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Barcelo Maya Beach Resort Hotel & Resort Reviews

Barcelo Maya Beach Resort
Address: Puerto Juarez Km. 266,3 Puerto Aventuras, Mexico Tel: (52) 987 51 500 Fax: (52) 987 51 501 Email: mayabeach@barcelo.com URL: Barcelo Maya Beach Resort	Type of Property: All Inclusive Beach Location: Beach Front (Directly on Beach/Water Front) Island: Mexico No. of Rooms/Units: 612

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Summary of All Property Reviews for: Barcelo Maya Beach Resort Ratings based on answers from a total of 17 reviews 10 is best 1 is worst
Feature	Ranking	Feature	Ranking
Cleanliness of Property	9.35	Quality of Property	9.41
Privacy & Quietness	5.59	Quality of Service	8.35
Courtesy & Hospitality of Staff	8.65	Accuracy of Website (marketing hype) VS. Actual Experience	8.47
Food and Dining Experience	7.71	Price/Value of Property	8.29
Safety Factor (Did you feel safe at property)	9.35	Quality of Beach (ranked closest beach if property is located off the beach)	9.29
Total Property Score: 8.45 out of 10 | Average Star Rating: 4.47 out of 5

• 82% (14 visitors of 17) said they would go back to Barcelo Maya Beach Resort again.
• 82% (14 visitors of 17) said they would recommend Barcelo Maya Beach Resort to friends.

Resort Deals from CheapCaribbean.com: View All Island Deals
Aventura Spa Palace Resort	Azul Beach Hotel - Gourmet All Inclusive	Barcelo Maya Caribe and Beach	Barcelo Maya Colonial and Tropical Beach	Barcelo Maya Palace	Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda Beach Resort and Spa

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We just got back from the new Barcelo Maya Palace. While it is really a beautiful setting, we found that the service was poor to mediocre and the food was plentiful but bland and had very little variety. They didn't even put sugar in the desserts - and forgot that we all want chocolate for dessert. This is supposed to be a 5 star resort with a 5 star buffet and restaurants. The resort looks fabulous, but they have definitely cut corners on having enough staff and being creative with the food. We also were promised that we could make reservations at any of the restaurants in the 5 resort campus, but when we got there we were only allowed to make reservations at the 3 restaurants in our resort. We didn't like the evening shows either. We wanted to relax poolside, but unless you got up at 5:30 am to reserve a chair, you had to sit on the ground. Literally - 5:30 am. Not a 5 star resort.

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My Husband and I just returned from the Barcelo Maya Beach resort two days ago. The trip was booked through Funjet (through our travel agent) which made the vacation completely carefree.

Despite United Airlines loosing both of my husbands checked bags (and when they did show up after 2 days a bag was destroyed with half of the contents missing) we had an excellent vacation. The funjet rep that was at the hotel was very helpful throughout the entire ordeal.

We stayed in just a regular room with a king size bed, which already had a pad on it so it was a little stiff but tolerable. Overall, there is not a single thing to complain about at this resort. The resort is made up of 4 different hotels all together on the same grounds. Since you get to use all the hotels services, you get 4 for the price of one.

This resort definalty pays attention to the small details. The staff was excellent. Many spoke english. The bartenders, waiters, just everyone works so hard to make your vacation relaxing and carefree.

Since we went in January the weather was great (80s -90s) and there was not a problem finding seats at the beach, bar, theater, or buffet. The buffet was amazing. If you could think of a food, at some point throughout the week, they had it there. They have different themed nights such as italian night, seafood night, mexican night but even during those nights they have foods other than that theme to please everyone. Even the snack bars had a huge buffet with many choices! We went on a day trip to chichen itza, which is definatly recommended.

Definatly a resort that we would recommend and will return to ourselves.

