Catalonia Riviera Maya - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

2994 reviews

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  We will definitely be back!!

  This hotel is a hidden gem!! The resort is wonderful - lots of activities for all ages. Our room was renovated - laminate floors, amazing showers, comfy beds and good air conditioning and ceiling fans. The food was plenty to chose from and great quality - a la carte, buffet, food truck, room service, crepes and several bars serving premium alcohol. The only downside of this resort is if you like to walk the beach - it is fairly small, although there is a lagoon with snorkeling and kayaking included. $10/hr and you can rent a Golf Cart and drive around the marina, see the dolphins and go to the market. Highly Recommend.

  Mar 27, 2025
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  Very Nice Mexico All-Inclusive Resort

  Hello there, this is a review of the Catalonia Riviera Maya located in Puerto Aventuras Mexico which is about 15 minutes south of Playa Del Carmen (about 75 minutes south of Cancun airport). This is a gated community and nice to walk throughout, but as always exercise caution if you choose to exit your resort property. The resort is an open concept, and is very clean, the room we were in was recently updated and had a comfortable bed and pillows. The restaurants and buffets are excellent and the food is spectacular, good quality and well prepared and friendly service. Note, with the restaurants, you have to use the resort app to make reservations, and it is somewhat cumbersome and difficult to find a reservation because the schedule tends to be booked, but we had no issue making reservations. A suggestion would be to try early in the morning to see if they release any open spots. The front reception lobby area is not extraordinary as it is small open concept, little light, no art work, no colour, no sculptures, completely boring, similarly with the main lounge bar area. The evening entertainment is mediocre. The pools are nice, clean, and the pool deck is clean, also there is no smoking allowed. But, remember to get up early to reserve your chair. There is signage that reserving chairs is not allowed, but everyone does it otherwise you will not have a chair to relax by the pool or at the beach. The resort staff from the front desk, to the waiters, to the cleaning team, to the restaurant reception staff are all very friendly, always smiling, and are always happy to make sure your stay is as comfortable as possible. The Catalonia Riviera Maya is a nice resort, small compared to the massive resort properties, but makes up for its size in service and cleanliness. This is a solid 3.5+ to 4 stars, but there is a key element missing for me that would make this resort a solid 4 star. The key issue is the lack of a nice beach front. If you are looking for a beach vacation or would like to walk on white soft sand, find another resort, because the Catalonia Riviera Maya and the sister resort Catalonia Yucatan do not have a nice beach and clean soft sand worthy of mention at the water’s edge. The beach front is very short, not much distance to walk, the sand is rocky (use water shoes), and there is quite a bit of seaweed (at least this was true during our stay). The cleaning staff work hard to keep the sand clean of seaweed. Also, at the water’s edge at the shore, if you want to walk into the water, there are large rocks (small boulders) that you have to walk over (walk through) to get into the sea where you could swim or just walk. As a general statement, the beach is below par in my opinion, bring your water shoes if you choose to walk in, and watch out for all the rocks and small boulders. Another issue for me with this resort that I can see is that because of the size of the resort, there are not too many rooms with a partial or full ocean views, the majority of the rooms are garden view or have obstructed views of the pools and sea. As a summary, nice resort, very clean, very good food, nice pools, and updated rooms (be sure to check the room categories to choose what you feel is best for you). I believe that if they could create or develop a better beach front, for me, this resort would meet many travellers needs for an a quality Mexico all-inclusive vacation.

  Mar 25, 2025
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  Great budget 5 star resort

