El Dorado Seaside Suites

We had the best week! Lizbeth and Cynthia bringing drinks on the beach. Luis and Maria are excellent leading activities from Zumba in the sea to making incense sticks and learning about the plants. We did the Balam experience with Anatachio and Juan with a Mayan sweat lodge, blessing, and dinner in the jungle which was a lifetime memory. Dinner with many choices; Japanese, Italian, Mediterranean, the Pub, and you MUST try Kaab on the Palm's beach for lunch, Julian is fantastic. Butlers Julian, Azeal, and Arturo are AMAZING, and on the beach Gabriel and Celvin are there to greet you in the morning and make your beach day perfect. The staff really put this resort over the top as you can see. Perfect holiday retreat! I highly recommend.

Just back for a 2 week stay at this beachfront resort - in my honest opinion this hotel is definitely not a 5 star hotel more a 3-4 star especially for the money we paid through TUI. However, shout out to all the staff, the golf cart drivers, cleaners, waiters/esses, gardeners etc all were amazingly friendly and they work so hard but the hotel is extremely understaffed. If they had the right level of staff this hotel could be a 5 star!! The Culinarium was our favourite restaurant for breakfast and the staff (Lorenzo, William, Sandra and the lady at the front desk - can’t remember her name, there can’t do enough for you, the breakfast there was superb and had a wide choice. The Arrecife and Seaside market buffets were very good with lots of choice and the choice of drinks is very good throughout the whole hotel. It is near impossible to book the restaurants that need reservation - the Italian and the Mexican - so be sure to book with your concierge when you arrive. The Italian was lovely but the Mexican not so good. Our rooms were in need of updating as looked very tired but we had all the basic amenities, beds very comfortable, and they were cleaned thoroughly every day. Only coffee machines in the room so if you prefer tea take a travel kettle. Download the TUI blue app to report maintenance issues and order room supplies. We stayed in block 28 beachfront suite which was ideally placed and very peaceful, If you want a sunbed and especially a Bali bed on the beach though you need to be up by 6am as all the beds were reserved by 6.30am!! The hotel grounds are beautiful and we saw amazing wildlife - iguanas, raccoons, barracuda’s, sting rays, trigger fish, needle fish, an agouti, and an array of birds osprey, kiskadees, pelicans, frigate birds, grackles, woodpeckers, oriels, turkey vultures, herons and egrets to name a few and some beautiful butterflies. The weather was averaging at 27 degrees the whole time and the sea was clear and shallow. Would I come back to this hotel, probably not as there are better ones in Riviera Maya for your money but regardless we had a great holiday.

