Paradisus Playa del Carmen - Riviera Maya

Visited July 2026 with family, 6 adults, 1 teen and two under 3. Our concierge, Emmanuel Baranda was amazing. Very quick to respond and brought the kids little treats and toys throughout the stay. Anything we needed he would bring. He checked in with us each morning and evening and he was very kind and informative. We took advantage of a lot of the activities at the resort that we wouldn’t have knows about otherwise. He was the only 10/10 part of our experience. Food is good for resort food. I’d say 8/10. Every restaurant is very hot and humid and you leave dripping wet, except the buffet. Steakhouse is very good and fancy, adults only. Sushi is best resort sushi I’ve had, sashimi is also good. The resort is big but it’s a horseshoe shape so it is walkable. There is a great waterpark with adult and kids slides, the walk to get there is not very nice and feels like you’re walking through an abandoned back alley. Pools are warm, kids pool is hot. Not refreshing. Service is very good, especially at pool side. Lunch poolside food is one of my favorite meals, especially the fish tacos and the burritos. Really good. The tacos here are better than at home. Authentic meat, sauces, toppings. Resort is old and needs an update badly. It feels 5% understaffed but not nearly enough that it’s an inconvenience. You need reservations for dinner if you go between 630-830, everything gets booked up. They have tons of kids activities. My 3 year old got her face painted a few times, did a bouncy house, LOVED the Kidsdom kids club which was a great break for us parents, toys and games on the resort in different spots. They have little carts around with fun foods like mango on a stick. They had an outdoor party with a show that our 3 year old was glued to. It was like a gymnastics/circus type of thing. She loved it. They also had carnival games. It was well done where it didn’t seem cheap. Now the not so great: Constant hawking for their “circle club”. I told the woman following us around several times we weren’t interested but she finally wore us down. We agreed for the free spa massage. I sat down, they did their presentation, at the end I told them not interested and told them why. She calls the sales manager, he sits down and says “why are you even here?” after I told him why we weren’t insterested. Well sir, we are here because your sales team followed us around for a full week and begged us to come sit, that’s why. Otherwise I would NOT be there for the presentation. Tons of upselling. Calling this place an all-inclusive is a bit of a misnomer. Every restaurant has a small free menu, and a much larger, more quality menu that you need to pay for. They went around with coconuts on a cart each day- $11 USD each. We asked for a corona from that cart - $3 USD each. Lots of little things like this. The guy that checked us in was cold, and annoyed that we didn’t do the “pre-check in” and kept saying how long this process was going to take because we didn’t pre-check in. We didn’t do it because we had 3 rooms booked and the pre-check in only listed one of the rooms. That was our first experience on the resort and not a great start to the trip. They are doing renovations to some rooms and repainting. There were two people scraping paint and chipping it directly into the swim up pools. Gross. The lock to the balcony was broken so the kids were able to get onto our 3 story balcony by themselves. I told the “circle”sales manager and showed him the and he said “I’ll send someone up”. No one ever came to fix it. Overall, the kids had an amazing time.

