El Dorado Seaside Suites

My husband and I stayed at this resort for 10 days and had a very good experience. The jungle-like gardens are beautiful and make the resort feel peaceful. Our junior suite was spacious and comfortable, and housekeeping did a great job. The concierge booked all of our restaurant reservations, which made dining easy. We enjoyed the free excursion to Mamora Beach — it’s a nice beach and food and drinks were included. The resort’s own beach is also nice, but bring water shoes as some areas are rocky. If you want a chair on the beach, you need to get up around 7am to save one, as there are not enough chairs or beds. There was a good variety of food across the restaurants, and the Asian à la carte was our favorite. One downside is that there is no top-shelf alcohol and the bars sometimes run out of bottles. The entertainment was hit and miss. They didn’t always follow the schedule, though some of the afternoon activities were very educational. In the evenings, it would have been nice to have more than just a DJ starting at 11pm.

The resort itself is clean, the rooms, the beach for the most part, the pools, where they lack is in the variety of food offered. If you are not a member you will get late dinner reservations 9 9:30 pm. They also lack in the reception area where you check in and out, not enough information is provided. Some lack of English understanding. The rooms could definitely use softer fluffier pillows. The maid staff are very good. Room service could be quicker. The bar tenders were all very good. I felt there was a lack of information as to all the restaurants, food served, hours etc. the info they did provide was written on poorly published paper hard to read and not enough. The scenery and location make up for the things that I feel could be better. They also need to beef up the entertainment as well.

TLDR; relaxing jungle vibe resort, not posh but high quality, be aware of dark rooms check-in is slow (approx 10min) and if you arrive with a load of others or just after you might wait for long time for your turn. they offer a margarita while you check in though. as a resort, it’s not the most modern or posh, with plastic key cards (aside from premium building) and older furnishings. however the service and general amenities are high quality. various pools and bars for everyone’s taste. The TUI half of the resort is very lush and green, almost jungle like. we and our friends enjoyed this very much as it creates a natural & relaxing atmosphere. we loved seeing animals on the premises, eg. raccoons, coatis and squirrels. rooms: we first had a luxury junior suite. it is quite dark and therefore depressing - also poor layout with a couch & coffee table alone in a dark entrance room… we did not go to mexico to spend it indoors but room should be enjoyable too. the style was slightly old fashioned and worn out but very spacious. the room had a nice lush yard. the bed was almost up to my waist, had to climb in! the room mini fridge has sodas (coke etc) and beer, no wine or spirits. one free refill per day included. due to the depressing and cave like feel we upgraded to a room in the premium building which has its own pool. the building is high and rooms much brighter as trees are not blocking sunlight. in case it matters to someone, the television in luxury juniors suite was also far and inconveniently placed in relation to bed - in premium junior suite it was in front of the bed as “expected”. both rooms had wall sockets on both sides of bed, behind the night stand. the premium room was better designed and quite modern including wristband key (for a woman who’s clothes don’t have pockets and who doesn’t want to carry a handbag around a resort this is great). we had a view of the swim up pool but no noise carried up to 3rd floor. cleaning was fine. hot water etc was all good. restaurants: the buffet is not huge as aren’t the other restaurants, i appreciated the slightly cozier feel. breakfast buffet had a lot of fresh fruit, cheese and most of the basics plus lots of sweet stuff. Arrecifes has nice brekkie and lunch especially with the outdoor sea view area. Bistro with “international” cuisine is basically american & british. but it was ok. mexican restaurant was great. for the 3 bookable restaurants there is a lot of “gate keeping”, you can basically get one booking per restaurant per week, and not the same/next day. for all our bookings, first availability was 5 days later at 9:30pm… so book them as soon as you arrive. for the other (non-bookable) restaurants you also often have to queue, 30-60min. in both cases the restaurants are half empty so it could be lack of staff or just trying to steer guests towards the buffet, i don’t know. the healthy (vegan) restaurant for lunch by the beach was refreshing, healthy & lovely atmosphere. the other spots by the beach are very hamburger-ribs-nachos heavy as you might expect. they were generally rated as very tasty by our group of friends. aside obviously from the vegan restaurant i felt like the vegetarian options were quite limited, but that’s probably the same anywhere in mexico. the food overall ranged from average/OK (buffet, à la carte) to great (daytime snacks, burritos etc). the beach: nice soft sand, a few stones when u first walk into the water but smooth after. very shallow and clear water. the cabanas get taken early but u can usually find space somewhere during the day especially if u dont need direct beach access (the non-TUI side of hotel does not have a proper beach so all the cabanas by the sea were free). the cabanas are very nice & clean overall. the sea water in december-january was 26-27c. as a minus, the beach area & especially the far end of the beach dont have enough toilet access, despite the bbq restaurant & bars so it’s slightly inconvenient. on plus side, plenty of towels available and no weird rules about acquiring them as in some hotels. pools: there’s several pools for various tastes. many of them are shady during morning and afternoon but that’s probably great in the summer when it’s too hot. in the winter the water is a bit chilly (maybe 24c) so sun was much needed. there are several swim up bars which is nice. one pool is small and square and quiet. one is “the party pool” and the busiest, then there are a couple more large chill pools, one of them in the “eldorado suites” side, 7min walk from Palms side. furthermore Premium building has its own pool & swim up bar. staff: i have to say this was some of the nicest staff on average, and ive been to many hotels. its not that everyone has a huge smile and small talk, I’m not into that, more like everyone is polite and friendly when you talk, helpful etc. most TUI reps were also super nice. so overall 10/10. wifi: generally fine but spotty in places, as it will occasionally drop for a while. especially on the beach. but good coverage for a large resort. i would say 8/10. new years eve: regular dinner and then a free event on the main square. i’ve been to many hotel NYE’s and this was among the best. unfortunately it was chilly weather but with the music, drinks etc they got the vibe going - we had a good time. christmas was less impressive but understandably more challenging too; aside from the decor i didn’t notice anything despite mentions of christmas menu on TUI app. other: mostly european guests so tipping didn’t feel mandatory nor expected which was nice. the premises host a lot of animals which we found cute, theres the cat that has its own cat house, raccoons and coatis.

