TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Overall, I would not recommend this hotel unless you get an absolute steal, you love animals, are a heavy sleeper, don't mind lines, don't care about service, and you love the shade. If you like good food, a good nights rest, good service, a clean pool, basking in the sun, look elsewhere. This is nowhere near a true 5 star experience. Also, if you have accessibility needs this is probably not the property for you. About the property: This is actually two hotels in one. Iberostar Quetzal and Iberostar Tucan; they share the beach, restaurants, amenities, but have two separate lobbies. It's kind of like a U shape with a lobby on either end and some restaurants throughout the U but there's no shortcut in between the lobbies. There are so many animals at this resort. There is a little 'jungle' like area that you can walk through to get to the pool/beach. The resort is full of howler monkeys, peacocks, flamingos...a bunch of different animals. You can take the long way around to the pool/beach if you don't want to pass through this. THE ROOM & CHECK-IN: - The wristbands are a soft material & they have an RFID tag on them which acts as your room key, super convenient - Nobody offered to bring our bags to our room. They took our bags from us while we went to check-in and then they gave us our bags once we checked-in. No offer to help. Because of this, I thought it must be easy to get to the room, but it was not. - There is no elevator and there are little steps everywhere from the lobby, to the rooms. Even if you're on the first floor there are going to be little steps and bumps to go over. - Our first room was near the lobby, facing the path on the perimeter of the resort, it was so loud from the street, it smelled like trash, and restaurant oils. They later moved us to a room facing the inside of the resort, smelled better but was really loud from the lobby. One day when it was humid with no wind the room smelled so badly of cigarettes because of the smokers bench that was nearby. Wasn't a problem the other days. - The forest view rooms often had peacocks on their balcony's and it's quite dark from the shade of the trees. BEACH/POOL AREA: - The main pool was dirty the entire week we were here. All day they had cleaning tubes in the pool and yet all day it was dirty. (people were still swimming having a good time but you can see the grime in the pool) - There is too much shade in this resort. If you like being in the sun, this isn't for you. It's hard to find a nice spot to lay or sit in the sunshine. - The pool bar had a line all the time and while there were two bartenders behind the bar, often times only one of them would be serving people. - There is no quiet pool area. The one pool that could be quiet. the entertainers organizer basketball and are louder than the actual kids playing. - Every single day at 11am they start leaf blowing (with a gas leaf blower) around the pool area........it's so loud and smelly. I don't understand why this has to happen at 11am, peak lounging time. They do the same at the beach with gas machines. - There is a 'no reservation' policy for the loungers but people do it anyway. That being said, I did see a few times on the beach where the staff picked up peoples towels/belongings if they were gone for an extended period of time. I wish they did this more often and across the pool area as well. I know everyone wants a lounger but it wouldn't be a problem finding one if people didn't reserve. SERVICE: - Every single bar constantly had a wait, even if there's no line it would take a minute to get acknowledged. - The services overall was poor. It takes time to get acknowledged even if the staff aren't busy with anything else. - They will not serve you even if you're there 2 minutes before opening and they're just standing around waiting to start their shift. DRINKS: - Drinks themselves were solid but it was weird, I ordered things off the menu exactly as they appeared in the menu and the bartenders would be confused as to what I'm ordering. - They had servers very rarely making rounds to the beach/pool offering drinks. Either do it consistently or don't do it at all. - Coffee was okay, nothing special. If you're picky and love a good espresso you'll hate it. If you like a good milk and sugar you might like it. FOOD: - There are two buffets (one for each hotel) but only one is open for dinner leading to a massive line up for entry of more than 40 people. Then for lunch only the other buffet is open. They swap for each meal but for each meal there is a line up. They should have both buffets open to prevent this from happening. - The slow service also leads to the line up; often there are empty tables but they haven't gotten around to placing new cutlery - Salt and Pepper have to be requested - We only ate at one of the a la carte restaurants; the Mediterranean. It was not good. The Italian we did not try but it had a massive line every day starting well before the restaurant even opens. I can't see how it would be worth the wait. - Food overall was ok. It wasn't what I'm used to as the Mexico quality, it was more reminiscent of Cuba. - They