Barceló Maya Tropical - All Inclusive — Hotel in Quintana Roo

I have stayed over 25 times, mostly in Mexico and some in the Caribbean and always found resorts of this rating to be much better This resort was a let down in many ways by comparison. I do not understand their high rating, other than they have a huge back log of old reviews and may have been better previously.

Barcelo Maya Tropical is really fully combined with B.M. Caribe, B.M. Beach and B.M. Colonial and you will find them collectively referred to as B.M. Grand and they are treated as one thing as wellmin communications as fancier B.M. Palace and B.M Riviea on outer sides and those 2 are not accessible from users of the other four resort. This creates confusion and over crowding of combined resources. We reserved Tropical and upon arrival told it was full and switched 2 resorts over to Caribe for the week. We heard the same thing happened to many others customers. You should check reviews for Barcelo Maya Grand – surprisingly low.

All of these resorts use 1 water activities shop and to get a hobie cat you need to line up before the 9 AM opening, wait 20-30 minutes, to get one a 25 minutes of use for the same day.

The many coveted beach loungers frequently fill up by 10 AM and on a busy day at the pool you can have trouble getting shaded loungers after 10 AM. Beach lovers frequently raid the pool for unused loungers to move to the beach. There are no pool boys to help with set ups.

The coveted beach areas have no drink service – go get your own. There are no shade umbrellas or structures on the beach.

An excellent professional well run dive operation and you can likely get at least one dive trip any day they go out however it is run like a treadmill due to demand – 8:30, 10:30, 12:30 and 2:30 – back to the dock each time to run another group – a bit hurried to keep the dives going on time.

The over crowding and misleading 16 count of restaurants is likely the cause of ne4eding reservations for dinner at all a la carte restaurants. We arrived for 7 days and were given vouchers for just 4 dinner reservations, for a selection of only 5 restaurants and the most popular one was not available at all for our 7 days. The 16 restaurant count they advertise includes duplicated beach grills, buffets and specialty restaurants so there really is no a large selection of restaurants and different kinds of food. I also usually avoid resorts with reservation for dinner, especially when I see reviews indicating any difficulty in getting reservations.

The buffets and beach grills for breakfast and lunch have poor food selection and quality and I found a lot less to eat at them that other places I have stayed. Several mornings for breakfast the bacon was a heap of almost raw bacon – maybe the cook was hoping to catch extra tips to grill the bacon more.

I got a digestive upset for 24 hours after being at the resort for 2 days/

The rooms have pre-set limits on the A/C and it was too cold of an upper limit for us. We spent most of the week with the air off.

There is no coffee shop or ice cream shop. If you want cold coffee or frappuccino you have to wait for the lobby bar to open at 5:30 PM. The ice cream soft serve and in scoop cartons is only strawberry, chocolate and vanilla.

Very small beer selection – Corona or Modelo light or dark are the only beers.

No resort app to help make requests, get around, get information, or map. There is a busy small OCR map you can load on your phone that is hard to use. The only information about nightly theater entertainment is a marquee display at the main entrance. No schedule of pool activities or entertainment except from the poolside announcements.

A few positives.

The beach is one of the best for wateractivities.

The a la carte dinner restaurants have menus with many selections and good food and service.

The fitness center is one of the best and most well equipped anywhere – the only minus being crowding.

The Barcelo transfer service worked well for us and we had a nice roomy family style van.

Looks very good for...

I’m going to give a full review of my honest opinion from my point of view. I do NOT recommend it and I wouldn’t go again. I believe that for what you pay and what you expect from a 5-star hotel, it’s not enough.

RESORT The resort itself is spectacular, surrounded by palm trees that provide plenty of shade to avoid direct sunlight, everything very clean and well maintained, the staff always helpful, a wide beach with crystal-clear water, with some stones and rocks. Honestly, in this part everything was fine.

ROOM The room I was assigned had a very strong smell of humidity, it was impossible to stay inside. Someone from reception came, agreed with me, and changed my room. However, the new one also smelled of humidity, although it was more tolerable, so I assume most of them must be like that. The room looks quite outdated: the closet doors don’t close properly, the air conditioning cannot be adjusted (the buttons didn’t even work), you either freeze or feel hot, there are damp spots on the walls and ceilings. Also, after more than 7 days, no one ever restocked the minibar, not even a single bottle of water. Housekeeping did come every day, though, and they always left everything clean.

