Paradisus Playa del Carmen - Riviera Maya

Family trip. Not worth the money. Food, amenities, ambiance is lack luster. Bedding is uncomfortable.

Paradisus Playa del Carmen-Riviera Maya was a very pleasant stay stay. I visited this property before a work conference in Cancun solo. I could tell it was a great property for families with the water slide area. The welcome area had a great candy bar with candy and treats for families with kids or for myself lol. It would be a great property for solo travelers like myself and couples. The restaurant's at night were very good and I got to visit the Asian restaurant that had amazing dumplings. The hibachi restaurant was also an amazing experience. The sports bar was also nice for the football and baseball games showing at the time. They also opened the sports bar for a few of us Denver Bronco fans trying to catch the game in London that was showing early in the AM. The access to the beach was also nice and very convenient for staying at the resort. The pool bar was also nice and the restaurant outside net to bar as well. They also had some nice pool entertainment for the adults and kids as well.

Good food, nice beach, good time. The staff are wonderful all over the resort. Ottho at the front desk was especially warm and kind

I really enjoyed the service there. Eduardo and Enrique were especially nice, and were always enthusiastic and excited to play beach volleyball with everyone else. They made it really fun, and something to look forward to everyday :)

Because this is apparently my first review in the 11+ years since I created a TripAdvisor account, I’m going to preface it with a little background to give some context for the comments below. I am an experienced global traveler. Over the last few years, my wife, daughter and I have tended to prefer luxury (5-star), family-friendly beach resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean for most vacations. We have stayed at multiple high-end resorts in the Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Mexico; Paradisus Playa Del Carmen is the fourth beach resort in Mexico alone that we have stayed at in the last 12 months. We recently returned from a one week vacation at Paradisus Playa Del Carmen (12/27/2025 to 1/3/2026). While there were some positives to our stay -- primarily the nice beach, nightly entertainment for kids, and reasonable food (for an all inclusive) -- the temperature of the pools was absolutely unacceptable, especially for families with young children (we have a 4-year daughter). Unfortunately, this fatal flaw outweighed any positives the resort had to offer and we are candidly shocked that many other reviewers (particularly those who have stayed at the resort during winter months) don’t mention the frigid pools. The lack of focus on pool temperature from other reviewers is what compelled me to post this — my very first TripAdvisor review — as a public service announcement of sorts so that you don’t find yourselves in the same situation that we did. All pools at the resort were so cold (~76-78 degrees Fahrenheit) that our daughter refused to go in any of them. And when I say all the pools, I mean LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE POOL -- the pool connected to the Family Concierge swim out rooms, the family friendly pirate ship pool, the water park pool, the “Exclusive Family Concierge Pool” by the Lunch Box restaurant, etc. (resort map attached for reference). Not only is there not a single warm pool on the property, but also there isn't a single hot tub where you can go to warm up after doing what feels like a polar bear plunge! If you want a hot tub, you need to go back to your hotel room and fill up the bath. We specifically booked a Family Concierge room because we understood the Family Concierge pool would be heated during the winter. We see now that we perhaps were relying on a source that we should not have been -- see attached photo which appears to be an official resort website but, on taking a closer look at the site since our return, seems to be maintained by a third party travel agency. Any claim (whether from a third party travel agency or from the resort itself) that the Family Concierge pool is heated is absolutely false and amounts to fraud in our view, unless the heater just happened to be broken for an entire week during peak season which we find highly unlikely. We complained about the frigid pool temperature multiple times and nothing was done to resolve the issue, which persisted for the entire week of our stay. For reference, see attached picture which is a number of stitched together screenshots from the WhatsApp chat with our Concierge during our stay (redacted to protect the innocent as our Concierge was actually quite nice and we know the pool situation was not the Concierge’s fault). From speaking with other guests, it was clear that many of them were upset about the cold pools as well. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so, in that spirit, see attached picture of the Family Concierge pool which is completely empty. This photo was taken at about 11:30 AM on a sunny day during peak Xmas / New Years travel season; the fact that the pool is completely empty should tell you something about how pleasant it is to be in the water. Also attached is another picture showing the temperature of the water in the pool outside the Family Concierge swim out rooms at 76 degrees Fahrenheit (based on Apple Watch Ultra 2 reading). Furthermore, though not our core issue with the resort, we also found it absurd that guests were asked to pay a minimum of $900 for a table to attend the New Year’s Eve show / celebration (see attached picture). The money was not the issue; it was more the principle. We were already paying a premium rate to stay at the resort during peak season and to ask guests to pay extra to participate in the only NYE celebration / form of entertainment that night is simply asinine. There must have been some kind of outcry among guests because, after initially suggesting that paying for a table would be the only way to attend the NYE festivities, we were told on December 30th that the NYE celebration would be open to all guests “due to high demand and limited availability.” I wonder how the families who had already forked over $900+ felt knowing that they could have attended the event for free. Putting the NYE fiasco aside and coming back to the core issue, the cold pool situation resulted in an extremely disappointing experience at Paradisus Playa Del Carmen. We’re frankly still stunned that, after spending thousands of dollars on what we thought would be a premium resort experience, we couldn't find a single warm pool on the property. Maybe it’s better during the summer months but we will not be returning to find out and would not recommend this hotel to anyone if you are visiting during the winter months and want to spend any time a pool. Consider yourself warned.