Barceló Maya Colonial - All Inclusive

The great - the pools were great, beach was great, weather was great, food was great, a la cartes even better. Nightly entertainment was very good! staff were very pleasant. We were able to snorkel off the beach which was fun. The bad - *******. finding out transportation from the airport was not included was a huge surprise, ******* hid information way down in the fine print. This added an extra $300 US to the trip that I was not prepared to pay. The taxi drivers at the airport were quite prepared to take advantage of unsuspecting tourists as a result. We heard others at the resort complaining about the same experience. You could argue I should have read the fine print, that this was to be arranged, but it was obviously and suspiciously hidden in the fine print. When we arrived we had booked a room in the Colonial but were told they had to move us to the Carribe. After paying an unexpected 200 for transportation to the resort, this felt like insult to injury. We kept saying “don’t sweat the small stuff” - getting a spot on the beach or poolside. Almost impossible if you didn’t wake up at 5 am to secure a spot. One day we had our towels stolen. Again don’t sweat the small stuff. We were able to get some more and not have to pay a fine for the towels Aside from the surprises, the positives outweighed the negatives. I recommend this resort. Expect to compete for lounge chairs at pools and beach.

Beautiful resort with a perfect beach for snorkeling. Food, service and entertainment was good but what really put it over the top was inclusion of water sport activities, daytime mini golf and walkable distance to several cenotes. We hope to stay again.

The pools were great, rooms were clean and spacious. DISLIKES: There was a very difficult manager at the desk named Ceasar. Our room key did not work 10 times in a row. Others were having the same issue. He would rekey the card and push it back at you. I had to get angry and demand the door be reprogrammed to fix he issue. He was not interested in actually fixing the problem until I got angry. Very poor management skills. The only thing worse than that was his hospitality/people skills. I heard several people complaining about him, by name, while in resort.

I've stayed at this resort 7 times and this time it was not the same. I've always traveled during the school break so I'm used to the resort being full but there didn't seem to be any security around. The beach weddings in front of our room went on way past midnight with bass-pounding music then the guests partied in front of our room, we looked out over the pool and beach, all night long. We complained at the front desk at 3 am and again at 5 am. This happened multiple nights, and by the end of the trip, I was so tired I couldn't wait to go home. The other disturbing thing was watching the over-pouring that was going on, everyday there was another young person passed out or throwing up. Parents, I would think twice about letting your young adult come down there without you and make sure you have travel insurance. It's a very serious situation.

Since Barcelo has such an impressive cluster of properties there, it feels huge and open. We booked to stay at Maya Colonial. Having been in Maya Beach in 2022, we knew our preference. However, upon arrival - and despite our complaining about it, they still assigned us a room in Maya Caribe. Know that booking in Beach, Caribe, Colonial, or Tropical makes ZERO difference. The room category we chose was available in all 4 locations, so they treat it as one big pool of rooms and put you wherever THEY feel like it. In our 2022 visit, they even split up our group and put half of us in Beach and the other in Colonial, so I suppose I should not have been surprised this time around. When you go to shows in the theatres, you might consider ear plugs. We were much more comfortable the 2nd night, once someone suggested that to us. The volume is out of control, and more than the speakers can handle. This causes some sound distortion and makes speech a little hard to understand. Apart from that, we love the property!! The staff are great, and the food is fantastic!! There are turtles right in the swimming area, so you can snorkel and follow them around for hours, should you wish.

Pros: There is tourist shopping (cheap and expensive) on the resort so it saves you time and money to get souvenirs and anything you forgot to bring with you. Drinks were pretty good and the pool was nice. Cons:The hotel is definitely dated and the rooms especially. Ours smelled like mold so bad that we had to wash even the clothes we didn’t wear when we got home because of the smell. The food was also terrible (breakfast was not bad).

Booked the Barcelo Colonial, was changed to Barcelo Beach. Was told that it was my travel agents fault. Was told there were no differences in these hotels. Spoke with others that this happened to too. We had 2 rooms, one of the rooms' key would work 2x and then not work. We went through over 10 keys, many unnecessary trips to the lobby. Was told that if we put by our phones next to our phone, the keys would erase. I had both room keys together and this only happened with the one room. No customer service at all at the front desk, put blame on someone or something else.

This is one of our favorite resorts we’ve stayed at in Riviera Maya. The staff was awesome. The food was great. Snorkeling was good right off the beach and there was plenty activities for kids and adults.

Beautiful Resort, everything you could want in one place. Resort is Clean, always ground crew keeping the property looking pristine. friendly and helpful staff. This was our first trip to Mexico and all inclusive Resort this resort set the bar high. Would recommend this resort