Catalonia Privileged Beach

The resort is beautiful. The rooms are wonderful (of course we had the best Privileged Suite on the resort). The service is excellent. My only complaint: When you check into the Catalonia Playa Maroma (which of course is all-inclusive) you are given meal tickets. My boyfriend and I were staying a total of three nights, four days. We were only given two meal tickets for the five restaurants on the resort. One of the meal tickets was specifically for the Tappas Restaurant and the other one was a generic food ticket that could be used at either the steak house restaurant, Mexican restaurant or the Italian restaurant. The other restaurant on the resort is a buffet, which you have open access to for the entirety of your stay. We did not enjoy the fact that we were only able to try three (this includes the buffet) of the five restaurants. Our four day food schedule went as follows: Day 1 - snack bar for lunch, steak house for dinner; Day 2 - buffet for breakfast, snack bar for lunch, buffet for dinner; Day 3 - buffet for breakfast, lunch (we ate at a taco stand in Playa del Carmen), Tappas bar for dinner; Day 4 - buffet for breakfast. Obviously we would have enjoyed a little more variety with regard to our eating selections. Also, this resort should have included a 24 hour snack stand.

My friend and I stayed at Catalonia Playa Maroma for a short get away. The beach was everything the reveiws said it would be...white, perfectly glorious sand, blue water--gorgeous. The grounds were also nice, manicured lawns and very pretty landscaped buildings. The food was also good, if not particularly diverse. We tended to eat many of the same dishes we found yummy. We were not looking for gourmet, just decent tasty fare. The only area we were not very happy with was the room. It was older, furnished in a sort of lost in the 1970s style, the shower was a simple draw plastic curtain on an old floor tile--the shower floor was the bathroom floor--and it did not smell good always. The toilet was broken and I fell into it at least once. So..if you are looking for a basically good place, are more interested in the beach than your room, you will be happy here. Otherwise, I'd ask for the remodeled rooms at this location.

We stayed at the Catalonia in early June and took our 3 and 4 yr old daughters. The girls had a GREAT time and loved the pool and beach. Tip: If you have small kids, be sure to take a stroller. The walk from the front (breakfast buffet) to the rooms and pool is at least a mile (or so it seemed). BEAUTIFUL walk, but long for kids. We loved the lagoon style pool and the beautiful, soft, white sand at the beach. There were always plenty of chairs and most chairs at the pool are covered and in the shade (they could be moved if you'd like though). Plenty of sun and shade on the beach as well. Our room was very nice and clean, but we did have small ants. We asked for the room to be sprayed twice, but no one ever came. Service was slow and you had to stay on them if you really wanted something done. Our only complaint was the food. The buffet was nothing great and was usually leftovers from the night before. The Italian restaraunt was awful! Someone on the beach warned me about it, but we still decided to try it. The dessert was the only good thing I ate. The Mexican restaurant left a lot to desire. We love mexican food, but their food wasn't anything to get excited about. However, we loved the steak restaurant. We found a wonderful steak dish (flank steak) that was out of this world. We learned though, that this restaraunt was only open every other day. The nightly entertainment was actually very good and our girls enjoyed it as well. Besides the food, we loved this resort and had a wonderful time. The grounds are amazing and probably the best I've seen at a resort. We have already talked about going back.

Catalonia Playa Maroma is very much along the lines of what the reviews here at on that other site that advises trips says it will be. Big enough for fun, small enough to not be overwhelming. More Spaniards, Germans, and Canadains than us Norteamericanos. No language barriers. My pathetic spanish from high school (20+ years ago) was more than enough. Pool bar was great - especially once we got the hang of each bartender's styles and the flavors of the various liquors...stuck with Hornitos for the margaritas and whatever the darkest rum was on hand from Jamaica or Cuba for the pina coladas and just drinking neat. My wife dragged me into some of the excercise activities by the pool and I had a good time despite myself. Booking via this website got us access to an updated room in the block nearest the little shopping area on site and we actually had an ocean view from our balcony. Beach was FANTASTIC. Less than perfect: Meals were better than most all-inclusives, but do not expect "fine dining." Again, this resort was VERY competitively priced, and you get what you pay for. The room was nice enough, but an "updated' room is not a completely remodeled room -- the bathroom was adequate, not luxurious. The in-room coffee was, well, terrible and the FANTASTIC crepery did not open early enough for us, so we had to walk up to the main resturant for actual good coffee...not the end of the world. Played tennis one day and the loaner equipment was well worn, but serviceable. All in all, very minor complaints and I would return to this resort in a heartbeat. FYI, we're a couple who was traveling without our three children, so I'm sure that helped our enjoyment of the trip!