Barcelo Maya Palace - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

18828 reviews

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  Good comfortable stay, few things could be improved

  Awesome resort. Good food. Good service. Few things good be improved: Add more seats/chairs around the pool area. You have the space. This will make it easy on everyone to find a place and not wake up at 6 am to grab a chair. Secondly the body wash, shampoo quality could be better. And you could start providing body lotion, that will be great. Lastly, it’s difficult to get a reservation to restaurants. This needs to be solved so people get to try these awesome restaurants you have and don’t return disappointed

  Feb 22, 2026
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  Way better options elsewhere AVOID

  Look the beach and pool were amazing, no doubt! But that's where it ends... You cannot get reservations at ANY restaurant. We tried immediately and were told no. We asked, as we just checked in, what happens to the rest of the people checking in, "They are out of luck." We asked again, and hostesses said to my wife "Hey lady we are busy, no room for you." WHAT?! So the buffet it was, and it was meh at best. We were able to get into a restaurant by waiting it out, and guess what?! Less than half full, they were pushing you to the buffet. The food at buffets was questionable and multiple people got sick, smoked salmon was jello, they marinated hard boiled eggs hot in pesto sauces. At the pool, no food, nor drink service, nothing but standing in an obnoxious line serving one at a time at the bar... brutal. We tipped one of the three servers to maybe get us drink service, never seen again. No room service, only for a fee?! How is that possible AT AN ALL INCLUSIVE! When we went to take a pastry from the buffet to the room, we were basically checked by a bouncer and made to throw it out, what?! We would get a spot at the pool, and the staff would move us for water aerobics...? Overall this was an outdated waste of money and vacation. Ive been to Mexico plenty, we took a chance on this one, and it was a terrible one. Stay away, such better options...

  Feb 22, 2026
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  NOT A 5 STARS HOTEL. BARELY A 4 STARS

  If you think you found a great price, you should know that you get what you pay for (or less). Pool chairs are taken by 7 am. There are no sun umbrellas and very limited shades. Food is mediocre at best (unless you love the huge "free" quantity). Service is slow and you often have to wait 10-15 minutes to get a drink at the bar. Long lines in most restaurants.

  Feb 22, 2026
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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