El Dorado Seaside Suites

This was our third trip to El Dorado Seaside Palms (and also El Dorado Maroma) and it was our best trip to this resort by far. Prearrival and checkin were excellent with Isabell and other Exotic Members staff. The size of EDSP is great for convenience to restaurants, bars and amenities. The Butlers, Arturo, Julian, Ana and Azael were great as were the Marival Silva and Carlos on the housekeeping staff. All requests and needs were met and exceeded. The Members Section Beach Butlers, Celvin and Gabriel, were so personable and ensured we had palapas each day and the beach service by Martha, Corina, & Regina was the best! We enjoyed the daily treats they served us on the beach. The meals at Asian and Italian restaurants were awesome in both service and quality food (repeated both restaurants) and Aristeo and the others were great servers. The Gormet Pub is our least favorite; but, it was acceptable. The Mexican Fiesta was good, but the lines were so long it was not worth the wait. The upgrade for a Chefs Table meal at Mia Casa was definitely a disappointment this year compared to last year. Service was poor, communication was poor, there was no greeting by the Chef; however, the food was good. It just was not worth the cost of the upgrade. The Fire Show had to be moved indoors due to potential rain. It was a waste of time. Breakfast and lunch meals were good. We loved the view and location of our beachfront room near the end of the property. This trip was with friends who have been there many times. We will return in 2026.

I booked the Premium Jr Swim up Suite at the Palms for this trip. We aren't really beach people and the swim up suite / adult only was my must have on my list for an all inclusive, so after reviewing too many hotels ended up picking this one. We also chose private transportation from the airport (through a third party) , even though a shuttle was included with the resort. When chatting with the resort about the shuttle, they indicated their "service may include brief stops en route to your destination and does not operate on a fixed departure schedule." - I just didn't want to risk waiting and taking hours to get to the resort. We hit some traffic with our transport, and it took a bit over than an hour to get to the resort. Check in was a breeze and they brought us and our baggage to our room in a golf cart. We were in 101 to start. Right at the end of the building, very private section of the pool. We loved it at first. Fantastic water pressure and temperature consistency, not too soft of a bed..But that room is incredibly loud. There is a maintenance/storage area under the room and is always busy, always loud. The side of the pool/room was next to a very busy roadway where they happen to unload boxes and boxes of wine lol. It broke us after night 5, even with me wearing ear plugs. That night they had one of their main events at the lobby open air space (next to the room, which is great for laying outside and listening to the music) and were putzing around in the maintenance area clanging and banging till after midnight. Husband called to complain and requested us to switch rooms in the morning. The noise started up again at 5am the next day. When he went down to the lobby, we were told that we could get a new room at 3pm. We switched to room 114. So much quieter but water pressure and temperature was worse and the bed was insanely soft, where when you lay in the bed, a crater forms around you. Rooms were spacious, huge jetted tub, shower large enough for two people, double sink vanity, sitting area and a table with chairs. On the patio, there was two loungers in the pool, two loungers on the patio with a day bed. Our goal for this trip was to have a relaxing vacation, basically live in the pool (that we did, and it was amazing to have a swim up room with a bar right across from us, crafty bartenders at the pool swim up also). One thing I wish we would have known prior, instead of the second last day was that we could order lunch right behind the swim up bar, when we asked our concierge, he said the restaurant was behind the bar, but we could never find it. We had the burrito, shrimp cocktail and beef sandwich and it was good. Food was pretty good, always had a selection and if we were hungry in the middle of the night, room service was great. Should note, that when they have their large events, in the palms lobby green space area - there is a whole bunch of food brought into the square, but super hard to find tables/open spaces if you come later. The buffet and other restaurants are basically closed this night minus the reservation restaurant and one night for us, the gourmet pub. The pub ended up having over an hour wait time after 6pm. We had a few appies at the pub, and a couple of salads and it was probably the worst meal we had the whole week. Maybe the meals were better. I tried a handful of salads at the buffet and then at the pub, and noticed all of them were very under dressed. Either dressing or any salt/flavor was missing. We only ate at 2 reservable restaurants, the Mexican at the seaside suites building and the Asian. The sushi at the Klay Talay was delicious. When we tried to get reservations at the italian place, later on in our trip, we were unsuccessful. We also booked a premium candle light seafood dinner, was supposed to be in the tipis, but it just finished raining so they set up everyone in a privatish area.. Meal was good, but I don't know if it was overall worth the value due to moving locations as it wasn't intimate. Shout out to the beach bar, the ribs, burgers and skewers were great. The hotel was very clean. All washrooms were very well looked after, our room was serviced daily - even calling if we had the do not disturb sign if we needed our mini bar refreshed, etc. We didn't partake much in the nightly events, live music isn't my jam and we weren't too interested in hanging out with a ton of people. The fire show was really good though, but then - very limited seating and we had to stand to the side. We heard that "the bar" was very lively at night after dinner. I think we saw mostly people 30years old plus, older crowd. Often times we would just take half a cup of rum or vodka to our room to mix with the pop and play cards. Unfortunately the last night we did this, we found the hard liquor to be insanely watered down, a bit disappointed - not too sure if the bottles were or the bartender did this on purpose. The only excursion we went on was the catamaran provided by the resort. You need to leave early and basically spend all day at their Marmoa beach, which was about 45 min away from the resort. Lunch was great there, and the beach was like powder. We saw a sting ray and a couple of turtles and everyone snorkeling saw a bunch of fish. We paid extra for the speed boat excursion, which I thought was terrifying but my husband loved lol. (he said it needs more horse power though lol) The hotel grounds were immaculate. Very clean, lots of walking paths. it took a couple days to get figured out where everything was - the online link hotel map and the printed one differed also signage could be better. Staff were very friendly and always asking if we wanted a ride somewhere in the golf cart. It was quite beautiful there. Shout out to the resort staff and vacationers taking care of the cat. I was so happy to have met her!! Saw lots of lizards, coatis and racoons and one snake. We ventured to the beach a few times. By early morning, all loungers and bali beds were spoken for with towels. The beach into the water and some places of the water was rocky. We bought water shoes for $22 usd each and it was such a great purchase. You can walk all the way out to the buoys and be only up to your chest. Water was warm, saw sooo many fish in waist deep water. The gift shops were priced accordingly for a resort I think. $22usd for water shoes, $12usd for doritos, $22usd for the best vanilla ever (which is very very over priced but we were not heading out anywhere else to grab it), sunscreen was I think $28usd or so? PSA though which is sad to even have to mention.. - Do not walk into restaurants while on facetime with someone and have very loud conversations on the phone. - Turn your text ringer on silent while eating!! Sure, if you wanna text someone while eating, do whatever you want but having a ding every 30 seconds to a minute is very disturbing to others. -If you pee on the seat ladies, you should really wipe that up. - If you're having a great time and coming back to the room, maybe dont yell and scream and holler as it echoes throughout the hallways and could wake people up at 1am. Overall, the trip was a great success for the relaxation and quiet time we needed in our lives and we would recommend anyone to go visit the resort, well worth it.

