Barcelo Maya Beach - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

15919 reviews

• 

  First time in Mexico

  The resort is so big , lots of pool , lots of foods. And very nice beach. They're 6 resorts, Maya beach , Maya Caribe , collonial and tropical, Maya Palace and the Maya reviera for adults.

  Feb 04, 2025
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  Service not provided

  We booked into the Colonial resort 4 months in advance. We were travelling with elderly parents and chose this location because it was central. This was our third time here. We found out when we arrived that our party of 6 was moved to the Maya beach and the caribe. We were not notified in advance and were unhappy with this change. We were told this was their prerogative and was listed in small print on their website. We were told by the front staff that we should just take out elderly parents on a bus to the other resort. Fortunately the bellboys came through for our parents and were able to take us to the other resort in a golf cart. The Barcelo is a business and provides a service that we feel was not provided. We will be asking our travel agent to consider our experience before booking others here.

  Feb 04, 2025
• 

  Not worth my money

  The breakfast buffet never changed and most times the food wasn't there or cold or aline up. Lunch and dinner buffet were average and nothing great. Rooms were dated and needed some upkeep. I would never go there again or recommend anyone to go there

  Feb 03, 2025
• 

  Great family resort

  We stayed at the Barcelo Maya Beach resort during the last week of Jan 2025. A few general comments: - The Maya Beach resort is part of a group of other Barcelo resorts (Caribe, Colonial, Tropical, Palace) so you can either stay local or have access to all other areas of the resort which has a lot of offer - restaurants, shops, activities, etc this had its pros and cons, see below. - The resort is spotless, very clean, and modern, staff are always working hard to keep it looking good. - Staff are helpful; maybe could be a bit more friendly, not a major issue...but I only say that because I've been to other resorts where everyone is always saying "Hola" or "Good morning" etc and are going out of their way to make you feel welcome. A specific comment about the staff at the flowrider surfing: A big thank you to them for helping us find our son's cochlear implant processor which he lost there. They were very responsive, escalated the issue to the manager and got us sorted out within 15 mins. They handled the whole thing very well. Pros: - Very clean resort - Food at the al la carte restaurants were excellent (Italian was my favorite but the Spanish and Japanese were also good) - Beach bar / snack bar food was very good (just as good as the buffet and the view of the beach makes it a great spot) - if you want to skip the crowds my advice would be to eat late breakfast and lunch here instead of the buffet (they open from 1030-630 and have lots of seating) - Staff were very helpful all around and service was excellent at the restaurants - Lots to do, many shops and activities on site - Cenotes are right across the highway from the resort, you can walk there - Swimming with the sea turtles in the morning right off the beach - this was an amazing experience Cons: - Not enough beach or pool lounge chairs - this was kind of ridiculous, you essentially had to get to the beach before 7am to get a spot and then people start taking lounge chairs from the pool to the beach and then there aren't enough spots at the pool; I get it, its a large resort and you have people coming from 5 sections all fighting to get spots but there needs to be a better way. - Rooms, decor, and furniture are a bit outdated (we were in the Tulum building) - Tough to get preferred times at the a la carte restaurants (we booked the first morning we were there and could only get very early or very late times.

  Feb 02, 2025
• 

  They don't have much desire to go the extra mile

  On the whole the resort is pretty good and if you are going as a group of adults or with older kids it's not bad. The resort is HUGE which is good and bad. Good in that there's a lot to see but bad because it's a LOT of walking to get anywhere and if you have small kids that can be very annoying. Also I feel like you're probably indirectly paying for the existence of a lot of the extras like the bowling alley and a huge shopping center. Next time I'd probably go for a smaller resort, honestly. This was my first time at one this big and it was a bit overwhelming. The rooms are pretty dated looking inside but on the whole acceptable. We noticed some very tiny ants in our room though which was kinda nasty but at least they were harmless. Beach is fantastic - nice soft sand for the most part, lots of shallow areas for kids to play. Beach chairs as with any resort always get hoarded by people coming to swipe them early in the morning even though it is quite clearly written that this is not allowed. Some people even lug them away from the pool decks to the beach 🙄 I overheard another customer very angrily complaining about the lack of chairs to reception so it is not just me saying so. Pools are also good - the kids waterpark at Colonial (part of the same complex) is quite fun. Food is fantastic - I did enjoy that they even had different themes for some of the days like an Asian food night, seafood night, etc. and they do a good job at having variety. Here's the things that disappointed me from a service perspective of not accommodating to specific situations. This really soured our trip though I admit it is not going to a problem for everyone: We went with our two small kids and what disappoints me most about this resort is just the low level of care and sympathy from the staff for our particular situations. For example, we arrived late at night because our transportation from the airport took longer than expected - not their fault of course - but it was almost 11PM when we were checking in and our kids were well past their bed time and super cranky but also quite hungry. We had to put them to bed but all four of us really wanted to eat. I asked about room service and was told "well, the menu is on the TV" so.... fantastic I guess I'll just turn on a bright TV while putting the kids to bed? And I tried to explain the situation but instead of the bare minimum like saying "Let me see if I can get someone to deliver a plate for chicken nuggets and french fries to your room right now, on the house!" (how much would that cost them, btw?) they basically just said that's all. I had to resort to running to the 24/7 snack bar and basically begging them to let me take back two paper cups with food back to our room. Another thing that made me disappointed is I asked about late checkout since we have a 1 year old and he *really* needs his afternoon nap or he gets very cranky. I was told to come back at 10AM on checkout day and ask then. I did so, was told "no, the room is already set to be used by someone else". I asked about if I can just get them to roll a crib into one of their big unused conference rooms for a few hours so we can nap our baby before our flight, the receptionist went to talk to a supervisor and came back with "no, but we can extend your checkout by 1 hour" so ok at least there's that. I asked if it in any way possible to extend it a bit longer and they said "only at an additional price" so VERY CLEARLY it is possible to get a late checkout if you pay them even if it is literally only for 2-3 hours for a tiny baby to rest before a flight. Oh and icing on the cake - the room cleaners knocked on the door nice and loud at 12pm sharp so our baby woke up and we didn't even get to let him sleep a little longer. Again, they don't owe me a late checkout or anything but if it is possible to do (which it is, as established by the "additional price" comment) and it costs them literally nothing to do and helps a paying customer with a small child, why not just accommodate us? Extra tips: 1. The adult-only pool (if you're not staying at the adult only part of the resort) is much more chill and unlike other resorts you don't need to be a premium member to book a huge lounge bed by the pool, it's about ~10USD for the whole day which is a great deal. 2. The ATMs at the resort are just insane at price gouging on the exchange rate and transaction fees. It wanted $12 CAD as a processing fee and gave me an exchange rate of like 12 pesos per Canadian dollar when the nominal rate was about 14.2. It would have actually been cheaper to withdraw money at the airport somehow than on our resort. I would have lost like $60 CAD trying to withdraw $200 worth of pesos so I just decided that was too high of a price. As a result, I had no money to tip the staff which made me feel like a jerk but I feel like the hotel could have installed some normal ATMs to encourage people to actually spend money instead of gouging them on exchange rates. Exchange your money somewhere else. 3. The resort is literally right next to a bunch of cenotes that in theory are within walking distance but there's a wall around the entire resort so the only way out is through the front gate which leads out to a 6 lane high way with no sidewalks, crossings or pedestrian infrastructure at all so even if you wanted to go 800 meters to the cenote across the road you'd need to pay for a taxi unless you like playing frogger with your life.

  Jan 30, 2025