TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

We stayed at Barceló Maya Beach for a full week with our two kids, and while there were definitely some positives, the overall experience was mixed and at times frustrating. Starting with the positives, the staff were consistently kind, polite, and clearly trying their best. You can tell they are working hard, and when issues were raised, they responded. For example, when we first arrived, our initial room was in poor condition. The shower was clogged and filled with hair in the drain, the nonslip mat was worn and discoloured made which was honestly quite unpleasant I couldn’t imagine staying any longer than needed in the room. To their credit, the staff handled it quickly tried to clean but then the drain was clogged and I wasn’t going to settle for showing in sitting water and moved us to another room without much pushback. However, the bigger issue is that the standard rooms and facilities are very outdated and in clear desperate need of renovation. Even in the second room, we noticed multiple maintenance concerns. Faucets felt loose and coming off the wall, fixtures were worn, and the mirror itself felt unstable. The bathtubs were clearly painted over, and the paint is now peeling off, which gives the impression this should have been replaced several renovations ago rather than patched repeatedly. Fixtures falling off the walls only added to that feeling. Overall, the condition felt tired and neglected and, honestly, being in those rooms felt a bit depressing. It really raises the question of why these issues have not been properly addressed. From what we saw and later confirmed through other guests, there is a noticeable gap between the standard rooms and the premium sections. If you are considering staying here, upgrading is not just a nice to have, it is essential. One area that worked really well, especially with kids, was the daytime food setup. The buffet runs for breakfast, and then the snack bar opens from 10:30 AM to 6:30 PM right by the pool. This was extremely convenient. You do not have to go far for lunch, and it works perfectly for kids who tend to eat smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day. This is one of the strongest aspects of the resort for families. Dinner, on the other hand, was one of the more frustrating parts of the experience. Booking reservations at the à la carte restaurants was very difficult. Unless you are extremely proactive right when you arrive, it is hard to secure spots, especially as a family. When we did manage to book, the experience did not fully justify the effort. Portions were quite small, and there were restrictive ordering rules. At the restaurants, for example, you are only allowed to choose either a soup or an appetizer, not both, which felt unnecessarily limiting. Overall, the food was acceptable but not memorable, and the system made it more frustrating than it needed to be. The beach experience was better than expected given the seaweed situation in the region. The staff clearly put in consistent effort to clean the seaweed daily, which made the beach accessible most of the time. Even on heavier seaweed days, you could still enjoy the beach, and that effort did not go unnoticed. The resort itself is quite large, which can be both a positive and a negative. There are plenty of amenities and space to explore, but it also means a lot of walking, which can be tiring with kids depending on where your room is located. In terms of overall positioning, this resort is best suited for families looking for a convenient and relatively affordable all inclusive experience, rather than a modern or luxury stay. Based on both our experience and what many other guests have echoed, the resort does not currently deliver a consistently high quality experience in its standard offering. In summary, the staff were friendly and tried to be helpful, the daytime food setup is very convenient for families, and the beach remains usable despite seaweed thanks to ongoing cleanup efforts. However, the outdated rooms, maintenance issues, and frustrating dinner experience significantly impacted our stay. If you do choose to stay at Barceló Maya Beach, strongly consider upgrading to the premium section. Without that, you may find the experience falls short of expectations.

i had such a fun time at the beach side of the bar! claudia and eduardo were both super friendly and amazing to talk to.

Chef Hernan, Julio Constantino and Maria Martinez and Manoir Anahi. Excellent wonderful beautiful and excellent service. With yummy food for my brother and my sister birthday. Definitely recommend that Restaurant and we will come next year again to celebrate. Rancho Grando, gorgeous restaurant view by beach and very good food. Thank you for wonderful service.

We came back to Barcelo Maya for our second time and overall really enjoyed the trip, although it wasn’t as great as the first. We stayed at the Beach resort (Palace for the first) and the amenities weren’t nearly comparable. We had four dinner reservations included with our trip but were only able to book two (during an 8-day stay) because reservations were so full. Out of the entire stay, that was really the only downside. The food at all the buffets were generally good, we booked spa treatments and the ladies really enjoyed that, the pools and beach were always immaculate, we went to a couple of shows at the Kukulkan Theater and the kids had a blast, enjoyed the small water park for half of a day, the staff is always friendly and accommodating. We highly recommend booking a trip here but have a couple of tips to make the most of it - [1] spend a little extra and stay at the Palace, [2] have someone in your group wake up early and put towels on pool chairs (otherwise you’ll be stuck wandering the pools looking for somewhere to park), [3] go to Guest Services as soon as possible to book dinner reservations before they fill up, and lastly [4] bring plenty of sunscreen and aloe vera for recovery - even if you think you have a good base, the sun is hot down here and bites hard.

This was an extremely disappointing experience from start to finish. The food was shockingly poor—bland, low quality, and often not even worth eating, which is unacceptable for an all-inclusive. The pool area was just as frustrating. There were no umbrellas, very little shade, and no poolside service, making it uncomfortable to spend any real time there. Guests are forced to wake up around 6 a.m. just to reserve a chair, or risk not getting one at all. The atmosphere didn’t help—the music felt outdated and out of place, with loud, early-2000s club tracks and constant microphone interruptions that completely disrupted any chance of a relaxing, resort-style vibe. Instead of a calm, tropical setting, it felt chaotic and cheap. Even basic expectations like having food available poolside were missing. Overall, the property felt uninviting and dated, with rooms that seem stuck in the 1990s. There was nothing about this stay that I genuinely enjoyed—I was counting down the days until departure. Save your money and book somewhere with real quality and service, like a Rosewood or Auberge property. This experience fell far below expectations, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.