Iberostar Selection Paraiso Maya

We returned home after a week at the Maya. WOW! How fast a week can fly. Upon arriving we were greeted with smiles, smiles, smiles. At each and every turn the staff went above and beyond to make everything as perfect as possible. We booked a Superior Jr. Suite. We were in building 65,our concierge was ANTONIO, he took excellent care of our family during our stay, allways worried about how was everything going during our stay, THANK YOU SO MUCH ANTONIO for making our trip even better than last year. The main pool complex is barely a 2 minute walk from where we stayed. This also meant the buffet was the same distance from us. Many have complained about the flies ect...perhaps it is time of year..we saw maybe 5 flies, anywhere, all week. The buffet at the Lindo that has been highly praised was okay. The food was the same at all the buffets. The only difference was that the Lindo and the one in the Italian restaurant (Maya) were indoors. The big plus to them is in case of weather. If we have a complaint it would be during the rain the roof leaks at the buffet by the pool. The only thing the buffets lacked for us was enough cooked vegatables we could eat. However, one noon meal a combo. of squash and califlower was served. Being allergic to califlower I asked if it was possible to get a serving of squash that had been cooked alone. I was asked where I was seated and given a smile. Not 12 mins later a steaming bowl of freshly prepared squash was delived to our table. It was done to perfection, and with a smile. Meals in the evening: The French was terrific. Remember it is a gourmet restaurant. The emphasis is on presentation, flavor and service.....not serving size. The steakhouse was by far our favorite. The meat was tender and done precisely as we ordered. The Mexican was okay...just average for us. We did not eat at the Japanese but every single person we talked to who had..loved it. It apparently is done "Benihana" style. Bars: the best far and away..lobby bar in the Maya. Rigo (rree-go) is the best. He will ask your name and never forget it..or what you drink the remainder of your stay. The liquor is top shelf at this bar. Including but not limited to the scotch, gin, vodka, tequlia and rum. At the Lindo lobby bar they had some decent liquors...but not nearly the top shelf line of the Maya. However..visit the Lindo lobby bar...EXCELLENT salt water aquarium there..includes an eel, stone-fish many, many types of coral and other tropical fish. Many reviewers have complained of weak drinks made at the pools and beach. I fully believe the main reason for this is alcohol and water don't mix well and it is a way of controlling a dangerous combination. Anyway, if you order a drink and it is too weak..all you have to do is ask for more rum or whatever and they will pour it. While we we there there was rain several times I want to caution you the floors in this hotel are so beautiful but they are dangerously slippery when wet. Most floors have some degree of inlaid marble. Speaking of rain leads me to the "star friends" if you have children 4-11(I think thats the age) they will spend a lot of time with these energetic, spirited, wonderful group of people. They do a show each evening at the Lindo but are at the pool each afternoon. If you are bored at this hotel..then you must be hiding in your room alone. There is always some activity going on. I wish I had the room to explain the "Ibercell Bunny"...take my word for it, he is hilarious and I was far from the only one laughing. Beach: we had one really calm day and the rest were pretty stormy off and on. The beach has many huge rocks. On the calm days they are easily seen and avoided. On the rough days they are barely maore than a shadow in the water. The undertow was quite strong during our time there. water shoes are an absolute must. The have kayaks, windsurfers and hobiecats to use. We never had a chance to go out sailing though. The wind was more than they were willing to take a chance on. The water itself was aquamarine and gorgeous. We enjoyed meeting the people from England, Norway, Canada and Germany as well as other Americans. Also of note, lots of kids there...but not once did we see, hear or experience one being rude or disrespectful to parents..or staff. So many things I wanted to be sure and say here and I'm sure I've forgotten half. We can't imagine how anyone could have a bad time at this resort!

We have just spent 7 beautiful nights at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya all inclusive resort for our honeymoon. From the moment we arrived we were made to feel so welcome, relaxed and felt like home for the next week. There is so much to do, and if you wanted to relax, the pools and beach have so many different areas for you to find your own spot and chill out. The staff are amazing, everyone greets you with a warm smile and they go out of their way to help. Special mention to our concierge Charley, Arturo at the Jambalayan and Israel at the El Tapatio restaurant who made our visit extra special. Be sure to book all your restaurants on the day you check in, the app is also great to do this and has plenty of information about what’s on and the activities available. The concierge in the lobby will be able to help book tours and day trips to Chichen Itza, Tulum, etc. We were recommended this resort from some great family friends of ours and were thrilled now to be able to recommend it ourselves. We would love to come back one day!