ENTERTAINMENT The entertainment is terrible and the thing I missed the most, since you’re in the middle of nowhere and I expected much more, because by the third day you’ll be bored. The entertainment boards say there are activities every hour, but that’s false, they don’t exist: water polo, basket pool, games, etc. are never done despite being advertised. The only things they actually did were beach volleyball twice a day for about 40 minutes and an occasional dance at the pool. Don’t expect anything else (I’m talking about daytime entertainment). As for the nighttime entertainment, it was poor any 3-star summer hotel would easily beat it. Only two nights had something a bit interesting. If you’re looking for entertainment, look elsewhere. It’s true that you can borrow balls, play tennis, etc. for an hour, but the closing time is 5 pm, which I think is too early they should extend the hours.

FOOD About the food, again, for a 5-star hotel it was really disappointing. I expected much better quality it leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve stayed at 3-star hotels with better food. The food is normally dry, not only the food itself but even some of the sauces in the prepared dishes. Sometimes it’s even cold, even though the dining room has only been open for 20–30 minutes. The pizzas are tasteless, no matter which one you take, they all taste the same: like nothing. It’s sad because the dough itself is fine. The meats are almost impossible to cut tough and dry. And every day it’s practically the same, they change almost nothing, 90% of the dishes are the same every day. The desserts are similar either very dry or flavorless, though sometimes you could find something decent. The fruit, depending on which, was good. Another detail: you couldn’t even get up calmly to grab food, because they would clear the whole table and your drink in under a minute. I would go to get dessert and when I came back, everything had been cleared, even if my drink was still half full.

DRINKS IN GENERAL Just as bad. Most drinks and cocktails are made with ultra-concentrated flavored glucose syrups pineapple, mango, orange, lemon, etc. (you can even see them refilling the dispensers with these syrups). So in summary, it doesn’t matter which cocktail you order, they all taste the same, nothing close to the real flavor. You have to go for branded alcoholic drinks to get something decent, or order a natural lemonade. Nothing is made with natural juice (except at the buffet breakfast area, where there are natural fruit juices).

RESTAURANTS In the themed restaurants, there was a noticeable difference, excellent service from the waiters and good...

Stayed: June 8–17, 2025 Guests: 2 adults + 15 y.o. teenager

Barcelo Maya Tropical exceeded all our expectations.

Room: Standard room with two beds and balcony. Clean, slightly dated but fully functional. Amazing air conditioning (quiet and effective), blackout curtains, comfortable beds with lots of pillows. Safe, minibar, toiletries, and robes provided.

Food: Outstanding buffet with tons of variety — meats, seafood, fresh fruit, vegetables, and desserts. Soft-serve ice cream machines, juice stations, great coffee. No real need for a la carte restaraunts, but we still tried 5 and they were excellent. Good quality beer (Corona), wine, and cocktails. You can order from staff or help yourself.

Bars: Bars everywhere — at least 4 in our hotel, plus all the ones in neighboring hotels (fully accessible). Pool bar lets you order from the water. Beach bar is not directly on the beach, but just 2 minutes away. Rarely any lines.

Beach: Wide, sandy, and clean. Plenty of loungers under palm trees (no umbrellas needed). Some seaweed later in the week — cleaned nightly, but still builds up by noon. Water was clear early in our stay, more murky with waves later. Lifeguards on duty until 6 PM. Free snorkel gear rental for 1 hour with $20 refundable deposit.

Pools: Huge interconnected pools with jacuzzis, waterfalls, lap lanes. Children’s water park nearby with slides. Clean water, lots of loungers and hammocks. Daily activities like water aerobics, volleyball, yoga, and more. Poolside bar included.

Entertainment: Daily evening shows — 8:30 PM kids' show, 9:30 PM main show — fantastic quality. Mini-golf (free, 18 holes, entrance from Sport bar which in the mall), sports bar with small movie theater (sport events), arcade (paid), billiards ($8/hr), and a small casino on site. Karaoke on select nights.

SPA & Fitness: The resort has a full-service spa with saunas and a steam room (extra cost), and a massive, well-equipped fitness center located inside the spa complex and the gym is free to use.

Grounds: Absolutely stunning and enormous. You get access to at least 4 connected resorts. Free double-decker shuttles take you around. Beautiful landscaping, fountains, statues, photo spots, and covered walkways - you can even walk between resorts without ever being in the sun or rain. Design and maintenance are next-level. Grounds are easily 20/10.

Wi-Fi & Money: Excellent Wi-Fi across the entire resort - fast and stable. Credit cards accepted everywhere, ATMs available. We tipped in USD ($1 at buffets/bars, $5 in a la carte and for housekeeping) but NO pressure to tip at all.

Overall: Incredible food Massive, beautifully designed grounds Friendly staff So many activities Ideal for both families and couples

Pro tips: Bring a streaming stick (TVs aren’t smart) Book a la carte restaurants right away (they get fully booked very quickly) Bring a snorkel mask — there’s a small reef on the beach

We’ll 100% come back next time we’re in Cancun. Highly...