I know that right now no one is traveling, were all under stay at home orders and who knows when we will be able to travel, let alone internationally.. Part of me wanted to wait to publish this blog post but I didn’t want to forget anything and it will live on the blog and will still be relevant when we can all travel again!
Right before everything shut down due to Covid-19 (literally we landed and later that night I found out my work had temporally closed) My sister got married at the Grand Palladium Riviera Maya Resort and I wanted to share my thoughts about the resort overall, if I would go back, and if it was kid friendly (yes the kids came! They were the flower girl and ring barer) I wish I had taken more photos while we were there, as I said we were there for a wedding so we were pretty busy the whole time, rather than a blog trip where I am taking much more photos… besides the point.
Overall we really enjoyed the resort. It was beautiful and we felt incredibly safe which was huge for us especially having the littles with us. The staff was very helpful and friendly and we had zero issues. The resort itself was huge. They had beautiful walking paths that went through the different areas of the resort, to the different beaches, pools, as well as all the common areas. They also had little trolly golf carts running all the time that would take you to any area of the resort you needed to go which was super helpful especially with little ones. Everything was very well kept up, the landscape was beautiful and it was fun to see some of the wildlife. My kids loved seeing the wild monkeys, fun birds, wild cats and more.
As far as the rooms They had different types of rooms from more of a townhouse condo style, to villas over looking a little lagoon which were beautiful. I was able to see a couple different styles of rooms just from being there with my whole family we actually all had different styles of rooms and they were all super clean, well kept and looked up to date.
For the pools and beaches We really enjoyed all of them as well. They did a great job of keeping the beaches clean and free of seaweed which was great, however I felt like we couldn’t actually swim too much in the ocean because both of the beaches we went to on the resort had a ton of really big rocks right once we about knee deep and it was really hard to walk out into the water. We did love sitting on the shore, playing in the sand though. We also loved the pools. They had multiple pools and all seemed very well kept up and were very clean. They also had a great kids area with water slides that the kids loved and they never wanted to leave LOL.
One of our favorite spots was in the adults only area of the resort and they actually had a “pool” that was right up to the ocean and was actually filled by the ocean which was awesome. The bottom was soft and sandy just like you would expect wading out into the ocean. There was an area at the bottom of the pool that leads right out to the ocean that they left open, again to keep the pool completely filled by the ocean but it also let in a ton of little fish and it was so cool to get to swim with them.
The last category I want to touch on was the food and drink! It was an all inclusive resort which was so nice! Most of the food was amazing. They had a couple of restaurants on the resort and the were all great! Also there were 3 bigger buffets that we went to that had great food and a ton of options. I’m a super picky eater and always found things I liked and enjoyed. There were a few smaller buffets that I would say not to bother with, they had super basic limited options and were not nearly as good as the other options.
Honestly, the bars were what I was the most disappointed with. Mind you we did not go for the typical Mexico be wasted all the time experience, but I felt that EVERY drink was watered down. Maybe I’m being a bit too critical because I work in the hospitality industry and have managed and ran many bars and know how the back end of bars work and I was disappointed. We did go right at the beginning of spring break season so I’m not sure if that played a part in it.. I also don’t drink a ton so my alcohol tolerance is very low and I never felt more than a slight buzz and that was usually after having beer which they couldn’t water down.
Overall though we enjoyed our stay! I would recommend the resort, it was beautiful, well kept and very safe. I feel like it was a good resort for children as well. The wedding was beautiful and the staff was great. Honestly I don’t think I would go back just because I like to go different places and try different resorts but I would rank this one a solid 7/10 🙂
