Paradisus Cancun

Long review alert, but detailed if that's your thing - read the summary and skip to the end for the general vibe and our verdict.

Summary…

This was our second time to the same region in Mexico, having originally stayed three years earlier at the Iberostar resort about 2km away. That was a nice hotel, but we felt some of the staff there were a bit abrupt. However, Paradisus…this was on a whole other level!

We originally booked this and hesitated at the budget so swapped to a nearby hotel. After getting that feeling we shouldn’t have changed, we swapped back, ironically saving us money and our sanity - best move we made. Our stay was for 11 nights.

We normally go to either adult-only resorts, or those that have a dedicated adult-only section. For that reason, we decided to go for The Reserve. If you can stretch to it, in our experience it was worth every penny.

Hotel staff could not do enough for us, but bear in mind that we were there before school holidays, and the hotel was just freshly open and only at 40% occupancy at the time. This worked in our favour, big time, but regardless, we will be back!

Hotel design…

The first thing that grabbed us about the hotel originally was its unique structure, looking like five connected pyramids. The main central pyramid houses the main lobby, lounges and restaurants. One one end of the hotel you have The Reserve, and the other you have Family Concierge.

The hotel had only been open for three months following a $50m refurbishment and was immaculate throughout. The standout feature is the interior design. The main lobby feels more like a rainforest than a hotel, with walkways, running water, mature trees, greenery and huge cascades of ivy hanging from the upper levels. This also carries through into other pyramids.

Contrast that with some of the more modern “built for capacity” tower-blocks – if you want something a bit more special, this ticks that box. A wow moment for sure when you first pull up and walk inside.

The Reserve, is it worth it?...

In a word, yes.

Benefits include:

• Dedicated check-in lounge
• Adults-only pool
• Access to cabanas
• Breakfast and lunch at Santé
• One dining experience at Sal Steak Cave
• Sunset cruise
• Weekly hydrotherapy access
• Personal concierge

Our concierge, Israel, was exceptional. Every morning he checked in with daily activities and restaurant information, handled reservations, ensured our room was stocked, arranged birthday surprises for my fiancée, organised turndown service, and generally made sure everything ran smoothly.

To say he went above and beyond would be an understatement. He is a credit to the hotel and someone we now consider a genuine friend.

This level of service wasn't limited to Israel. Throughout the resort, staff were warm, attentive and genuinely welcoming.

The Circle...

As a Reserve guest you'll inevitably be introduced to The Circle, the resort's membership programme.

For us it wasn't something we were interested in, but unlike experiences we've had elsewhere, Paradisus were completely transparent about it. Raul, the Customer Service Manager, was respectful throughout, never pushy, and spent more time making sure we were enjoying our stay than trying to sell anything.

Our room(s)…

Originally, we had booked a standard room in The Reserve – spacious enough, modern, with a large walk-in shower (no bath) and an adequately sized balcony. It was an ocean view room, but due to the design of the hotel we only had a limited forward view of the ocean, not the resort itself or its grounds.

On the first night after my shower, I stepped out into more water outside than inside, which subsequently leaked out into the hallway and near the front door! This was reported, we got ready for our first meal (Kao, Asian) and headed out. When we got back it was all dry, cleaned up, and the blockage fixed – no complaints here, stuff happens.

The next day we received a phone call saying that they had managed to find us another room which was an upgrade – larger, with free-standing bathtub as well as shower, and bigger balcony with double sunbed, table and chairs. It also had a slightly wider view. If we were prepared to pack and move, it was ours. We had a look – no brainer to swap for the next 10 nights, and they even helped us with that.

Both had the usual complement of wardrobe, plenty of drawers for storage, iron, hairdryer, safe, mini-bar (stocked daily with drinks and snacks) and for those who enjoy a cup of tea (looking at you Brits!) there was also a kettle. There were also a decent number of power sockets and charge-points, some with built-in USB charging, and importantly, beside the bed.

My only critique would be the number of lights and light-switches – far too many combinations! I stopped counting when I got to 15 light switches :D

Pool and cabanas…

We only ever used the adults-only pool (one large main one, one smaller with submerged waterbeds and jacuzzi). Both were meticulously clean and regularly maintained by staff.

There is no swim-up bar in this pool, so if that’s important to you, head over to the main pool. However, having access to the cabanas and poolside service meant that this wasn’t an issue at all.