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This was not the first Barcelo property we have stayed at. This was the third time, but the first at this resort. We had stayed at the Barcelo in Ixtapa for the two pevious years and were very pleased with the service and property. Last year we were informed of the corperate cut back in staff which resulted in the elimination of poolside waitstaff. Not really a problem, but it seems to have had an effect at this property.
The bar staff was rude. Sometimes it would take 10 min. to get a drink even when you were the only person at the bar. Tipping had no effect and the staff seemed indifferent to it. The only time I saw the bartenders smiling was at 11 pm when it closed, and when a rowdy group of women took their tops off. The glasses were not cleaned so if you go, take your own mug or cooly cup.
The pool was so cold you could not get in. There would be days when there would not be more than 20 people in the pool all day. The ocean was 10 degrees warmer.
We went 2 days without getting our room cleaned and when it did get cleaned it never happened before 5pm. One day they came at 7:30pm. There were no wash clothes in the hotel (we were not the only ones with this problem).
The good points were:
The property was well maintained and beatiful. The rooms and builings were clean except for a sewer smell you would get from the floor drain when someone in another room flushed the toilet.
The food was above average and better than what we had at the other Barcelo hotel.
The beach was nice and there was plenty to do on the grounds.
If Barcelo had the service they had 3 years ago before the staff reduction, I would be more likely to return to the hotel. If they need more money for the all inclusive package to cover the expenses then charge me. Don't lead me to believe I'm getting the same value with less service.

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The Barcelo Premium Resort is the fifth resort that I have stayed at during Christmas. The Grounds were great and the beach was beautiful. As well, the food was excellent and the night time shows were probably the best I have seen. Having said all this, the hotel had a bad vibe compared to others that I have visited.

The grounds sometimes felt like some sort of Canadian minimum security prison with cameras scattered all around the resort and a cadre of very unfriendly security staff. It was a very strange feeling to constantly be watched, and it created a sort of antagonistic feeling between the guests and staff. I'm not sure if these measures were taken because of the Canadian who was murdered at the resort a few years ago, or if security was always this tight but it was very strange.

If you plan to stay at this resort with a family it must be pointed out that there is not much to do after 10pm for kids under 18. For people over 18 there is a dance club, but after it closes at 2am there is no place for the guests to go and get a burger or have a pop. As a result, groups of drunk kids ended up roaming the resort with nothing to do. This often led to trouble, and on one night there was a brawl between guests and with guards.

One family's children were held down on the ground by a group of guards after an altercation with another guest. As the kids struggled to get out of the grip of the guards I watched as one of them was kicked in the face by a guard and the other child has his arm twisted by a guard until he cried.

Some guests were screaming for the guards to stop and crying. This was one of the scariest situations I have ever been in. None of the guards spoke English, and everyone felt helpless as we watched the staff treat two guest like delinquent prisoners.

Anyway, the resort was very beautiful, but so are a lot of other resorts. For the same sort of Money I suggest the Palladium in Playa del Carmen. The staff was friendly, they had a 24 hour burger bar, and the food and beach were better.

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Barcello Maya beach Resort, Much nicer than I was expecting for the money. The resort is large and the beds are HARD, but everyone was friendly and helpful. A few tips to the bartenders go a long way. I was suprized at how few people were there. We never had to wait for anything and the beaches were almost empty. The food at the buffet was good but not amazing (huge selection). The night light life was a bit limited, I heard others talking about how much they liked the broadway style shows, but they were not my favorite. For kicking back around the pool and beach activities, it was great. We rented some jet skis and had a blast in the waves (highly recomended). There were lots of free boats, boogie boards and snorkel gear to use as well. We are looking forward to bringing our kids next time.

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We stayed at the newest Barcelo (next to the Colonial Beach and the Maya Beach) called the Tropical Beach. It was one of the best vacations we have ever had. The Tropical Beach was built in Santa Fe style architecture. It is spacious, uncluttered, spotless and elegant. There are fountains and flowing water everywhere, even in the lobby.

