Iberostar Grand Paraiso

Property itself is stunning to look at and is maintained to a very high standard. The gardens are kept immaculate and every effort to keep the sea grass off the beach is undertaken every day, but unfortunately nature sometimes wins. All the staff in this hotel are extremely hard working and helpful- Iberostar should be proud of them all. We stayed in a garden view room, this was completely adequate, comfortable bed, and again kept immaculately clean complete with turndown service every night. Bar was always kept stocked with beer and soft drinks along with bottles of water. If you require more water just ask your concierge and more will be forthcoming. In the bathroom plenty of towels changed twice daily, also good quality, shower gel, shampoo and conditioner and even mosquito repellent. Hairdryer was powerful and it was nice to see an iron and ironing board. Pools - there is a large pool where all of the day time activities take place. We however only used the quiet pool, which as the name suggests is very relaxing and has a tranquil setting. Plenty of fresh towels provided along with cool flavoured water, a nice touch is the sunscreen provided at the towel station. There was fantastic pool service for drinks all day. An improvement that needs to be made however is the cabanas need refurbishing, some curtains are heavily stained, damaged or in some cases missing. Also would suggest that the mattress covers need replacing more often. The structure of the cabanas now need to be refurbished as well to bring up to a 5 star rating. Drink quality- this is probably the best we have ever had in all of the all- inclusive hotels we have stayed in, in Mexico, never once did they run out of any brand. Just ask for the brand you require and if they have it you’ve got it. A special mention in the main bar to Daniel and the team they were outstanding, never once did I see Daniel asked for something he didn’t know how to make. He made us feel very welcome straight away, a sign of an excellent bar tender. Food is subjective, so this is our opinion, but it is based on travelling for 15 years to all inclusive hotels in Mexico. The buffet in the main restaurant- for breakfast this is as good as any hotel in Mexico. Lunch time buffet is the best we have ever had- fantastic choice, constantly been replenished, never ran out of anything. Evening meal buffet again of a very high standard with lots of high quality seafood and meat. Would recommend the Gala night in the buffet. The only criticism I would have is the large amount of artificial food colourings in the deserts. We also visited the ceviche restaurant for lunch, on 3 occasions every time we had a good experience, would recommend the shrimp ceviche A la carte restaurants - this is where the hotel really lets itself down and there is room for vast improvements in this area. The French restaurant- in our opinion the poorest we visited, whilst the service was good and staff were very attentive. The food needs to be improved dramatically along with the presentation. On the first occasion the seafood bisque was ordered and this was served with an unopened mussel and a broken shell mussel and the only 2 clams that were served had no meat in them. The bisque was dramatically over seasoned. A rack of lamb was not a rack of lamb, it was small lamb chops, not French trimmed which were overcooked on a bed of over seasoned polenta. The beef wellington was served with tough meat and was overcooked (ironically they had perfectly prepared beef wellington in the buffet, if they can produce it there why can’t they produce it in the restaurant). Tried a second time in case it was a one off, but this was not the case. Tried the French onion soup whilst it was ok, it was served in the same bowl as used for the breakfast cereal, the lamb again was served exactly the same as previously. The Italian restaurant. This was the only place where we had poor service. Again attention to detail is certainly lacking, food needs to be improved along with presentation. Food was overcooked and over seasoned. The whole menu on offer needs to be totally revamped. The Mexican restaurant was the best of the restaurants we visited. The ambiance and service was what you would expect of a five star hotel and the food lived up to expectations, can highly recommend the bone marrow tacos, the lamb casserole with chickpeas, the chocolate dessert of chocolate cookie ice cream, biscuit crumble and a dark chocolate fondant with sea salt was excellent and what you would expect to see in a five star hotel restaurant. The Japanese restaurant- we tried to visit, and were told there was a special event going on and they had no room, this was especially annoying as it was the same night the main buffet was closed- so limited your choice. In closing, unfortunately currently we will not be returning due to poor restaurant quality and at this price bracket there are a lot of other hotels with higher standard restaurants. The management need to take a long hard look at their al la carte restaurants and update there menus and presentation, we would personally say that the menus and presentations look at least 10 years old and have not moved with the times. We

Love Iberostar properties. Always clean, always something to eat or do. Not super busy this time of year, which is even better! All of the staff are SO kind and helpful!! Just be aware, there are only like 3 spots on the property if youre a smoker, so it might be a little walk to do so.

10/10 all around! • Super clean rooms and outdoors • Amazing, friendly staff • Very good food with lots of variety (the gelato especially) • Perfect place for a peaceful but also fun and entertaining trip!

My husband I and celebrated our 35th Wedding Anniversary. Everything about JOIA Paraiso is Five Stars…customer service, concierge, cleanliness, decor, cuisine, beachfront, pools, excursions, calendar of events and shopping. The resort offers transportation to downtown Cancún for souvenir shopping and authentic restaurants. Our ATV/Zip Line/Cenote Jumping and an authentic Mexican lunch excursion was the BEST, which was booked through the Resort. We will definitely make another trip to our favorite Resort JOIA Paraiso Iberostar.

This hotel is nice and clean. The staff are friendly and hospitable. The rooms are spacious and the beds are comfy. The entertainment was really good and had a good variety. The food was disappointing, breakfast was always lukewarm, their lack of awareness on allergies is concerning and it’s seems to always be the same food. The food at the beach restaurant was the highlight! So good, we eat there everyday. There is a lot of iguanas which I hate so couldn’t ever relax. The cabanas weren’t the best if you wanted to keep out the sun so moveable umbrellas would have been better. Overall it was a pleasant stay. I’d love to say we’d come back but only when the food has improved.