TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

This place is outdated, no food variety, cannot get into the restaurants, poor management, inattentive staff throughout, water down liquor, no top shelf liquor...etc not recommended. This place has a buffet that offers no variety of the food at all. Every day the same menu.

We stayed at the Catalonia Yucatan Beach Dec 28-Jan 5, 2025. I will give an honest review as someone who has traveled all over the Caribbean. We traveled as a couple and booked the Yucatan side. They Catalonia is located in Puerto Aventuras which is a gated community. It is very secure. The marina with shops and restaurants is a mere 5 minute walk from the hotel. We went into town twice and had a meal and browsed the shops. Arrival: We arrived early in the morning around 8 am. We were warmly greeted with a smile and a cold drink. Our room was not yet available as check in is at 3pm, but they gave us our bracelets and towel cards. We were prepared for not having a room due to our flight times and hung out at the pool while we waited. The front desk was very kind and we got into our room at 1pm. Guests on the Yucatan side can use all the facilities of the Maya side except: Las Brisas buffet, and the Japanese restaurant. Room: We had room 1147 on the ground floor. We had a comfortable king size bed, shower and patio. Everything was clean and in good repair. I have zero complaints about the room. Our maid treated us fantastic. Our room was spotless every day and she kept us well supplied with water. Guests on the Yucatan side only get water in their fridge, which is really no big deal. The room had shampoo, soap and body wash. We had a view of the pool from our patio. Food: Don't believe the complainers. The food was very good at this hotel and plentiful. We ate most meals at the El Mercado buffet, but we also ate at the snack bar by the pool on the Maya side. There was always a variety of salads, fresh fruits, vegetables, pasta, chicken, beef, pork and fish, as well as soup, eggs, bacon... the list was endless. I am pescatarian and never had a bad meal all week. My husband was also very satisfied with the meals. The service in the buffet and snack bar was excellent and we ate at different times each day. I also had ice cream and crepes from the crepe stand on the Yucatan side. Yum! A La Cartes: Unfortunately, this is one negative about this resort. Guests of the Yucatan side are only allowed to eat at two A La Cartes: Alebrijes(Mexican) and Toscana(italian). You make reservations by either going on the hotel website at 8am or you can see the concierge on the Maya side. However, the restaurants books up within minutes of opening. We ate at the italian once. The food was good, but honestly, the buffet had more options. We could not get into the Mexican. I think that a better system might be for the hotel to allow you to choose two nights at the a la cartes for a one week stay and book them when you arrive. Drinks: were plentiful and delicious. They have everything and you should not be disappointed. The hotel was full, but we never waited more than five minutes in any line. Activities: All the music and entertainment is done on the Maya side of the resort. Then entertainment team is fantastic. Arturo, we loved your energy! The team kept the guests entertained with beach volleyball, acqua gym, acqu basketball, beach yoga, and many other things. They also participated in the nightly entertainment which was also very good. We loved the rock show. The night club at the resort was fun. It reminded me of the clubs in the 80s. We also went to the sports bar. These two bars are open the latest. No bar is open after 1am. Beach and Ocean: The cove is excellent for swimming and great for snorkeling. We saw so many colorful fish as there is a reef in the middle of the cove. They have the reef cordoned off to prevent guests from damaging it, but you can swim around the edge of it and the fish are all over the place. The water is no deeper than neck deep anywhere in the cove and the breakers keep the water relatively calm. I swam in it every day. Bring water shoes though, as it is rocky going in and out. Staff: What can I say except, Excellent job all of you! Right from the security guys at the front, the front desk, the restaurant staff, our maid, the entertainment team, the bartenders. All of these people work so hard and yet they always have a smile and are so friendly. Shout out to Arturo of the entertainment team. His enthusiasm and energy made my day and it is obvious that he loves what he does! Also, special shout out to the ladies and gentlemen in El Mercado who made us excellent cappucinos every morning! Negatives: They need a different system for booking the a la cartes. My suggestion is to give guests 2 reservations for each week stay and to have the concierge book it for guests on their first day at the resort. That way everyone does not have to suffer the frustration of the online booking system. My second negative was the New Years Eve Party. At EVERY other resort I have ever stayed at, New Years was always included. At this hotel they charged an exhorbitant $149 - $179 U.S. PER PERSON to have a seat at a table around the pool. I realize they had to hire a DJ, but they way overcharged for this function. You also had to pay the same price whether you wanted champagne or not. I think a fair price would have been $50 per person. Overall we had a fantastic vacation and will return to this hotel!

