Iberostar Waves Paraíso Beach — Hotel in Quintana Roo

We took our 3 young adult sons to this resort for a quick getaway before school started. We stayed 7 days. Our boys are 23, 20 and 17. We had a great time. Highlights: the outdoor areas are beautiful and very well kept. Peacocks, black swans, coati, iguanas are some of what you will see while walking.There is a lot of opportunity to get a lot of steps in at this resort. There are shuttles that will take you from one end of the resort to the other, but we like to walk so we only used the shuttles a few times. The lobby and several restaurants are at one end and the pool and beach access and a few restaurants are at the other end. Our room was near the pool and beach access, which was perfect. I would say it was a 10 min walk from our room to the lobby / main buffet. The pool was a big highlight. It’s huge and amazing. There is a ‘party pool’ that had fun activities for the kids, lots of music and a swim up bar. *bring a Yeti or some kind of insulated cup to keep your drinks cool. The boys played water polo and some other competitive activities. The rest of the very large pool area is quiet and a great place to spend the day. Take a floatie when you go with an air pump or you can buy one inflated for about $25 in the gift shop. People do save chairs at the pool. I get up early so I went out and saved our chairs every morning around 7am, it was not a big deal. You don’t need to bring beach towels as they have those at the pool, but I would recommend the towel clips for your chairs. The beach was nice. Soft white sand, a little surf. The boys brought their bogie boards, but there was not enough surf to ride those. And yes, there was a lot of seaweed, which we expected at this time of the year. The hotel does a great job of using trucks to cleanup as much as possible every morning. Plenty of chairs with shade available at the beach. You don’t need to bring an umbrella. There is a hut on the beach w/cheeseburgers and fries every day that the boys enjoyed. The food was pretty good. We did work with our concierge to book reservations at 3 of the restaurants that require reservations. Our favorite was the Japenese and French restaurants. Our boys really liked the Mexican restaurant which does not require a reservation so we ate there twice. The buffets for breakfast and lunch were good. You just have to find what you like. As far as excisions go, we had one good experience and one not so great. You will go thru Amstar at the hotel for excursions. I worked with Marco and requested a snorkel excursion. I paid a little over $500 for a 5 hour excursion for 4 people and they ended up snorkeling for about 30 min. 🙁The rest of them time, they were dumped off in Isla Mujeres where they were obvious tourists and asked to buy stuff the whole time. Shame on me for assuming the snorkeling would last a decent amount of time. So be sure to ask details about your excursions. The other excursion we booked was to Xcaret and it was fantastic. We talked to a gal at the Amstar kiosk at the pool this time and she was very helpful. We did the Xplor park at Xcaret that has several zip lines and water slides. The park is very nice and the day excursion included food and transportation. It was a full day excursion from 8-5pm. The buffet at Xplor was excellent! It was expensive. About $800 for 5 of us, but worth it. The boys loved it and we got some great pics. The evening activities at the resort were entertaining. Cheesy for sure, but fun. The older 2 boys enjoyed the club for 18+. There was music and dancing until 1-2am. They are strict about being 18 to enter, much to our 17 year old’s disappointment, but likely for the best. 🙂 We took our pickleball rackets and reserved a court to play one day. The fitness center was really nice. There is a lot to do at the resort. Excursions are definitely not necessary. We had adjoining rooms - 1 with a king size bed and 1 with 2 queens. This worked perfect for our family of 5. They clean your rooms every day and stock your frig with soda and beer. The rooms are a little dated, but very well kept and clean. This was our first time staying at an Iberostar resort and I would definitely stay at one again. We had a great time & made a lot of...

Pros: Jungle vibe with few animals including peacocks just waltzing through the grounds. Actual service staff are quite nice (except at smokehouse who haven't heard of people not eating pork and will mock you) Can watch beautiful sunrises on the beach. Variety of activities (sunrise yoga, carribean night, games) happening throughout the day Very big pool with varying depth Some food options (Taki-to, beach grill) had really good food. Environmental focus like no plastic use, no lobster served during mating season, towels/sheets change requested as needed to save water for longer stays.

Cons: Trying to sell you their membership or whatever with no regard for people's time or hunger. We were INVITED for a breakfast/presentation at 8:45 am the next morning after we arrived, saying they are doing a promotion. And we will get free Catamaran tickets. Got there and they keep us waiting, hungry, saying rep is late. Waited from 9 to 10, with 7 different people repeatedly asking why one of us doesn't have a Canadian ID (why invite us then?). We finally got pissed and they sent us for breakfast at 10 without presentation and gave us our tickets (boat ride & snorkeling with a guide).

Then did this a SECOND time by another rep who saw us talking to tour vendors on the beach, came and approached us and invited us HIMSELF unprompted saying they'll give us discount on any hotel activity like jetski or parasailing (to keep money in the hotel) - and then scheduled breakfast/presentation for 10 am. We were up since 5 for sunrise and waiting for that thing. Then at 9:52 am, we get a call saying we can't get promotion because we are already in the system and got Catamaran tickets. We didn't ask for it btw? THEY APPROACHED US themselves, invited us, and canceled last minute when the breakfast buffet closes at 10 and lunch doesn't open till 1 pm. Seriously??