Definitely not 5 stars! New year was not the best was trying to get money from you just to sit down! Not only that but you had to book a restaurant which we wasn’t told about for new year. It didn’t feel very christmassy or new year not really any Christmas music was being played. A lot of things you had to either find out for yourself or ask other guests as the concierge was a bit useless. Be aware if you want to book the Italian or Klay Talay (Asian) book on a Saturday as they don’t have any reservations available. Unless you pay $90 for wine they can fit you in 🙄. Also be aware the portions they serve up are very small so order quite a bit if you’re hungry. Staff are nice and friendly always say hello but the overall experience definitely isn’t a 5 star hotel I’d say 3 star the rooms are very dated and damp and very cold 🥶. Take a dehumidifier with you so it can take up some of the moisture in the wardrobe Be aware of the coatis and raccoons 🦝 😂 watching them was probably the best highlight of our holiday. If you don’t like wildlife this resort is definitely not for you as it’s very pretty much in a jungle.

We spent a week at El Dorado Seaside Palms and have mixed feelings about our experience. This was our first visit to this resort. We have been to other resorts in the area 11 times. On the positive side, our butler Arturo was exceptional-very kind, knowledgeable and helpful. Other great staff members include Julian(butler), Gabriel(beach butler) and Maribelle(housekeeper). We found many of the other staff-waiters, bartenders and others to be unfriendly and in some cases, downright rude. We were shocked as we have always received very friendly and welcoming service at other resorts that we have visited. We always tip for every service down to each drink and try to be easy going and not demanding. One huge issue for us was the event for New Year's eve. We arrived that day and were excited about celebrating at the resort. We did not realize until we arrived at the event that you had to pay extra to get a table so we were turned away. Not at all what we expected at an "all-inclusive"resort and frankly not acceptable. Ruined our New Year's eve. The same was true for the Mexican Fiesta which again is unacceptable. There were a good number of restaurants to choose from but the food was very hit or miss in quality and consistency. The beach grill was very good The drinks were problematic-no premium alcohol at bars and the drinks were very watered down. We requested Sprite Zero on our prearrival form which was submitted one month before we arrived. We can't drink sugared soda. asked about it when we arrived and were told they did not have it or anything similar and weren't willing to provide any alternatives. And-even if they were willing or able to find something-which they were not-we would have had to pay extra for it!! Our room was fine with the exception of the shower which was not sealed properly and literally flooded the entire bathroom and hallway each time we showered. When we reported it their solution was to bring us more towels!! it was a huge inconvenience and a safety hazard! There was no hot water in the sinks in the mornings. The beach and water were quite beautiful but the pools are not heated and were way too cold to try and swim in so that was a big disappointment and took away options for swimming and relaxing. There were street vendors on the beach which were very annoying-again we've never experienced this at other resorts with private beaches. We traveled with our 2 adult daughters and were hoping for a much better experience as they had never been to the area and we splurged on the trip. I would not recommend this resort based on our experience.