I'll start off by saying that what I've learned from reading reviews is that anyone who uses the words "terrible" or "horrible" are most of the time exaggerating, so I wouldn't take those reviews very seriously. I can't believe someone complains about the water at the pool being too cold. Why on earth would you want warm water when you are trying to cool down? Anyway, I got upgraded to Maya which gave me access to Lindo and Beach. I found myself going to the Marina restaurant the most. As most all inclusive, the buffets are not great but not bad either. The meat quality was top notch though at both buffet and a la carte places. My only complain, and this has been the case with all inclusive hotels, is that the beer is weak. Almost tastes like coors light with extra water. It was impossible to get a buzz from them. For someone like me who only drinks beers, I missed craft beer from Canada so much. The highlight of my trip was Star Camp. My kids loved it. Where I had thought I'd be having to convince my kids to go to this kid's club sometime so I could get time with my wife, it turned out to be all the way around, I ended up asking my kids to make some time for us. They could not get enough of this place. Even when we spent an entire day at Xelha and wife and i were tired, they went to the camp as soon as we got back to the hotel. Start Camp opens early and closes late and they have a number of activities. My kids even performed on the stage with them. I can't praise the girls who work there enough. You can tell they love what they do, so you get the best care and attention to your kids. It's because of Star Camp that I will likely come back next time to this hotel.

We’ve been at the Iberostar maya twice now and each stay is amazing. Lots of things to do and beautiful complex. Uribe at the concierge desk was great and helped us with anything that we needed. Will definitely be back again!

We were on the fence to book the Luxury Grand Bahia Principe Akumal or Iberostar Selection Paraiso Maya as they were approximately the same price and we had stayed at the Luxury Grand Bahia Principe Akumal before. We stayed April 2019 We travelled with myself, my husband and 2 children in one room and my mother in law in another room As soon as we arrived we knew we had made a mistake. We were told before we had arrived that we would be able to updgrade our room if we so chose at time of check in. We had asked about this as they had stated that our room had 2 double beds and a pull out couch. We knew from the start that we wanted to upgrade as we are on vacation and did not want to spend a whole week sleeping together in a double bed. Well the upgrade did not happen as they did not have a single room that had 1 king bed and 2 sleeping accomodations for our teenaged children. When we were escorted to our room we realized that the "pull out sofa" was not a bed it was just a sofa. So immediately we got on the phone. We paid quite a large amount of money to stay there and were not going to have our son or daughter have to sleep on a couch for a week. They brought us a cot. The cot stayed assembled in the room the whole time that left no where to be able to comfortably relax in our room. We just thought to think positive. We arrived at supper time so we decided to head to the buffet for the first night as we had pre-booked our dinner reservations. I had read good reviews about the food. We were disappointed. Everything was over done. Really there was not one thing that tasted good. We have stayed at 5* all inclusive resorts before and the food is usually over the top. Even the a la cartes were not appealing. The swim up bar at the pool looked as though it would be inviting with the waterfall behind again another disappointment. It was so loud we could barely hear ourselves speak and we were directly beside each other. Our building 63 had a private pool and was adjacent to the lazy river. The private pool was one of the positive things that we enjoyed about the resort until the group of 60 wedding patrons arrived and were staying in that building as well. Well the private pool at that point was not private. I even think at one point there were more people at that pool than the public shared pool. A new system should be put into place. a party of that size should either have the whole building or have them stay somewhere that is a little more public as to not disturb other guests. The shows were OK but the night life was terrible. There was little to no entertainment. The lobby bar was empty most of the time and seemed as though there was no where else to really go except the disco if you were into that kind of stuff which we were not. The beach again was not at all what we expected. I understand about the seaweed but the whole ambiance was nothing that we had experienced before. I would say at best this resort is a 3* The service was decent but that's about it. I have stayed at 3 *'s that are a substantial amount cheaper that were the same caliber as this resort. We will not be back.