El Dorado Seaside Suites

This was out 4th visit to EDSP in the last 3 years (our last trip was December 2025). We truly love this resort for what it has to offer not only in food/drink, but the intimate atmosphere and property aesthetics. Prior to arrival we had requested to be put into either building 16, 17 or 18 of the Luxury Jr Suites and the Guest Services Manager (Alex Gil) came through with our request again (thank you Alex!). We were put in building 16, it had a fabulous view of the grounds and the ocean and was in a really quiet locale. Room was spacious, spotless and had everything we needed. Food in all the restaurants we went to (we did not do Klay Talay as Asian food is not our style) was simply outstanding, we never had a bad meal anywhere. We went to Seaside Market Buffet breakfast every morning (special mention to Hugo as our waiter, simply fantastic!) as we love to cruise around and pick and try out the many different foods they have available (I especially love the Mexican offerings and was not disappointed once, if they have the Tamales Dulces (sweet tamales), try them!! The Culinarium Restaurant is one of our favourites for dinner, if you go, hope that you get Jorge as your waiter – simply top notch in every aspect! Attentive and he goes out of his way to make sure your dining experience is perfect. La Carreta (Mexican) restaurant is my all time fav, our last meal there the night before we came home was unbelievably amazing! Every plate that came out was perfect. I had a hard time choosing which dishes to get as I didn’t want to repeat the same thing twice in one week but everything on the menu is fabulous. Mia Casa was another highlight, excellent courses delivered swiftly, great ambience too. The Gourmet Pub did not disappoint either, loved the Iberian Ham Croquettes as well as the roasted tomato soup, hubs enjoyed the wings and fish and chips! We never made it the new Trattoria over by Guacamaya bar, but did sample the pizzas and nachos at lunch time at the Sandwicherie (awesome nachos, LOVED the guacamole!). The only downside to the 3 restaurants that require reservations is that it is tough to get reservations at a reasonable time while we were there, anything past 8:30 pm is a no go for us. Bars are all fab, we always ended up at Cotorros Bar each day around 2:30 p.m. for an early happy hour and then again before and after dinner. Our bartenders and servers for the week at Cotorros were Julio (excellent!), Rolando, Manuel, Carina, Ana and Alicia, they made our visits so special! We loved them all, they were so friendly and quick at getting you what you wanted. Really top notch service from all of them, they all deserve a special mention. Grounds are immaculate as usual, this is what we love about the Palm side, the stunning scenery, gorgeous plantings, hundreds of towering Palms. I just marvel at how well maintained the grounds are. The gardeners are constantly raking, pruning, etc. We also look forward to seeing Patches and Romeo (or Taco or Simba…depends which staff member you talk to as they have different names for the little orange tabby). Adorable resort kitties that are both very friendly and vocal. Included Transportation was great. We ended up sharing a Lincoln Navigator on the way to the resort and on the way back we had a smaller van but because of the Easter morning 6 a.m. pickup, we were the only ones heading to the airport, no pickups at other resorts so that was a bonus. We got to the airport in an hour. (Fabulous drivers both times!). Smoking outside of designated areas was better this time than when we were there December 2025. Most folks were using the smoking areas, just a few ignorant and thoughtless people tried to smoke at the bars until they were told they couldn’t. The resort portrays a fine dining experience at the a la cartes for dinner but they are doing a disservice by not enforcing the dress code thereby dragging down their hotel rating. We enjoy dressing up in nice clothes to dine, it is "date night" every night for us. Other than those 2 negatives, we do love the resort for what it is and what they provide. We will be returning December 2026 as we have not found another resort that has everything we love/require in an all inclusive. Overall another fabulous trip to El Dorado Seaside Palms and we are looking forward to the next one this December.

Where do I start ? Would like to know who has rated this 5 star . Rooms dark and outdated with a damp feel . All clothing in wardrobe felt damp As for the food , the quality was appalling. Badly presented in the buffets and cod and congealed . In the so called à la carte no change in menu . Had to wait 45 minutes between starter and main in the Italian and when it did arrive it was stone cold . Breakfast in the Cullinarium was a joke , 50 minute wait for cold poached eggs . Not a sign of an apology . Never any condiments on the table in any restaurant On several days , room not serviced until 4pm , no chance of a relax in the room . Poor quality , uncomfortable loungers , if you can get one . Be prepared to get up at 06.30 if you want one on the beach . No parasols If you don’t tip , waving dollars in the air , you are suddenly invisible and don’t get served We really feel that we have wasted our money . All complaints simply shrugged off

