Riviera Maya Guide – Barcelo Resorts

It has been along time since I have written a post about traveling, let alone an actual travel guide! I don’t need to talk about how absolutely crazy and life changing the last year and a half have been. We all have been experiencing it. My first trip since the Pandemic began was a few weeks ago. To say I was excited to go would be an huge understatement! It was the first time I had flown in almost a year and a half. I think that is some kind of record for me!

My friends and I started planning this trip back in June. We wanted to go to an all inclusive resort in or around Cancun, Mexico. None of us had been to one in that area so we did some research on a few resorts. Our requirements were all inclusive, great pool options, good restaurants and moderate price.

To get to Riviera Maya you fly into Cancun and then its about an hour drive. My first tip in this Riviera Maya guide would be to set up airport transport ahead of time because it can be a little chaotic to do it at the airport.

Barcelo Maya Palace Resort

We decided on the Barcelo Maya Palace resort. It is part of the Barcelo group which has four different resorts all on one large property in Riviera Maya. This was one of the nicer of the resorts of the four. It isn’t adults only but it isn’t the “family resort” on the property. Maya Palace also has some of the nicer restaurants too. They have two amazing pools and one is adults only.

Food & Drinks

Staying at the Barcelo Maya Palace allowed us to visit all of the other resorts and their restaurants for free except the Adults only. We could go to the restaurants at that resort with a small upcharge.

I was happily surprised with the main buffet restaurant. It had a huge variety of foods for breakfast and lunch and was really good. We ate breakfast and several lunches at La Hacienda Buffet, the main buffet at our hotel, and I didn’t get tired of it. Lots of fresh seafood, Mexican cuisine and other great options!

Each night we had reservations at one of the nicer restaurants and loved them!

Brasserie – AMAZING French restaurant. I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did but everything I tried was wonderful.

Rodizio- Brazilian style steakhouse. Great steak options!

Sapporo – Japanese restaurant with sushi, hibachi and other Japanese foods. This was my favorite meal of the trip! Our group basically tried all of the sushi rolls and they are some of the best I’ve ever had. Beyond fresh and absolutely wonderful.

Rooms & Resort

I stayed in a junior suite with a king bed. The room was nice, clean and spacious. What I really loved where the bathrooms. The shower had a rainforest shower head and huge tub. Each room has huge sliding glass doors that look onto your private balcony. What I appreciated is that even though we didn’t pay for the upgraded views, they have lots of foliage and palm trees planted so that our view was of them and not others rooms and balconies.

Both of the pools were big and beautiful. Lining the large pool is a shallow step out area that has built in sun chairs and some covered areas (which I really appreciated) and tons of lounging chairs. The main one had a fun, party vibe and a swim up bar. The adults only pool was a bit quieter and more relaxed area.

The whole resort was beautiful and colorful. It had an authentic Mexican feel. Each restaurant and bar was beautiful as well and there are plenty of great views of the ocean. (see ore pics on my insta) There is a beautiful path that runs along the beach and connects all the resorts. It made a great after dinner walk for us. Be prepared to walk a lot because the resort is huge!

Spa

The girls in our group booked massages and had a morning at the spa. With your massage, you have access to all of the amenities. First of all, it was a beautiful spa and very reasonably priced. We got to the spa about an hour early. We changed into our swimsuits and then checked out the steam rooms and other amenities. There is a spa guide in that helps you with all the saunas etc. She would tell us the order to do everything and would tell us how long and come get us when we had been in there long enough. My favorite thing where the herbal showers, they smelled amazing! The hydrotherapy was an interesting experience where you sit in the hot pool for a few minutes then dunk yourself into the freezing cold pool. It was shocking but definitely loosened up my muscles and had me ready for the massage. I booked a deep tissue massage and it really was one of the top massages I’ve ever had.

Excursion

While we spent most of our time at the resort, we did book one excursion to do on our third day. We did a private group tour with reef snorkeling, visiting cenotes and ziplining. We couldn’t have asked for a better day trip. It by far exceeded our expectations. Your personal guide picks you up and drops you off at your hotel. The nice van is stocked with water and beer. We started by snorkeling at different areas on a reef. You take a pretty small boat out to the reef so if you get sea sick I would take some medicine beforehand.

After snorkeling, we drove about 45 minutes to a national park that had the cenotes. Our guide was really well informed and knew all about the culture and history of the area. I loved learning about the culture and history while experiencing the area. The 3 cenotes were each beautiful and different from each other. One of them had a 3 story jump that I did (after a bit of cheering from my friends).

The surprise highlight of the whole day was the lunch! The park we were at is run by Mayans and several Mayan women cook a Mayan/Mexican meal. I am still thinking about the tacos and the Mayan coffee!

After the cenotes we ended the day ziplining. It was the perfect adrenaline rush to end the day with. We then cheersed the day with a few beers.

For this trip I would recommend wearing water shoes and a comfortable swimsuit. Also have shorts for the ziplining. Just wearing a swimsuit would be uncomfortable with the harness you have to wear. Also bring a towel and lots of reef-safe sunscreen.

COVID Precautions

The resort felt very clean and safe. It also wasn’t too crowded that I felt too close to people if I didn’t want to be. At all the restaurants and bars you wore your masks until you were seated. Then at your table you could take of the mask. They also have a testing center that you can get your COVID test you need to enter back into the US.