Paradisus Playa del Carmen – Riviera Maya - All Inclusive

We have visited many resorts in Mexico, some all inclusive and some not, and this one tops our list of favorites! The food is good, the staff are friendly and helpful, and the overall energy of the resort is tranquil. Our kids (ages 5 & 7) loved the kids club programming, especially yoga & sand castles which were hosted on the beach. We adults loved escaping to the spa while the kids were at kids club. We booked a family concierge room and found the extra amenities (pool, lounge & restaurant) + personal concierge very worth it. Some other reviews noted the hotel is a bit dated, which is true, but they really do keep it very clean so it's easy to overlook and not have it impact your stay.

We have just arrived home to England after a 7 day holiday at paradisus playa del carmen as a family of 4 with 2 young children (4&6) out of 10 I would give this hotel a 7. We weren’t happy with our first room but a quick call down to reception they moved us which was very much appreciated. The rooms are nice, spacious, very comfy bed, clean, big shower and bath-everything you could need, we were very happy. The pools and grounds are lovely, they are kept absolutely spotless with plenty of sunbeds. We never ventured over to the adults only side so can’t comment on that. The reason for not giving this hotel a higher score is the food/restaurants. For a hotel of this size the buffet restaurant is tiny! We have been to hotels half the size and they have had buffets double the size with much more choice, our 4 year old is very fussy and the 2 nights we ate dinner at the buffet he wouldn’t eat a thing, they didn’t even have chips?! Now onto the À la carte restaurants, we went and booked 3 (the most you can book in one go) and turns out the lady didn’t book our 3rd one like she said she had so we then had to book the next couple of evenings but they could only do 9pm- not ideal with 2 kids. Anyway we went early to try our luck and both times they said yes we can seat you early.. we were sat in the restaurants and they were half empty?! I cannot understand why they state they are fully booked and make families with kids wait til 9/9.30 to dine?! The staff in the resort on the whole are amazing especially the waiting staff, bar staff and cleaners- they work so hard and always with the biggest smiles on their face! The guest relations team constantly trying to get you to go to a meeting is annoying tho. The Sargassum on the beach is a massive problem, it’s a shame as the beach is lovely but it makes it unpleasant altho I know that’s a mexico problem not the hotels, they work hard trying to clear it but as they do more washes in. All in all we had a lovely holiday, would we return no but that is just our opinion.

We just returned from our fourth stay at Paradisus in PDC and we cannot wait to return next year. The staff is always incredible. We really enjoyed the reserve swim out rooms this year. Our concierge Eduardo made dinner and spa reservations easy so we could enjoy our time in the sun. Our trip gets better every year.

Spacious, enjoyable. Our waiter Miguel was awesome.

The property is spectacular. Everywhere we went was spotless and clean. The food was absolutely delicious and stood out from any other resort we have been to over the years. I was very pleased with everything we ate the whole week! We stayed in the Reserve and it was worth the extra $$ as we got even better service and perks (like a half day excursion to a cenote, a Mayan cleansing ceremony, top shelf alcohol among the many) from the staff and especially our concierge Eduardo M. He took excellent care of our every need (reservations, golf and reserving a Baja bed on the beach!) He was so kind, thoughtful and friendly. He just made us feel worry free. All the wait staff was very friendly but Marco and Carlos at Lemon Fish were particularly fun and attentive. Our room was always cleaned at our preferred time of day which hasn’t always been the case at other resorts. We will definitely be returning to the Paradisus for another wonderful vacation.

We had a wonderful time at Paradisus! It was a large family gathering (22 including 11 kids) and we had a great time! Jorge Hernández was our main contact at the resort and he took very good care of us! I can't recommend Paradisus and Jorge more!

If you are looking for a truly enjoyable resort experience with all the amenities, gorgeous facilities, amazing staff, and really delicious food, this is the spot. Upgrading to Reserve is beyond worth it. Our Concierge, Eduardo, attended to our every need and made our stay perfect. We will be coming back!

Melia usually does better I guess just not in Mexico. I’ve had good luck in the DR but the service is just not even close to what you’d expect

I had an amazing time! Eduardo Monroy was our concierge and was amazing. How he recalls everyone’s names I don’t know. He took care of everything for us. The atmosphere altogether is so calming, the rooms are amazing and comfortable and the food and drink are so yummy. Alfredo in the pool area is wonderful and attentive!

We had a beautiful week at La Perla! The property is gorgeous, service is fantastic and goes beyond expectations, food and drinks were great, and there are lots of things to see and do! We’d highly recommend this resort, and found it to be very good value. We have stayed at several other resorts in the area and this was a great one, on a very nice stretch of beach and easily walkable to town (if you bother to leave, which you really don’t need to!). We stayed in a swim up Reserve junior suite with a hot tub on the patio, which was delightful (we actually were initially put into a room without one when we arrived in the evening, but they moved us after one night). Our concierge Eduardo Monroy took care of the room move, as well as our dinner and cenote excursion reservations (this outing, included in the reserve package, was lovely!) and was responsive when we had requests and kept us updated daily, but not overbearing at all. He went above and beyond to make my husband’s birthday special with an impressive free amenity. I felt the service overall was really great. We were also able to have late checkout at 3pm on our last day which was absolutely fantastic!! It really made for a relaxing and enjoyable last day of our trip. At other resorts when we’ve had a late departure we’ve had to lug our things around all day and use a hospitality room/washroom to get ready to leave, so we really appreciated this! :) we lounged on the beach and then enjoyed the swim up room for the last little bit of our time there, before grabbing a bite before our transfer arrived. Perfect! The only down side to the resort was the lounge hogging - by the end of the week I was getting up to claim a beach spot at 6:30am, otherwise a shaded lounger spot was basically impossible. Frustratingly, often the prime beach and poolside beds would be empty most/all day despite having been claimed before sunrise.. this is a tricky problem though, as it would be tough to add more loungers in the space available, and it’s hard to change people’s behaviour when they’re trying to maximize their vacation enjoyment, and I know this is a problem at many resorts, certainly not uniquely a Paradisus issue.. but there was a lot of selfish behaviour on display while we were there, which was annoying. But this was literally the only complaint we had! The beach was great, lovely swimming though there are a few rocks to watch out for (I didn’t find this was a problem but some elderly folks we spoke with mentioned it was an issue for them). We saw some neat wildlife on the resort and in the ocean, and the evening entertainment was nice - the casino night and musicians were fun and low-key; definitely not the wild and over the top shows or party vibes of some resorts, but this suited us perfectly - we went to bed early most nights and enjoyed the sunshine all day. :) Thank you for a great vacation!