There are more cabanas around the pool than regular sun loungers. The general idea is that as a member of The Reserve, you are guaranteed the use of a cabana at least one time in your stay, from 9am to 6pm. These can be booked at cost, and you may need to book if the resort is busy. But this is where it worked in our favour – the lower occupancy meant that we were able to have the same cabana each day. Israel, our concierge, also added our name to the “no charge” list. This offered complete shade all day for me, and each has its own movable sun lounger for my sun-loving fiancée. They also have USB charging for phones.

Special shoutouts go Victor and Giovani, our pool concierges who set them up each day for us, with a peak-towel count of 12 at one point! Giovani went above-and-beyond with making cute sculptures with towels, like kissing swans, love hears etc. and made sure we had everything we needed. Lovely touches.

If you decide to take advantage of the food service, while the Mexican cuisine is nice, we highly recommend the burger!

Food and restaurants…

There are many restaurants at Paradisus, catering for all tastes. Most of these need to be booked in advance, opening for booking two days ahead. Ones we dined at were:

Sal Steak Cave (adults only): We dined here once as part of our stay at The Reserve. It was nice enough, but not our favourite. This was largely in part because access to the steaks you really want is behind an additional paywall. The only inclusive steak was brisket, but it melted in your mouth and was still a nice treat.

Capella: Italian restaurant and one that we dined at several times during our stay, as tends to be the case when we find a good Italian. The pizzas are amazing – cooking in a proper wood-fired oven.

Gastro Hall (buffet): This is the main restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner, buffet-style for anybody at the resort. We only ate here twice during our stay, and in our humble opinion it was just “OK”. Nothing too amazing, decent selection, but compared to other buffet-restaurants at other places we have stayed at, it didn’t have the variety or quality. The pizzas for example were hard and crispy. Don’t take this as saying it was bad, it wasn’t, but we just had the privilege of far nicer dining options.

Santé (The Reserve only): Our favourite by far. This open-air Mediterranean restaurant has stunning views over the ocean, making for spectacular sunset dining. We ate here every breakfast, with loads of variety including avocado on toast, French toast, omelettes, eggs your way, pastries, smoothies…one of the nice perks of The Reserve.

This was also our most visited restaurant for our evening meals, having found out that they do an amazing fillet steak that honestly put Sal Steak Cave to shame! We were also treated to a lovely rainbow over the ocean on our last night.

The entire staff here were amazing, with special mentions to Luis (waiter), Valeria (waitress) and Arnulfo (waiter). Nothing was too much trouble, and on the last night when it rained for a few minutes as we walked there, Arnulfo came rushing out with two warm towels for us to dry ourselves off – impeccable service.

Kao: This must be one of the most impressive looking restaurants I’ve seen in a hotel and is the most popular for it. The Asian fusion cuisine focuses on the Japanese influences and is like dining while sat in a forest rather than a building.

We dined here on our first night, the only time we did during our stay. Not because the food is bad, far from it, but we just prefer other cuisines. However, we wanted to tick-off the experience, and I’m glad we did – amazing flavours.

Zesty: We dined here once during our stay, being one of the more family-oriented places. It is described as comfort food, and they were not wrong! The menu is clearly designed for a certain palette, with burgers, hot dogs, mac and cheese, fish fingers, deep-fried wraps etc.

Our waitress (Fanny) was working in Santé the night before and made friends with my fiancée. The next night she was working back at Zesty, so we made sure to look out for her. Needless to say, we received great service.

Twe12lvet: This is a 24hr indoor ice-cream shop that shares its space with Coffee Corner. Here you can get a variety of artisan ice-creams (12 actually!) that change daily, along with a selection of other pastries, cookies and sweets. Not a day went by without us going in here, often more than once!

The Reserve: Inside the main atrium there is a small bar area that serves breakfast items before 12pm, and lunch/dinner items after 12pm. This is self-serve buffet-style and is a great place to have a tasty snack and cool down in air-conditioned comfort. We found ourselves going here for most of our lunches rather than eating at the cabana or restaurants.

Drinks and bars…

Like the restaurants (some of which have their own bars) there are many places you can get drinks. Ones we frequented were:

Santé: Being part of the adult only section, we regularly visited Santé on an evening. High-praise goes to Joel (bartender at Santé) for his friendly service and introduction to what we have now called the “Rum Chatini” – I’m sure you can work out what is in it ;) You can tell when somebody really enjoys their job.

