Barceló Maya Colonial - All Inclusive — Hotel in Quintana Roo

We spent a week at Barceló Maya Colonial in June. The resort itself is stunning — palm trees, clean grounds, and a massive pool area that’s great for both relaxing and having fun. That said, there were a few things that really impacted our overall experience.||⸻||Beach & Seaweed:|There was a lot of sargassum seaweed during our stay. The hotel does try to clean it every morning (credit to the hardworking grounds crew), but it’s a losing battle. While you can still find swimmable areas, if you’re expecting clear turquoise waters, you might be disappointed during seaweed season.|Also, it’s advisable to wear water shoes or sandals when going into the sea — there are quite a lot of rocks just below the surface that are hard to see and could cause injury if you’re not careful.||⸻||Rooms:|Spacious, clean, and comfortable. The air con worked well, and we had a nice balcony overlooking the gardens. The minibar was nicely stocked and refreshed daily, which was a great bonus. Nothing ultra-fancy, but totally fine for what we needed and great to come back to after a hot day.||⸻||Food & Drink:|The buffet was good, with a solid variety and fresh options — breakfast especially. We also tried a few à la carte restaurants. Most were average, but the steakhouse stood out as the best meal we had at the resort itself. That said, the best food of our trip was off-site in Playa del Carmen, so definitely plan to eat out at least once or twice if you’re up for it.||One frustrating part was the experience at the poolside restaurants. They had strict rules about being fully covered up (shirts, shoes, no swimwear), which is understandable — but not always well communicated or handled kindly. There were also odd restrictions around seating: some tables were limited to two people only, and when we tried to add a third chair, we were told to move. We were a family of six, and when there weren’t enough six-seater tables, staff refused to put two smaller tables together, instead asking us to sit separately. For a family-friendly resort, this felt unnecessarily rigid and frustrating.||The wine situation also wasn’t great — the cheapest bottle at the à la carte restaurants was around $30 USD and it was awful. If you want anything decent, you’ll need to pay quite a bit more, which feels pretty unreasonable for an all-inclusive experience.||⸻||Staff & Service:|This was one of the more disappointing aspects of the stay. Aside from the restaurant staff (who were polite and efficient), many of the other team members came across as unfriendly, disinterested, or just unwilling to help. The water park staff were particularly rude, and the go-kart attendants clearly didn’t want to be there. It often felt like guests were an inconvenience rather than being welcomed.||That said, we did want to call out Eduardo at the games counter in Strikers — he was by far the friendliest and most helpful staff member we met during our entire stay. His attitude stood out in a big way and made a real difference.||⸻||Resort Pricing:|Be prepared — on-site prices are shockingly high. We paid nearly $50 USD for a bottle of sunscreen and $7 USD for a bottle of Evian. Definitely bring your own essentials like sun cream, toiletries, and snacks, or you’ll end up overpaying for basic items.||⸻||Activities & Extras:|There’s plenty to do around the resort – mini golf, nightly shows, spa, tennis, and more. The resort is huge, so the shuttle trains are helpful for getting around.||The pool area is fantastic — absolutely huge, very clean, and there are loads of sun loungers. We never had any issue finding space, even during busy times.|The kids’ pool with slides was great — it’s free to use, has fun features, and there are plenty of sunbeds around so parents can relax while keeping an eye on their little ones. A really nice touch for families.||However, the on-site waterpark was a bit of a letdown. It costs $20 USD per person to enter, and it’s quite small — only four slides and a Surf Rider wave machine, which was fun but didn’t make it worth the price. Also, kids under 18 are required to wear life jackets, even if they’re strong swimmers, which felt excessive and unnecessary in some cases.||⸻||Overall Thoughts:|The resort looks amazing and offers a lot in terms of space and amenities. But the lack of warmth from much of the staff, the inconsistent service, the rigid and sometimes frustrating restaurant rules, the seaweed-heavy beach, and the high prices for everyday items took away from the overall experience.||If you’re going, go prepared: bring your essentials, pack water shoes, manage expectations on service, and plan a few meals off-site. You can still have a good time — just don’t expect five-star treatment in how you’re...

Me and my friend stayed at Barcelo Maya - Colonial for one week at the end of May. This was my first time in Mexico. Over all the stay was good, however I wouldn’t come to this resort again.

Pros: Very large combo resort and we had access to 4 out of 6 hotels. Lots of places to eat with a lot of options. Tons of shops right at the resort to get all your souvenirs. Overall the resort was very clean and well kept. It’s Mexico, so it’s gorgeous. Very little wait time for anything. Ecopark KANTUN-CHI is accross the street which was the highlight of our trip. During this time of year, from like 5pm on the resort is like dead. We had the pool at night all to ourselves. There was a lady in one of the shops selling bracelets, I wanted a specific one as an anklet but she didn’t have any so she handmade it on the spot for me for the same price. The QUALITY of the food ingredients were good and fresh, for someone that has stomach issues-didn’t have that issue here. The café de olla at the buffet was soooo good, I couldn’t get enough. It feels very safe-everyone, including us, left all of our belongings out in the open while we were in the water etc and nothing was ever touched.

