We stayed at Barcelo Tropical in January for 7 days and enjoyed every minute of it. We reviewed just about every resort possible in the Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum area and finally settled on Barcelo Tropical upon having multiple personal references and it having good reviews. We couldn't be happier with our choice and will definitely be returning for future vacations here. I have never done a review before, but felt that we had such a great experience that I wanted to share with others what our thoughts were. I know how much our decision was based on reviews so I hope this helps you. Here are our thoughts, good and bad:

PRO'S -
1. Location - located about an hour south of Cancun on one of the best beaches around. The beach always had plenty of room/chairs and was endless. The water was great and sandy for the most part. There were a few spots with rocks, but we found it great snorkeling in those areas as well. We planned a private transfer from the airport and I would definitely recommend that (we used Cancun Shuttle and they were great). The private transfer won't stop at any resorts on the way and gets you there in roughly an hour where a semi-private or bus will stop and take up to multiple hours depending on the number of stops. Barcelo Tropical is also located 20 minutes south of Playa del Carmen, which was great for a day shopping trip. It is also only about 20 minutes north of Tulum, which is great for a day visit to the Mayan Ruins.

2. Activities - There are endless activities included in the package. We loved the catamarans, kayaks, paddle boats, wind surfing, sand volleyball, mini golf, archery, tennis, and multiple other sports. These were all included which was great for when you were sick of sitting on the beach. There were also trainings included for some of the water activities (ie: catamaran and surfing).

3. Food - We found the food phenomenal and were never disappointed. We were upgraded to an all-inclusive plus with our package, which I would definitely recommend. The way the Tropical/Colonial is set up, you get access to the buffets all the time and then the fine dining/ala carte restaurants allowed access based on the number of nights you stayed. By upgrading, we were allowed unlimited access to the fine dining/ala carte restaurants so we didn't have to eat at the buffets for anything but lunch or breakfast. The buffet was great, but I could see where it would get old if you had to eat there for multiple meals. The fine dining/ala carte was phenomenal, I have never had such great food. We did the Mexican, Spanish, Seafood, Steak House, and Japanese restaurants. We had heard from friends that the Italian was not very good, so we never tried it. The ones we did try were great, especially the Japanese/Hibachi restaurant. All were very formal and authentic. One note, be sure to make you reservations for dinner as you are checking in so you get a table. You will NOT get a table if you try to show up every night, you need to make reservations right away as they fill up. We had no problem getting reservations upon check in, but we would've never gotten in if we wait each night to just show up as they were busy. Be sure to make reservations for ALL nights/restaurants upon check in. Buffets were great and so were the beach restaurants/grills, never were disappointed.

4. Resort Itself - We found Barcelo Tropical to be the best "bang for your buck" due to having access to 2 resorts for the price of one. At this location, Barcelo has the Maya and Caribe (which is the "lowest" cost and has the least amenities), the Tropical and Colonial (middle level) and the Palace (highest cost/amenities). They are all located on the same facility and beach and next to each other. If you purchase the Maya/Caribe, you only have access to that area. If you purchase the Tropical/Colonial you have access to the Tropical/Colonial AND the Maya/Caribe. If you purchase the Palace you have access to it all. By access, I would say the biggest thing is the dining. You have access to your specific areas restaurants and the resort "below" you, which is nice for variety. I honestly don't think the Palace is worth the money, unless you really want the fancy rooms/treatment. We found the Tropical/Colonial to be a great middle ground and it was only about $50 more a person from the Maya/Caribe. Overall, the resort set up is fantastic, two resorts for the price of one if you do the Tropical/Colonial. The beaches are available for everyone regardless of resort package purchased, but most stayed in front of their specific resort area just for convenience.

5. Family Friendly/Safety - Very family friendly resort but not overwhelming with children either. We were not there with kids, but I was very impressed by how family friendly it was and plan to bring our kids some day. The kids were very well behaved and were not bothersome at all, it was great. There was a good mix of families, singles, friends, etc. It was also extremely safe---we left our belongings by our chairs on the beach and would go get food or go swim and never had any issues. We also saw kids walking around without parents multiple times and there were no issues. It was incredibly safe. Barcelo has security gaurds and monitor things well. There was also a safe in each room for money and small belongings (passports, jewelry, etc).

6. Pools - The pools were wonderful, good swim up bar, chairs, hammocks, cabanas, kids pool, so on....we didn't spend much time in the pool because we are from MN and wanted to enjoy the beach, but the pools were great when we were there. A lot of organized activities too (water polo, exercise groups, games, etc.).

