Iberostar Waves Tucan — Hotel in Playa del Carmen

Check-In Our experience was quite poor. We were checked-in by Eduardo, we were given a twin room rather than the double room we booked. For a couple travelling, this was not ideal for a 2-week holiday. We asked to have the room we booked and were, very rudely, told there wasn’t one available, but given the option of checking-out in 2 days time and re-checking in later the same day to get the room we paid for. This clearly wasn’t acceptable, and surprising that it would actually be suggested. We asked to speak to a manager who managed to get us moved the next day, albeit she wasn’t particularly friendly, she did manage to do what the front desk couldn’t, and actually look after the customer! On check-in they will also try and upsell you an appointment with a team to sign-up to the membership scheme, after 20-hours of travelling we were not in a position to talk about this, when we declined Abi cut-us short and stated she didn’t get commission if we didn’t sign up, and stopped giving us information, so we missed out on vital information that was only given to us by a chance conversation with Jan much later in our holiday.

Room Despite the issue originally, our room was great for the remainder of our trip. Spacious, comfortable and well equipped. There was a slight issue where we had to call because our mini-bar wasn’t being restocked, but that’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things.

Pool/Beach This area is fantastic, plenty of beds. Maybe could do with a few more areas of shade, these are at a premium and people are definitely reserving beds despite loads of signs saying it’s not allowed. The barman at the pool bar is possibly the hardest working man at the hotel, always quick with your drinks and a credit to the hotel.

Bars/Entertainment The bars are good, most of the staff are helpful. My only issue is there isn’t anywhere you can have a quiet drink. It seems that they feel every bar has to have entertainment on the entire time, sometimes these are games like Pictionary, or quite poorly run quizzes. Not everybody wants to have “fun” forced upon them and just wants to enjoy a drink. The games/quizzes are very cheesy, quite badly put together, and very few people actually take part. Shout out to the waitresses in the Tucan lobby bar, they work very hard, always have a smile and very quick to help.

Restaurants This is where the hotel lets itself down the most! They advertise 5-6 restaurants, but most of the time half of them are closed, getting bookings for the Japanese and Italian is difficult. But the main issue is the seating and the staff. The restaurants, quite simply, don’t cater for parties of 2. There will be queues out the door of parties of 2, whilst bigger parties are whisked past and seated immediately. I struggle to think of a single occasion where we weren’t sat at either a dirty, or an un-set table. Half of the time, we are walking past clean and set tables to be seated on a dirty one. The staff are very rude, I lost count of the amount of times I was physically walked into by a members of staff who does no care who is in there way, they will stop you getting your food because they “need to be in that area at that exact time”, on one occasion a member of staff took some tongs off me so they could use them to move other food whilst I was trying to get mine. Getting a drink in the restaurants in can be almost impossible, on a morning we gave up waiting to get a coffee and would go and get our own, on an evening we would go without them for most of the meal. We would watch staff stood talking to each other rather than helping guests.

To summarise. The hotel itself is lovely, and the grounds are incredible, seeing all of the wildlife about is a great experience. There are some good members of staff, Leo and Jan have been friendly and helpful, others are far, far from that. However, the thing that sticks in our minds from the visit is the consistently poor experience in the restaurants (at all times, breakfast, lunch and dinner), this lets the rest of the good work being done at...

Here’s the deal with Iberostar Waves Tucan - it’s a relaxing, family friendly all inclusive with an AMAZING beach, good food and drinks and it’s in a great location and as long as you manage your expectations you’re going to have a fantastic time. My family spent six days/five nights around the new year and had a blast. We’d go back but also read on for more pro tips and some heads-up learnings.

THE BEACH is arguably the main attraction here and it lives up to the hype. Huge and clean with warm water and soft sand, it was great. There were small/medium waves every day which was perfect dads who love body surfing but bad dads who like snorkeling. Yes, when the resort is full it may be difficult to find loungers if you roll in at 1030 with your family of 4, but we never had an issue because I’m an old man early riser. Sunrise yoga at 7am is when people really start showing up, but even on busiest days would have been easy to get a chairs until 9.

THE POOL is large and super fun. One end is chill and the other end is full of activities and games and stuff. The music isn’t loud at all unless you’re literally right next to the activities. It’s just a great vacation pool vibe with sunshine and cocktails and people having fun. The pool is kept VERY CLEAN but like some other areas in the resort does look a little tired. Manage expectations and you don’t even notice.

THE FOOD was better than expected. Buffets full of variety and almost over the top with the displays and overall level of effort. There’s some guy pouring tequila shots and making margs right in the dining room. Another woman hand stuffing empanadas right in front of you. YES. I think two weeks of it would have been sorta redundant - especially because we didn’t eat any fresh veg (to manage food illness risks) - but it was easy to stuff myself multiple times a day for the time we were there. More anything? More everything!

