JOIA Paraiso by Iberostar (Formerly Iberostar Grand Paraiso) - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

10181 reviews

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  Holiday Review, first time visit

  We recently enjoyed a wonderful stay at Iberostar Joia Cancun. From the moment we arrived until the day we left, we felt very well looked after — the staff were consistently friendly, helpful, and attentive, creating a genuinely welcoming atmosphere throughout the resort. The hotel itself has a more traditional, almost regal design compared to some of the newer, ultra-modern resorts, but it’s beautifully maintained and kept spotlessly clean. Everything feels well cared for and in excellent condition, which really adds to its charm. We loved the food, which was one of the real highlights of our stay. The Asian, Steakhouse, and French restaurants were all superb, with excellent quality dishes and great service. The buffet breakfast was outstanding, offering a wide variety of fresh options, and lunch each day was equally impressive — plenty of choice and consistently great quality. Our room was spacious, comfortable, and very clean, with housekeeping doing an excellent job each day to keep everything fresh and immaculate. We spent most of our time around the quiet pool, which we really enjoyed for its relaxed atmosphere, and we also made good use of the spa pool, which was a great bonus to have available. The drinks throughout the resort were all top quality, from cocktails to wines and coffees — everything well prepared and nicely presented. Overall, Iberostar Joia Cancun is a beautifully run resort that combines classic style with modern comfort at a good price. It’s well maintained, offers great service, and delivers a consistently high standard across food, accommodation, and facilities. A truly relaxing and enjoyable stay.

  Oct 24, 2025
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  Spent nearly 2 weeks here and already booking the next trip back!

