Iberostar Waves Quetzal — Hotel in Playa del Carmen

Going to spend some time to write an honest review. I think this resort is probably 3.5 stars. Possibly 3.75 but it’s nowhere near a 5-star resort. This resort has its goods and bads - no doubt about it. Girlfriend and I went with our daughter and our good friends and their daughter (6 total) for a graduation present for our kids. We had three rooms. Upon arrival, the lobby area is done up nicely. They had a parrot or Tucan bird and another exotic bird at the entrance. A lot of water features, which I really like. This is essentially one large resort made up of Iberostar Quetzal and Iberostar Tucan. As a guest at one resort, you share all amenities at both resorts. There is one main pool for both resorts. The restaurants are spread out over both resorts. If one is cheaper than the other, book the cheaper one because they are exactly the same thing!!

Initial service was great. Irvin gave us a tour of the complex and explained the various aspects of how things work! He did try to get us to do the dog and pony show for their exclusive club. Claimed it was 90 minutes but we read enough to know it was closer to 3-4 hours so we declined.

Be prepared, we went in early June and it’s hot… like very hot. Just walking around a few places, you’ll be sweating.

We then went to our rooms and they were nice but nothing special. They are outdated but they do a good job of keeping them looking nice. The big issue was outlets. There are 0 by the beds and only 2 or 3 total in the room. Bring extension cords. I detailed some other issues with the room below about the thermostat and the energy-conservation that were problematic. Also, not a big deal, but we were on the third floor and there are no elevators so if you’re carrying luggage or bringing items up and down, you’re coming up and down steps only. Views from all our rooms were subpar. Read more in the rooms section below.

Onto the pool and lounge areas. They have one gigantic pool and then one smaller pool, just off the main pool. Finally, there is an adult swim-up bar pool. The swim-up bar/pool is not connected to the main pool and it was a let down. It’s a great area by itself but the big issue (one we heard from several others at the resort, too) was that the main pool has no swim-up bar. Literally it’s a gigantic pool but if you want to spend the day at the pool, know you will be getting out every 15-20 minutes to get a new drink. No servers come and take drink orders, either. To us, this was an obvious mistake. The main pool needs a swim-up bar and there were plenty of areas to put one on. That being said the pool, bar and beach area is stellar. The pool is very near two similar bars, which are right at the entrance to the beach. It’s a great setup. The week we went there was one large group but it was fairly quiet. Staffing seemed a little on the short side but possibly because there weren’t a lot of guests. One smaller issue we noticed over the week… the poolside bars don’t open until 10 AM. If you get up and get breakfast at 7 and then head to the pool around 8 (like we did), just know you can’t get a drink until 10 AM. It seemed late and 9 AM would have made more sense. You can get a drink before 10 AM, but you have to walk back up to the lobby bar, which is a decent walk! Bar tenders were nice and friendly but they aren’t quick! Lines formed quickly, even during a slow week.

Activities were a PLUS compared to the last resort we went to. Their activity team does a good job of keeping it fun. They do beach and pool volleyball, foam parties, basketball competitions, archery, water aerobics, a night fire show, etc. Israel did a great job and deserves recognition (as do others on that team). Would have liked to see water polo or another activity but that’s just preference. Another small gripe… the guys running the music in the morning were also the ones handing out towels and they played 15… literally 15… Coldplay songs in a row. Look, I like Coldplay, but I don’t want to hear their entire catalog back-to-back-to-back. Reached limit for characters - read...

