BlueBay Grand Esmeralda

Travelled to the BlueBay Grand Esmeralda for 9 nights in April as a group of 16! Had an amazing time and unbelievably beautiful weather the entire time. We enjoyed the perks of Circle One during our stay thanks to our friends who are members. This was our 3rd visit. While the resort is a bit dated, we had an amazing time and consider it excellent value for money. The highlight for us was the service we received at the Circle One area at the beach. Miguel Angel, David and Alejandro were outstanding, so professional and personable, no request was too much for them. Thank you for such wonderful service to our big group! I’m sure they would be whipping up delicious margaritas today in honour of Cinco de Mayo. The grounds are beautiful and well maintained. Also loved the buffet by the beach for breakfast and lunch, with excellent service by Miriam. Enjoyed the Italian restaurant, and the view from our room in building 5!! See you next time!

At the check-in counter, your employee immediately began to offer us to replace the room. Initially, we bought with a view of the garden. He offered an ocean view room. The arguments were as follows: 1. From the place where your room is located, it takes about 15 minutes to get to the beach. 2. The Ocean View Room is a premium room. 3. It is located next to the beach with azure water. Since we arrived at 8 pm, we did not have the opportunity to check or see anything. We relied on the honesty of the employee and pay additional 460 Canadian Dollars. As it turned out later, all this was a lie. 1. From the farthest building to the beach is a 5-minute walk. 2. The premium ocean view room turned out to be a room with mold in the bathroom in all corners and ceiling, a burnt or rotten mirror, torn off handles on the balcony door with 23 holes. On the side of the balcony there were no handles at all. 3. One of the two-bathroom sinks was clogged. The water wouldn't drain for 20 minutes.. 4. Our ocean view room not the azure ocean view with the beach, but the seaweed dump. There was a feeling that we lived with a view of the city dump. A disgusting smell on the balcony around the clock. I probably don't need to tell you about what the beach was like. It is absolutely impossible to swim. And it didn't work out to sunbathe to the smell of algae. Finalise - no beach (because sargassum everywhere), no ocean (full of sargassum). Swimming pool also worst. Don't trust to pictures with blue tails... Re-surfaced and now no any tail. Surface like sand paper. We are never come back to this resort.

I want to warn other Canadians about my experience with BlueBay Grand Esmeralda and the Circle One Club. During the sales presentation, the agent used an iPad to show us examples of trips where we would supposedly save thousands of dollars as a group. He compared their pricing to what Canadians typically pay through airlines and travel companies, claiming we were being overcharged and that this membership gave us access to “insider” or lower rates. However, when we later logged into the actual membership website ourselves, we could not find any of the same prices or deals that were shown during the presentation. The numbers simply didn’t match reality. While we were there, we also saw other customers raising concerns: A group of European guests were asking for refunds and said their membership wasn’t delivering the value they expected The response they received was that they had chosen a “lower-tier” membership, which is why they were not satisfied They were also told that because they were from Europe, there were additional taxes or limitations, meaning they would not save as much money as expected We also witnessed issues with transportation. Some Circle One Club members were trying to get taxi refunds because transport was supposed to be included, but this was not honored without arguments. Our overall experience included: High-pressure sales tactics designed to rush decisions Pricing examples during the presentation that we could not verify afterward Claims that Canadian companies overcharge, which did not hold up when we compared real bookings through Expedia, RedTag.ca, or directly with airlines In many cases, trips were actually cheaper without the membership When we tried to request a refund the following month, we were ignored and eventually sent to collections instead of being helped. This experience showed us that: The promised savings were not transparent or consistently available The membership can end up costing more than standard booking options Customer support becomes very difficult once you’ve signed the contract A friend of mine is now facing serious financial consequences after getting involved in this and is considering bankruptcy. I strongly recommend that Canadians carefully compare real prices and avoid making decisions under pressure. If the deals shown in a presentation cannot be verified independently, that’s a major red flag. I hope organizations like Government of Canada and companies like Visa take these kinds of situations seriously and help protect consumers from misleading sales practices. Be cautious—what looks like a great deal in the moment may not reflect the reality afterward.

It was a very nice resort especially for the price. Had a ocean view room which was beautiful. Our VIP concierge help was amazing and unexpected. Very good and friendly service everywhere. Only downsides were not having really any NHL or NBA playoff games in the sportsbar and the elevator broke in building 4 on Monday. Sunday it still wasn't working. Asked and nobody knew when it would work and never saw anyone working on it. Had to walk 3 flights with luggage this morning when we left.

This is certainly not a five star hotel as advertised I don’t normally do reviews but I feel that I needed to do on this one as it’s totally misleading and I don’t want to see other people making the same mistake as we did The food choices are very limited and it’s often served cold it’s only kept warm by a little candle underneath the plate and if you want to know what you’re going to get for tea time all that you have to do is look at the lunchtime food as it’s the same food just reheated the bread was often stale and rock hard The hotel is very old and needs a good revamp the rooms are very musky smelling and damp I was lucky to get a room with the air conditioner working but with a stuck thermostat so it was ether on or off others in my group weren’t so lucky and had rooms with no working air conditioner and no working fan the rooms are very dated with crumbling paint with damp patches lots of rust noted in the shower area we also had a broken toilet seat that was reported and it took 4 days of complaining before it was replaced If you want a sun lounger you will need to get up very early to put your towel down on it as all are gone by 6 AM but you don’t see the lounge dash people till later on in the day although the hotel keeps telling me you can’t do this and it’s closely monitored it happened every day and nothing was done about it The hotel is very short on sun lounges so you will see lots of people walking around unable to find one the hotel also lacks shade around the pool area and the shade it does offer is a very small area and has been taken by the early birds before 6AM The beach is a no go area unless you want to be covered in sea weed I’ve been to lots of places but I’ve never seen so much of the stuff The hotel also has a problem with cockroaches I found several in my room and I was told to make sure that the plugs in the sink are left in and to put a towel over the drain in the shower to stop them getting into the room We also had a bag stolen from us in the pool area reported to staff who were very unhelpful we also had things stolen from our room again staff very unhelpful and told us to report it to the travel agent who will investigate from there end Save your money and book elsewhere with staff that actually care about the guests