Barcelo Maya Beach Resort - Mexico

​The Barceló Maya Beach Resort in the Riviera Maya area of Mexico is a wonderful family and friends getaway.  The resort is located about one hour and a half from Cancun’s International airport.   The best transfer is a private or nonstop transfer direct to the resort.

​The Barceló is made up of 5 separate all inclusive hotels, the Barceló Maya Beach & Caribe, Barceló Colonial & Tropical and the Barceló Maya Palace Deluxe.  Similar to the Iberostar Resorts, the Barceló Resorts offers guest reciprocal use of the sister hotel you are staying at.   The entry level Barceló Beach & Caribe guests have use of all of the restaurants and facilities within these 2 hotels.  If you choose to stay at the mid level Barceló Colonial & Tropical, you will have use of both the sister hotels as well as the Beach & Caribe complex.   The top tier is the Barceló Maya Palace Deluxe where guests have the use of the full Barceló Maya Beach Resort.  The entire complex offers 18 restaurants, 19 bars, 10 pools, a kid’s water park, disco, fitness center, a spa with a special kid’s spa, and the Barcy Kids Club.  The Barceló complex is located on one of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean with 1.5 miles of white sand and crystal clear water.   The beach, which is private by nature, is towards the southern end of the Riviera Maya is good for swimming as the surf does not get as rough as in the Cancun area.

​We dined at several of the restaurants within the resort.  The Kyoto was great with the chef cooking the Japanese cuisine in front of our table.  We had lobster tail with some other great oriental dishes.  La Brasserie with its French cuisine was a great dining location overlooking the ocean.  The buffet restaurants set near the beach offered many choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner.   There was plenty of dining selection to choose from at the Barceló.

​The rooms at each of the sections were all well appointed.   They offer either king or double beds with a spacious sitting area and a balcony that depending on where you are at the resort either looks over the tropical vegetation or the pool.  The bathrooms in rooms were very spacious with a nice shower and tub as well as generous space around the sink.  The Club Premium rooms offer towards the ocean and are closest to the pools.

The grounds and the pools at the Barceló are wonderful.  The lush green lawns, swaying palm trees make it a great place to stroll around and find the many iguana’s that are on property.  There is a great kid’s play area with a trampoline, water area, tennis courts, and soccer field.  The largest of the pools is within the Barceló Maya Palace Deluxe section, it is an enormous pool with in the water lounges and a great pool bar and snack bar.  In this section there is an adult’s only pool area where the adults can have some quite time.

I have sent several clients to this resort and all of them come back with high marks for a great family vacation for families of all ages and size.   Ever since I returned from the Pleasant Holidays trip, my children cannot wait to visit the Barceló Maya Palace Beach Resort.