We decided to do a holiday Christmas this year for the 1st time and choose Mexico as likely to get sunshine in December. Sun every day, only rained on transfer to airport on the way home. The hotel was very good overall. Yes, rooms were dated, and when using aircon, it smelt of damp and mould. (As was the sports bar air con) we just turned it off and spent little time in the room so problem solved. We are up early, good job as beds get reserved from just before 7am. We never went without. There are some spare beds behind the beach bar if needed. Beach rocky, but there is a sandy stretch on the right-hand side to bypass this. Despite best efforts, we were unable to use the restaurants, not for lack of trying the app. It was disappointing as we were celebrating a 28th and 50th birthday. However, the buffets and snack bar, crep station, and hotdogs stand were really good. Special buffet on Christmas Eve, which was lovely. If you want a coffee before 11am, the buffet provides you in a reusable cup. You will not go hungry here. The drink were good, not watered down and all staff were great. Rooms cleaned every day, buffet staff professional and friendly, bar staff great fun and the entertainment team were very good. The hotel was smaller than expected but added to the charm. Located well in a short walk into the gated community with shops, bars, and restaurants. Everyone is friendly and helpful. Big Christmas celebrations which was really nice.

I’m so disheartened by this experience I am writing this review sitting at the pool. This is not a 4 star resort. I had read it was dated but didn’t expect it to be this dated. The room: it’s a good size with a nice balcony overlooking the pool and a very comfortable bed, but if you overdo the drink or sun and need to spend some time in the room be prepared to be bored-the TV is sporadic at best so you’ll be staring at the walls. The bathroom fixtures appear to have never been updated to a point where the finish has worn off of them so they look permanently stained. The sink tap sprays everywhere , the tub shower mechanism didn’t stay up and both the sink and tub drains back up. The drinks taste like chemicals, beer is the safest choice but they only serve draft beer. They do not serve alcohol before 11 am. The food isn’t great and the staff constantly has to be told when something as simple as syrup runs out, it’s Impossible to get a reservation at any restaurant that isn’t the buffet. Last night a cockroach crawled across our table while eating at the buffet-needless to say we lost our appetites. We were invited to a virtual concierge by Sunwing our first full day there, we logged onto with a few other couples and no Sunwing concierge ever joined so we were left to figure things out on our own. I tried multiple calls and chats through the Sunwing app and never spoke to anyone. It felt like once we landed in Mexico, Sunwing customer service disappeared. I will never fly Sunwing or book a Catalonia property again.

Disappointing to say the least, rooms outdated and bare bones. No room service and only water supplied in rooms. The app to the restaurant always glitched, was only able to book once during our 7 days, so got very familiar and bored of the one buffet we had access too. Cockroach walked across our table in the buffet restaurant. The servers were more occupied with setting up tables than attending to the ones that had guests sitting at it, aka hard to get a drink. The drinks were made out of cheap tasting mixes, have never been to a resort that didn’t have good pina colodas! The 2 pools were small, especially for a resort of this size, often difficult to find seating especially if you didn’t set your alarm for 7:00am. Food truck was a joke, skinniest hotdog I ever seen and used a heater to warm them (no grill). Shocked beyond belief that this resort holds a 4 star rating….a 2.5 at the most. I give it that reluctantly but the grounds are kept well and the bed was comfortable.