Paradisus Playa del Carmen - Riviera Maya

It's taken me a while to write this review. Mostly because we didn't want to admit it was all over! We travelled as a family of 3 (x2 adults and a 6 year old) from the UK. We had booked quite a while ago as it seemed to tick all our boxes (plenty of restaurants, family friendly, splash park, pools, good reviews). We booked FC up front as well as didn't want to miss out as we had travelled for my husband's 40th so wanted it to be a trip to remember. From our room we could see the sea which was a lovely bonus. We had a master suite to give us an extra bedroom effectively. Plenty of space. Rooms did feel a little run down but nothing falling to bits thankfully. The staff were mostly all amazing, and couldn't do enough. Our initial concierge, for whatever reason, we didn't hear much from, kept booking different times for restaurants to what we requested, and failed to acknowledge my husband's birthday even though I had mentioned it a number of times. A week into our two week stay we mentioned it to a couple of people and we ended up switching to Cynthia. She was AMAZING and seemed to go out of her way each day just to see us and say hello, as well as all the little games and treats she left for our little girl. She also arranged some in room treats for my husband's birthday. Another special shout out goes to Graciela from Circle. She did approach us and we did sign up as members, but even after that she couldn't do enough for us. She was fab from start to finish! Thank you Graciela 😊 We did get across to the adults side a couple of times. That side did feel a bit nicer/newer, not to say that the family side was run down. The spa was amazing, could have quite happily had a massage each day! Sal was amazing too, probably our favourite meal. We made daily (sometimes more than once!!) visits to the coffee shop and ice cream bar, and for this to all be included too was great. Loved feeding the fish and turtles too. My only slight niggles were the sargassum (I know that is out of the hotel's control and they did do all they could to clear the beach), the entertainment programme is only a one week schedule, so for those of us staying two weeks the night time shows were the same. The buffet was also a bit repetitive and often when queuing the freshly cooked meat went quickly, so there wasn't always options there to try. The coatis also! Whilst cute they would attempt to take ANYTHING! Our bag was dragged away by one (even with no food in it), and had to be chased off. Had to tie the bag down in future. We've been on the lookout for a great hotel chain to try different locations with, and we believe we have found that with Melia and Paradisus.

Our family had a great time at Paradisus Play Del Carmen! The food was excellent and all of the staff was very attentive to our needs! Miriam, our concierge, made all of our dinner reservations and checked in with us every day to see what we needed! The only negative comment I have about this resort is something that they really cannot control. There isn’t awful seaweed problem on the beach. There is a continuous cleanup effort, but they still cannot control it. We love the beach but only spent time at the pool on this trip. The pools were great and our 2 year old grandson loved the water slides and the water park!

The place is great for families. I highly recommend upgrading to the family concierge. You get a “butler”, who is available via WhatsApp mostly during business hours. Ours was Tiara, who was absolutely wonderful and always had fun things for the kids. There are only two improvements that could be made that I could think of. 1) there’s a lack of diaper changing facilities. None of the male washrooms had any. This was awkward at some times when you didn’t want to walk all the way back to your room. 2) there’s a lack of indoor activities for the whole family. You can take advantage of the daycares but if your kids are with you, a small games room would have been nice. Somewhere cool to go that isn’t your room. Otherwise, we had a tonne of fun!

Yoga with Durga was amazing! Highly recommended if you can get one of her classes. She could use both English and Spanish for instructions. I could successfully meditate after a very long time.

We had a great experience at paradisus playa del carmen. The entertainment team truly made our experience memorable, specially angel who was beyond especially to our daughter and family. My daughter who is 4 enjoyed all activities including face painting, pool zumba, ballon animals and more.