Riviera Maya Vacations & Riviera Maya Beach Resort Reviews

Iberostar Paraiso Beach Review Top All Inclusive Mayan Riviera

Carrt. Chetumal-Pto. Juárez km. 309

77710 Playa Paraiso

Playacar - México

Tel.: 52-984-8772800

Fax.: 52-984-8772810

http://www.iberostar.com/Plantilla/plantilla_hotel2.asp?conccodi=3&codiconc=72

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• 388 rooms
• Beachfront
• Close proximity to the 18-hole Iberostar Playa Paraiso Golf Club
• Six all-inclusive restaurants and 2 discotheques
• All Inclusive
• Spectacular 80,000 square foot lake pool
• Family hotel, with special care for baby-sitting and child care
• Children’s Club
• 30 minutes from Cancun International Airport

Editorial Review

The Iberostar Paraiso Beach is part of the Iberostar chain, and is one of 5 hotels forming the Iberostar Playa Paraiso Resort (the others being: Iberostar Paraiso Maya, Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar, Iberostar Paraiso Hotel Paraiso and Iberostar Paraiso Lindo).  It is an all-inclusive resort artistically designed in perfect harmony with the environment.  The hotel, built in 2000, has over 380 rooms in a 3 storey facility.  The beach itself offers guests over a kilometre of powder white sand on Paraiso Beach.  The towns of Puerto Morelos and Playa Del Carmen are close by.  Iberostar Paraiso Beach It is located about 15 minutes away from the town of Playa del Carmen and about 30 minutes south of the Cancun International Airport.

Iberostar Paraiso Beach rooms that have been divided into junior suites, standard rooms, and presidential suites with a scenic ocean view.  The rooms have air conditioning as well as a ceiling fan.  Almost all rooms have a private balcony or terrace.  Other amenities include satellite color TV, in-room safes, mini-bar, and direct-dial telephones. The presidential suites have an added feature of the Jacuzzi.

The hotel has 6 specialty restaurants and 2 pool bars.  It also has a cigar lounge, theater bar, nightclub, lobby bar and sports bar.  Iberostar Paraiso Beach also has beautiful pool area, with a separate area for sunbathing and another area for the children’s pool.  Beach towels, lounge umbrellas and chairs are provided.  The resort complex also includes a gym, spa, beauty salon, various shops, a kids club and a children’s pool. Guests can also avail of internet service for certain additional expenses charges.

You can head for any one of the 6 specialty restaurants, each laying claim to a inimitable menu and delightful atmosphere.  While the El Faro Restaurant serves International Cuisine Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner only from 7 AM to 10 PM daily, the El Mercado serves 24 hours.  You would have to make reservations at the El Faro, and come in proper attire.  El Puerto Grill is a steak house, El Rodizio serves Brazilian Cuisine, Hashiru serves Japanese Cuisine a la carte.  On the other hand, La Dorada serves Mediterranean Cuisine, La Hacienda serves Mexican Cuisine a la carte menu and La Plaza serves international Cuisine.  Almost all restaurants require you to come in proper attire, which may make it inconvenient for tourists who have brought along only their casual wear.  Guests can dance the night away till dawn at the Star Rock Café which serves various drinks and cocktails. The Corona bar also serves domestic and imported Cocktails and Drinks.

If you have young kids, the Lucy’s Kid’s Club program is jut the thing for children from 4-12 of age.  There are special entertainers as well as a mini disco each night, giving them an opportunity to shake a leg.  Everyone can partake of activities like aerobics, table tennis, group exercise classes, water polo, volleyball, archery and rifle shooting. The adults can go for windsurfing, catamaran sailing, or play a game or two at the tennis courts, which are open at night.  Iberostar Paraiso Beach also offers a scuba clinic that is offered in the pool.  Guests pay an additional charge for the motorized water sports.

Iberostar Paraiso Beach is located on a scenic location on the fringe of Mexico and the Caribbean.  A major attraction is the accessibility to the 18-hole Iberostar Playa Paraiso Golf Club.  The golf club has certain special rates for guests staying at the Iberostar Paraiso Beach.  It also has a Convention Center that caters to all the corporate groups, may it be for seminars or a corporate excursion.  In recent times, Iberostar Paraiso Beach has turned into a much sought after option for weddings.  All this makes Iberostar Paraiso Beach one of the most wide-ranging all-inclusive resorts in the Mexican-Caribbean.

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Reviews

Claire

Edmonton, Alberta

Canada

48, married

Travelled with my husband and 2 children (ages 18 and 20)

January 2/06 to January 9/06

Capsule Summary: An absolutely wonderful resort

Rating: 5/5

Travel: Air by SkyService

Arrival/Check In: The staff was prepared for us and check in went very quickly -- we had requested 2 rooms close together and we received 2 rooms beside each other. Check in took less than 10 minutes. Luggage was delivered to our rooms by the porter (have your tip ready).

