JOIA Paraíso by Iberostar — Hotel in Quintana Roo

We spent 11 nights at JOIA Paraiso by Iberostar.||We arrived at a good time because it was the tail end of their members week. We left after their Mexico Independence day celebration. Due to the length of our stay, we were able to enjoy everything the Iberostar Complex had to offer, including all the amenities in JOIA and the other hotels in the complex. ||Everything was great, but there were a few things that are worth an extra mention; both good and bad. ||The good 🌟||Entertainment and Access 🎵🙌: Staying here gives you access to virtually everything the other hotels in the complex have to offer. What we did not know until we got here was that not only are you able to access the spa facilities at JOIA, but you also have access to the bigger spa at the shopping center. We are glad we discovered this early on our trip. The Sauna in the bigger spa is a lot hotter and it is Unisex, unlike the one at JOIA. We still preferred the spa at JOIA though, since it was right by our room. We also enjoyed the other pools and food offerings at the other hotels. The shows in the other hotels were ok, but they did not compare to the shows at the Coliseo in JOIA.The seats are comfortable and did I mention the theater is completely airconditioned! The Shows repeat themselves every week aside from some special occasions like the Mexico Independence day. The games by the pool were fun to watch. The entertainment team tries their best to get everyone included in everything they do. I really enjoyed their activities and my favorite by far was the macrame in the evening. I have my little souvenir on my wall currently. ||The Food 🍽: The food was amazing. Even the room service food was great. We tried every restaurant that they had, including the ones in the other hotels. We definitely gained some pounds 😅. My favorite was the Asian restaurant “Haiku”a la carte . They had the most delicious wings. Their sushi was good, and so was the entree. I also drank warm sake for the first time so that was a nice experience. We enjoyed their buffet, but sometimes the food was a bit too elevated for my palate. I like to eat some kid-friendly foods 😁.  We were a bit disappointed with the Ember steakhouse. The highlight of the meal was the mashed potato. I am not a big fan of it and I was shocked at how great it was. My steak came out at the right temperature but it lacked flavor. We had better steak ordering room service. The Italian Restaurant Venecia had a very delicious gnocchi with brisket and their drink of the day was Amazing. The theme and decor throughout the restaurant was my favorite out of all of the restaurants we visited there. The Ceviche Bar/BBQ was also a great spot, both foodwise and aesthetically. The ocean breeze there was phenomenal all throughout the day.  ||Surprisingly the restaurants in the other hotels were really good; here are some of the standouts:||Paraiso Del Mar: ||The Brazilian restaurant El Rodizio and the Mediterranean restaurant La Dorada were very good. This is a must try if you have a chance. They both have a salad bar/dessert bar. Unfortunately Star Rock Cafe was closed almost the entire time we were there. We were looking forward to their menu and possible ambiance/vibe. They only opened on Fridays for their Latin Night. ||Paraiso Beach: ||El Puerto smokehouse had a very interesting set menu. We really enjoyed their creamy corn and 12hr brisket. We asked for seconds. 😆||Paraiso Lindo: Second best buffet, after JOIA buffet of course. They even had Ceviche too. Very similar to JOIA but with kid friendly foods. The Greek place was good, it had its own salad/dessert bar.  We ordered the souvlaki and the mahi mahi was dry. The seasoning also was not the best. The chicken and beef were good.||Paraiso Maya: The food at the buffet needs help. No flavor at all. We were shocked that Paraiso Lindo had better food considering the price point. ||Coffeeshop ☕️: I have to mention this for the coffee lovers; there is 4 different coffeeshops you can go to if you stay at JOIA. One is located in the lobby in front of the garden, One is in the lobby of the Paraiso Maya hotel; A cute blue coffeehouse is located in the lobby of Paraiso Lindo hotel; and finally there is a small one located inside the shopping center. The coffeeshops all offer the standard coffee varieties  but the one in JOIA has specialty coffee cocktails. Our favorite though was the Coffeeshop in Paraiso Maya. Great vibe that reminded us of the coffeeshops we are used to. ||Customer Service and Cleanliness 🙋‍♂️🧹✨️: ||We rarely had problems with service anywhere throughout the entire trip. The managers should be very proud of their efforts, it clearly shows.