We have enjoyed the amazing hospitality of our Mexican friends for over 20 years. We became members of El Dorado resorts (Karisma) 15 years ago and other than Covid have visited these resorts at least once a year. For 10 years they continued to be AMAZINGLY EXCEPTIONAL, especially the food. You would be hard pressed to find a mediocre meal. After 8 days at Palms we were hard pressed to find a meal that was above mediocre. Even the members dinner and the moonlight dinner were mediocre at best. These resorts used to brand themselves as “Gourmet Inclusive “, now they’ve replaced the amazing meals with “More Inclusive “ trips off the resort. THE AWSOME The staff are always amazing doing their best to deliver 5* service at a 3* resort. Grounds are as usual spectacular. Had wonderful massages in the jungle rooms, those are new. Housekeeping was fantastic, thank you Maribel Carrisosa for your wonderful service. Our butler Arturo was wonderful and has definitely met the historic quality of service that Hector set back in 2014. Our beach server Veronica was always very friendly and did a great job of keeping us lubricated. So many other staff were wonderful, friendly and did a great job. Kaab vegan restaurant Bibimbap was so delicious, best meal I had. Chicken skewers at Frontera and ceviche at Driftwood were very good. THE CRAPPY Our Presidential Suite had old stained furniture, cheap plastic table on the terrace. Outdoor table and chairs are coming apart, rotten wood with surface broken and peeling off. For the 1st time in 20 years the bed was uncomfortable with crappy pillows. Dinners were completely lacking in flavour and vegetables. A tasteless piece of meat on a tablespoon of mashed potato gruel with a 2” piece of carrot sliced into 4 pieces but you only got 3 of them. My wife’s teriyaki beef was beef pieces with no teriyaki sauce. Breakfast eggs served with 1 piece of bacon and 2 tater tots. Eggs Benedict served on a transparent piece of ham, not pemeal bacon and the “Hollandaise” sauce was something unrecognizable. Paid for a Moonlight dinner, ceviche was mostly chopped tomatoes and onion, lobster bisque was inedible and smelled like old rotten lobster, stuffed chicken was tasteless but did come with 2 tablespoons of potato gruel and 2 carrots. Members dinner started with cold balls of something, a nice soup that was almost hot, over cooked lobster tail and a piece of beef tenderloin that was baked in the oven with no spices, no searing just a bland hunk of beef on a bed of more potato gruel, 1/2 a Brussels sprout and 2 carrots. Coq Au Vin at Culinarium was grey and had my wife violently ill 2 hours later, not an alcohol challenge as she’s not a big drinker. Beach is significantly deteriorated from hurricanes. One of our favourite restaurants had the roof half peeled off by a hurricane years ago. It still sits there with half the roof gone. The Mexican restaurant was also closed and menu moved to Driftwood. Seriously a 5* resort would never leave buildings half broken and closed for YEARS. It’s so unfortunate that a chain of resorts with so much potential is slowly drifting into mediocrity because Management has decided to put profits over quality. So easy to fix, REPAIR YOUR BUILDINGS, serve fresh vegetables with every meal not powdered potato gruel and a boiled carrot. I’m not a big complainer over minor things, you can see I’ve reviewed this chain of resorts many times over the past 15 YEARS. Last year at Royale the food was also disappointing so we tried Palms for the SIXTH time only to find the same thing.

My wife and I spent two weeks at this resort. The room was very nice and the staff very, very good. Having said that there were lots of things wrong. The food was repetitive and in the non buffet restaurants really quite poor. The Italian and cullinarium were particularly bad. There is no large lagoon pool, only small ones with swim up bars full of noisy uncouth people shouting at each other. There is no lobby bar, only small bars scattered around the resort. The worst thing is that there is insufficient comfortable seating at any of them. On evenings with entertainment they put folding seats out in rows with no tables, laid out like a school assembly. There is no way we would return or recommend it to anyone.

We have just returned from a TUI BLUE holiday at Eldorado Palms in Mexico, we have been to several in the past and this was the worst overall that we have been to. Particularily the Food, Entertainment and Bars Positives The hotel grounds and gardens are well kept and well looked after by the ground staff. Rooms are kept very clean and if maintenance is required it comes very quickly and issues are sorted out. Staff are very pleasant and efficient and are without doubt the best part of the hotel. Wine was in general good for this type of hotel. Breakfast omelettes in Aricife were good and the only thing that was hot. Fried and poached eggs by the same chef were also good. Negatives As plenty of people mentioned the rooms and hotel generally are dated Issues around sunbeams, if you want a bed near the main pool you need to be there at or before 6am. The pool is only small and there are not many beds. Sunbeams on the beach are terrible, old plastic ones that sage and give no support, these don’t go as early as around the pool but if you want a Bali Bed its again an early start. Nothing is done by the Hotel to restrict bed hogging reservations. Food - generally poor to average. Same meals every day except when the Mexican night is on. Food is not kept hot in the self serve restaurants very limited variety and sometimes no fruit at Dinner - same goes for cheeses. There is one toaster in the Aricife which takes at least 4 passes to toast a piece of bread, always people waking to get access. There were days when the Burger Bar ran out of French fries and the bar we were at ran out of Gin Entertainment was almost no existent. There were plenty of bars but not enough seating for the numbers of customers on an evening especially. Some of the bars has wooden swings as seating, not really an adult only experience. The subbed areas attached to premium accommodation hardly got any sun during the day as the Jungle vegetation was so lush that most areas were in shade most of the time This was not a 5* 5T experience (and we were in the Premium section), we have been in far better 4T hotels with TUI. This hotel overall based on our experience would be lucky to hit 4*. We knew that the transport to the hotel from the airport could take 11/2 hours so we decided to arrange a personal transport through TUI. On arriving at the pickup point at the airport we were tole that our transport would be there in 10 mins, were kept being told this for 50 minutes. Finally the TUI rep came clean and told me that there was no car for us but that they could get one in about 50 minutes, this eating around was after a 10 hour flight. Eventually the rep told me that we should get a taxi and claim it back by the TUI rep ate the resort. The taxi ride to the Hotel was almost £190. Even though we were refunded the cost and the money we had already paid for the Transport this was not a good start to the holiday