Just returned from a second visit to Barcelo Maya Beach Tropical. Once again we were most impressed with every element of the resort including - the amazing variety and quality of food at the buffet, beautiful rooms (we always upgrade to Club Premium), quality of the grounds, pools, clean beach, wonderful staff and overall positive experience in Mexico at Barcelo.

For the most part Barcelo is a well oiled machine and we were amazed at the amount of worldwide fruit and food products available everyday, capuccino machines with great coffee and unlimited self serve beer available at the pool bars. Anyone who says they hate the food should not be at an all inclusive at all as this is one of the best out there for the price and we have tried them all throughout the Caribbean. Even the much higher end properties do not offer food much better then this.

With a few minor improvements this hotel could be even greater.
For example - the wine served at the main restaurants cannot even be classifed as wine. It is truly horrendous!!!! They should not be able to serve this as it is an insult to anyone who asks for a glass of wine. Even the servers tell you it is really bad. I am sure this is a ploy to have you buy a bottle of wine but in any case they should not serve vinegar to punish people.

Also, the hotel is not capable of handling large group reservations or personal requests. We wanted two side by side rooms and they were not capable of honoring that request. Only after much haggling and waiting until the next day were we able to achieve what we wanted. We heard this story from others over and over again.
Room amenities are provided on the first day and then never replenished the rest of the week. A big mystery with that one.
Also, if you want a more quiet building away from the nightly show in the open theatre, stay in the Veracruz building. Most others are noisy until almost 11 p.m. everynight.

A travel tip for those wanting to book tours, make sure you book through the Barceo hotel excursion desk and not your tour rep as the prices are considerably lower. You pay when you check out, not in advance and save quite a bit of money as they avoid the middleman. Makes much more sense.
My family and I (all adults) did lots of shopping, took great excursions to the Coba ruins and Isla de Mugeres. Both were well worth the money. Also try the Cenotes - very interesting.

Shopping at Duty Free in Cancun airport is awesome and the prices are amazing.

We all cannot wait to go back!

We chose this resort because of reviews that said it was very family friendly, and it defintely lived up to that billing. The kids club was great and my 4 yr old was in there quite a bit. The kids pool area is wonderful and even my 2 11 yr olds had fun playing in there. The entire pool area of the Tropical and Colonial is very expansive- probably the biggest pool system I have ever seen in all of the resorts in Mexico we have travelled to (up to 13 now!). The beach has lots of palm trees for shade and makes it very picturesque. Also as others mentioned the snorkling right off the resort is fabulous- the area of the beach closer to the Barcelo Palace has tons of fish you can easily see. We also saw a sting ray, an eel, and star fish. My kids were thrilled and we didn't even have to book an expensive snorkling excursion! They also have different animals like monkeys, parrots, etc that they bring around the pool area every day so you can get your picture made (of course for $$) but just being able to hold and see the animals was fun for my kids. We ended up buying one set of pictures for $25.

The rooms we were in were fine- I think there has been some recent updating/re-freshing of the rooms there but I wouldn't say they were fabulous but they were clean and comfortable. The fridge was nicely stocked with refreshments and they even put in quite an assortment of packaged snacks which was a nice perk that I haven't seen before with all inclusives (M&Ms, Lay's chips, etc. Kids loved that!). I thought the buffets and the restaurants were really above average compared to other AI's we have been too. We loved the "crepe lady"- made to order we had them both for breakfast and sometimes dessert- and you could fill with fresh fruit, whipped cream, Nutella, etc. They were awesome!!

The service overall was very good, I can't really complain about anything. If I had to say one thing the room service was a little slow, but that is typical in a large AI resort. The overall Barcelo complex is very nice, beautiful grounds and fountains everywhere you look. We only left the property once for a tour we did with Captain Quickie, who I highly recommend. I am definitely thinking of returning here for our summer family vacation in 2012- and for me that says a lot bc we usually like to try new places but we really loved Barcelo. Go!! :)

This was our first stay at an all-inclusive resort--we are generally much more adventurous travelers, but this time we just wanted an easy, good-weather, winter get-away. We booked the Barcelo Maya Beach but were upgraded to the Tropical when we arrived. By the end of our stay we decided that we would definitely choose the Tropical again if we go back. It was centrally located on beach, with access to several more of the specialty restaurants than you get in the less expensive Maya Beach. We were very impressed with the quality of food in the buffets--especially if you choose the tropical fruit and whatever they are cooking fresh, usually at several stations throughout the buffet. The bar at the Tropical is probably the best of all the resorts, and the lobby is airy and spacious with fountains and running water everywhere. The beach is probably as nice as any we have seen anywhere in the world (with the possible exception of Bora Bora), with calm water and tons of beautiful fish and coral to delight the snorkelers. The pool is enormous, including a water-slide area for the kids at one end and a swim-up bar at the other, plus lots of fountains and water features in between. We were a little disappointed in the speciality restaurants (but we are from San Francisco and probably a little hard to impress when it comes to good food). All the drinks were good (the Corona beer on tap was great), but the house wines were barely drinkable. Consequently, we wound up purchasing wine for dinner and having a bar bill at the end of our stay, despite the fact that this was an all-inclusive resort. They have a premium package for people who want to drink name-brand liquor--we wished they had offered a premium package that included better wines. One other small criticism is that a better variety of shops would have been nice. All the shops seemed to sell the same things--all souvenirs. But despite these small complaints, overall we absolutely loved this resort, enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, and will probably come back again next year. Word of caution: These resorts are huge; a shuttles are available and they run frequently, but be prepared to do a lot of walking! Best bets: the Bahama Mamas (like strawberry milkshakes with rum!) and the freshly made churros, still warm and crunchy. Mmmmmm.

Overall, it was a positive experience. Staff was very nice and helpful (except the water sports people were rude). A positive thing was that most people thought we were mexican and spoke to us in Spanish so I got to practice a little (I usually try to spend a month or two learning the local language before most trips, eg French and Italian prior to our Europe trip and Spanish before our Guatemala trip last year). We probably won't return to any all-inclusive resort type place anytime soon cause my family (wife and teen kids) kinda thought it was a very cliche kind of vacation. Excellent snorkeling right off the beach that most people did NOT take advantage of. Food was OK but that was only because we are vegetarian (even the veggie stuff tasted suspect eg. chips and churros kinda had a lardy taste, etc) but overall I bet the average traveller would really like everything here. The pools were beautiful and also exceptionally clean. The beds and pillows (other people have commented negatively) were very comfortable, no complaints here. I feel that out of the five options here the Colonial/Tropical property is the best option. The Japanese restaurant Kyoto was very nice. People were friendly. We took a snorkeling tour and one to Chichen Itza. Both were nice.