||I usually don't make a special section for employees, but the service in this complex was so great that those that went above and beyond deserve a shoutout. ||I will start with JOIA: Our maids Eliana for the evening and Bertha during the day were amazing. 5 star cleaning. No complaints, just praise. Monserrat from JOIA starcafe, amazing as well. Super friendly and super animated 😆. ||Leo from Chiapas, as we call him, was amazing. He is one of the Bellboys. We would always use the app to get around on the carts. ||Paraiso Maya:||Catalina from the Star Cafe Maya. While we were there she was covering for someone and she was amazing every time we went. We went almost every day. We would also run into Rene, I believe he is a cook/baker. He would be there to refill the bakery stuff. Just a great guy. He would explain where certain pastries came from and recommend some depending on flavors. Top notch customer service.  ||Argelia from Paraiso Lindo Buffet. What a great server. She would know what we needed before we even asked. ||Manuel from the Mediterranean restaurant La Dorada. He was great, he knew his suggestions and was very attentive.  ||The Bad (to us, but it could be good for others): ||The Salty pools 👀🤽‍♀️: There are 3 pools located in JOIA, if you include the spa pool. We loved the quiet pool at JOIA because it was the only outdoor pool in the entire complex that was NOT salty! All the other pools including the pools at Paraiso Del Mar/Beach and Paraiso Lindo/Maya were Salty! Not sure if that was normal or intentional but my skin would sometimes get itchy after being in the pool even after rinsing off.  ||Impromptu sporting events ⚽️🏈🥊 : ||We were there when the Boxing fight of Canelo/Crawford was going to be aired and it just so happened to coincide with the weekend of Mexico independence day. We asked around the day before the fight so we knew where we could watch it. Eventually we heard from the Sports bar “The Corner” at Paraiso Lindo, that they would air it there. That meant that there were a lot of people there that wanted to see that fight. Combine it with several other events like football games that were also happening that same day, and you have yourself a very busy day at the Bar. I am pretty sure the people who work/run the Sports bar are not going to forget that day. That bar was over capacity at one point. They should have organized that better. The waitresses were overwhelmed. I know this because we asked one of them for an order of wings. She said she was going to check in the back and she never came back. An hour later, another waitress finally showed up to our table. We asked for wings and she said they had just closed the kitchen. That was very poor customer service, we are lucky that we spent almost 2 weeks there and had been exposed to better than that throughout the trip. If not, that bad experience could have set the tone for the entire trip if it would have happened earlier on the trip. ||It was overall a great trip, and we are already planning to bring the...

This review is from our stay November 21st thru December 3rd. This was our 9th stay at the Iberostar Joia and our 14th stay overall at this Iberostar property. We had another amazing stay with only a few comments for improvement needed. This trip was 12 days, which is our longest so far and our first after the renovations they made in August. ||||Arrival/Lobby Services: The welcome home by Ricardo is always our favorite part of the trip. Smooth and easy check in by Marco in the front lobby. They accommodated our upgrade request and we were assigned to Bldg 71. Ricardo whisked us off to our room (after a cocktail or two at the lobby bar). We always received excellent service at the lobby when requesting change (for tips) and especially love seeing Sacnite & Paulina who have always provided us the best service. Bell staff was great accommodating our ride requests and always provided a good laugh or two on the way. ||||Accommodations: We were in room 7151 on the third floor. The rooms are essentially the same and have not really been upgraded in any meaningful way since last year. They could probably use some attention and a bench of some kind in the shower would make life so much easier! Still comfortable with an amazing view and our maid service for both daily service and turn down was great! We also had no issues with our mini-bar replenishment and any requests were promptly granted.||||Butler Service: Daniel checked us in and did a fantastic job fielding our many requests (more hangers, temperature control, change of coffee maker, daily champagne bucket, etc….) Ana, Tania, Antonio, Benjamen, also provided us with excellent service as needed/requested. We also made a trip to Bldg 70 to see our Butler friends from previous years (Luis and Marcelo)… All the butlers here go out of their way to accommodate any need you may have.