My honest opinion. This place is amazing bar a couple of little quarms. STAFF Are the nicest people i've ever met, even the gardeners and cleaners always say 'Hola'. They all work so hard to keep the resort clean and tidy. My only niggle with staff was the beach waitresses. 2 of them serving right by the vegan restaurant and bringing drinks from the BBQ bar. They seem to only want to serve certain groups of people, like literally every 10 mins. Couldn't help but notice these people tipped big and with every drink brought. We did tip them too but we we're lucky if we got asked twice in the space of 6/7 hours we were on the beach. If we wanted a drink we pretty much had to go get it ourselves, which isn't beneath us, it just shouldn't be that way! ALL guests should be treated equally. So maybe a word or 2 to these ladies would help prevent further complaints. Also there are designated smoking areas within the resort as we were informed that smoking everywhere else including the beach is forbidden, and yet there were guests smoking on their loungers regardless. Maybe a few staff patrols around the resort and beach to enforce this. Why have the rule and signs up if no one is checking. The buggie drivers around the resort are great, please do tip them, they literally won't let you walk anywhere and nothing is to much trouble. 1 guy is hilarious, he shouts out ' no licence, no insurance, NOOO breaks, beep beep'. He always made us laugh! COCKTAILS Are amazing. I had a blue hawaiian in my hand pretty much all week. Hubby said the beers are pretty decent too. I love a pina colada but found the ones here way to sweet. Wines pretty good too. I had a merlot and sauvigon blanc most evenings. FOOD Very much hit and miss. 80% of the time it was barely warm. I get it with room service because the time it takes to get it from the kitchens to your room, but the restaurants there is absolutely no excuse. This does need improving. The amount of stuff we had to send back that was barely warm was ridiculous. However, we were very well looked after by the staff after we complained, which was nice as we were made to feel that they genuinely do care and want you to be 100% happy. Coffee was really good in some restaurants and bars but other ones quite weak. With room service I just requested it to be strong. RESTAURANTS For us Mia Casa ( Italian ) was by far the best. We didn't like Driftwood ( Mexican ) that was just weird! We went to the seaside market ( the buffet ) once for dinner and once for breakfast, dinner wasn't great, staff not very attentative, but breakfast was good. We did the gourmet pub once that was quite nice. Hubby liked the fish and chips. The beach bbq is amazing, by far our favourite lunch. The burgers and nachos were delicious and hot as its cooked in front of you. We booked the romantic dinner on the beach, that too was so disappointing. It cost us £160 ( around $220 ) and the food wasn"t great, plus everything was luke warm again. There was only 2 choices per serving and 1 for dessert. Portions were very small too. We felt we literally paid £160 just for the experience of eating by the beach. Getting the restaurant reservations was beyond ridiculous. We ended up going back 4 times to the concierge to try and book, to just be continuously told to go back latrr or next day, in the end we got our Tui rep to do it. SUNBEDS. Yes you will have to get up at stupid o 'clock to reserve them. We are not normally those people who put towels down but after spending our first day around 10am walking up and down the beach, then walking around the whole resort trying to find the small pools that seem to only have about 8 beds around them, then back to the beach. After about an hour of doing this we finally got 2 beds together on the beach but no umberella though, so we were burning a lot. The next day we were down the beach by 7am, went to breakfast then to the loungers. At least we didn't put our towels down and go back to bed like most. The hotel really should enforce this as it's not fair and people shouldn't have to get up at the crack of dawn, you're on holiday. Also as you will see in the few photos i've added, everyday a tractor was going up and down the beach taking sand from 1 end to the other. Not what you want to see or hear while you're trying to relax. Surely there has to be a better time for the hotel to do this. You won't get a bali bed, again unless you come down early. Alot of them all seemed to have reserved signs on. But we wern't bothered anyway. The sunbeds aren't the greatest, so put as many towels down as you can to pad them up. SPA OMG do it do it do it! Ask for Caroline. Iv'e had a lot of massages and spa experiences over the years but Caroline is by far the best iv'e experienced. I had a 50 min massage for £100, ( $138 ) expensive but so worth it. Cannot recommend her enough. DAY TRIPS Can't comment because we didn't do any, we were there to just kick back and relax. Plus nothing really took our fancy, but from what other guests told us they are all pretty good. ENTERTAINMENT We didn't really watch any as by 9pm we were really wiped out. We saw a little bit of an acrobat show, that looked really good. ROOMS We were in room 3711, 2nd floor. Very nice over looking the gardens. I have to say I don't know why anyone would want a swim up room as they all look to be in the shade all day, but each to their own. Our suite was really really nice. Huge bathroom with 2 round sinks, massive walk in shower that could fit 6 people at least, with a rainforest shower and smaller shower. Seperate toilet. Massive bed that could sleep 4 people. A small table and chairs and a hot tub. We used that a few times, really nice. Balcony is quite big with 2 wooden chairs and table. Lots of wild life to see too. We saw patches the cat a few times around. An iguana, lots of pelicans down the beach. Watching them dive for fish was amusing. The Coatis are so cute too. They do try to come into the outdoor restaurants but the staff encourage you not to feed them. Lots of pretty birds to see too. I would say try and remember to bring everything and plenty of it because we found the shops on the resort very expensive. £18 ( $24 ) for a box of immodium and only 8 tablets. A bag of doritos was £10 ( $14 ). All in all its an amazing resorts with lots to see and do. Wonderful, helpful friendly people. They just need to work on getting the food hot in our opionion. Would we return? YES, if the opportunity arose we would definetly go back!

Late Review 24.12.25 - 07.01.26 Flight from Birmingham with TUI private transfer within one hour to our location Kantenah Bay Riviera Mayo. Smooth check in golf buggy to garden view room 3812 overlooking Gaviotas swim up bar to the left. Large clean room a little dated as most reviews say but clean and kept clean by our lovely maid Edmerita. Our first night we ate food in the Gourmet Bar Pub our least favourite restaurant. Our favourite eating restaurant was the Seaside Market for breakfast more variety and staff worked very hard to accommodate us. We did try Arrecifes a few times but was less selection for breakfast also went for midday lunch and the TUI blue ladies were excellent waitresses on our return one day they were not there and a poor service only two waiters for the whole restaurant. Jodi was always polite and courteous shame she wasn’t serving everyday. Italian restaurant is a must to visit Mia Casa which we ate in twice during our stay. Brilliant food and service. Culinarium restaurant was a once only visit we tried a couple of times but was holding private functions without prior notice. During our evening meal we went to the Seaside Market possibly our favourite restaurant because of the staff and high food quality a huge shout out for ALEX he is just on a different level to anyone else with enthusiasm for visitors needs. Bars during day and evening were busy but served within minutes due to staff hard work. Our daily barman Ubaldo who was in Guacamayas Bar friendly and polite. If you are vegetarian or vegan visit KAAB and try Bibimbap starter, plant based burger or pastor mushroom tacos you will not be disappointed sat under a canopy on the beach. Overall a wonderful time at this resort celebrating Christmas and New Year with fireworks and brilliant entertainment.

I don't know why im bothering because no doubt IF I get a response it will be the same copied and pasted reply that Lomas throw out!. I'll try to be brief... 1. Black mould in our very dark room 2. Food in all restaurants luke warm at best 3. Menus do not correspond with what ends up on the plate 4. No cushions on beach sunbeds 5. Only cushions around the ,activity, pool when you can't hear yourself think! 6. Spa is EXTORTIONATE!! Do haggle! 7. The gardens and wildlife are amazing 8. Pools are freezing!!! All the hotel did when we complained about the food and the fact they run out of cutlery, glasses etc was pre book the speciality restaurants for us, something we could easily do.... nothing more or less...same rubbish food !!! So many people co plain ed when we were there!! It's definitely NOT a 5 star hotel..it's a partial All inclusive with an upsell, timeshare vibe!! Co.w on Tui blue...do better!!!