Ginger Lounge Bar: This is their sports bar where you can chill with a game of pool, enjoy tropical smoothies in the afternoon, and on an evening it becomes a cocktail bar with a DJ some nights.

Coffee Corner: This is a 24hr indoor coffee shop that shares its space with the ice-cream parlour. Here you can get a variety of hot drinks, and being in the same place, we were in here at least once or twice a day.

The Reserve: Inside the main atrium there is a small bar that serves both local and national premium drinks. We visited this place regularly, and made a good friend in our bartender, Julio. He really knows his drinks and was happy to make us anything we wanted, whether that was a popular cocktail or our own invention. He would recommend drinks to us based on our previous tastes, and we must hand it to him – he rarely got it wrong! Such a friendly guy who was genuinely happy to see us and often waved to us as we walked around to the stairs.

Activities and entertainment…

There are plenty of activities to take part in throughout the day, and some form of entertainment on an evening. These range from shows/acts, market stalls, local ceremonies (the cacao celebration was an interesting one!) and daily pool activities. You can play pitch-and-putt golf on the course out front, tennis, or use the games room.

We tend to prefer to lounge by the pool and remain secluded from the hustle-and-bustle of the main area. This is one of the resorts strengths – you really do have good separation in the adult only area, but if you want to get in with the action, you can do. On an evening, we would go and wander over.

As part of The Reserve, you get one sunset cruise included. This takes you out over the lagoon on an all-inclusive boat providing food and drink (beware – if you sit upstairs on the boat for the view, you will need to go downstairs to make the most of this included food and drink, although staff will occasionally bring things up). Entertainment on this was top-notch with a saxophone player who could also sing well. The journey through the mangroves was stunning, topped off with a lovely view of the sunset over Cancun and a great photo opportunity.

Nothing to do with the hotel, but we also went on a day trip to Chicken Itza and to swim in one of the nearby cenotes. Incredible experience to see one of the 7 modern wonders of the world, and swim in one of nature’s underground natural pools.

The Spa…

We both enjoy a relaxing spa experience, and this is another reason why paying extra for The Reserve is worth it. For that you get a one complementary hydrotherapy circuit for each week of your stay. This includes:

• Sauna.
• Steam room.
• Power shower.
• Cold plunge.
• Pool with beds, water jets etc.
• Relaxation area with refreshments.

We didn’t hesitate in taking advantage of this benefit!

I also paid for a massage for my fiancée as part of her birthday treat while there. With their current offer and a bit of haggling, this came to just US$100 and included both of us. I declined the massage, but it came with yet another complementary hydrotherapy circuit for both of us, so I just chilled in the relaxation area while waiting.

The spa itself was beautiful and relaxing. It’s branded YHI, and if you’ve ever been to one of theirs before, you know it’s going to be a good experience.

The beach…

Being on the Hotel Zone peninsula, you are “treated” to a lovely long beach that you can walk on for miles if you want. I use quotes there because unfortunately, this year was particularly bad for sargassum (sea grass). This is partly why there was low occupancy across the whole area, not just this hotel. While the staff were out in force each morning with tractors, some days it was so bad that to all intents and purposes you couldn’t swim in the ocean.

However, on the days when it was relatively clear, the beach was lovely, the water nice and warm (albeit choppy at times) and romantic to walk along together. The sand is whiteish in colour and generally soft, though there is a lot of shell from sea life.

Sea turtles…

This part of Cancun is known for its protected species of sea turtles. These lay their eggs typically between May and October, peaking around July/August. Seeing these huge, majestic creatures crawl out of the water and over the sand is a moment to treasure. They do so in the night after dark, starting anywhere from 21:30 to 22:30 while we were there. In the morning, you will see the tracks they leave in the sand and the huge holes they have dug.

Security and local volunteers remove as many of the eggs as possible and put them into a safe zone where they can hatch without risk of getting eaten by birds and other predators.

If you are going to turtle watch and you spot one, don’t be an idiot and crowd them like they are some kind of free show. This is nature we are talking about here, so respect them and their environment.