||||Entertainment: The entertainment staff led by Luis is excellent and we enjoyed interacting with them. The addition of live music at the pool in the afternoons was great, and the guitarist/singer (Mr Tacher) was fantastic and played some great music! We missed Oz Barba at the Joia and made a special trip to the Maya to see him. Another amazing talent who never disappoints! Shows are back in the Theatre, and we made it to one, but there was a chemical odor in the building that made it almost impossible to stay. Hopefully that is a temporary situation. ||||Restaurants: Overall the food was very good and I’ll summarize each below:||||Star Café- New and very welcome addition to the Joia property! Monserrat and our good friend Leticia (previously at the pool) took care of all our caffeine needs. ||||Buffet- Slight disappointment in the breakfast buffet as the temperature of the food (unless you had freshly made) was lukewarm and sometimes even cold. I had never experienced this in previous stays. We only had the lunch buffet once, but it was very good with a great selection and food and better temperatures! Service in the buffet was excellent as always and Wilberth always found us to say hello when he was working.||||Punta Sal- We love this place on the beach for lunch. It’s a beautiful view, good food, and Eunice (manager) and our favorite server Guadalupe always ensure a wonderful meal! ||||Haiku Teppanyaki- The first time we have done the Teppanyaki tables in a few years. Food was great, show was good, and service was excellent as always. (Thanks to Willams)||Legado (Mexican)- Every meal we had here was excellent and the service is impeccable. Menu is much improved over the previous “Mexican” restaurant. Melchor has been our favorite server at Haiku for many years and has moved over to Legado. He ensured an excellent meal with some of the best service in the entire resort both visits to this restaurant.||||Venecia- Italian restaurant and we had excellent food every time we ate here this trip. Service by Eusubio was outstanding! This was one of our favorites this time around!||||L’Atelier- This is the gourmet/French restaurant. We ate there twice and the first time the food was so-so, but the second time the food was much better. Excellent service both visits by Sylvino and Emilio!||||Ember-This is the steakhouse and we ended up eating here quite a few times this trip. Food was good and Alphonso did an excellent job with service on our first visit. We had an outstanding meal our last visit with much thanks to Felix (the manager) who granted a few special requests on our part to accommodate some allergy concerns. ||||Haiku-Bistro- This was always a favorite of ours, but we only ate here once this trip and regretted not making it a priority to eat here at least twice! They have a slightly new menu and everything we had was excellent!||||Bars/Pool/Beach:||Lobby Bar- We love this Bar, especially for a morning or early afternoon break. During the day, Antonio & Janeth keep us entertained and well lubricated with yummy drinks and friendly banter. Dario made us some excellent Espresso Martini’s in the evening and there was always some music or entertainment happening each night and Araceli provided great service!||Rhapsody- Always enjoy this bar and some amazing cocktails made by Luilly and Neville. Here is where you can get some of the best drinks on the property. ||Pool Bar- Great service from Alejando and team! Whether you want a shot or mixed drink, they’ve got you covered and very often it turns into shots for the entire bar! Service around the pool by Consuelo, Letecia, and team was also excellent and quick! And we can’t forget Luis with his cart and fresh fruit cocktails around the pool!||Beach Bar/Service- Special thanks to Humberto for his service on the beach this trip! ||Pool Concierge- Mirna does an amazing job and always greets us with a smile and a hug each trip. ||||Golf:||We golfed three times this trip and enjoyed them all. We are not fans of the shotgun start they have implemented on busy weekends and wish they would reconsider reinstating regular tee times. The course is beautiful (and challenging) and the staff there are great!||||Summary:||We love coming “home” to this resort and our friends we’ve made over the years. This year it seems like the food was better in most cases (except breakfast buffet) and the improvements they’ve made are good. Rooms could use some updating, but the most important part of this resort is the staff and the service level which remains outstanding. That is the reason we return...