We spent one week at this resort at the beginning of November with another couple who joined us unexpectedly, so this was the highlight of our trip. I had chosen this resort based on overall positive reviews, which is why I like to share my opinions. I had booked a basic junior suite and that’s about all it was and we were given a room in a very bad location right outside the Piccadilly bar, so as you can imagine pretty much every night was extremely loud, the only saving grace is that it was typically over by 11. The room was cleaned adequately but not to the usually standards we experience, and tipping made no difference in this. The bed was old and uncomfortable and horrible pillows, I requested different ones several times but to no avail, the one time they brought up a couple of pillows that were the most bizarre things I have every seen! They were hard and round and contained some large spring like devices inside that you might find inside mattress. It was so ridiculous and almost comical but frustrating. The food situation was varied. Buffet was absolutely terrible for breakfast which is highly unusual for Mexico and especially at a “higher” end resort. I’ve had better breakfasts at an included continental breakfast at those chain hotels. There was literally no variety, the hash browns were frozen triangles, juices the two they had were boxed sugary sunny d type juice. Omelets were prepared paper thin. No selection of fruit available. For anyone who has visited Cuba this was comparable if not worse. So yes that bad. The other a la carte for breakfast was nothing special either with also limited options. The dinners however were good thankfully, and lunch was mediocre. There aren’t many options for that, and we found ourselves going to driftwood every day and that got tiring. Dinner reservations are indeed challenging to make, and to get a decent time or long waits were incurred. This resort is on the larger side, the positive is that the grounds are beautiful and lush and well cared for, I enjoyed walking through all of the lovely pathways, but take caution as these pathways are also lined thick with palm trees and falling coconuts throughout, so it is near impossible to maintain this amount as they usually do at other resorts, Even though they try. You will need to reserve a chair or bed early, before sunrise at the main beach area. And us usual people do this and not return for hours disrespectfully. We found an area that we enjoyed at the very end of the resort in the Bali beds next to a beach bar and beach bbq lunch shack. It was beautiful and quiet there but they don’t clean the beach here but thankfully the seaweed situation is good this time of year, although they do however pile it up at the end of the beach and it smells terrible, so go beyond that area. Drink service is good and the few I tried were decent. I prefer margaritas typically lime but tried a mango one and it was good. We never used the pools, the few around were small, shaded and just not a good vibe. The ocean was warm, clear and plenty of fish to see as well. I come to these places to be near the water. Towels are found early on each day and not a problem there. So anything you do early is always beneficial. We found the staff to be pleasant overall but customer service was not as good as we found in other resorts. It was hit and miss and maybe dependant on whether you were a repeat guest or not. We have no real desire to return here again, there was some positives in our stay but also too many negatives, and we also like to try new places as well. My recommendations would be to ensure to eat at the Italian restaurant the food and atmosphere is very good, and the drinks at the tequila bar are good as well and it is also has a nice atmosphere. The highlight of the trip was Dia de Muertos, I have always wanted to be in Mexico at this time to experience this sacred tradition and although we did not venture off of the resort they did a spectacular job to celebrate and the alters they set up were truly beautiful to honour those who have passed. I truly enjoyed seeing all of this.

