BlueBay Grand Esmeralda - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

18969 reviews

• 

  Good for the money

  We stayed for a couple of days before meeting family at another resort. Room was basic but clean, we only ate at the buffet and found enough options for us. Enjoyed cocktails on the beach. For the money it was decent.

  Dec 05, 2025
• 

  STAY AWAY!!

  THE WORST place we have ever been to. Staff were good but not nearly enough of them. No swim up bar, We had issues with our neighbours and called security multiple times. Not only did they not show up but lied to us multiple times regarding their arrival times to deal with the situation. Bed was rock hard Pillows were hard and difficult to sleep on No hot water all 8 days. Barely warm. Even the spa had no hot water Food sucked. Limited choices and often cold. A la cartes were ok. Place is a little run down especially at the black and white bar. No towels at one point when replacing for the beach. Not enough chaise lounges and multiple were broken Rooms are run down View from our room was nasty. Nothing to see except for a dirt plot and a few trees. Beer isn't all that great. We've had Modelo at several different resorts which is good. This one had superior which is superior to nothing. Only served in tiny plastic cups. Cheap and useless Only one snack bar and on other end of resort. Line up at each of both bars for drinks for a plastic cup that will be done in 3 swigs. Multiple bathrooms with clogged toilets full of poo. Another toilet without a toilet seat in the lobby area (womens bathroom) STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE. So many other good ones like Princess, Occidental Xcaret and all within minutes of each other.

  Dec 05, 2025
• 

  Entertainment

  Great activities by the pool! There’s a lots of activities to be able to do. They try to include everybody in the activities. Valentina and Eliud were wonderful as hosts to the activities.

  Dec 04, 2025
• 

  entertainment team goals

  the entertainment team are amazing, valentina is great and elliott is the best man i have ever met, he has the best tattoos

  Dec 04, 2025
• 

  The worst resort I’ve ever been to!

  My hubby and I arrived late November, for a week of fun and sun. Well we got sun, but fun was hard to find! Despite arriving really late to the resort as we were the last group dropped off, we checked in and were put into building 6. We went to our room to get changed and grab some dinner at 9 pm. Our room was mediocre; it was outdated but it also had a musty wet smell, all day and all night long. The bed is hard and it had springs sticking your body all night long. The water pressure was terrible but there is a trick to getting hot water, turn the lever the opposite way and jiggle it to get the water warm. The dinner we were excited to have, was basically slop. The mashed potatoes are instant potatoes and they were so runny and there was no meat left. Fine, we thought we would try the buffet again the next day, hoping we would have better luck. All week long the food was disgusting. Everything was mushy, sloppy, there was not a huge variety of fresh fruit past the watermelon and cantaloupe and pineapple. We didn’t see bananas until day 6! Every lunch and dinner had a main station that served hamburgers and hot dogs, there was some fish occasionally; however, all of the food was cold. I never came across any guacamole and pico de gallo, there was watered down cheese sauce that had zero flavour which we settled for when we were desperate. Their desserts were all able to be eaten by just swallowing - no chewing necessary, it’s a seniors dream! We did try the a la carte’s, needless to say those weren’t impressive either, it was the exact same food as the buffet with maybe one or two variations of something else. This resort lacks evening entertainment, if they have any entertainment it begins at 9:30 but there is no where to sit outside and visit and have a drink until then. We did witness the famous chair wars at the pools and beach. They have 989 rooms but they have maybe 150 lounger chairs. If you want to get up at 6 am and find a chair to reserve on your vacation, this resort would require you to get up at 4 am to do that! Some people were reserving 6 chairs and not showing up all day long. There was a fist fight that broke out over someone removing someone else’s towel from a chair. We watched so many elderly people and young people have to put their towel on the concrete pool deck and spend the day there. There is also no beach, none at all. For a vacation, who wants to come for a week and have no where to sit outside or at the pool or beach? We noticed that the colour of the wrist bracelets made all the difference in terms of being able to get a ride to and from different locations on the resort; if you don’t have a black band, you’re chopped liver and no one will acknowledge you, you will also be told you can’t have certain liquor without upgrading. We completely dodged the sales presentation for luxury vacation membership packages to this resort because we had such a bad experience and we will never return. I didn’t expect a 5 star resort experience as we had read reviews before coming; I didn’t think it was that bad because sometimes people find things to complain about that are just silly. This resort isn’t even a 3 star, I’m being gracious with rating it a 2.4 star. We typically like to just have a decent place to rest our head after a day in the sun and some good food with a great beach. I would have liked to have slept on my vacation, ate fresh fruit and been able to find chairs and loungers. If you’ve booked for a future trip, I’d highly recommend you book elsewhere! We will never return to this resort or to another Blue Bay resort.

  Dec 04, 2025