Property itself is stunning to look at and is maintained to a very high standard. The gardens are kept immaculate and every effort to keep the sea grass off the beach is undertaken every day, but unfortunately nature sometimes wins.||All the staff in this hotel are extremely hard working and helpful- Iberostar should be proud of them all.||We stayed in a garden view room, this was completely adequate, comfortable bed, and again kept immaculately clean complete with turndown service every night. Bar was always kept stocked with beer and soft drinks along with bottles of water. If you require more water just ask your concierge and more will be forthcoming. In the bathroom plenty of towels changed twice daily, also good quality, shower gel, shampoo and conditioner and even mosquito repellent. Hairdryer was powerful and it was nice to see an iron and ironing board.||Pools - there is a large pool where all of the day time activities take place. We however only used the quiet pool, which as the name suggests is very relaxing and has a tranquil setting. Plenty of fresh towels provided along with cool flavoured water, a nice touch is the sunscreen provided at the towel station. There was fantastic pool service for drinks all day. An improvement that needs to be made however is the cabanas need refurbishing, some curtains are heavily stained, damaged or in some cases missing. Also would suggest that the mattress covers need replacing more often. The structure of the cabanas now need to be refurbished as well to bring up to a 5 star rating.||Drink quality- this is probably the best we have ever had in all of the all- inclusive hotels we have stayed in, in Mexico, never once did they run out of any brand. Just ask for the brand you require and if they have it you’ve got it. A special mention in the main bar to Daniel and the team they were outstanding, never once did I see Daniel asked for something he didn’t know how to make. He made us feel very welcome straight away, a sign of an excellent bar tender.||Food is subjective, so this is our opinion, but it is based on travelling for 15 years to all inclusive hotels in Mexico.||The buffet in the main restaurant- for breakfast this is as good as any hotel in Mexico.|Lunch time buffet is the best we have ever had- fantastic choice, constantly been replenished, never ran out of anything. Evening meal buffet again of a very high standard with lots of high quality seafood and meat. Would recommend the Gala night in the buffet. The only criticism I would have is the large amount of artificial food colourings in the deserts.||We also visited the ceviche restaurant for lunch, on 3 occasions every time we had a good experience, would recommend the shrimp ceviche ||A la carte restaurants - this is where the hotel really lets itself down and there is room for vast improvements in this area.||The French restaurant- in our opinion the poorest we visited, whilst the service was good and staff were very attentive. The food needs to be improved dramatically along with the presentation. On the first occasion the seafood bisque was ordered and this was served with an unopened mussel and a broken shell mussel and the only 2 clams that were served had no meat in them. The bisque was dramatically over seasoned. A rack of lamb was not a rack of lamb, it was small lamb chops, not French trimmed which were overcooked on a bed of over seasoned polenta. The beef wellington was served with tough meat and was overcooked (ironically they had perfectly prepared beef wellington in the buffet, if they can produce it there why can’t they produce it in the restaurant). Tried a second time in case it was a one off, but this was not the case. Tried the French onion soup whilst it was ok, it was served in the same bowl as used for the breakfast cereal, the lamb again was served exactly the same as previously.||The Italian restaurant. This was the only place where we had poor service. Again attention to detail is certainly lacking, food needs to be improved along with presentation. Food was overcooked and over seasoned. The whole menu on offer needs to be totally revamped.||The Mexican restaurant was the best of the restaurants we visited. The ambiance and service was what you would expect of a five star hotel and the food lived up to expectations, can highly recommend the bone marrow tacos, the lamb casserole with chickpeas, the chocolate dessert of chocolate cookie ice cream, biscuit crumble and a dark chocolate fondant with sea salt was excellent and what you would expect to see in a five star hotel restaurant.||The Japanese restaurant- we tried to visit, and were told there was a special event going on and they had no room, this was especially annoying as it was the same night the main buffet was closed- so limited your choice.||In closing, unfortunately currently we will not be returning due to poor restaurant quality and at this price bracket there are a lot of other hotels with higher standard restaurants. The management need to take a long hard look at their al la carte restaurants and update there menus and presentation, we would personally say that the menus and presentations look at least 10 years old and have not moved with...