Stayed at the Riviera Maya in December of 2007 and had a wonderful stay! The grounds were well-kept, the staff helpful, and the pools relaxing. There were tons of activities going on throughout the day for both adults and children and gave the Riviera Maya a wonderfully active environment. There are numerous restaurants on the grounds, and small shops and boutiques with very helpful staff employed. I would definitely recommend the Riviera Maya for almost any traveler, including honeymooners and families. Would definitely go back!

We traded for a two bedroom Grand Master Suite at the Grand Mayan and stayed 4/11 to 4/19/08. We stayed in building 12 which was about a 10 minute walk to the pool. This didn't bother us all that much because we really only spent two days at the resort because we had a car and wanted to see as much as we could. We only had two meals at the resort and went several nights to Puerto Morelos and Playa Del Carmen for Dinner.

The rooms are very well appointed and the resort is beautiful, but I can understand the negative comments from the "stick to the resort" types who want easy access to the pool and a swimable beach. We are two active couples who wanted to see the sights, so the resort suited us nicely. The best building for us would have been building #8 which is adjacent to the parking lot. For those who want to be at the pool, request buildings 1-3. For those who want it a little quieter and have a relatively short walk, buildings 4-7 will suit you. If you plan to rent a car (which I highly recommend) buildings 8-13 will be ok, but you will have a decent walk to the main pools and restaurants. There are shuttles, but who wants to stand around and wait for a shuttle when you could have gotten where you wanted to go in the same time and get some exercise in the process. This is not a resort for the elderly or infirmed.

As for the beach, it is great for sunning, but not swimming. My friend cut up his foot on the first night just wading in. If you want to swim at the beach, find another resort. If you are a pool person, this place will be great, but with 2000 others looking for shady spots, get out early and plant your towel stake.

I found the food prices to be relatively in line with restaurant prices where I live (New York). The drink prices were actually pretty good (any where from $6.50 to 8.50 for cocktails) and if you drink between 11-1 you get two for one. The two lunches we had were decent, but nothing to write home about. We did not attend any of the special events. However, the best activity there was the cocktail mixing lessons and contest, without a doubt. It was a lot of fun, you get too drink for free and you meet a lot of people in the process. At the end, they pick several contestants to mis their own special batch and everybody judges the winner. I won with a cocktail whose name I cannot print here!

If you like to exercise, the health club Brio is great. You have an excellent choice of equipment, a beautiful space, steam rooms, saunas and massage. It is pretty inexpensive too. There is a special that you have to ask for, which is $50 for the week, but that only pays if you plan to go 5 times. Otherwise it is $10 per day. Not bad.

We stayed at the Grand Mayan with some friends in a time share. We didn't have to go through any sales pitches as our friends were already owners. But we weren't pressured for any sales pitches, either, which was nice. As others on TA may have already said, arriving at the GM is a little weird as they apparently had a fire in their main lobby, so you check inside of a giant inflated tent. But otherwise, the staff was very friendly. As I suspect you do at other time share resorts, they have a no cash policy, which means you sign for everything and a 15 per cent gratuity is built-into most bills. We signed our names to get on their system, but it never worked right, but since we were there only four days, it wasn't too much of a problem. If you were there longer, make sure they get your signature right.

The room we had was very nice. It was techinically a suite, I guess, and we shared the living area & kitchen with our friends who had the adjoining room. There was small pool on the deck, but it was cool water, but it was still a pleasant touch. The rooms were quiet and kept clean. They even did turn-down service, though oddly one night they came at about 9:30pm!

We really loved the pools, as I'm sure others have written about. Staying at the Grand Mayan you can also use the Mayan Palace pool. The GM is the newer property compared to the older MP property. The MP pool is huge, with mulitple areas and two swim up bars, etc. There is also a pool just for GM guests that is smaller but not so busy. We went to one pool or another every day.

We didn't use any of the resorts tour services, though we did use their affordable ($6 per person) shuttle to Playa Del Carmen. They also helped us take a taxi to Playa another time and get on a shuttle to Tulum for our own little tour.

Overall, the property could seem a little sterile, almost "compound" like. But some people probably like that as opposed to an overly commercialized property or an all-inclusive where you feel obligated to stay there all the time. So maybe it's the best of both worlds?