• If you can, keep off the beach. Sit on steps or the resort wall.
• If you are on the beach and you see one, keep still. They will happily crawl past you and even dig close to you if they feel safe.
• Don’t shine a light on them.
• If you take photos or videos, don’t use a flash.
• Keep quiet.

If you scare them, chances are they will turn back. It costs these creatures immense amounts of energy to pull themselves out of the water and crawl along the beach. If they are disturbed, at best they may try again further down the beach that night. At worst they may never try again and lose their eggs at sea where they cannot hatch.

Closing comments…

Overall this holiday exceeded our expectations. We didn’t do a huge amount of research – both drawing breaths when we saw this pop up, and it didn’t take much to quickly realise that this is higher-end resort and unlikely to disappoint.

Things we appreciated and applaud the resort for (The Reserve ones marked):

• Hotel architecture and décor – stunning.
• Our concierge, Israel – he is a credit to the hotel.
• Quiet, well insulated, comfortable rooms.
• Outstanding levels of service.
• Friendly, courteous staff in all areas.
• Adult-only benefits and amenities – well worth it (The Reserve)
• Poolside cabanas – shade and comfort (The Reserve)
• Quality and variety of food and drink available.
• Respectful separation between adults-only and family.
• Relaxing, chilled atmosphere.
• Spotless restrooms with hygienic stacks of cotton hand towels.
• Good variety of activities and entertainment.
• 24-hour ice-cream and hot drinks.
• Location – not far from the famous Cancun sign.
• Hydrotherapy sessions (The Reserve)
• Sunset cruise on the lagoon side (The Reserve)

Things for the hotel to take note of, scraping the bottom of the barrel really:

• Blocked drain on the first night was a minor inconvenience but quickly resolved.
• You need good problem-solving skills to work out the light switches in the room!
• Lots of sargassum in the sea and on the beach, but not the fault of the hotel.
• During one meal on one occasion, mains were brought to us and put down before we had finished our starters/appetisers.
• Disappointing to have to pay extra for steak in an otherwise complementary dining experience at the steakhouse.
• Only above average quality buffet-food given the high quality of the rest of the resort.
• Occasionally inconsistent housekeeping with things not always getting cleaned or replaced – remedied somewhat by our concierge.
• A little too quiet around the pool area some days.

Special thanks to the following people, already named in context but need to be singled out here for their exceptional kindness, friendliness, and customer service where nothing was too much trouble:

• Israel (our concierge, our hero!)
• Raul (Customer Services Manager, The Circle)
• Josmari (The Reserve Manager)
• Julio (Bartender @ The Reserve)
• Victor (Pool Concierge)
• Giovani (Pool Concierge)
• Arnulfo (Waiter @ Sante)
• Luis (Waiter @ Sante)
• Valeria (Waitress @ Sante)
• Joel (Bartender @ Sante)
• Fanny (Waitress @ Zesty)

Overall rating…

Service: 10/10 Food: 9/10 Pools: 10/10 Room: 9/10 Spa: 10/10 Activities: 8/10 Beach: 7/10

Overall: 9/10

Final thoughts…

For a hotel that had been closed almost a year for refurbishment and only open for three months prior, Paradisus Cancun operated like a well-oiled machine and exceeded almost all expectations. The building, grounds and décor are stunning. The level of service made us mere mortals feel like king and queen for a while. The Reserve upgrade is an easy recommendation if you want something a little more bougie without being pretentious. Trust me, we aren’t posh, we just enjoy finer things when we can.

It may not have the party atmosphere of places like Hard Rock and RUI - things tend to die-down quite quickly once the evening entertainment stops. However, at our age with our routine and preferences, this suited us perfectly.

The big question – would we return?

100%, unequivocal, YES!

We already have a destination planned for 2027 and are looking at trying a cruise for 2028. However, after that we would happily book the same hotel again. We are under no illusion that the relatively low occupancy here worked in our favour, and we hope that this review goes someway into helping the newly launched hotel and resort get the recognition and business it truly deserves.

We had a wonderful experience at the Mexican restaurant, Blueagave at Paradisus Cancún. The food was fresh, flavorful, and very high quality, and everything we tried was delicious. The service was also excellent, especially Atilano, who was incredibly professional, attentive, and friendly. He made our experience even more enjoyable and made sure everything was perfect throughout our meal. Highly recommend this restaurant, and especially the great service!