Valentin Imperial Maya

My wife and I plus another couple stayed at the VIM from August 25 - Sept 2 2017. This was within 11 months of our last visit to VIM in 2016. You never know what to expect when you return, you hope for the same as the 1st visit, but when we heard things about an incident that happened and other things going on in Mexico, we just were not sure. I will tell you this, we never felt safer, we never felt more like family, and we were never treated with such great respect and care as we were on our 2nd visit. just the same and more so on the 2nd visit. You read things, you hear things, and just like in the US, media is filled with false narratives and just opinions without facts. (Not going Politico) here. My point is GO! When talking with so many employees and locals, and by the way they will talk to you like family....You get facts and info. They want to talk about their resort, their Country and they will be honest with you. I love the people of the VIM and Mexico. DO NOT listen to ugly reviews or bad reports or anything else. The VIM has taken every measure possible for you to enjoy your stay, and enjoy their presence with you and I promise you will not be disappointed. From the moment that we arrived from the Airport until the moment we left, we were treated as you would want to be treated. If your heart is right, they will treat you like family. If your heart is wrong, they will still treat you as family. I do however see so much arrogance from different people from all over the world there. Not just one Country, but others. Who feel the need to make a scene, or who maybe had to wait for an extra 10 minutes at a restaurant, or whos room was not 100% satisfaction to them, they treat the employees like they own them or their personal maids. THEY ARE NOT, they are humans and deserve better than some of the folks I seen. Yes it was very limited, but I seen it. IF ITS NOT RIGHT, the VIM will make it right! Beach is awesome, water was a little rougher this time, not VIM fault, its nature. Mosquitos, well of course there are, you are in the tropics. Take Deet and or bug spray or wipes. Again it is the Tropics and it is Nature. Restaurants are very good, the Hibachi is our favorite, and then the Steak house. Get the squid bites or Tuna bites at the steak house for an appetizer!! Awesome :) Rooms were excellent as they were the first time. No issues at all. We stayed in block 4 this time, and we actually liked it better than last year when we stayed beach front Emerald. Block 4 or 5 are close to everything and a easy walk. Swim ups are very nice too... We cannot wait to go back to the VIM soon. A quick shout out to everyone who works there, but especially to Roman, waiter, bartender, name it and he is there to help you. Brian and well all the entertainment staff, we Love them. Tommy the photo guru, and basically everyone who works at the VIM. Go Enjoy Mexico and the VIM!

Absolutely the best hotel we have had the opportunity of visiting. The food and services were incredible. Definitely will make our way back to this hotel again. Staff were very gracious and helpful. Always something to do at the hotel whether it be pool activities or an excursion or just lazing by the pool.

We had the golden junior suite and absolutely loved it! The service, food, pool, etc. was all incredible! The staff was extremely nice and helpful. There are events throughout the day and evening. They went above and beyond what we expected.

Wonderful again. Over the last 7 years my wife and I have been to 12 all-inclusives, from Cancun, Playa, Cabo, Dom. Republic, and Jamaica and VIM is the only one we have decided to visit twice, and we were not disappointed again. The property is beautiful and service superb, food was great and could just not ask for more. With 7 restaurant choices in the evening, we were able to eat at seafood, Mexican, Italian, French, and the hibachi. Meals often take 1 and 1/2 hours or so to get all 4-5 courses, so if you want to make the 9 pm entertainment, you have to allow enough time. Our room cleaning and nightly turn-down was excellent. The property is very large, so if walking is any difficulty, be sure at check-in to review property map and choose a building closer to the front, or pool, etc. They do have golf cart rides available so you can call from your room and get pretty quick service to get where you want, or get return ride to your room at night. There are none of the other all-inclusives that we have gone to that we would not have gone back, but VIM just kinda rose to the top of our list. My wife loved water aerobics at noon every day, and I enjoyed the bike tour one morning- a fun 45 minutes if you like that and Dora from entertainment staff made it really fun.