And on that stupid "free" Catamaran tour that we never asked for (which doesn't cover marine park fee apparently) they had an absolute incompetent new hire guide who called himself "the photographer". Was so focused on the touring part, didn't care about people almost drowning in the ocean. He was the one recommending people who can't swim to go in the water because "just the boat is boring". Had to be rescued and brought to the boat by another guest. Same with another person who got nausea and almost passed out after getting back on the boat. Had to be brought to her senses by myself and the guest who saved me from drowning. Note: all liability is waived and you HAVE to sign saying you can swim and will not be able to sue anyone remotely related to the activity. So if you die even if the guide practically pressured you to go in the water when you denied checking out the snorkel equipment, your family has no recourse.

Lower tier chairs (that you are ALLOWED to sit on) will be reserved by inconsiderate guests who will keep their towels and disappear. There'll be empty chairs with towels of people who went to eat somewhere or sth while people actually at the pool and the beach don't have a place to sit. People would come, leave their things on pool chairs at 8-9 am or so, and just go disappear. Same with the beach. Those chairs could be used by people actually AT the pool or the beach, but no.

Empty higher tier chairs will be reserved and only for club members.

"Train" has inaccurate times on the app, so to move around you'll stay waiting and later find out they aren't even running. First 3 days, drivers would ask and drop us off on the way. But after that, they would say "cars for club members only" even if they were going the exact way empty. Such environmentally friendly. No AC for meals. Dinner time for you is also dinner time for mosquitoes. Beach towels available only in the pool area, so basically walk back and forth if you want to enjoy the beach. There's beach towels at the beach but only for the club members. Watered down drinks. Only 2 outlets in room

Basically, spend a few grand to see services you can't use...

Canadian couple mid 70's Nov. 11-25

Check-in – Pre-registered on-line before leaving, which I believe sped up check-in time. Clerk, Abel, was very helpful in assigning our appropriate room.

Room - The room was spotlessly clean with an extremely comfortable king bed. Dispensers for hand soap, shampoo, conditioner, and moisturizer lotion. Bottle of mosquito repellent also provided, although mosquitos were not a problem. Maid service was excellent. Highly recommend tipping daily for the effort given by the maid.

Drinking water provided by dispenser in hallway was excellent. Beer and soft drinks in fridge. Good Wi-Fi reception in room and throughout resort. Quality TV with good selection of channels. Room safe provided. Each building is 3 floors. No elevators.

Staff – all staff throughout the resort are extremely friendly, well groomed, polite, and hard working.

Pool – large and clean. Pool towels are provided. Loungers were plentiful and relatively easy to obtain in the mornings. We, along with many others, were fortunate to find a quiet area near the waterfall. It appears quiet pool areas are in high demand, especially with the baby boomer population. There were the party pool areas with the “boom-boom” bass of music which made it difficult to socialize, read, and snooze in those areas.

Resort – large with lots of walking. Bring good sandals or runners. Careful of tile floors, very slippery, especially when wet. Regular shuttle service was good if walking is an issue. Grounds are immaculate with lots of wildlife to see.

Pool Bar – hard to access unless you want to swim.

Buffet - We ate most of our meals in the Mercado buffet. Thank you to our daily waiters, Gilberto and Catalina who were just great. The service was excellent. Staff always friendly, well groomed, and hard working. Food was excellent and varied. It is an open-air setting along a water canal with fountains. Fans keeping it very comfortable and cool.

Restaurants – Japanese was fun and the food was very good. Brazilian was also very good with the different meat choices cut at your table. The French was not our favorite. The waiter initially poured less than a quarter glass of wine for us and never returned.

Lobby Bar – comfortable with lots of seating and very good bar service.

Beach – Life guard protected. Well kept and clean. Nice sand. Water shoes may be helpful depending where you enter water. Loose rocks/coral for first few feet into water at some locations, but nice sand after that.

Dress Code – appears that anything goes and there is no dress code, however, most men wore nice shorts with shirt to restaurants.

Comments to Guests – A small percentage of resort guests waste significant amounts of food and liquor. This cost ultimately increases holiday costs in the future. Please only take what you will consume.

Comments to Management – two minor observations: 1. The manhole covers on the service road are loud and annoying for guests sitting on balconies. With all the shuttle traffic and service vehicles, it is a constant “clang” every time a vehicle drives over them. Perhaps the manhole covers could be lined with something to eliminate or reduce the noise. 2. It would be nice to have hand-held shower heads in each room’s shower. Ours only had a regular shower head. It would improve the cleanliness factor and may use less water.

Final Word – The staff were wonderful. We will return and hopefully find a quiet pool area again for rest and relaxation. Our holiday enjoyment was tempered by the fact we contracted COVID from a coughing guest from a different hotel who was on our return shuttle bus to the airport. She made no effort to cover her mouth when coughing, and wore no mask. At the very least, please wear an approved mask for the...