THE ROOM was nice. AC worked fine. Beds and pillows very comfy. Cool balcony, very quiet. We were in building 11, which was IDEAL. The rooms are a little tired, yeah, and our shower didn’t drain well, but again manage expectations.

The SPORTS BAR is a converted conference room with some TVs and weird furniture. A super nice bartender was there for drinks, but the vibe was for sure odd and kinda sad. Not a great place to get hyped to watch your team lose badly to Detroit in the biggest game of the season.

The FITNESS CENTER was small but reasonably furnished with some machines and free weights.

HEADS-UP HOT TAKES

BAIT AND SWITCH on the rooms is maybe a thing?? My reservation was for a room with two beds for my party of 3. When we arrived there were none available, so they offered us a room with one bed and a couch. Then they offered to upgrade us to a room with two beds closer to the pool area for an upgrade charge. (So wait, there are rooms with two beds available or not?). Super bad taste in mouth upon arrival, which was a bummer. The RESORT CREDITS can only be used in increments of $25. If you have $200 in credits, that’s really eight individual $25 off coupons. Don’t think you’re getting $200 worth of spa treatments, you’re getting $25 off your spa treatments. It was hard to determine where else resort credits applied. This resort is FAMILY FRIENDLY which is awesome and also means there are kids everywhere all the time. Dinner, beach, pool, breakfast, kids running around. Full time recess. I’m not saying the dinner buffet felt like an elementary school cafeteria, but it maybe came close a few times.

PROTIPS

The LOBBY BARS in the evenings are where it’s at. Great drinks, bring a deck of cards and relax and play some games. NO STRAWS so if you like sipping summer drinks thru a straw, BYOS. Saw people doing this all the time! The ACTIVITY POOL is almost always empty and has nice chairs and is quiet. The WALK TO TOWN is 1.5 miles. You can easily take a taxi for a FIXED PRICE. You absolutely should go. Get some local tacos, do some...

We stayed at the Iberostar Tucan for 11 days. Although we have been to many other Iberostar resorts, this was our first time at an Iberostar Waves-level resort. We had such a great time that we plan to come back again. Every day was great and relaxing.

We arrived at the hotel, and the entire staff greeted us. They were very, very friendly, made us feel amazing, and proceeded to give us all the information about the two hotels and the resort itself. We had an oceanfront room, which had just amazing views from the balcony. I’ve attached some pictures and a video of our room itself. We’re in building ten, and this building has been redone, so we were pleasantly surprised. Every time we walked into the room, it was incredibly cool. The room had many electrical outlets and USB receptacles. They could use a dresser as that would help make things more easily managed with clothes. We had a room with a king-size bed and two couches that could also be used for sleeping. A family of four with two kids, you could sleep here comfortably. Speaking of kids, we’ve seen them, but they’re hardly an issue. Of course, that could be because it’s November.

If you are a beach person, this is certainly the resort for you. I think this is the best beach we have been to as the sand is smooth and soft, but best of all clean. The water is just beautiful. The different colors of the water are mesmerizing as you sit in your cabana. I walked into the water all the way to where it seemed the turquoise started. It was probably about 100 yards out, and you could see clear as day down to the bottom. The water was as clear as bathwater, and I could see the fish swimming by.

We ate at the Japanese restaurant. It was a fun time, and the chef was pretty talented. The food was very good not great, but the portion sizes were large. We had a good time and enjoyed his show. We ate at the smokehouse, which was another good dinner. It was a little confusing as they gave you a menu, but it just told you everything you were getting because they brought out a plate of food based on the number of people at the table. It is everything on the menu. The brisket was tasty but had a little too much fat. They could’ve trimmed the fat and given us more brisket meat; the chicken was delicious. The corn soufflé was great. The Mediterranean restaurant was very good. You went up and selected the appetizers from a center area by yourself, which was fine. Most were tasty, and you had a wide variety. Sue had the paella with shrimp for dinner. It was delicious. I think it could have had more shrimp. I had the octopus. It was delicious.

There is a jungle between the two resorts, and it is a very relaxing walk through it. It is peaceful and serene, with wildlife everywhere you can see. There was wildlife throughout the entire resort, but it was never a problem. We saw many different animals, but the monkeys were our favorite. The baby spider monkey was a real ham and put on a show for us with his escapades.

The Staff here has been absolutely amazing. They always want to help. It’s nice when they look for you daily to check on you and ensure everything is going according to your expectations. A special acknowledgment to Jessica, Alexis, Gasper, Adriana, and Ramses. They made a good vacation GREAT. It’s those little things that make the difference. Javier and Emmanuel on the beach were fantastic; they were always around, checking on us and asking what we needed.

We took a taxi into Playa del Carmen one night and explored 5th and 10th avenues. There were lots of souvenir shops, drug stores, entertainment, and places to eat. We enjoyed the street performers and had an amazingly inexpensive dinner. The most important thing was that we felt very safe walking around, as there was a strong police presence, and never felt scared.

We plan...