Paradisus Playa del Carmen La Esmeralda Reviews

This is an amazingly beautiful resort. The service is the best we've ever had, especially at La Palapa Grill (on the La Perla side). I appreciated the ability to use restraunts on both sides. The pool bars were also excellant, with great drinks & delicous grill food. The only negative was that we were there right after it opened, (Dec.7-14, 2011) & the work was being done around the clock. We were on the outside edge by the parking lot. There were many truck deliveries & work done early in the morning. The other negative was that the beach was in the process of being developed. By the end of our week, however, most of the work was done, & was very beautiful. Overall, this was a wonderful vacation at a beautiful resort..plenty to eat & drink and a peaceful atmosphere. I would recommend Paradisus to everyone.

The following are the key reasons to my giving it 5-star rating. o The resort has very friendly and professional staff throughout. o Excellent choice of food in all-inclusive plan in many places in the resort o Very convenient access to the private beach which has plenty of umbrellas and chairs, with staff serving drinks and towels o Location to nearby attractions (Xcaret, 5th avenue, etc.) o The local tour company (in this case Olympus) that works here is also very good. In the 5-night stay, my wife and I, with two sons (20 and 17), had great time in the resort, on its beach, in various dining area, and in three places we visited (XCaret, Chichen Itza, and 5th avenue). Although our two rooms did not face the pool side (which will be a good thing), our two rooms were internally connected which turned out to be a great convenience while providing privacy to the two sides. The room is large and the amenity is very good. The resort lives up to its luxury rating.

The property is beautiful. We did have some issues because I believe the property was just too new. After being open 5 weeks, there were some service and room issues. We took some issue that before we even checked into our room we were asked to sign up for a time to listen to their presentation on their"Club" program..like time share. We were not on this vacation because we agreed to listen to a time share presentation. Not good timing on the part of the resort. Let the guests experience the facility before asking them to sign up for something. Found that to kind of ruin our first impressions. We found issue with all the pools in the resort(with exception to the much upgraded areas) were too cold to swim in. We were surprised that the only way you could swim in the pool that was at all comfortable was to have upgraded our room. Pool temperature should be the same for everyone. We paid for an upgraded room to have the swim out of our room feature to find that we could not use it because the water was so cold. The grounds were beautiful and everyone who worked at the resort made us feel very special. The food was good but at times, think it was "too gourmet" for most palates and waiters had a hard time explaining what the dishes were because most were labeled with a Spanish name. ALthough it was an adventure in dining-maybe too much. Needed to give choices in all restaurants of something that is basic to appeal to everyone. I also feel that the "Coupon Book" that we received and was advertised was not it was talked about. We were told because of our 7 night stay we would receive an upgrade in our room upon check in. Well, you could upgrade, but you would use the coupon and then add at least another 800.00-not at all what we expected. They spoke of 200.00 in Spa coupons-but, you could not use them together-only 40.00 per service but the services were very costly and could not combine your coupons to take advantage of saving more-thus, no coupons were used.

We went during Christmas week and loved it. Beach and pools were gorgeous. Weather was perfect. Service staff were great and rooms were immaculate. Restaurants were primarily good, just one that we didn't like. The buffets were great with many selections. The only down side of the resort is that it had just opened at the end of November and not everything was completed. The front entrance is right across from a neighborhood. They actually gave us a room overlooking the neighborhood but we refused and they gave us a beautiful room with a pool right outside the balcony. Also, check in was a nightmare. They had six people at the front desk with only four computers. It took us hours to get a room. However, once we got settled, everything was great.

Overall this resort was just okay. I was surprised at the location given that it is right next to a pretty poor area. I could literally see people's laundry hanging outside of their homes from the resort. It has one of the smallest beaches I have ever been to that is overrun with seaweed. There wasn't much in the way of nightlife...especially for our teenagers. Having said that, the rooms were very nice, the service was above average, and the food was pretty good. I would not go back to this resort given the surroundings. It didn't feel like paradise.

We were 4 people and the resort booked us with a request for 2 queen sized beds at least and we paid per person per day so they knew how many guests we were!!! When we arrived they said that it was not guaranteed to have 2 beds and gave us for the first 2 nights 1 queen bed and 1 folding bed. we had no choice and we managed like a 2 star hotel (in a 5 star hotel). The hotel and staff looks new and not experience or well organized. Every night when we went to the hotel front desk, they could not accommodate us for what was supposed to be given to us. The hotel staff was trying to push us to purchase the suit for $450 extra per day as the only option. When we booked, it all seems fine but it was not so when we got there. Yes-we did suffer and squeezed on 1 bed plus a folding one for one person. It should be clear if the 2 double beds are not guaranteed for 4 people specially that we paid per person and they knew how many people we were.

We paid a lot of money for an all inclusive one week stay for our spring break. The first thing we noticed was the room had two full beds - not two queen beds like most resorts. We had to order a cot, they only had beds, which was fine - except now we had little room. Also, the room did not have a clock! The food was average at best. They need to bump the quality up a little. The one page sheet they handed out showing the names of the restaurants with a very brief description could be done much better. The pools were nice and the beach was nice - except you could not see the ocean from the resort. You had to walk a narrow boardwalk through a swamp to get to the beach. I guess I was expecting a dramatic view of the ocean from the resort. The service was very good. Very courteous and friendly. The front desk seemed to be lacking in judgement and decision making capabilities. Two examples: 1) Since the room did not have a clock I had to call room service for a wake up call. One day I called for a 7:00 am wake up call. They woke me up at 3:30 am. . 2) I had two swim suits stolen from our main floor balcony. No one knew what to do - so nothing was done. Yet they still charged me $10 for one lousy phone call I had to make.

We just got back from a one week stay at Paradisus la Esmeralda and were very pleased on every aspect of the stay. The resort itself has only been open for six months and is in excellent shape. The rooms were very nice and comfortable but most do not have a view of the ocean. That was not an issue for us--we came to visit the pool/beach, not stare at it from the room. There was plenty of options of places to go and relax or stay active. One very nice plus was the restaurant options--quite a few and all very good. We were happy to repeat several. The eating and drinking options were all very plentiful and good. Those waiting/serving us were always happy to help us with the choices on the menu or which tequila was best and they were always right. This is not a small resort so bring your walking shoes or comfy flip flops. On one side is the adult only section (which appeared smaller but had lots of people around the pool); the other side (la Esmeralda) was accomodations for familes and was a bit bigger. We stayed on the family side even though we did not bring the kids--not a problem. We took a trip to Chichen Itza (arranged through the travel rep from Olympic?) and it was very well run and informative. There are plenty of other things to do too. All in all an excellent trip to a super resort.