!!READ!! For this review it took me some time to share my experience with this resort. Out of all the many hotels and resorts i've stayed outside of the US, this resort was the only one I can honestly say to please book with caution if you do decide to stay here. I stayed at this resort during the middle of July 2023. It was a family vacation that we were all attending to. I happened to arrive before my family during this stay and had the amazing opportunity to enjoy the start of my vacay alone. There was this employee there I had met on the first day that had assisted me during my time alone in getting to certain areas of the resort. Majority of the resort is to be "on foot" but they have employee's on golf carts taking VIP guests to certain areas as a courtesy. I've encountered this employee a good 3-4 times during my time alone before my family arrived. We've exchanged simple small talk like " Hey, how is your day? Welcome, where are you visiting from?". None of which within those conversations have I given off a hint of interest. On the 3rd day of my vacation when my family finally arrived to the resort was when I was harassed by this employee. At 10pm I was at the beach alone, on the hammocks trying to enjoy the night and take pictures of the stars that were visible. It took a good 15-20 minutes for me to get up and leave from the spot I was in at the beach. I heard wind chimes near me and none were in sight. It gave me a terrible shivering feeling that ran through my entire body. It felt as if it was an intuitive warning. When I was heading back to the room I was staying in ( literally 2 mins away walking distance to the beach area) the same employee was just parking his golf cart outside of my room. As I was walking, he had stopped me and said that he would like to talk to me and if I would give him the opportunity to in Spanish. I respectfully declined and told him I have family waiting for me. I started to walk away feeling more uneasy and uncomfortable than I already was. When seconds after speed walking, he comes up from behind me, pinches the back of my arm in attempt to pull me back. I yank myself away and told him " No thank you " repeatedly. He then said " No worries, I'll just wait for you out here." My heart sank. I ran to my room and it took me some time to process right there and then what had just happened. I looked back at the videos I took of the sky and later realized he was watching me this entire time. After that, I did speak with management at the resort and they did escort him out from the premises (what made it worse was that when I was speaking to management which was in the concierge room, he happened to be outside of the room standing by what looked like a podium, just simply watching me explain this incident.) Thankfully he was escorted out as I was showing evidence of this experience. Overall safety rating for this trip is 0 stars. I cannot explain how terrifying it was for me to sleep the last 2 remaining days of my vacation. With just two guards at the door and no "security" walking around ( unless they're counting their own staff like reception to be security then you're just as screwed as much as I felt like I was.) Simply staying there after had me looking over my shoulder twice. In the video you can see I'm recording the sky and my legs to use as an aesthetic post where I later caught on that he was watching me from the very moment I got there. You can see him in the first video turn his head back and forth as if he was making sure it was me. In the second video ( First of all, I didn't even realize he left the spot from where he was across the beach area by the pool. He was across from me just watching.) he comes out from the bottom left corner walking past my direction. Where just moments later I got my warning from the universe to get the hell out of there. If it wasn't for my intuition to give me a warning that I could've been in danger and seriously hurt, god only knows what could've happened. Please think of the women you plan a trip with before booking...

Rooms were average. Our room seemed to be on the warmer side always. The lowest the air could go was 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit). It was cleaned daily and refrigerator was restocked, but you could only get two canned beers a day (unless you wanted to pay more for each beer). Another weird aspect of the rooms, there were not any outlets near the beds.

The staff were excellent. Shout out to, Israel, who day one was running water aerobics and then later has hyping up the beach party with dancing and a great personality. We saw him every day at one activity or another and he always had a smile and made you feel like you were living your best life!

The resort location was great. I am not a beach person, but I loved that the pool area went right up to the beach so I was able to get that beach feel, but stay in clean water and not be covered in sand. I wasn’t a fan that there wasn’t a swim up bar in the actual main pool. You had to choose to be away from the beach area, in a smaller pool, that was adult only and only open from 10am-5pm.

Overall likes: Location and resort feel. The nature incorporated throughout the resort was fantastic. Staff. Israel made us feel included and brought a smile to our faces everyday. The entire staff though, was always willing to help and serve. Dinner Reservations were not needed, except for the Japanese Hibachi restaurant. This could have been because the resort wasn’t overly crowded during our stay, but it was nice that we were able to get into each of the hotel restaurants. My favorites in order were, Mediterranean, Italian, Japanese, then Mexican, and Smokehouse (Disclosure: I am not a big bbq person, so the rest of the family would have rated the Smokehouse much higher).

Overall dislikes: Room was hotter than we like and there were no outlets near the bed to even plug in a small fan. Our Villa was on the outer wall of the resort, so it was very noisy in the middle of the night when trash was getting picked up next door. Last thing about the villas, we were on the top floor, there were bats, so if you had to go refill your rooms glass water bottle @ 5 or 6am… there was a real chance you were getting attacked by bats. Buffets: they had a lot of variety, but I found the few things that I liked and pretty much stuck with those. Adult Swim up bar. Separated from main pool and limited hours. Bring your own larger tumbler also, the cups are smaller, so you will be running back to the bar often without one. Up charges. “All Inclusive” is you can get basic food and drinks (bars aren’t open always ex. Pool bars open at 10am, if you want a drink before then, you have to go to the main lobby bar). Bottle of wine @ dinner, up charge. Ribeye steak at Italian restaurant, up charge. More than 2 beers in your mini fridge, up charge. I’m sure there was more, but you got the point. Sports bar. Legit seemed like you were in someone’s basement bar. When we came in there was only 4 other people in there. The bartender got our drinks and then disappeared. Drinking water: they use the Vero water stations. There was one on each floor. I didn’t mind this. The issue is each room gets 2 glass bottles, that you fill and bring back to your room. Not ideal for the pool, so bring a collapsible water bottle or a separate bottle for your water to take to the pool or around the resort to stay hydrated, otherwise it’s the small plastic cups. Ice machines: 1 ice machine (on the 2nd floor) per villa. Ours worked...