7. Drinks - The alcoholic beverages were wonderful, many frozen drink options and mixed drink options. House wine is included. The only beer option is Corona, so if you are looking for variety they don't have much. It wasn't a big issue, but we are not big beer drinkers--I coud see where Corona would get old.

8. Service - Wonderful staff who truly want to please you, we had no issues getting everything we needed and quickly! We were very impressed. They never expected tips either, we really didn't tip many of the bartenders---mostly tipped if we continuously had the same server/bartender and that was it, I was impressed. They treat you like royalty!

RECCOMENDATIONS -
1. Rooms - the rooms were nice and they were fine for us, every room included a nice balcony and the bathrooms were remodeled and excellent. However, it didn't appear that any of the rooms had beach views (not even at the Palace, but I could be wrong) so if you are looking for beach views you probably won't get it here. It didn't pose a problem for us because the walk to the beach is short, but just something to think about. The rooms also are not necessarily the most fancy, but you really only sleep in there. There were no problems by any means, but not elite (no flat screen tv's or tempurpedic mattesses or anything). We did have some issues with the AC rattling in our first room, but we reported it and they moved us to a different room immediately. Our phone also didn't work once and they fixed it right away.

2. Communicate - There were a few times that we experienced difficulty with communication with the staff, but it was purely a language barrier. The staff do speak English, but it is mostly broken English, they are primarily Spanish speaking. We didn't have major issues, but it did get frustrating some times because it was hard to communicate. However, you are in Mexico and that is their language. I wish we would have learned more Spanish before coming and felt quite ignorant to not know much Spanish in Mexico.

3. Resort Size - The resort is quite large, but they do have a shuttle that drives you around the resort and the paths are well lit and well manicured so we walked a lot. It was nice in my opinion, but if you do not want to walk around or have a large resort this isn't your place. It never seemed large to us or not manageable, but just thought I would mention it. Like I said above, it is 3 resorts in one spot so naturally there is a lot there. You don't have to walk around if you don't want to, but if you choose to it can appear to be quite large. The main things (restaurants, buffets, beach, bars, rooms) are in one general spot so it wasn't bad at all.

4. Wifi not free - There is WIFI at the resort but it is not included. We loved it beacause it never tempted us to check work emails and was much more peaceful, but if you demand internet it could get spendy paying for it all the time.

OVERALL -
GREAT resort, we will be returning. We really didn't feel there were any serious negative issues, just some things that could use some improvements but nothing that was a deal breaker. You will not be disappointed. Gorgeous resort, amazing beach, wonderful food. Enjoy your stay!

This was our third stay at the Barcelo Maya Beach property - the first two times were in 2002 and 2003 at Maya Beach. This stay (1/5/2013 - 1/12/2013) was at the Tropical.

The good: the property is drop-dead gorgeous, beautifully landscaped, and well-maintained. The beach is spectacular, and the pools excellent. The buffets have wide variety.

The bad: To put it simply, the problem is one of management. The staff collectively seem to have lost their edge, and appear to be "phoning it in". For instance:

Housekeeping was uneven - we never received the same number of towels day to day, and several times had to call to get enough to get thru the day (three folks in a room). One day we had none. Restocking the refrigerator and snack supply was hit or miss as well. While there were a few good waiters/bartenders, most were lethargic - not hostile, but not friendly or energetic either.

Drinks were offered to some guests at check-in, but not to others; it appeared to depend upon which agent you were working with.

The restrooms at the Tropical pool area went several days with little upkeep, including restocking of supplies. One area of the restroom floor had 5-6 towels used to mop up water on tile floors piled in the corner for most of the week.

Attendants at the pool/beach towel issue desk were argumentative about the number of towels being returned; one afternoon they folded a used towel we had just returned and placed it into the stack of clean towels and then accused us of returning too few towels, despite our repeated attempts to point out that they were folding a cool, wet towel instead of a warm freshly-laundered one.

On several occasions the buffets and snack bars would "run out" of key items for lengthy periods.

I understand that, taken individually, these are all pretty minor issues, and none were "trip ruiners". However, none of these occurred in our previous visits, and they all speak to a level of reduced attention to detail and quality. I don't know what's transpired between 2003/2004 and 2013, but it's noticeable. The "tone" changed.