tried to have different cultural themes each day which was interesting but mostly it was a miss. Their Mexican food was actually quite good and they should do more of that. - They made getting tacos really awkward because you'd have to wait for the chef to put your meat on a tortilla.....you could access the meat and the toppings but the chef would need to get you a tortilla.....just put the tortillas out for people to access lol. - Egg stations at breakfast had poor service. They would be making sunny side eggs but they had everything there to build an omelette (ham, mushrooms, onions, etc.) but 1) they wouldn't really acknowledge you and 2) they just offered a sunny side egg. - The tongs needs to be changed. The amount of children (also some adults) I saw struggling with the tongs is insane. They're actually quite difficult to use and I hope the hotel updates them. GENERAL: - The resort felt overcrowded. - Bring ear plugs if you're a light sleeper. The peacocks scream and the staff is inconsiderate. At around 4 am each day they would start rearranging the lobby furniture by dragging chairs across the floor. This would last about an hour. - There is no nice seating area in the sun or semi-shade. Everything is in complete shade. The nicest spot to sit is probably at the beach restaurant or the smokers area benches. - Balcony light is controlled by the resort, you can't turn it off. - The staff seem to do work at really weird hours. They were oiling the wood around the main pedestrian bridge during the busiest time of the day, right as everyone was heading to dinner. This could have been done at literally any other time.  - The waves are really strong on this segment of the beach but if you walk further down towards other resorts the water is calmer. NIGHT ACTIVITIES: - They play bingo at night at the lobby which is SO LOUD and annoying. If there was somewhere else to sit, fine, but there isn't. - They did dance lessons in the lobby one night which was cute but there's this massive decorative glass table in the way of where they're hosting these lessons. They should just get rid of the table it's really awkward positioning. - The stage for the shows, seating is not comfy and there are so many pillars in the way of a good view. I didn't stay for a single show so can't comment. MUSIC: - I don't know why they don't play more spanish music. Barely any spanish music. - Weird LoFi elevator music plays throughout the resort. - At 11 am the pool side entertainment starts and they play music but they don't turn off the LoFi elevator music so you can still hear it. They have different overlapping music playing in different areas of the resort.

Great Hotel, wonderful jungle. A lot of cute animals. Fast check in. Service great. Animation great. We had a lot of fun ( thx Israel ) :) Food great-good quality. Sometimes if the buffet restaurant is full ( rush hour ) there could be more employees. They are all friendly and make a really good job. The room was always clean, they make a great job too. There are theme restaurants, but you can just make a reservation for the Japanese. There are just two negative points: 1. The food in the buffet restaurants Tulum and Cozumel, in the uxumal and in the snack bar could be more warm ( cold burger, cold meat, cold pizza, cold fried and scrambled eggs ) 2. If you want to have dinner in a theme restaurant - you have to be relaxed with a lot of time ( would be better if you can make a reservation for all the theme restaurants ) Nothing else negative.

Pros: - Beautifully maintained jungle atmosphere in the center of the resort. Lots of animals (wild and captive). - Resort cats are spayed & neutered and have dedicated cat cottages (loved that)! - Beautiful beach, no rocks, very little seaweed. - Excellent massages (you could choose locations on the beach, at the spae or in the jungle). - quick check in. - 10 min taxi from Playa Del Carmen. - Beach food was 10/10. Cons: - we had to change rooms because our first room was right beside dumpster, woke us up at 6am. - very basic amenities (shops, bars, gym etc). - safe didn't work. - lost electricity several times in our room. - we were there for our honeymoon (and have visited several different Iberostar resorts) and did not recieve any special recognition. - despite it being an all inclusive, some drinks and meals were chargeable. - one pool bar on entire resort and it was mostly shaded throughout the day, and the pool was always cold. - only one main pool.... and because this was a family resort, we found there were a lot of kids and the pool and surrounding areas were kind of dirty. - limited cocktail options. - staff was friendly, but unreliable. - buffets were quite basic, and food options did not change often. - a la Carte restaurants were good, but did not require reservations, so there were always long lines for the popular ones. - appearance of hotel was quite aged. Like I said, we've enjoyed Iberostar resorts in the past, and unfortunately, this one did not live up to their high standards, which was disappointing. However, would say this would be a good choice for youn families. Much preferred the Iberostar Paraiso Beach in Maya Riviera.