Hotel Overall: The staff was very helpful -- everyone spoke English very well. The rooms were very clean and the housekeeping staff was very honest (nothing went missing from our possessions) and left beautiful towel art on our beds each day. The grounds on the resort were immaculate -- due to the hurricane, some of the palm tree tops were missing, but overall, beautiful grounds.

Bars: There were a few swim up bars at the pools which were very popular spots for everyone -- we met alot of people at these locations. The lobby bar at the Paraiso Beach and the Del Mar were lively in the evening hours. For the younger crowd (18 to late 20's), the Discotheque was the place to be from 11pm to 3am - lots of dancing and tequila!

Beach: The beach was cleaned/raked daily by the staff -- you had to get to the beach early to get a chair as these were scooped up quickly. Although the hotel rules state that chairs cannot be saved by leaving a towel on the chair, everyone does this and nothing is done to stop it -- so get up early and get your chair reserved (then go for breakfast). There were some rocks in the water that you had to be careful of when body surfing -- we were told that the sand that used to cover these had been washed away by the hurricane. There aren't that many, but you have to be careful.

Pool: The pools at the resort were outstanding -- these were cleaned daily. The pools all connected together and stretched over a significant portion of the resort. There were hundreds of chairs by the pools (but again get up early to reserve your chair or you may be out of luck to get a couple together). There were activities all day long by the pool -- games, bingo, competitions, water polo. There were chairs right in the pool as well and jet tubs in the center of the pools. The water wasn't too warm but very refreshing on the hot days.

Entertainment: The nightly shows were entertaining - karaoke, dancing and couples competitions -- these were fun but you shouldn't expect the quality of shows from Las Vegas. We attended shows on 3 of the 7 nights we were there.

Restaurants/Food Drinks: The buffet restaurant is quite good -- as long as your stomach is up for some spicy food -- but you can pick and choose if your stomach is touchy. Our favourite restaurants were the Japanese and the Steak House. We also went to the Mexican restaurant but we weren't that impressed. Friends we met had gone to the Mediterranean restaurant and said that the food was good there too. The Japanese restaurant is set up so that all your food is cooked in front of you -- quite entertaining and delicious!

Extra Hotel Services and Facilities: There is a tennis court on the resort (but it was too hot when we were there to play) and there is an exercise gym there too.

The rooms have hair blowers in them - if you bring your own you will need an adapter (you can buy this from the front desk). You can get an iron brought to your room if you request.

There are plenty of hangers in the closet but there aren't any drawers -- so we left most of our clothes in our suitcase for the week.

Excursions/Tours: Our reservations were through Conquest Tours and the rep on site at our resort was fantastic. He arranged for all our excursions and made recommendations that turned out very well.

We went on the Xel-Ha and Tulum tour -- highly recommend this. If you want to swim with the dolphins at Xel-Ha, then you have to pay extra and you should sign up immediately upon arrival at the park because they get filled up and you may not be able to get a spot (this happened to us).

We went to swim with the dolphins at Delphinius -- this facility offers smaller group sizes and more time to swim with the dolphins (takes only a half day). This was fantastic -- there were 3 adult female dolphins and their 3 babies in the pool with us. We were able to pet all of them and they pushed us around the pool by the bottom of our feet.

My husband and I also did a sunset cruise and dinner on the beach one night -- involves a 90 minute cruise on a catamaran and then a steak and lobster dinner (5 course meal) served on the beach (impromtu 5 star restaurant on the beach). The food was unbelievable and the service was great. We highly recommend this tour.

Shopping: Our resort has just built a shopping center on site -- but the shops haven't opened yet. This will probably be quite popular in the near future.

We went in to Playa del Carmen to shop - -there was a bus that took us from our resort (no charge). There is a shopping mall in Playa called "5th Avenue" -- this is more expensive but probably more reputable if you are buying good jewellry. Just keep walking past this mall and you will get to the street markets and then the bargaining begins. You can get some good deals. Most of the vendors only take cash (Pesos or American), some of the larger vendors will take credit cards. We did see a Bank of Nova Scotia so I would assume that you could get cash from it with a bank card ( we didn't try).

Check Out/ Leaving: Our checkout time was noon but our bus didn't leave for the airport until 2 pm. If you want to have a late checkout, you should request this the night before and there is a charge of $10 per hour for each hour after the noon checkout time. There is also a locked baggage room that you can store your luggage in.

Conclusion: We would highly recommend this resort -- we would go back in a flash. We are already planning another vacation to this resort (hopefully next year).

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