Cons: Hotel was always loud, kids screaming in the halls till midnight, the neighbouring room was so loud we could hear all their conversations. The beach at the resort- disappointing. SO many rocks and TONS of seaweed/sargassum, to the point of not being able to even go on the beach most days, which I know is not the hotels fault but if you’re looking for that crystal clear water and gorgeous beach, don’t come here. Also the sun sets on the other side of the resort so you don’t get to walk along the beach at sunset if that’s the kind of thing you’re after (obviously that’s geographical and can’t be helped). The alcoholic drinks were a huge let down-they were using good alcohol but the mixes and they way they blended them and stuff were sub par- they just pump them out so fast and don’t put any care into making them(except at the a la carte restaurants, they were rly good there ). The staff-90% of them were miserable and seemed like they hated being there. However any of the staff that were SELLING stuff were great haha cause of course they want you to buy stuff. Because of how large the resort is, there is a LOT of walking, bring comfortable shoes. To get beach towels you have to walk quite a way. Everything was SO expensive to buy in the shops, even necessities like basic sunscreen was between $40-65 (CAD). Only your room and a couple of the a la carte restaurants have AC(and even in there it wasn’t very cool) nowhere else, as everything is open concept. Halfway into our trip after the housekeeper cleaned out room, our AC suddenly wasn’t going below 21C so we were hot and could barely sleep, it was as if they adjusted it and put a cap on it. The food was really hit or miss. There’s a massive buffet that is open for all meals and that was sometimes good and sometimes not, depending on what you got. A lot of the meat was overcooked and dry as it would sit for a long time but other times it was good. The fruit was a HUGE let down. We were expecting fruit that was out of this world but sadly was very bland- aside from the papaya and mango, that was great, but they didn’t have it everyday. Tips are expected for like everything-which maybe is just a general Mexico thing. We got ripped off when taking a cab across the street to KANTUN-CHI (it wasn’t safe to cross the highway), the hotel told us it was $25 USD return, when in reality it was $45. When we checked out she barely said a word, just asked our room number, issued us a checkout ticket and that’s it, didn’t ask us how our stay was or hoped we’d visit...

Barcelo Resort Complex, Cancun, Mexico

If you’re planning a stay at this resort complex, you might want to consider the experience that my wife and I had in December of 2024—and it certainly wasn’t a positive one! We arrived at the Barcelo Resort around midnight after travelling for about 20 hrs straight. We had a room booked at Barcelo Colonial (Barcelo has 6 different “facilities”). We booked at this facility because family (including young grandkids) were booked at the same facility and we wanted to be close to them. When we arrived, we had the driver from the airport take us to the Colonial “facility”. Upon arrival, we were informed we were at the “wrong” facility, and we needed to be transferred to the “Beach” facility because of overbooking at the Colonial. After arriving at The Beach, my wife (who’s fluent in Spanish) began to question the desk clerk about why we were being “bumped” to a different facility—far from where our family members were. After 45 minutes or so, the staff got us rebooked back into the Colonial. After arriving back at the Colonial, this took another 45 minutes or so to get us checked in--- it appeared the staff at the Colonial didn’t really know what they were doing--- and this tired Senior couple was getting tired and frustrated with the incompetence of the staff. However, we finally got booked into a room at the Colonial which took about 90 minutes to accomplish after arriving!!

After getting into our room, it wasn’t long before we realized the TV and the Phone weren’t working. I called front desk and they said they would take care of it. Several hours later, I went to the front desk and requested to speak to a manager. When the desk clerk asked me what room I was in, she asked me for my name which properly identified me as the one registered in that room. She then informed me that I WASN’T registered at the Colonial! I then decided to leave and again requested that a manager contact me.

One of the problems we encountered at the Barcelo was trying to get chairs for sitting at the beach or at the pool. We would come in early in the morning and, although 80% of the chairs were unoccupied, there were towels, books, or inflatable devices on almost all of the unoccupied chairs which were an obvious attempt by clients to reserve a beach chair even though they may not be there for hours. When I did finally speak to a manager about this “problem” she informed me she was going to have her “team” look into this matter. I read comments from a year ago and all these issues were already listed there. I’m sure the facility has no intention of working on them. When checking out of the Hotel, we ran into another frustrating problem. The hotel was trying to charge us twice for trip that we booked thru the hotel to see mayan ruins. Fortunately, wife was able to produce a receipt that contradicted the staff's insistence that we still owed them close to $300. The clearing up of this issue took forever and had us worried that we'd have to either miss the van to the airport, or pay them double for the trip. The desk clerks are...