In the whole resort there are four huge free form pools with swim up bars. This resort is very accessible for the handicapped and there were several people in wheelchairs who seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.

This resort is also very family friendly. It has a wonderful childrens' pool/play area. Maybe it was the time of year we were there, but the resort never seemed crowded even thought there were alot of people there. We never had a problem finding a beach or pool chair. There are two miles of fabulous uncrowded beach. Because the sand is coral/limestone it never gets hot so you can walk barefoot any time of day. It is unbelievable.

The food was delicious, plentiful and varied both at the hotel buffet and at the beach buffets. We ate at 4 of the six or seven specialty restaurants and they were all 5 star in service and menu. There is a dress code for these restaurants.

There was entertainment every night at The Palancar theater. The music, song and dance was lively and extremely enjoyable. One night, 4 or 5 singers (men and women) sang part of the Rock opera 'Tommy' a cappella. It sent chills down our spines. They got a standing ovation from the whole audience.

The staff were friendly, talkative and helpful.
The room was simple, uncluttered and elegant as well. The bath was done in marble. The shower was hot and the water pressure strong. The room refrigerator was restocked daily.

We were a little hesitant to stay at an all-inclusive, this was our first time. We do feel fortunate to have found such a wonderful hotel, and we will return.

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Spent 10 days at the BM Beach and had an excellent time! I would gladly recommend this property to anyone who was looking for a good quality AI in the Riviera Maya.

Also, here is a link for photos from the trip. (You may have to copy and paste since I'm not sure how to do it properly)

http://travel.webshots.com/album/555688511ImUXhg

Pros/Cons
Pros. You're staying at a resort that is big enough to have every thing you need without ever leaving the grounds. In fact we only left the property twice to go into Playa to do some shopping (once for long pants, so I could get into the ala carte restaurants, I must've missed the posts about that, obtw they'll let you in with flip flops, saw many people doing the same ). Also, the level of service from every member of the staff is on a higher level than any property I have ever stayed at, including Ritz Carlton, Fiesta Americana Grand, Intercontinental and Hyatt to name a few. Without a doubt the best overall service of any hotel staff I have ever seen.

Cons. You're staying at a resort that is big enough to have everything you need without ever leaving the grounds. Although I knew this resort was big, the immensity doesn't really hit you until you try to walk from one side to the other in the afternoon heat. Also you have so much to do, you don't really find your self wanting to leave and explore the surrounding area.

Registration/Check-In. We arrived around 6 pm on a Thursday evening and checked in immediatley and were in our room in 10 minutes. I contacted the hotel prior to arrival and requested a room with one king bed, preferably on the third floor close to the pool/beach. We got a room with two queen beds on the second floor. I asked the front desk person at check-in if we could get a room with 1 king as we requested and it was available but would not be as close to the beach. The lady at the desk told us that if we did not like our room she would find us a different one, but once we saw our room and the view of the ocean from our balcony we were VERY happy! No changing rooms for us. We could handle separate beds for the view. We were in room #1204 at the very end of the Tulum building.

Room. As stated, great room. Large patio with incredible view. Yes the beds are very hard, request a mattress pad, enough said. Excellent coffee, (which I'm drinking right now, it's amazing what $5 to the housekeeper will get you!) The minibar was well stocked, but had to request extra cerveza a couple of times. One of my only bitches about the resort is that they only serve Corona at the bars and we really don't like Corona. But we love Modelo and that's what was in the minibar. So, once again $5 to the housekeeper and we had Modelo coming out our ears! In fact we removed all other items from our minibar fridge to give the housekeepers more room to stock Modelo and they were very obliging.

