Paradisus Playa del Carmen - Riviera Maya

Everything was excellent, the food and the service. Loved it!

We enjoyed our stay at the hotel, all the staff are wonderful, we always felt happy with their service. The hotel is well looked after and staff is always working hard to keep the hotel clean and we'll maintained. A massive thank you to the buffet department especially to the chefs Monserrat, Rodger and Angel, the ladies at the egg station and the hostess and hosts Amelia, Paulina Jacob and Samuel. My son is in a very strict diet and can't eat several types of food and ingredients. The chefs went above and beyond to make sure our son had food he could eat, it really was a team work. Also, thank you to the restaurants we visited, Blue Agave, Banna, the restaurant by the Celsius pool and Flora. Our server at Blue Agave went above and beyond to help with our son's dietary restrictions and tried her best ro offer our son a dessert. Entertainment was top notch, we enjoyed the nightly shows. Our favorite was the Mexican night with the live band. Angel was the soul of the party and got us all (very shy tourists) to dance, we all had a blast and even the kids joined us on the dance floor. Our son went to the kids club a couple of times just, he wasn't keen to come back. However, he truly enjoyed the activities in the morning at the North Bar area, especially the dream catcher class, he had fun and learnt a new skill, big thank you to Angel again for being so patient, cheerful and having always a smile on his face, he is very good with kids and as parent I really appreciate that. The Celsius Bar was so fun to be at, all the bartenders were great but we had our favorite, Alarcon always delivered an excellent customer service, very friendly, polite and even remembered our names! House keeping was excellent, our room was always spotless, organised, they even organised and tidy up our phones charger cables. I wish I would have asked the ladies their names. The guy that was in charge of refilling the waters, beers, snacks, etc was very friendly and polite. Jesus at North Bar was always friendly, polite and making sure we were happy with our drinks, such a gentleman, thank you Jesus and the other bartender too! Check in and check out was easy and hassle free, Sergio at checkout was great and so was the check in guy, very helpful staff. The bell boys were great too and very helpful. The popsicles near the reception and the sorbets at the ice cream station were a lifesaver for us with our son having such a strict diet, they are made of fruit just and they taste great. I truly enjoyed the craft classes at Paradisus La Perla, I highly recommend them. I attended the alebrijes and the dream catcher classes, the guys from the Hand made company are in charge of these classes and they are wonderful. The Circle team were very pleasant to talk to, very friendly and helpful. I would definitely return to this hotel with my family and recommend it to friends.

The resort is beautiful with great restaurants and buffets. Definitely request Navlia and Ernesto’s section in the Hadar buffet - they will look after you like no other!!

Nice resort, loved the spacious rooms. Food was great. Excellent service from Ismael and Sandy at buffet Hadar. The only downfall was the beach. Not able to swim at the beach due to tons of dead seaweed that smelled like rotten eggs.

I highly recommend against staying at Paradisus Playa Del Carmen. Here is why: Our 3-generation family of 8 were guests there in early June, 2026 and we experienced problem upon problem, starting days before we traveled to the resort. The following is a summary of our disappointments and for those interested in the details. I actually maintained a detailed journal with names and dates of specific incidents which I will be sharing, for those interested, at a later date. Our first indication of difficulties was when we learned three days before our arrival date that they did not have a reservation for us, despite the fact the booking and deposit were made 9 months prior with the final payment days before its due date. That was followed by a confrontational and time-consuming check-in process when we arrived, with both the bellman and the receptionist challenging what our travel agent had been told by a resort manager for us to do when we arrived. Finally, a manager got involved and said he was aware of our issues, and he got us checked in. By then we had spent nearly 90 minutes just to get through the check-in process. The Family side of Paradisus is an older resort in need of maintenance and a refresh. I am talking about very worn, cheap furniture in the 3 rooms my family occupied with broken drawers, doors and cabinets. The couches in my Swim-out Master Family Concierge room were old, uncomfortable and hard to sit on for more than a few minutes. The ceramic tile on the steps from the balcony to the swim-out pool were broken and missing, creating sharp edges that opened a cut on my little granddaughter’s foot. The concrete on the pool deck in some places was so worn that the rocks that became the surface of the deck were sharp and hard to walk on without sandals or shoes. The food in all the specialty restaurants, while edible, was just plain bad. After dining at Blue Agave (Outdoor restaurant that was horribly hot with no working fan), Flora (dishes overcooked and dry), Bana (no air-conditioning in a hibachi restaurant??), Cielo (the best of the bunch, but we had a bad experience at the bar there and chose not to return), Capella (gummy pasta with tasteless sauces and just plain bad pizza), we finally gave up and spent the last 3 nights at the buffet. At least we could preview what we were eating by looking at the food and taking small portions to determine if a particular dish was worth eating. I thought having a family concierge would be beneficial and I paid the extra cost for that for the whole family. Fabian was great, BUT, at the end of our stay he was aware of a big problem I was having getting a refund we were due and he ghosted us once he received his tip from me. The hotel could not help the fact the beach was smelly and unusable. Most of the staff tried to be helpful and it showed. They did a great job with watch parties for the World Cup (soccer). Some of the grounds are very pretty. But in the end, the bad outweighed the good by a mile. While the grandchildren did not notice most of this, they couldn’t see how much time I was spending with various hotel staff dealing with the many bad issues we experienced. As I write this, I am into the third week of awaiting the refund I was promised the morning I checked out. Hopefully at some point soon, the bad taste in my mouth will be replaced with fond memories of spending time with my kids and grandkids