Barcelo Maya Palace - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

18822 reviews

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  Awesome Resort within Barcelo Complex

  Grounds: 5/5 – Impeccable (walkways, grass areas, tree maintenance etc.) Have the ability to walk around paths across all resorts which are all contained within a gated style community. Room: 4/5 – Clean upon arrival and cleaned during the week. Large room with no issues with the A/C. Beach: 5/5 – A mixture in front of the Palace of sand and rocky area, amazing blue colour. From ocean edge to break-wall area was raked daily through all the chairs. As resorts all in a group, was the option to walk to an area of all sand. No beach sellers was a huge positive. Pools: 5/5 – Clean and lots of size. Snorkeling: 5/5 – For snorkelling amateurs like ourselves it was amazing. We saw sea turtles 5 out of 6 days we went into the ocean. One sting ray and a variety of fish. Often saw boat excursions come to edge of buoys and “paid” snorkel groups jumped out (they did stay outside the buoys) Wildlife: We saw a couple spider monkeys a few times, brocket deer, iguana and coati. A La Carte: 5/5 A La carte that we went to were the Capri, Brasserie, Tokyo, Caribe, and Lindo. All had great ambience and food was amazing. My favourite was the Brasserie with beef wellington and crème brulee. Buffet: La Hacienda 3/5, Mirador 4/5. Even thou both buffets open up into one another we found a substantial difference between the two. La Hacienda had more mixed/blended dishes, so we tended to stick to the Mirador with individual food choice. Food overall was ok. Entertainment: We went to four shows during the week. 1) Mexican Fiesta – 4/5 with traditional music and attire. 2) Magic show – 0/5 Worst ever, seemed more like a cheap strip show without stripping, more provocative dancing with poor magic when kids were present, we left after 10 minutes as it was awful. 3) IL DIVO -5/5 our highlight show with 3 Tenors singing. By no means do we listen to this opera style music and we loved this show, so disappointing that there was only about 50 people watching. 4) Michael Jackson 3/5 was ok, not amazing, could improve by just getting rid of the MJ character and make a tribute to music and dancing. Choreography was pretty good with this one. Resort maybe needs a digital billboard in buffet area entrance to highlight the night shows as overall was poor attendance. Bars: 5/5 – no issues with drinks. The odd ignorant person would avoid the line everyone was standing in to walk up to cut the line. Sun Chairs/Loungers: 0/5 (both beach and pool) – Probably one of the worst for availability in 5 years we’ve been travelling to Mexico. The biggest downside of our trip. The towel/chair game is very alive and flourishing here. If you’re not an early bird, leaving towels before your 8am breakfast = good luck. By 10am about 1/3 of the chairs are taken by a person, the remainder is towel/chaired. Even saw a few people single towel 2 chairs on beach and then the pool, tying up 4 chairs for 2 people. It’s sad that entitled, greedy people do this and not think about others wanting to enjoy their vacation. Resort needs to hire “lounge chair security” and anyone walking away from the area – towels pulled and a $20 US fee per towel for a replacement at booth. Coral Grill: 0/5 Worst beach grill experience as again compared to previous trips. Previous resorts offered: wings, chicken nuggets, fries and then BBQ hot dogs and hamburgers with the ambiance of BBQ in the air. Instead, this was another breakfast buffet type thing, mixed/blended dishes. Staff: 10/5 Yes, that correct, the staff was amazing with every aspect and encounter. We tipped all the time. Thank you!

  Feb 20, 2026
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  Excellent snorkelling

  We stayed at the Palace Feb 11-18 and had a great family holiday with 2 adults and 3 kids aged 18, 17 and 15. Beautiful hot weather so feel fortunate this added to our great experience. Snorkeling was amazing, we experienced excellent service everywhere, decent drinks, French restaurant was amazing service and good food so we ate there twice. Overall family favourite was Tokyo. Rodizio was okay but very loud and felt really rushed. Italian was okay but seemed too bland. Breakfast buffet very good with plentiful food. The Coral Grill was great for a quick lunch or snack. Resort is massive but easy to navigate through them all. We got à la cartes every night. All were at 9pm except Rodizio and French (one at 6 and one at 9). We actually enjoyed the 9pm seating as it was quiet. However you miss the shows which is a downside. The chair saving our last 3 days was ridiculous. We got up at 7:30 and couldn't find a chair around the main Palace pool except down by the kids area that is very loud. Great if you have young kids though but I preferred being across from the swimup bar where the adult action is. I'm not 100% sure we will return because I really hated the chair saving when people don't come out for hours. I also prefer resorts where you can go to a la cartes when you want (like Dreams), not having to book one everyday. There is plenty to do both day and night. Later evening you need to head to Maya Mall where Strikers has the action or to Jaguar disco. Shows were decent but we only saw 3, Michael Jackson, the Magic show and the Circus one. The turkey at the circus show was absolutely hilarious with the crowd engaging and laughing. Overall we had an excellent holiday and the resort is beautiful. Nothing to do with the Barcelo but some additional information. We took private transport from airport to resort with Happy Shuttle which was excellent. The airport itself is horrid. We waited an hour for luggage at 9pm at night. Home day - we check in on the computer seamlessly and only needed to drop off bags. We waited almost 2 hours in a the WestJet lineup that included checking service with only 2 people working for the first hour. This really really needs improvement.

  Feb 19, 2026
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  Canadian Group trip Feb 2026

  Overall the trip was amazing, great 5 star resort and staff were very happy and wonderful. Rooms were large and well maintained. Grounds were amazing and beautiful and the food was fantastic. Only complaint, was the check in process was horrible. We went as a group (7/10 nights) and all the married couples got two beds and all the single females and males got a Kind bed, we requested months in advance our bed preferences, the manager in group reception was rude and didn't care a less. Was told he would contact us, when king beds became available and never got back to us, even though two days later people were complaining that they had kind beds and wanted two beds after checking in that day. But we didn't let it ruin our trip but sad when 21 people spend that kind of money to be treated rudely.

  Feb 18, 2026
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  Paradise

  This was a family vacation for my adult children and myself. They are 22 and 19. We enjoyed snorkeling on the beach, my kids did the catamaran and loved it! We also did the Xplor Fuego

  Feb 17, 2026
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  Overall Excellent Resort

  Even though we were sick (from before we landed) we had a great stay and the staff and grounds were amazing. There was quite a bit of sargassum on the last two days as the wind shifted, but staff were working hard to lessen the impact.

  Feb 17, 2026