Beach Absolutely incredible! This is the biggest asset of this resort. I can only speak for the Beach/Caribe side since that's where I spent most of the time but the Colonial/Tropical side looked good also, although perhaps a bit more rocky. The beach is wide, the sand is white and soft and the grounds crew is out there every morning at 6 am (sorry, chronic early riser) cleaning and preparing it for the day.
The water is usually very clear in the early part of the day, but clouds up a little close to shore as the wind picks up and more people are disturbing the sand. One thing I do want to point out is that by the line of buoys that separates the swimming area from the watersports area is an obvious discharge outlet about 20 meters off of the beach in about 2 feet of water for something. Has anyone else noticed this? What is being discharged I don't know, but I suspect it's runoff from pools/fountains, etc. or possibly sewage? If you get closer to the area it has a foul odor and I am very concerned that the Barcelo is actively destroying it's most valuable asset, the beach and water, it is very disconcerting.

Pools. Also incredible, I don't know how else to describe them. Lots of fountains, the jetted areas are nice and there is plenty of space at the pool bars even in the busiest of times.

Food.
Buffets Every time we ate at the buffets we walked away raving about a different item. There was always something that really impressed us. Variety was good and quality was great.

Al a cartes Since we only went to the Japanese restaurant (see above discussion about long pants) I can only speak about it and it was great. Surf and turf was shrimp since lobster was out of season, but was awesome!

Room Service Was outstanding, the garlic shrimp are fantastic! It's $3 a plate for room service but well worth every penny.

Activities We are naturally lazy people , and since I was unemployed for the first half of our trip we weren't too keen on spending money on day trips. Although we did give serious consideration to going to Xcaret for the day but decided not to spend the $200+. So we spent most of our days hanging out by the pool or the beach, which is what we came for anyway. Snorkelling off of the beach near the pier is incredible and we also took the 2 hour snorkelling trip down to Akumal for $26 pp and saw lots of turtles, fish, a stingray and a huge barracuda. Well worth the money. The water trikes are a lot of fun and there are hobie cats and windsurfers available for the guests. Walked by the exercise room and spa and the facility looked very nice but didn't use either one.

Entertainment There are movies at 9:30 every night in the theatre on the Beach/Caribe side and the live shows are at 9:00 every night in the theatre on the Tropical/Colonial side. The movies are things you can rent at Blockbuster, but still kinda fun. The live shows are pleasantly surprising. We honestly didn't think the shows would be as good as they were, but the band is very good and the level of talent of the performers and dancers is great. Is it Broadway? No, but definitley better than some Vegas shows we've been to and well above most cruise ship/all inclusives.

Shopping We were also pleasantly surprised by the diversity of shops available at the resort. The prices were a little higher than in Playa, but you don't have to spend $35 to get there and the people at all of the stores, (and trust me, Melissa drug me into everyone!) were friendly and alot of fun.

Grounds Impeccably maintained, the small "jungle" greenbelts between the buildings are wonderful and we saw many Iguanas, Geckos, butterflies, birds and squirrels.

Well, hope I haven't been too long winded and this report provided some info for those of you, like us planning their first trip or returning after a few years. We'll definitely be back, probably last week of November, 2007.

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The Barcelo Maya Resort is a real jewel, and we loved every aspect of our stay. Our problem was with TransGlobal Vacations (aka Lomas Travel at the Resort) and with Abby Travel, the agent in Duluth, MN that booked our trip. We were the victims of a bait & switch operation in which we were told before we left that we were 'paid in full,' but then we were charged an additional $10,800 pesos, $900+ USD while staying at the hotel. TransGlobal and Abby Travel refused to rectify the situation. Lastly, TransGlobal bungled our departure transportation to the airport, so we had to pay $50 out of pocket for a last minute taxi. But, like I said, the resort was great!