Great hotel great customer service and great activities people especially Edgar

Just wanted to give an honest review following our experience, as I wish I knew this before we arrived to this hotel. Our first impression of the resort was unfortunately poor we arrived and outside unfortunately is a poor area of playa del carmen so not very safe to walk around to. However the hotel looked amazing upon arrival aesthetically modern and pretty. Then upon turning up to reception there was a lot of waiting around due to the Family Concierge check-in process, we got a buggy round to the other area then was waiting around to check in and be shown our room, our suitcases took a while to arrive from main reception to our room. Very little information was provided about the resort or its facilities due to arriving on a later flight we were walked to our rooms and then basically went to bed. We were not informed where we could get dinner or where breakfast was served or where to collect pool towels for the following day, and we did not meet our Family Concierge representative until midday the next day, by which time much of this information would have already been useful, we had to ask other guests where to go. We also experienced several maintenance issues in our room. The balcony door from the bedroom did not function correctly and, despite reporting it, it was never repaired. Our room safe was locked shut and required security assistance to open, causing unnecessary inconvenience, and on our final night the main balcony door handle broke completely. Also we found the double beds in the suite were tiny and like "jelly mountain" the most wobbly mattresses and you feel each others every move. Our experience at Blue Agave restaurant was disappointing our youngest fell through one of their chairs there. The restaurant was extremely hot, making it uncomfortable to dine there, the service was slow with almost an hour's wait for dinner, and the menu descriptions did not accurately reflect the portion sizes, which were much smaller than expected. Similarly, Bana restaurant was also uncomfortably hot, which made it difficult to fully relax and enjoy the dining experience which was a same as they work hard in there to entertain you. The food was good at the resort just the hotel itself doesn't have much aircon in the main areas/ bars or restaurants. Only 3 have aircon being Buffet/ Italian and one other but due to the humidity you spent most nights sweating. On a positive note, the Italian restaurant was by far the best dining experience we had during our stay. The food, service, and overall atmosphere were excellent and stood out from the other restaurants. Throughout our stay, we were repeatedly approached about attending a presentation for the Meliá membership programme. Although we appreciated receiving a complimentary massage, the persistent invitations became intrusive, particularly considering the extremely high cost of the programme. While the weather was beyond anyone's control, the condition of the beach significantly impacted our holiday. It was covered in sargassum seaweed, had a very unpleasant smell, and was effectively unusable. We were also advised not to walk outside the resort, which further limited our options. You can walk down the beach and there is a local beach right next to the hotel, however you cannot really go for long walks due to the smell down there. We also found the entertainment programme to be underwhelming. There were very few daytime activities, and the entertainment team rarely engaged with guests. The foam party was undoubtedly the highlight in the pirate ship for our kids, but compared with previous visits to Cancun, there was a noticeable absence of events such as beach white parties or fire shows. The evening entertainment and daytime needs more options its such a limited time table and the team lack enthusiasm. Also to add there is no mini disco daily which was so disappointing for our kids as that's their holiday highlight, there is 2 a week and they did 2 -3 songs and it was finished. This resort also has an issue with Hand Foot and Mouth - during our stay people we met had children who had it and on the group on FB can see seems to be an issue. The pirate ship was closed for 2 days due to kids pooing in the pool which cannot be helped by staff but they just closed the pool and reopened it the next day. The resort itself is visually stunning, but we feel the available space is not utilised effectively. Evening seating around the bars is extremely limited, while large decking areas remain empty and could easily accommodate additional furniture for guests. Additionally, there is no sports bar on the family side of the resort, and the pool table room offers very limited seating, forcing guests to sit separately in the lobby, which creates an awkward layout and lacks atmosphere. Aside from the North Bar during entertainment, there were few appealing places to relax in the evenings. Also the North Bar gets very busy as that serves all drinks to the restaurants by it too. The pools were nice and refreshing however my children 6 & 4 found the splash park too deep (1.4m) and cold. Therefore we didn't get the benefit from using this aqua zone at all, which we thought they'd enjoy, also there are adults bombing down the slides in there so made them feel uneasy being smaller in 1.4m of water depth. I am all for them having fun but being mindful of the smaller ones would be beneficial. The family concierge we had was great and I would highly recommend having that for branded drinks and the lunch box restaurant. They did bring us goodies in the room, assist with celebrations and book all our reservations without hassle. The Cenote trip you get FOC with the FC was also great and would recommend that. There are also raccoons and Coatis around so any snacks they will open bags to get or eat food left out, including chocolate milk cartons what was annoying. One night they climbed in our pushchair for a rummage which did become annoying. Although we still managed to enjoy our holiday and make the best of our time away, the combination of service shortcomings, unresolved maintenance issues, lack of communication, and limited entertainment means that we would not choose to return to the resort, we would not recommend this for families, it lacks entertainment and there is no vibe or feel around the pool and we left wishing we had gone somewhere else, being our 3rd time to Mexico this hotel was awful compared to others we have stayed in before. Unfortunately we wouldn't be back and are disappointed we didn't pick a different hotel.

The resort was great, the staff were very polite and attentive, the quality of food and service was great. We had Tiara as our family concierge her service was exceptional, she was in touch with us daily through WhatsApp and quick to respond to any requests, she was very caring and attentive, checking on us daily arranging and organizing everything for us from dinner reservations to spa visits and excursions, she also left little gifts for our daughters on the room every day. They had performance, entertainment and activities for both adults and kids everyday. I definitely recommend the hotel and I’m sure we will go back.

The experience at the hotel was wonderful. From the very beginning, we receivec exceptional service, with special mention to Carlos de La Cruz and José Luiz Ortiz, who provided all the support and assistance needed to make our stay even more special The gastronomic experiences were excellent both for the facility of booking our favorite restaurants and for the quality of what was offered to us. The hotel is ideal for families with children. My kids loved the water park and we spent a lot of time there. The private areas dedicated to the "Family Concierge' are excellent, and the conveniences such as having breakfast at the exclusive Lounge restaurant made a big difference for us in terms of quality and comfort. I highly recommend the resort. The accommodation surprised us positively, and we will definitely return as soon as possible