Can’t say enough great things about this resort! Beautiful and lush grounds! Amazing wildlife with peacocks, flamingos, turtles, monkeys, lizards! Food was great on buffet! Only needed a reservation for Japanese and only had a wait for Italian! Upon checkin Frank was very attentive to our needs and really helped us out throughout the week! We did the Iberostar presentation and were able to upgrade to a room with beach view for only $40. The beach was BEAUTIFUL! Amazing water color and no seafood! The pool was great too! The rooms are a little dated but we were only there to sleep. No room service or beach/pool side bar service. There was often a wait to grab a drink by the pool /beach bar but it didn’t bother us. Have been to many resorts and can tell you the food and service at Iberostar is what keeps us coming back to them!!! Would recommend! Wonderful and relaxing vacation!!

This was our second time at this resort in the past 3 years. Our first trip was shortened due to a flight cancellation so we wanted to have our full vacation. We have stayed at 5 Iberostar's in the past and many others in over 30 years of vacationing. We liked this location as it is a small resort so easy walk to anywhere. My wife and I walked from the beach to the lobby and back in 15min, It has beautiful jungle type grounds with lots of wildlife (including monkeys) and a nice beach. We also are divers and highly regard Dressel Divers, who serves Iberostar properties. My previous review of this properties has many details so I will hit the highlights and differences from the prior visit. Iberostar is now part of the Hilton group so our loyalty program is no more. This also may have brought about a change that now the specialty restaurants no longer require reservations (except the Japanese). This turned out to be nice because you are not limited to how many restaurants you can hit. Getting a table was easy, except the Italian. You had to get there at opening or have a long wait. (Not sure why as others were just as good) The Japanese was only so-so. It is the type where they cook in front of you as many resorts do. Maybe we have done this type so many years it is not special anymore. We also found the buffets to have improved. You do get a lot of the same food each day, but there are also specialty items that change each day which were really good. We only at dinner there once as he hit all the restaurants. Also each day there was something cooked on the beach. The snack bar was not as good as in the past. Mainly just hot dogs, hamburgers and french fries. There was fruit as well. Lines at the two beach bars could get long as it served the beach and the pool. The pool bar was a separate pool and did not get too busy. We were there for spring break and the one annoyance that was the same as last visit is people putting towels or items on chairs all day. (and sometimes not using them) We were at the beach for sunrise and people started then. If you did not put towels or something on chairs by 8AM you were out of luck. Since we were diving most mornings that left us hunting for chairs and hoping to get lucky. There were signs saying not to do this but that did not stop it. There just seems to be a shortage of places to sit during peak travel weeks. We had not experienced it this bad at the other locations. The beach was always being cleaned each morning and you could walk for miles each way. The activity staff was usually around getting things going, but timing was not always consistent if you wanted to join a specific activity. There always seemed to be beach volleyball going on if you like that sport. For diving, the one issue for the mainland side is ocean conditions. Half the week the harbor closed due to rough conditions so no boats could come out. This also meant no watersports. If diving is you primary reason to travel then stay at Cozumel. All the staff was very friendly and polite. Service was great. We are not late night people but things seemed to be quiet at night. We did a beach fire show that was busy but very good Like. The main shows did not seem to get very crowded, but we were done for the night by 9 or 10. The AC in the room worked very well. It has been hit or miss at resorts in the past but seemed to be upgraded. Rooms are simple, but we are only there to shower and sleep. We would recommend Quetzal as a resort on the mainland side unless you want someplace large. Iberostar has a larger resort in the area as well as well as other options.