The staff used to be extremely friendly, offering greetings and exhibiting a Disney "cast member" level of enthusiasm. In the most recent visit, I don't know if I received more than 2-3 greetings (other than waiters) unless I offered one first - and then it was a 50-50 chance of receiving a response.

My husband & I travelled with 3 other couples to the Barcelo Maya Tropical. The grounds are BEAUTIFUL! That may be the only reason this is a 4 star hotel.

ROOMS. When we arrived at our 3rd floor room our welcome fruit was red grapes (with seeds) in a bowl with a bottle of liquore. Our clock and the safe did not work and the balcony door wasn't locked (broken). The bed and pillows were rock hard. "No one is allowed in our room unless we are there," we were told. (Yet, the maids and frig restocker could be?) It took 2 days (and my husband getting angry with the front desk) to get things corrected. (We kept waiting in our room not being able to enjoy our vacation with our friends.) We ended up with 8 pillows somehow but only 1 washrag the entire 8 days. The stopper in the bathtub was not connected, so it was always down. (We just took it out - but the maid kept putting it back in!) The bathroom was stocked with mouthwash, sewing kit, shaving cream, razor, compact toothbrush, comb. sea salts for a bath, soap, shoe shine, dental kit, and toothpaste. Wow! The worst part was that our room was 17 degrees Celsius (64 F) and it NEVER got attended to. The floor always had sand on it (didn't vacuum, just swept) so it gets in the bed. Our frig was stocked twice the entire trip and our TV only worked when IT wanted to. The hotel is noisy, so BRING EAR PLUGS. We could hear the neighbors as if they were in OUR room. This was room 7615 in the Valcurez building.

GROUNDS. BRING GREAT WALKING SHOES. Everywhere is a long walk - the resort is expansive. We saw rats 4 different times (VERY scary!!). We never had trouble getting 8 lounge chairs on the beach, but they didn't look anything like the pictures on the web (just chaise loungers). The buffet was adequate (a different theme each night). When we booked our "special dinners" only 2 were the ones listed on the website. The Mexican Dinner was excellent! (Kudos to Cecil for making it a great experience!!) The rest of the special dinners were okay. Many waiters do not speak English, so if you have an allergy of any sort, BE SURE TO KNOW HOW TO ASK IN SPANISH! The pools are beautiful, but very cold. The beach is well groomed. There are only a couple foot paths without rocks to enter the ocean so WEAR WATER SHOES! We both had massages which were worth the $. BRING YOUR "RESORT CREDIT" COUPON WITH YOU. (Kudos to Coral for a great massage!) Most of the resort credit coupons are a joke; it's a way to get you to buy their services. We never saw the trolley. The day we wanted to go snorkeling it was too rough. If anyone wants to draw a tattoo on you, it is inexpensive but it's NOT henna like the artist said and the picture was only "close to" what I pointed out in the listing. I have a terrible rash from the ink! DRINKS WERE NEVER THE SAME whether you tipped or not and the beer was warm. We worried for nothing about losing a towel because the "resort charges $20 to replace it." The evening beach cleaner just gave us another to exchange when ours was taken.

EXCURSIONS. We did several excursions. At Xel Ha we had fun snorkeling and friends said the dolphin swim was fun, but we did not enjoy the Sea Trek. BTW, the park closes at 6pm. While shopping in Playa del Carmen, be sure to stop at Senior Frogs; the waiters made it a VERY enjoyable evening! The prices are the same as in the resort mall; so no real deals. Coba was not at all what we thought it would be. We saw the Mayan ruins and walked up the pyramid. The tour guide said we didn't need money so we had none to buy water/pop or rent the bike taxi. Our lunch was not WITH a Mayan family (it was a buffet in a tent) and who knew Mayans had electricity? Yep, a light bulb hung from the ceiling of the huts with a switch on the wall. One of the children motioned to a man on a bike to stay out of sight because a tour was coming through, but I saw him anyways. BRING A TREAT FOR THE KIDS. The underground cenote was just a limestone pit of water; no stalagmites or stalactites as Sal (our tour guide said). Sal was a very funny guy! REMEMBER TO BRING BUG SPRAY. The jewelry factory is not a factory tour AT ALL! It's just a jewelry store with high pressure salesmen (including the boss!). Even the $50 giftcard didn't cover the lowest priced item! Valentine (our Delta tour representative) really missed the mark on our excursions.

OVERALL the Barcelo Maya Tropical is very nice but we expected more. Maybe it just wasn't our thing as we have no Mexican or Barcelo experience to compare it to.