We are repeat guests to El Dorado hotels in Mexico. We have stayed at the Casitas multiple times and also Maroma Beach. We have a “Standard” that the group of hotels have set, and I would say Seaside fell short a little. The Good: Always the staff! This is consistent. They will go very far out of their way to do what they can to make your stay enjoyable. Sebastien our concierge, Efrain the beach bartender (dude was incredible), Genny our breakfast server and the spa!!! I loved the spa gang! Daphne, Alberto, and Ruben(massage magician) The grounds: beautiful grounds at all of the combined 3 resorts. Lots of time spent manicuring, always a place to sit and enjoy the grounds. They work hard and keeping the beach beautiful and the snorkeling is great! The food: while it was not the best I’ve had, it was good everywhere we went. You will never be hungry. The carrot and coconut soup was amazing, the vegan restaurant was a surprise and it was amazing (I’m not vegan or vegetarian) the breakfast buffets were great will loads of choice. The “Room for Improvement”: Accommodation: we paid for beachfront and definitely got it. Building 25 with a balcony. It’s directly in front of the main party beach bar. It’s extremely loud, even with double glass doors. This room is only good for those that plan to be in that bar till the music is off at 1am. It should never be booked for 50+ year olds. 😳 We asked to be moved but it would have been several days before they could move us. Too inconvenient. We slept with Nytol. The room cleaning was hit and miss with them having forgot us all together 1 day, and taking our towels on another day and leaving us none after returning from a 10 hour excursion. We needed our jetted tub fixed ( was filling with black sediment), our shower fixed ( barely a trickle of water) and our phone stopped working while trying to order room service. Our poor concierge handled it all like a champ, but it made for unnecessary vacation interruption. Resort Reservation system: Ouf. This was rough. Imagine being told that there were no reservations available for you the day after you arrive. This should never be the case and you should not need to take matters into your own hands and run between resorts begging restaurants to take you at 9:30pm. The system is broken and needs a fix. The night buffet is fine for a night, but with 5-6 other restaurants to choose from it should not be your only option. 5pm and 9pm are not when most people eat. We did not get to enjoy the Mexican party, or the street food party. They were overbooked. We did find a way to eat everywhere else by dining very late and tipping large. 😎 The resort was clearly at capacity and struggling during our week. We absolutely still enjoyed our stay, but with so many great competing options, we will likely not return.

Just come back from here which was suppose to be a special holiday for my husbands 60th birthday. Tui BLUE it is not. Room was very dated and not clean. Most restaurants are sit down service and you have to wait 1-2 hours every night to get seated. Only one available to book for Tui guests is the Italian which is like gold dust. Meals are very small, we did go to the buffet restaurant once which was nearly an hour wait by the time we got in most food had run out. You to be down for a sun bed by 7am or your not getting one, 3 hr wait for sunbed towels. Even though it’s all inclusive they try and upsell everything from sun beds to a table for 2 at events which start from $50 (which is the cheapest bottle of wine)