  Nice budget 5 Star resort in a great area. Very safe gated community that allowed us to leave the resort one day to explore by golf cart. Paul Ostrovsky from Facebook was renting for $50 9am-9pm daily and was super informative and great to rent from. We picked our 2 carts up right outside our lobby. The Adventuras area is all gated, so very safe and beautiful to explore. We visited Muchies Sports Bar, happy hour was 2-6pm and very affordable. We watch the NCAA March Madness Tournament there while we ate. The "Food Court" zone 2 was AMAZING. Great shopping, pharmacies, and LOTS of food choices. It surrounds a little island that houses probably 20-30 dolphins living in a lagoon around the island playing nonstop. Very relaxing to dine and watch them play. The resort is smaller, but nice that you have short walks to everything. Food is good. Breakfast buffet has awesome bacon, churros, omelet stations, fresh squeezed juices. Lots of choices, but same daily. Supper buffet was average. It was very difficult to get reservations to the ala carte restaurants. We love the Steak Place by far the best. The Japanese was very good also. Not a fan of what I saw or heard about the Italian or Mexican. The Burger place was terrible service and food. Beds and pillows were very comfortable, smaller room, but clean and did the trick. The beach is small, the entrance to ocean was rocky, bring water shoes. Snorkeling was great! Privileged people have better rooms, room service, more beach areas, better liquor and seem to get reservations easier. Wifi was average, but also worked fine for my personal use. The kids said using laptop for streaming or work was not as favorable. Overall, it was a good value for the price at a smaller resort with lots of 5 star amenities. Remember it is all what you make of it. Give it a chance. People working there were super kind and helpful. Other guests were fun too, because it's a smaller place you get to know people easily. I would say restaurants are not good accommodating a party for more than 2 or 4. We had 5 and that was an issue. I liked the place and LOVED the area. Very safe feeling the entire time.

  Mar 24, 2025
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  10/10

  Overall stay here was excellent! The whole resort was exceptionally clean and all staff were extremely friendly and accommodating. The food was amazing and so many options to choose from. They have made positive changes due to previous feedback on how you book the themed restaurants and we had no issues at all booking these for the week on the first day. The beach is rocky, as we expected but we brought water shoes as most people and we did and had no issues with the beach. Our room was amazing and big. Housekeeping was amazing as well. The entertainment staff were so great! The shows were so well done and you can tell they put a lot of time in to make it a great experience for everyone. It’s a smaller resort but has everything that you need. We loved our stay here and would absolutely return and recommend.

  Mar 22, 2025
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  Would totally visit again! The pros and cons of the resort

  The Catalonia Riviera Maya is a relaxing and beautiful resort located inside a safe, gated community called Puerto Aventuras. I stayed there recently and had a very enjoyable experience overall. It is a great place for people who want a calm vacation with helpful staff, good food, and comfortable rooms. One of the best parts of my trip was how kind and professional the staff were. Most of them speak English, which made it easy to communicate. From the moment we arrived to the day we checked out, the staff went out of their way to make sure we had a smooth and easy stay. For example, when one of our rooms had an air conditioner that wasn’t working, we called the front desk. A staff member came to check on it within 10 minutes. Since they couldn’t fix the air conditioner that same day, they quickly moved us to a new room, which made us feel like they really cared about our comfort. The food at the resort was mostly very good. The buffet had lots of fresh choices for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but sometimes the food on the buffet wasn’t hot enough. I think it would help if they kept the food warmer or put covers on the trays to hold the heat better. However, when we ate at the special restaurants where you need a reservation, the food was much better. The dishes there were full of flavor and made the meals feel extra special. One thing I really liked is that this resort is very careful about food allergies. The staff takes time to make sure that people with allergies are safe, and they even ask questions to make sure the food is okay for you to eat. This made me feel like they truly cared about their guests. The only part of the resort that really needs improvement is the bar and the drinks. Many of the fruity cocktails, like the piña colada, didn’t taste right. They had a strange aftertaste, kind of like plastic, and didn’t taste fresh. I was really excited to have a piña colada on this trip, but it ended up being one of the biggest disappointments. Other cocktails, like the Bahama Mama or Miami Vice, also didn’t taste like they should. I think the bartenders could use more training on how to make these drinks better. On the bright side, simple drinks like rum and Coke or gin and 7-Up were much better and tasted just fine. Overall, the Catalonia Riviera Maya is a wonderful place to visit if you are looking for a relaxing and safe vacation. The staff are amazing, the rooms are clean and comfortable, and the food is tasty, especially at the reservation-only restaurants. If they improve the cocktails at the bars, this resort could be even better.

  Mar 19, 2025