TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

This place is not a vacation— if you like to be stressed, annoyed, hungry, and crowded then this is the place. There are absolutely no chairs available at the pool, unless you wake up at 6:30 am to get them and stay in them all day. The food is very bad- not acceptable. The buffets are picked over and all the food is bland and cold, the restaurants make you pay for wine or upgrades to get in and get a decent table that is cleaned and with your full party, no lunch options that are not jam packed with long lines. If you ask the concierge or front desk for help with better food options, you are met with attitude without fail each time. None of the pools are heated in January- making them freezing and unswimable . The beach was crowded and felt like a public beach. There is no drink service on beach or pool and when you do wait in line for a drink there are no straws. For your money you could go to much better places with warmer pools, better food, and much better service. Steer clear! I have been to Mexico many times and this will rate one of my worst experiences.

Buyer beware! This resort overpromises and under-delivers. We came here with our children because we have been to another iberostar resort in the Dominic Republic. The service and food quality at iberostar paraíso lindo was terrible. Our concierge could not get us into the over reservation only restaurants at the resort. He told us he could get us into the reservation only Italian restaurant (Olivetti) so we accepted. Come to find out it was the same buffet restaurant we were eating at but in the evenings it would offer pasta. The pasta and pizza at Olivetti was terrible. The food lacked flavor and came out cold. There was a Greek restaurant called lemon and spices. The food here was terrible also. The food came out cold and lacked flavor. The shrimp was undercooked. The appetizers are served buffet style. Our dinner was a 630 and they opened at 530. All the appetizers were gone when we had our dinner. I reached out to my concierge about my dissatisfaction and he offered no help. I asked to speak to a manager. He gave me Karina and Sergio. They also were unable to help improve our stay. The front desk staff was no help when I asked for assistance with organizing my departure to the airport. To top it off, my children husband and I all had food poisoning after eating at La pagoda buffet. Steer clear of this resort! It is way overpriced for the poor quality of food that is served.

We had an absolutely wonderful stay at this hotel! The staff truly went above and beyond. Daphne, the waitress who served drinks by the beach, was incredibly friendly and attentive. Marissa, the housekeeper, kept our room spotless and always had a cheerful attitude. Every member of the team was always smiling and provided exceptional service. The food was outstanding, and I truly have no complaints. I highly recommend this hotel for anyone looking for a delightful experience.

Terrible experience. Stay away. Hotel is not customer service oriented. We were a group of 34 ppl and they are so rigid about everything. Impossible to get reservations at the a la carte restaurants. Food was not good at all, rooms are dated, AC doesn't work just blows cold damp air so everyhing is damp in room including the bedding. Many people in the group got sick. Avoid Iberostar, much better options for same price.

We stayed at Iberostar Paraiso Lindo between Nov. 11-21, 2025 for our destination wedding with 49 other guests. Fernanda Manterola was our wedding coordinator. She was absolutely amazing to deal with, and such a lovely person. Her team really made our special day truly wonderful. I will note that even though we booked just outside of the rainy season, likely because of the after-effects of the nearby Hurricane Melissa (which didn’t hit the Cancun area, but obviously affected weather patterns), we got some drizzle on our wedding day. This was obviously not the fault of Iberostar, and rather I give high praise to Fernanda and her team for preparing so well. We met the day before to discuss the risks of rain, and she informed us that for the reception in the shopping plaza, she could move the food to an area that would be sheltered, and the DJ under the gazebo to also be sheltered. This worked out better for us in a way, as we loved the orientation of our sweetheart table on the side in front of the chapel. For the ceremony/cocktail in the garden they had coir matting down for us to walk on since the grass would be wet. They offered to hold umbrellas over us, but we declined, but the thought was nice. We started the cocktail hour in the convention center but were able to move outside when the rain passed (it was on and off most of the evening). Fernanda’s team did such a good job and were so easy to work with that even a bit of rain didn’t dampen our spirits. The wedding day was a blast and we’ll have those amazing memories forever. Our guests praised the food at our reception, as well as the buffet food for the week they were there. The themed nights were even well done, where I’ve been to other resorts that did it poorly; and they would still have an area for Mexican food, despite the theme of the night. They had a vast offering of drinks, and nothing ever felt really “watered down”. All the servers were friendly and helpful. The resort itself was beautiful and picturesque. We chose this place because of the options outside of beach or restaurant venues they offered for the ceremony and reception. We chose the shopping plaza square for the reception, and garden for the ceremony and cocktail, and both were stunning. The sand at the beach was very soft, and the water was generally shallow, so you could walk out quite far. I can’t swim, but I do like being in the ocean a bit, so being able to go out 60-70ft and be only shoulder deep is nice for me. It was fairly clean, but they might have some sargassum after a stormy evening. They have someone on the resort with a trained falcon to disperse the grackles and coatis from bothering people on the beach. Pretty neat. The wildlife is fantastic. Peacocks, coatis, agoutis, two friendly spider monkeys (the baby climbed on our photographer friend), macaws, orioles, and flamingoes! In fact the one thing I didn’t see were racoons. The spa was also a high point of the trip. We were given a complimentary couples massage as part of our package, and with that we got access to the “wet area” of the spa. Amazing! OMG, I am a spa convert. We started with the massage which was great, I was so relaxed after that. We went and grabbed a healthy drink from their juice bar, delicious. Then we went to the wet area. Warm pools with jets, a cold plunge, and a sauna and steam room. We did them all, and mixing in the cold plunge is so rejuvenating. My skin felt so soft, and my muscles were so relaxed (including a very stiff shoulder from sleeping in a bad position after having a LOT of shots on the wedding night…). The location is great as it’s only 30mins from the airport, just outside of Playa del Carmen and about a 15-20min taxi drive from Puerto Morelos, which we went for lunch at Punta Corcho one day (highly recommend). My one warning: the timeshare sales people, but this is common at a lot of places. Just ignore them and stay strong if you don’t want to go to their information session. Don’t let it ruin an otherwise wonderful trip. We will certainly return for an anniversary trip one day. We are even trying to convince some of the family to come back one year for Christmas. We loved our trip!