Iberostar Grand Paraiso

Is merely good resort food not good enough for you? JOIA is the pick for the picky. Its sophisticated dining program has wowed me on several recent visits. JOIA shines even amidst the Riviera Maya’s luxury resort competition. As a professional restaurant reviewer in the U.S., I know greatness when I taste it. Clearly, the Iberostar brand has doubled down on JOIA’s culinary dominance. Its kitchen wizards, like Chef Yadhir and Chef Darío, have updated and elevated JOIA menus with eats that are flavor-laden, haute-quality, and adventurous yet comforting. Knockout deliciousness and authentic cuisine infuse the resort’s restaurants: glorious Mexican, graceful Japanese, lusty steakhouse, magnifico Italian, elegant French, and a multi-culti beachfront café. Across the board, JOIA eateries boast dazzling design and warmhearted personal service. Take this, buffet snobs: JOIA’s version, Bellavista, is an am-I-dreaming food fiesta, an ever-changing edible extravaganza showcasing the passion and perfectionism of the resort’s Mexican chefs. The buffet’s piping-hot offerings are invariably flavorful and cooked just right, often in front of you: whether crisp-yet-tender roasted beef, pork, poultry; saucy Mexican and Italian dishes; never-limp pasta; seafood grilled as you like it. At Bellavista, as at all JOIA eateries, ingredients are the best you can get in this world. The charcuterie station flaunts Iberian ham, Italian prosciutto, French pâté and Roquefort cheese, Mission figs, Greek olives, plus much more. The raw bar tempts with the likes of oysters, Caribbean lobster, and fist-sized shrimp netted that day. Lush sushi beckons at most lunches and dinners. And Bellavista's desserts! Opulent pastries, cakes, and pies, sumptuous ice cream, exquisite macarons, chocolate truffles — all made in-house daily with no corners cut. Even the chocolate itself is crafted in the kitchen. Ladies: dress your sparkliest on Tuesdays for Bellavista’s glam Gala dinner. One last word: bars. JOIA’s are tops, especially Rhapsody, whose flavor-bomb cocktails would go for $25 in urban America. At JOIA, bons vivants have come to the right place.

Such a beautiful resort. Staff was super helpful and nice. Great drinks and nice spacious rooms. Lenin down at the main pool was super sweet and friendly. He waited on us all week and gave us a great experience!!

Dahiomi en sugar, smile, black mamba, snoop and the whole entertainment staff are absolutely amazing!!! They work so hard and make sure everyone is having the best time here and have smiles on their faces!!! They start in the morning and work all day non stop and we couldn’t be more grateful for their hard work and dedication! Thank you to all for making this trip so special and no doubt that we will be back!!!

Overall, Joia was a great place for my boyfriend and I to spend our first trip together. It was a very relaxing and beautiful place. Ruth with TripGuy made sure everything was taken care of including flights, transport to and from the resort, and resort reservations. It’s really nice being able to trust someone enough to take that off your plate and enjoy your vacation. She’s never placed me at a bad resort. The main pool area was beautiful, well maintained, and had a great swim up bar. Louis and Jose made some amazing drinks and made sure our cup was never empty. Louis had a specialty drink that was the perfect combination of sweet and citrus. We enjoyed the daily activities, especially the volleyball. Jonathan from the entertainment team did a great job at making everyone feel welcome, even if you weren’t participating in every game. He kept the energy up and sparked conversations for us to get to know the other guests to make friends. Some people do play the towel game, which is unfortunate, but we were always able to find a seat. They did not skimp on towels, which was great! You could get as many as you needed throughout the day. They also had sunscreen and would blow up your floats at the towel hut. One thing that I was impressed by was the bathroom by the pool. People were going in and out in soaking wet bathing suits, but the floor was never wet when you went in. The housekeeping crew kept it mopped and clean. We didn’t spend much time at the beach because of the sargassum. We were in building 74, which didn’t have a view of the pool or beach, but that was fine for us because we really only got ready and slept in the room. We did see monkeys from the balcony which was really cool to see. The room itself was very clean and they made sure you had everything you needed. The housekeepers came in twice a day. The room had a nice jacuzzi, balcony, and two separate sinks to make getting ready for dinners easier. For food we enjoyed the taco bar behind the steakhouse, the rotating pop up food stand by the pool, and the buffet if we were still hungry. The sushi at the buffet was great! We went to the Italian, Japanese, French, and gala night at the buffet for dinners. The steakhouse was by far a favorite. I wish that we had discovered it earlier so we could go a second night. I had the lobster and my boyfriend had the filet mignon wrapped in bacon with lobster. Both meals were delicious. The sides were the one place that we felt was lacking. For example, the mac and cheese tasted like box Mac and cheese and the potatoes were hard and undercooked. We didn’t partake in many of the shows because we chose to wake up earlier to spend some quiet time by the beach and pool. We did go to the late night disco two nights and enjoyed it. There was a wedding party, so I’m not sure how busy it would be on a normal night but was fairly busy when we went. It was nice being able to take a golf cart to and from the mall and other resorts to be able to enjoy things like this. Out of the bars, the lobby bar ended up being one of our favorites. They had music most nights and Daniel made the best drinks. The espresso martini and pistachio martini were my go tos. Definitely a place we would go back to!

Excellent service Every Butler was exceptional and tipped well