  We spent 11 nights at JOIA Paraiso by Iberostar. We arrived at a good time because it was the tail end of their members week. We left after their Mexico Independence day celebration. Due to the length of our stay, we were able to enjoy everything the Iberostar Complex had to offer, including all the amenities in JOIA and the other hotels in the complex.  Everything was great, but there were a few things that are worth an extra mention; both good and bad.  The good 🌟 Entertainment and Access 🎵🙌: Staying here gives you access to virtually everything the other hotels in the complex have to offer. What we did not know until we got here was that not only are you able to access the spa facilities at JOIA, but you also have access to the bigger spa at the shopping center. We are glad we discovered this early on our trip. The Sauna in the bigger spa is a lot hotter and it is Unisex, unlike the one at JOIA. We still preferred the spa at JOIA though, since it was right by our room. We also enjoyed the other pools and food offerings at the other hotels. The shows in the other hotels were ok, but they did not compare to the shows at the Coliseo in JOIA.The seats are comfortable and did I mention the theater is completely airconditioned! The Shows repeat themselves every week aside from some special occasions like the Mexico Independence day. The games by the pool were fun to watch. The entertainment team tries their best to get everyone included in everything they do. I really enjoyed their activities and my favorite by far was the macrame in the evening. I have my little souvenir on my wall currently.  The Food 🍽: The food was amazing. Even the room service food was great. We tried every restaurant that they had, including the ones in the other hotels. We definitely gained some pounds 😅. My favorite was the Asian restaurant “Haiku”a la carte . They had the most delicious wings. Their sushi was good, and so was the entree. I also drank warm sake for the first time so that was a nice experience. We enjoyed their buffet, but sometimes the food was a bit too elevated for my palate. I like to eat some kid-friendly foods 😁.  We were a bit disappointed with the Ember steakhouse. The highlight of the meal was the mashed potato. I am not a big fan of it and I was shocked at how great it was. My steak came out at the right temperature but it lacked flavor. We had better steak ordering room service. The Italian Restaurant Venecia had a very delicious gnocchi with brisket and their drink of the day was Amazing. The theme and decor throughout the restaurant was my favorite out of all of the restaurants we visited there. The Ceviche Bar/BBQ was also a great spot, both foodwise and aesthetically. The ocean breeze there was phenomenal all throughout the day.   Surprisingly the restaurants in the other hotels were really good; here are some of the standouts: Paraiso Del Mar:  The Brazilian restaurant El Rodizio and the Mediterranean restaurant La Dorada were very good. This is a must try if you have a chance. They both have a salad bar/dessert bar. Unfortunately Star Rock Cafe was closed almost the entire time we were there. We were looking forward to their menu and possible ambiance/vibe. They only opened on Fridays for their Latin Night.  Paraiso Beach:  El Puerto smokehouse had a very interesting set menu. We really enjoyed their creamy corn and 12hr brisket. We asked for seconds. 😆 Paraiso Lindo: Second best buffet, after JOIA buffet of course. They even had Ceviche too. Very similar to JOIA but with kid friendly foods. The Greek place was good, it had its own salad/dessert bar.  We ordered the souvlaki and the mahi mahi was dry. The seasoning also was not the best. The chicken and beef were good. Paraiso Maya: The food at the buffet needs help. No flavor at all. We were shocked that Paraiso Lindo had better food considering the price point.  Coffeeshop ☕️: I have to mention this for the coffee lovers; there is 4 different coffeeshops you can go to if you stay at JOIA. One is located in the lobby in front of the garden, One is in the lobby of the Paraiso Maya hotel; A cute blue coffeehouse is located in the lobby of Paraiso Lindo hotel; and finally there is a small one located inside the shopping center. The coffeeshops all offer the standard coffee varieties  but the one in JOIA has specialty coffee cocktails. Our favorite though was the Coffeeshop in Paraiso Maya. Great vibe that reminded us of the coffeeshops we are used to.  Customer Service and Cleanliness 🙋‍♂️🧹✨️:  We rarely had problems with service anywhere throughout the entire trip. The managers should be very proud of their efforts, it clearly shows. I usually don't make a special section for employees, but the service in this complex was so great that those that went above and beyond deserve a shoutout.  I will start with JOIA: Our maids Eliana for the evening and Bertha during the day were amazing. 5 star cleaning. No complaints, just praise. Monserrat from JOIA starcafe, amazing as well. Super friendly and super animated 😆.  Leo from Chiapas, as we call him, was amazing. He is one of the Bellboys. We would always use the app to get around on the carts.  Paraiso Maya: Catalina from the Star Cafe Maya. While we were there she was covering for someone and she was amazing every time we went. We went almost every day. We would also run into Rene, I believe he is a cook/baker. He would be there to refill the bakery stuff. Just a great guy. He would explain where certain pastries came from and recommend some depending on flavors. Top notch customer service.   Argelia from Paraiso Lindo Buffet. What a great server. She would know what we needed before we even asked.  Manuel from the Mediterranean restaurant La Dorada. He was great, he knew his suggestions and was very attentive.   The Bad (to us, but it could be good for others):  The Salty pools 👀🤽‍♀️: There are 3 pools located in JOIA, if you include the spa pool. We loved the quiet pool at JOIA because it was the only outdoor pool in the entire complex that was NOT salty! All the other pools including the pools at Paraiso Del Mar/Beach and Paraiso Lindo/Maya were Salty! Not sure if that was normal or intentional but my skin would sometimes get itchy after being in the pool even after rinsing off.   Impromptu sporting events ⚽️🏈🥊 :  We were there when the Boxing fight of Canelo/Crawford was going to be aired and it just so happened to coincide with the weekend of Mexico independence day. We asked around the day before the fight so we knew where we could watch it. Eventually we heard from the Sports bar “The Corner” at Paraiso Lindo, that they would air it there. That meant that there were a lot of people there that wanted to see that fight. Combine it with several other events like football games that were also happening that same day, and you have yourself a very busy day at the Bar. I am pretty sure the people who work/run the Sports bar are not going to forget that day. That bar was over capacity at one point. They should have organized that better. The waitresses were overwhelmed. I know this because we asked one of them for an order of wings. She said she was going to check in the back and she never came back. An hour later, another waitress finally showed up to our table. We asked for wings and she said they had just closed the kitchen. That was very poor customer service, we are lucky that we spent almost 2 weeks there and had been exposed to better than that throughout the trip. If not, that bad experience could have set the tone for the entire trip if it would have happened earlier on the trip.  It was overall a great trip, and we are already planning to bring the family next time.

  Oct 21, 2025
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  Best resort & vacation with large group!