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Mexico is beautiful! Definetly need 2 weeks! We attended a wedding for my niece. Wow! Took collectivo to Xel-Ha, much cheaper transportation than taxi. Out of the week there we spent 3 days around the resort and still didn't get a chance to do everything that is available. Staff at Barcello were excellent, friendly and very proffessional. The housekeeping staff did wonderful towel oragami; swans, rabbit, fans and more. They work really hard and long hours, and surely deserve to be paid more. The buffet has a great variety of delicious food.I'm a pretty picky eater and never walked away without a plate full of food. We were lucky to see a gecko in the hall of building 2. Very cool. The Iguana's there are like gophers here. Shopping in Playa Del Carmen was fun. The ferry ride to Cozumel was a bit rough, but had a great time snorkeling there. The airport was the only down side of the trip. Long line ups are common there, we think.

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By: N. Sherling from Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Date of Visit: January 2004 (Above date is wrong!)
What I liked:
- Resort and rooms are clean and well maintained. The site is beautiful.
- Food is good quality. The specialty restuarants are not top quality. Spanish is just good. Mexican is OK. Steak House (Captain Morgans) is only so so. But since these are included in the price, they offer a good change from the buffet.
- Staff is excellent. No need to wait for drinks. This resort is heavy drinker’s paradise. Tequila, beer and some hard drinks are in free service at all bars. If you have troubles with the room staff will come in 5-10 min. All staff are most accommodating and supervisors are ready to help whenever asked.
- Well located on Riviera Maya: you can organise your excursions without the expensive tour operators. Go by bus to Playa Del Carmen and hire the tour you want. Go early.
- The tours organised by tour people in the hotel are well run and well carried out. Sure, the price is a bit higher, but you know you will get your moneys worth. Alternate tour days with lazy days and you will enjoy the stay more.
- Prices in shops are very good. Unlike some resorts, you can find good souveniers and take home items at a good price.
- Even with 1200 rooms (upwards of 2000 people around), you can always find a lounge chair on the beach or around a pool.


What I didn’t like:
- Smokers have a field day here. They polute the bars, the lobbies and the theater. Thank heaven they are restricted in the rooms and the eating areas.
- Very noisy resort in some areas: On the central beach the animation is on from 10AM to 4PM. Then you have the theatre from 9PM to 11PM. Finally Capitan Morgan will keep you awake until 3AM. However, if you stay in building 1-2-3 you can avoid the night noise. If you go to the sides of the beaches you can avoid the beach show-offs.
- Grill isn’t a grill but is a mini buffet. That said, there is good quality and the cooks are very obliging.
- House wine taste some sort of unknown chemical. Stick to beer or the mixed drinks or simple bar drinks.

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What I liked:
- Resort and rooms are clean and well maintained. The site is beautifull.
- Food is good quality
- Staff is effective: no need to wait for drinks. This resort is heavy drinker’s paradise. Tequila is in free service at all bars … If you have troubles with the room staff will come in 5-10 min.
- If you are bored between 5PM-10PM go to the bar at the main lobby. Charly (bar man) will amaze you.
- Well located on Riviera Maya: you can organise your excursions without the expensive tour operators


What I didn’t like:
- Very noisy resort: On the beach the animation is on from 10AM to 5PM. Then you have the theatre from 9PM to 11PM. Finally Capitan Morgan will keep you awake until 3AM. However if you stay in building 1-2-3 you can avoid these annoyances.
- Limited choices in food. The buffet is very pasta and pizza oriented. I would have appreciated more meat and fish.
- Grill isn’t a grill but is a mini buffet .
- Excursions are outrageously expensive from the resort. Between 50 and 100$US.
- House wine taste some sort of unknown chemical. Bavaro tends to force its resorts to have the same shit of house wine. This is not the first Bavaro resort where we got this shit. I hate Bavaro for this.