To start off with, if you are thinking of going to the Valentin Imperial, DO IT! Warning, this will be a super long review about everything there... We stayed for 2 weeks at the end of August, we had a few days of solid rain, but apart from that it was super hot and sunny! On arrival we were greeted by concierge who took our suitcases, gave us a refreshing cold towel and led us to reception to check in. We were not offered any upgrades on check in, but could have asked if we wanted to. We were informed all about the resort, and given a welcome cocktail/tequila. Room - We opted for the Silver junior suite and were situated in Building 2. This for us was a perfect location. Close enough the the beach/pool and restaurants and bars, but could not hear any music from these areas unless we were outside on the balcony in the morning.The room was beautiful! Super clean, with the mini bar restocked daily - If you manage to see the man re-filling the mini bar he will ask you what you would like it stocked with. We had maid service and turn down service every day, and they went above and beyond for us. The huge bed was really comfy, as were the pillows. Air conditioning could have been slightly cooler, but it didn't bother us too much. The food... Mar y Tierra - This restaurant is located just on the beach, there is no air conditioning but is all open and you get a lovely breeze. We ate breakfast here every day and never tried Le Marche as the waiters and chefs here were excellent. The omelettes and crepes are a must! We did eat here on our very first evening and were not too impressed with the steak, even though this was the steak and fish restaurant. If you want steak head to the french restaurant for the Filet! L'Alsace (French) - The food here was amazing! We had the soups, filet mignon and on our last evening we paid extra for the Lobster Thermidor. We couldn't get enough! Italian restaurant - This was equally as good, really good pasta with violinist playing. Indonesian restaurant - One of my favorites, The Mahi Mahi was excellent! The waitresses in here were lovely, and remembered us each time we came in and remembered our drink orders. Japanese - This restaurant can be pre booked, if you would like to do the Teppanyaki grill, which we did once. It was great, and worth doing, however we preferred the food within the restaurant as we could choose what we wanted. You also have the option of just being seated at the sushi bar. Mexican - We didnt try this as the menu was not to our liking, however I understand they have since updated the menu, and we did hear great reviews of it. The restaurant dress code is quite strict, however i did see some men in nice plain black t-shirts with long trousers who were allowed in. But long trousers, and shirts/polo's are preferred. It didn't matter too much as everywhere was air conditioned. The sports bar was a firm favorite of ours, they was always plenty going on, whether that be Karaoke, or pool tournaments. There are cards, Jenga, Chess etc to play, so was great on a rainy day. We did try the Martini bar, however the drinks were super strong! The beach - It was beautiful. Soft sand, plenty of sunbeds at 11am. The sea could be quote rough at times and gets deep quite quickly but as you walk out further it becomes shallower again. There is a drink service on the beach, however it did take a very long time, as they had lots of orders and far to walk, so was quicker going ourselves as the beach bar wasn't very far away. The pool - we stayed up the quiet end of the main pool, but we were in the pool pretty much all day. The bartenders up this end were great and knew our drink orders, and had another one ready by the time we had finished. If you want a cocktail just ask them to make you one, Miami Vice's are fab! The pool waiters/waitresses were fantastic and always came round with bottled water throughout the day. At around 3pm there was a little afternoon tea trolley with cakes and sandwiches, that was brought round the pool. The entertainment team - Work tirelessly! From Yoga at 7/8am and then evening activities at 10pm, they're always working hard making sure every one is enjoying themselves. They don't try and pull you off your sunbeds though to make you get involved which is great, but there's plenty to take part in all day if you want to. There are no coloured bracelets/ different colours towels at the resort to differentiate if you are on the privileged package or not, you are all treated excellently. We didn't see many people opt for the privileged package as you really didn't need to, unless you wanted to have palapas included. For us we didnt even really use our sunbeds as it was too hot, and we stayed in the pool all day socializing. I can not recommend this place enough. Everyone else we spoke to agreed, it is an amazing 5 star resort, and for the level of service/food/environment it is great value for money. It is safe to say we will definitely be returning, and everyone we spoke to there had visited the resort before. We were never bored, were looked after by the fantastic staff across the resort, and ate and drank way too much! Thank you Valentin! ___________ Not hotel related.. Excursions - We booked our excursion through Thomas Cook, as they were our main rep, but there were lots of different excursions to book through the hotel. We did the Chichen Itza tour which was great! Worth doing if you want to get out and about and see some history. Thomas Cook did tell us it was 2.5hrs drive, but we were first pick up so in actual fact it was 3.5hrs. After seeing Chichen Itza you stop off at a sink hole and can go swimming in it, which we did and it was brilliant!