I'll start by saying this was our first all-inclusive resort experience(our other vacations have been cruises). We booked through apple vacations with godreamvacations.com. Travis was our agent. So first I'll note that after extensive shopping and searching we ended up with him not only because of his kindness and helpfulness in a year of planning, but he also had the best prices.
We are a family of 5, our 3 children being teenagers so our main concern was to have a fun family vacation where the kids would have the time of their lives before growing up and heading off to college.
The resort was gorgeous! I could have spent days just walking the beach and all the pathways with all the tropical plants and flowers. From the moment you turn off the highway and onto the resort grounds your eyes are consistently full of beauty. The fountains, and pools running through the resort inside and out make you feel like you could spend eternity there. It gave me many ideas for a dreamhome.
The rooms were clean and decent. I should mention we stayed at the tropical side and everything was centrally located which we liked, didn't bother splurging for any suites. We were lucky enough to have adjoining rooms so we had some privacy from the kids, yet close enough to keep an eye on them. There were some small issues with the room which didn't really effect our overall experience but for the nit-picky types I'll mention it: no tv remote even after 2 calls to have one sent up, same with the bathrobe there was only one in each room instead of 2 and even after calls none came. The beds are a little hard but workable for a week.The showers were awesome, minibar always filled, and all else was good.
The beach was amazing, this is where we spent a majority of our time. Good and sandy on our side, it gets a little rockier as you head toward the palace. There is decent snorkeling off the pier for kids and beginners, if you like to snorkel, go out in front of the palace side we found it to be better there.
Having 3 teens; we mostly ate at the snack bars, grills, and buffets. The food was decent and the service was friendly. Did get a little boring for a week, but if you plan on doing a few specialty dinners it would be good as filler.
A few tips and tricks:
bring clothes pins for the line on the balcony, we also brought Uno and had a good time in the evenings on our balcony
Unless you have money to throw away, don't bother with any resort/agent excursions. Just go to the front bellboy and ask for him to get you a taxi, they will take you anywhere you want to go at much better rates. The 2 days we went off the resort were amazing because of our awesome taxi driver Joel. He stays with you or he will leave you, recommend places to take you, and essentially be your tour guide. The first time we used him to go shopping in Playa de Carmen, he picked us up and dropped us off with a cell phone to call him with when we were done. On the way back to the resort, he asked what else we were doing and we told him we wanted to go to Tulum. (btw, for 5 people the resort wanted over $350 just to go there and back on a tour bus) Joel picked us up the next day early in the morning, took us to Tulum, then to a beautiful beach and bar for drinks and swimming, next he drove us to an amazing Lagoon for snorkeling, after snorkeling we were hungry and we asked him to have lunch with us at a local-untouristy roadside taco stand. He took us to the perfect place. Through all this, he was with us, watching our things on shore while we snorkeled even. After that he was ready to take us more places, he said he would stay with us as long as we like, but we were worn out and had him take us back to the resort. So the whole day doing more than we expected, in a private van for 5 people only cost us $250.00. Plus tip and we did buy lunch for 6 (a whole $30) Best money we spent while being in Mexico
Our dissapointments were few but I should mention them. This was unlike a cruise where everyone seems to be there to serve you and happy to do so. I guess because everything is included they don't feel the need to go out of their way to make make sure you get it. The drinks were just ok, and not containing much alcohol. There are no servers along the pools or beach to bring you drinks (however they love to serve you Tequila in the grills/snackbars).
Also we had read and heard through reading reviews that this resort had great activities for teenagers. Don't count on it being that easy. No one at the resort or front desk area knew when/where activities were. They all knew about the things for kids under 12(which they tried to send our teens to) but not teenagers, so we would ask and not get any help, then later hear about it from another guest that was lucky enough to find it. The front desk staff couldnt even tell me where the mini-golf was located, kept saying there wasn't any. We found it 2 nights later by accident while walking a path. We found the rock-climbing wall the morning we were leaving. Because the grounds are so expansive and including 4 resorts, make sure you get to see it all and find everything on your own. Also I should say we all had a great time kayaking, but all the other sports were not as open. The trikes never came out, the jet skiis were only out 2 days. They like to use wind as an excuse not to rent out the equipment.
So overall we did have a fun-filled amazing family vacation, which is what we all wanted and didn't let the little things bother us. However, When we asked the kids if they like the cruise ship or the resort better the cruise won for fun and activites, the resort won for the larger rooms and beach time