

Beautiful resort

The Barcelo Colonial was a beautiful resort, very clean and the service was impeccable. The beaches are beautiful, they had a sea weed issue but it was due to high winds, can't control mother nature. It is a bit of a drive from the airport but well worth the stay.