Grand Velas Riviera Maya

My husband, our teenagers, & I stayed in the Ambassador section, which is worth the extra cost to be at the beach. We repeatedly visit Riviera Maya because the people provide the warmest hospitality with the biggest smiles. Grand Velas staff worked hard to remember our preferences & greet us by name. Eli at Lucca, Isaac at Bistro, Javier & Luciano at the beach, Jazmin, Reyes & Daniel at the pool especially wowed us with their service! Cynthia was friendly in the coffee shop each morning. Diana & Francisco were very attentive personal concierges assigned to our family for our stay. Grand Velas is a big & beautiful & well-kept resort with plenty of food & drinks at all times-similar in quality & variety to Disney Cruise Line. Don’t miss the lobster-grilled fresh & served on the beach in the afternoon. Buffets are available, but we preferred to eat at Bistro for table service at breakfast & pool or beachside for lunch. Bistro & Lucca were favorite dinners. Reservations required. Plenty for all ages to enjoy! GV is a 35min drive from Cancun airport, which we had prearranged with the resort roundtrip.

Wow! What an amazing experience! My husband, 9 yo son and I had an unbelievable time at the Grand Velas Riviera Maya resort thanks to the amazing staff! Alfonso, Braulio & Enrique went above and beyond to make our trip special & unforgettable! Always friendly, engaging & at the ready for all of our needs (& then some- special treats awaited us frequently without request). We can’t thank you enough! You are the best!!! Xoxo (my son already wants to go back for our next vacation!)

Such a wonderful trip. It exceeded our expectations! The food was great and the service was exceptional. Braulio and Alfonso were there for anything we needed. Reyes went above and beyond with amazing service and a smile by the pool. Angel and Daniel were so helpful by the pool as well. We will be back!

There were many pros, including the beautiful grounds and the impeccable service of our concierge. Cons: the chair situation was terrible. Unless you pay someone, it is hard to find chairs by the pool. Towels are also no where to be found. You’re lucky if you obtained one towel per chair (if you found chairs) but nothing more. If you asked, it would take several minutes for someone to track down a towel as you wait shivering from the freezing pool. There was only one elliptical trainer in the gym. That’s actually insane given how well equipped the rest of the gym was. The food service/quality at the restaurants was largely underwhelming. There had so much potential to be so many more kids activities during the day. There were a few days with several back to back, and they were phenomenal. The teens club was great, but there should have been options to leave younger kids there during the day as my 9yo who still needed childcare did not want to be playing with the toys in the kids club!

Grand Velas Riviera Maya has plenty of good parts but sadly plenty of bad too. Summary of the good would be: Beautiful landscaping Exceptionally clean Transport between the two sites is efficient Kids Club is always available to utilise without booking Special shout out to Gabriel at the pool who made our visit better Summary of the bad would be: Dinner food was poor quality Communication was difficult throughout (we are native English speakers) Kids Club is just a place where you drop your kids, the activities were poorly organised and poor quality - rest of the time the TV is just on and the kids watch that The pool area at Zen was frustrating in terms of the lack of beds The wine quality was low and the cocktails seemed very watered down (not unusual for an all inclusive of course, but Grand Velas presents itself as a premium in the space)  Restaurants were very cold