My wife and I and one other couple just returned, literally 4/20, from a very relaxing week at the Grand Mayan. We did a trade through RCI and had a Grand Master Suite.

If you want to be close to the pools, beach and restaurants you need to call ahead and request to be in buildings 1, 2, 3 or 4. These are all within a short walk of everything.

Although this resort is very large, there are things that you can do, while there and ahead of time, to make your stay very enjoyable.

Getting there: We booked our transportation through the concierge desk from the airport to the hotel and everything went off without incident, very smooth.

Check in: We arrived around 5:15 and were checked in and in our room by 6:00, drinking beers with dinner on the beach at the Habenero Grill by 6:30. You will be approached by the Time Share Sales folks in the lobby however, if you are not interested in the pitch, simply say no thank you and you will not hear another word from them, your entire stay.

Restaurants: All of them are very nice and the food is great. I highly recommend the Mexican Fiesta night, which is on Thursday's, for $60.00/person the show and dinner are well worth it.
All in all the prices are not much more than a mid-priced restaurant in the states with entrees ranging from $12 - $25.

Beach: Yes it is rocky, however, if you are looking for a swimming beach, you can walk 5 mins. south of the resort and you are on a swimmable beach that no one else uses, at least no one was using it while I was there. If you want to get in the water at the resort, you can, however you do need some form of footwear, either aqua socks or I used my Keens, which were perfect for the rocky bottom. As for shade on the beach. There is no problem find shade between the palaps and the palm trees.

Pools: There are two pools, one for that is only for Grand Mayan guests and the larger pool that is available for both Grand Mayan and Mayan Palace guests. Now, this will go against most of what is said as it relates to shade. In the entire 7 days that we were there, we had no trouble finding shade at the Mayan Palace pool. There was always a set of chairs under a palapa that were not being used. You may have to look for them, but they are generally available.
Also, I would highly recommend that if you want to feel like a king and/or queen for a day or two, you book one of the palapa beds at the pool. They are $30.00/day to rent, however, if you purchases, at least, $30.00 in food and drinks, which isn't hard to do, the fee is waived. You can book them the same day, booking starts at 7:15 every morning and you do have to be down to the pool by 11:00 or they can give it to someone else. Oh, one more thing, you can book the palapa's one day in advance as well.

In addition to the resort there are a ton of things to do while on the Mayan Riviera. I highly recommend that you book the shuttle into Playa Del Carmen. Playa has to be one of the nicest towns I have been in, anywhere. Quinta or 5th avenue, is awesome with great shops and restaurants and the beach is great. One restaurant you can't miss is Hemingway's the food is great and reasonably priced. It's right on 5th Ave and well worth a stop.
If you are looking to stock your refrigerator back at the resort with beer, water and snacks, go to Mega, which is where the shuttle drops you off. We are from the Pacific NW and Mega is as nice as any Fred Meyer I have been in and everything is clearly listed in both Spanish and English.

To get down to 5th Ave. turn left when you get off the shuttle and you will be in the heart of everything after about a 5 min. walk.

Another outing that I highly recommend is to go into Puerto Moraloes. This is a sleepy little fishing town that is a 20 minute cab ride from the resort. The cost of the cab is about $15 U.S. but it is well worth it. Eat lunch at Pelicanos, right on the beach and they have some of the freshest shrimp cocktails I have ever had. The town is very small so it won't take long to walk through. However, a stroll down the beach is very nice and you can see the local fisherman bringing in their catch while the Pelican's and other birds try and pick up some scraps.

We did do two excursions that we booked at the resort's travel desk.

Tulum is a must, only a half day and at the end of the tour of the ruins, you get to swim in the ocean on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been on.

The other half day excursion that was great was zip lining through the Jungle. We also booked this through the travel desk and had a blast. 11 zip lines, swim in a Cenote and then have lunch before you head back, cost was $65.00/person.

All in all, we had a great time and would definitely go back. However, due to wanting to experience other places, next time we go to Mexico, we will head south to Playa Del Carmen.

One last thing that I highly recommend. Please learn some Spanish. The service staff at the resort, maids, maintenance workers, etc..don't speak English. Remember, you are in their country so you should take the time to learn some phrases that will get you by. Not to mention, they love it that you even try.