TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

This vacation was great for the cost! I loved where the resort was located, it was great that you can use facilities at any of the other resorts as well! The maya mall was great! Only things I could suggest is maybe a bit more variety at the beach buffet, and more lounge chairs at the pool as people would be up at 6-7am claiming them!

My wife and I travelled to Barcelo in Feb 2026 with our three teenaged children and my in-laws. Overall the resort was nice and there was a lot for everyone to do but there were some disappointments. We had booked rooms in the Caribe resort because my MIL has mobility issues and we wanted to be close to the mall. After being dropped off at Caribe by the airport shuttle the concierge directed us to the Beach resort which is about 200 meters away. Not a huge walk but unnecessary for the member of our party who had trouble walking. We had Premium rooms so the concierge at the Beach directed us to the Premium lounge to check in, which was great as the regular line was quite long. As part of the check-in they had made reservations for us to eat at 5 à la carte restaurants, however they were different times and locations for my family and my in-laws, and were at restaurants we didn’t really want. We went back to change them which took quite a bit of time and unfortunately most of the restaurants we wanted were unavailable in the week we were there. We ended up getting reservations for only 3 restaurants (Italian, Tokyo, and Mexican). The food at the à la carte restaurants was good. It would have been far better if we had access to more of them. The resort feels geared towards buffets as the à la carte places are small which means it is tough to get a reservation. The buffets were not good. There was a lot of different food options but we struggled to find much that tasted good and probably more importantly the food was almost universally cold, which is both unsafe and not an ideal way to eat a meal. The pool areas are very nice, you need to get out early (before 8) to reserve a chair in spite of the signs warning against saving chairs. The beach is terrible. The sand is shallow over a rock or concrete base. Playing beach volleyball seems like a dangerous thing in this environment. The kids went into the water and found it rough, lots of rocks and coral. They were thankful they brought their beach shoes. The dolphin enclosure has been abandoned. Not sure when it had closed. The strength of this resort is the variety of activities we could do. The kids (13,15&18) enjoyed mini-golfing, although the equipment is in rough shape, the putters had duct tape handles and they even gave my sons a 4 and 5 iron instead of a putter. Keep in mind that a lot of the activities have an extra cost, and there can be a wait. My sons wanted to try surfing on our last day but were told to come back another day because they were full up - if you want to do it, I would recommend doing it earlier. My wife and I enjoyed the Jaguar’s dance club one evening. A good dance club if you enjoy Latin dance music. We felt the premium level was worth it because we like being close to the pools and beach. The drinks and bartenders were all good. Overall a decent vacation but the food was a disappointment and service was not up to 5 star experiences we have had at Excellence or Sandals, admittedly those cost more.

Our family had an amazing trip, throughout the week we practically lived at the wave rider. While we were there Kevin and Andreas greatly impacted our experience. I want to give them and the whole crew over in the wave rider a huge shoutout. They stepped in to help teach us all before we could even ask, they were super patient, welcoming, and super easy to grow closer with. Also, Kevin and the crew stepped in and got me a surprise cake for my birthday! It was super excited and such a fun experience to share with them! We are all grateful for their advice and help to better our experience! They are all great people!

This resort was a positive experience and we enjoyed our stay but I don't think we will book again. The hotel is very large and the entertainment is at one end, the kids activities are at one end, the good beach is the other end. No beach bars, not a lot of entertainment during the day or at night. One option for both. Drinks were good and food was average. Three of our family for sick at different times that appeared to be food related. We had a good week and enjoyed the location and the time together but nothing sold us to return again.

Barcelo Maya Beach is a family resort on the beach. The pools are wonderful and the staff lovely. That’s about it for the plus side. On the negative side, this is supposed to be a five star resort but there are many deficits. The food is the most obvious one. The buffet, while plentiful, is sub par with limited vegetarian and kid options. The Mexican restaurant was an embarrassment . The cheese quesadillas that we ordered for our 6 year old were cold and tasteless. The French fries were also cold and bland. To quote him “that was a terrible way to get full”. It only got worse from there. We actually fled and went back to the buffet for ice cream. The other surprise is the state of the rooms. They are tired and desperately in need of upgrading. Our drains didn’t flow and lights were flickering. For $9000 Cdn for 5 days I expected way more. Very disappointing and we definitely won’t be back.