Excursions:
- Very easy to get around from the hotel. Colletivos are running on the main highway every 5 min ! To Playa Carmen the cost is 10 pesos/pers. To Tulum/Xel-Ha the cost is 15 pesos/pers. Cancun cost 40 pesos/pers. Pay the driver when you get off.
- We preferred the Collectivos over the regular bus service because of their speed. Yes, these drivers are running at 120km/h all the time.
- Renting a car is waste of money and time. Collectivos go everywhere.
- If you want to have a guided tour, go to Playa Del Carmen. There are plenty of local agents. We got our tours with Odessy but there are other agencies too.
- For the Chichen-Itza tour we paid 40$US at Odysse, in the hotel the tour was 75$US with less visits !
- Xel-Ha is a beautifull place. Need an entire day to visit. At the Hotel, this tour cost 100$US !!!! We paid 50$US at the entrance. But you can get in for 25$US if you don’t take the all inclusive package. In that case you need to have your own diving staff. HAVE a wet suit!! The water gets cold after 2-3 hours …. Take a lot of bottled water …
- Yal-Kul is another interesting bay to visit at Akumal. Akumal is an average place. You have to walk 15 min to get the the bay. Take some bread for the fish … and bottled water for you.
- Tulum is different from Chichen-Itza. You have to visit both places. Try to get a guided tour at both places. We loved our tours.
- Playa del Carmen is great for shopping, long distance calls and buying tours.

As you see we didn’t spend a lot of time at Barcelo but we have appreciated the resort for its good localisation and service. I recommend this place.


I have seen several resorts in the area and I believe that Bavaro is the one that give you the most for your money.

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We just got back and would go back again in a second. The Barcelo Maya is absolutely wonderful. Beautiful grounds, hospitable staff, great beach, perfect!

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the only thing that was bad is that I couldn't be served alcohol because I wasn't 18. they checked for those yellow wristbands and..obviously i didn't have one.

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I just stayed at the Barcelo Maya from July 10, 2003 to July 14,2003. I have been to the Riviera Maya before, but just for a day from a cruise. This resort is large, but beautifully kept up (workers everywhere, gardeners to maids, cleaning beach and pool at nite). Very friendly staff, adequate size rooms, beautiful pools & clean, and for such a large resort, you wouldn't guess it.

The beach was heavenly, almost a mile of powdery, white, cool sand and clear blue/green water with a tiny bit of snorkeling off the pier. Lush grounds, big theater for entertainment (which was good) every nite.

The only reason I didn't give it a 5 star was that the buffets had some foods that looked like they needed further refrigeration (all buffets were in open air areas) and the a la carte restaurants (I dined at what I heard was the better-the Spanish), was terrible. You only get to dine at 1 a la carte in a 4 nite stay, and I guess 2 in a 7 nite stay (the other a la carte restaurant was Mexican and I heard it was worse than the Spanish, but for the coffee). Don't get me wrong, I gained weight at this resort, the desserts at the buffets were great and some of the fish was very good. But in this HOT climate, some dishes like I saw like sushi, shouldn't be just sitting on top of ice in the open air and people were just using 1 common scooper in running tap water to scoop out the ice cream (there's an ice cream dispenser at 1 beach grill.

Also, stay on the beach side, as Captain Morgan's restaurant turns into a disco after 10PM and it's LOUD!!!. I was 3 buildings away and could hear the music (about 2 blocks away), so stay on the beach side (building 1 & 2) or away from the pools and more facing the gardens for less noise. The garden views are lovely also.

I viewed 2 other Palace resorts while staying (one was the Xpu-Ha, which is just south of the Barcelo, you can see it's roofs from the beach) and the Barcelo was nicer and less money!

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We went to the Barcelo Maya with 39 friends and family for our wedding. The resort was everything we hoped it would be. Beautiful beach, extrememly clean grounds, huge swimming pools, friendly staff, and lots of good food. Our wedding was wonderful. We were married barefoot on the beach under the palms. We had steak and lobster dinner on the beach after the wedding. It was a dream come true. The wedding coordinator, cesar, was very organized and helpful. We highly recommend getting married at the Barcelo Maya. Our guests had a blast! We can't wait to return again some day.

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This is the best grounds layout, for any hotel,that i have ever visited. In association to the beach/pools/restaurants and the most important thing 'THE SWIM-UP BAR',,,,,,, you could not find a better one.