  This resort was excellent from the very beginning when I contacted the call center. We had a large group of 19 people, both family & friends. I first spoke with Benny who explained everything about the resort in great detail and helped me get everyone booked at the same price. I immediately received the email confirmation. From that point on for six months, I would continue to call and speak with several different agents to help with updating each reservation. The call center was just as helpful and responsive via email which made it super easy. Every single person was friendly, patient, and ensured we had everything updated correctly. This whole experience is what lined us up for a successful trip! When we arrived at the resort, I was nervous that something would go wrong (we’re dealing with 19 people so it’s bound to happen). The young lady who checked me in (forgive me for not retaining your name), was again friendly and patient. We did a thorough check of each reservation one by one to ensure everything was correct. The little issues we did find, she assured me not to worry that they would figure it out… and they did. We had six beach access suites in building 70 that came with our own concierge service. Tomas, Gustavo, and Maura are just a few I can name who were absolutely amazing! They were all very hospitable, professional, personable, and extremely helpful. It’s not easy trying to make restaurant reservations for 19 people but they were able to accommodate us in some way or another. We felt like family coming home every day so when we left, we were very sad to not only leave this exquisite place but to miss these lovely people as well. This resort is a palace with every restaurant, lobby, bar, restroom, hallway is spotless and beautiful. The smell alone is something none of us can forget! However, the staff and service here is what really puts this resort at the top of our favorites list. All 19 of us said we would come back in a heartbeat.

  Oct 18, 2025
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  Our Butler was Non Existent, but the Other 5 couples Had Amazing Butlers

  Loved the pool, pool bar and the staff there. The pool games and those staff were so much fun. We were a group of 12 (6 couples). We were all on the first floor in room 7102, to the right of the walk through to the beach. Everyone else was on the left side. The other 5 couples had absolutely amazing service with their butlers, turn down service, communication, and offerings of help and service. Our butler was non existent. We had no turn down service, no knocks on the door to check to see if we needed anything, no offering of anything at all. Zero-non existent! Yes, we upgraded and paid extra for this room and the butler service. It was disheartening to hear our friends talking about their service and we didn't have any of that. It took me 2 days to get a blow dryer, and the guy at the desk told me he was working on it for 2 days. Finally my travel agent spoke with someone and Fatima showed up at my door. She was fantastic and we appreciated her. So bottom line is we paid quite a bit for an upgrade including butler, had no butler for 3 days and 1 butler for a day and a half. The room was very clean and the Italian restaurant was our best experience regarding food. They make tableside Tiramisu and it was spectacular

  Oct 16, 2025
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  simply amazing staff, food and fun

  What an absolutely amazing Resort ! We were comparing it to the Joia Bavaro in Dominican, and I can honestly say this is a step up. The food is better the service is better the smiles are bigger, I would say drink quality is very similar and actually might be lower in the rum category, but not a deal breaker at all. The rooms are bigger we just had a standard room as usual.. the service was impeccable and they also have turn down service at both the Dominican and Mexican resort.. Most of the food was borderline Gourmet quality, it was exceptional !! The pool is salt water which was nice. The pool bar does get very busy and I can only imagine how busy it is in the High season. For this reason I would be reluctant to go back in the High season because there is really only the one bar and unless you order from the waitress I think it would be extremely packed in the pool. When you start getting into the afternoon there is not a lot of shade around the pool area and this is a big negative.. They need to have some kind of an awning or something that comes out from that high up circular pool bar area because the Sun comes in there and it's almost impossible to get away from it while you are in the water. The pool concierge will help you find a good spot and make a bed up for you which is really nice. Ivan was great and he even cleaned our sunglasses for us one day ! The gala night buffet was absolutely spectacular, but I would say we were shocked that the service was so lacking. This was on October 7th the day we arrived. There was only a couple of servers running around serving all the tables we ended up with 4 plates stacked up and only received water and wine service again at the end of our meal which was over 20 minutes from our first service. The meal more than made up for this in our opinion as it was so good ! The entertainment team is spectacular and I would give a special shout out to Julio, Mala, and Cassandra, as they truly went out of their way to try to get you into the games and have some fun. The other people were also amazing ! However I cannot remember all their names. The pool games were fun and enjoyable to play. I would say they were better than other Resorts I have been to and even the pool volleyball was fun they even set up Mexican water polo one day which was a blast !! Some of these games took a little bit of setup and I did notice this and compared to some of the resorts I've been to that they simply bring out a dart board which is very simplistic, this team actually went out of their way to bring out games which took 10 or 15 minutes to get set up and even longer... This to me reflects on the quality of this Resort and the fact that they don't want to just get you doing simplistic games they want to actually have you doing games that feel special..... This was not lost on me whatsoever, and we have rated this Resort as the best resort we have ever been to in our 15 years of Caribbean travels, and over 40 Resort vacations. thank you!!

  Oct 15, 2025