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We found everything TOPNOTCH. Food was good and plentiful. We found that to beat the BUFFET BLUES, we would have a lot of fruit one day and then change it up the next day. This way it doesn't get overly boring. Being able to snorkle out to the reef each day was a bonus. Lots of colourful fish to see all the time. Diving was an excellent experience too. I'm an experienced diver and enjoyed my dive as well as the novices. The Scuba Shop is right there at the resort. (saves on taxis, etc.)Rooms are great and we were never without a place to sit at the beach or around the pool. If you;ve been to other resorts, you know this isn't always the case. All staff was friendly and the entertainment was just O.K. but got better with every drink. We plan to go back this year and take friends. Great beach to walk on too.

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The Barcelo Maya is great! The staff was all very friendly, even went out of the way to greet you. The rooms were clean (no funny smells or anything). Our bathroom was just fine, and the bath robes were a great touch. We would have liked to purchase them as the sign on the hangers suggested. However, we found no one in the gift shops or at the front desk that seemed to know anything about this at all.

The food was pretty good. I have a very sensitive stomach and I did not get sick at all. My husband on the other hand who can eat just about anything did get a little GI blues toward the last few days. The buffets are great (but they do get a bit old after 7 days). The 2 speciality reataurants were good (desserts were great there).

The pools were amazing, never too crowded and always clean. The beach was the same, very clean and rows upon rows of empty chairs so finding one was never a problem. I am glad that our first expierence in Mexico was at the Barcelo Maya because going there makes us want to go back! We took a taxi into town from the hotel and it was only 30usd round trip but there was no stopping for other people, we think it was worth it.

The only real downside to the resort is the walking. It is nice because you don't feel like there are a lot of people around. On the other hand if you are going to relax, you may want to bring your walking shoe and hang up that idea (unless you are going to go to the pool and stay there all day). We were at the far end of bulding 1 and while it was a nice quiet room... the pool and the beach seemed so far away.

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We were supposed to stay at the Copacabana resort, just a few kms away, but got bumped to the Barcelo, because the Copa overbooked.

The grounds at Barcelo are immaculate. This is a very large resort. 2 pools, 2 bars near beach. Beach is beautiful. It goes on forever. We snorkelled from the beach. It is better if you go left of the beach near the point. We saw sting rays and turtles.

We found that the drinks were not very consistent. We liked the banana Mamas. Depending on which bartender you got, sometimes they would put in a banana, and sometimes not!

I never got sick once, however my husband did for a few days. Friends of ours did as well, and think it might be from the water you swim in at Xel-Ha. The food was okay. They did have a good variety, but I started to tire of it by day 7.

They have entertainment everynight, we thought it was all the same, although they do have some fun warm up games with the audience before the show starts. Fridays they have a Michael Jackson impersonator. He was pretty good, if you like MJ.

The two a la carte restaurants are Spanish and Mexican. We really liked the spanish restaurant. The rooms were clean, and come with a bar fridge stocked with beer and pop. The bathtub area did smell a little musty. The hotel can be very noisy because of the openess, and the tiles are noisy as well.

Playa del carmen is a great place to shop. Go to 5th Ave. Unless you want to throw your money away, I would suggest taling the bus on the highway instead of booking tours at the hotel. For example, the hotel with charge you $10US/per person to go to Playa del carmen. If you catch the bus on the highway, it will cost you $1-$2US/per person. The hotel wanted to charge us around $50 each or maybe more, or maybe $79, but taht included lunch. We caught the bus for $1, and paid $25 admission per person. If you go on the weekends its cheaper, $17 or so.

Staff were good, although many could not speak english. Some rooms came with screen doors, shower curtains, and robes. Some didn't. There are two sides to the resort because it is so large. You can either stay on the Garden side, or the Beach side. It doesn't really make any difference.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via email.

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