Catalonia Yucatan Beach

Cleaning service excellente, gracias Rosa.

The staff is amazing Gerardo ran after us after my wife left her purse great trip

SUMMARY: Memorable vacation that was affordable and well worth it! July is really hot, yes, but the sargassum wasn’t a barrier to a great trip that included touring around town. “TIER” OF OUR VISIT: We booked the lowest tier option at Catalonia. We were in the Yucatan section instead of the Riviera Maya or the Privileged club (or whatever it’s called), which meant we only had access to the buffet restaurant El Mercado as well as 2 a la carte restaurant visits (Yucatan folks could choose from 3 of the ~7 restaurants). When you book at Catalonia Riviera Maya (which is an extension of the same venue) you get access to all the restaurants and get the renovated rooms. Also, although it says you can try the 3 Yucatan a la carte restaurants as a walk-in if space is available, it never was. Sharing this information because I think it explains the huge variability in reviews you get for this hotel; it has to do with what tier of all inclusive experience they bought. SARGASSUM: The reviews I read on Tripadvisor make it seem awful, but it’s out of Mexico’s control and honestly this hotel did a fantastic job to clear the beach. I saw staff out along their shoreline as early as 6 am shoveling out huge amount of the seaweed, to the point where by 10 am the beach was clear. The hotel does a great job addressing this issue, and it honestly didn’t detract at all from our amazing stay or cause unbearable odours. THE ROOM: We were in an older room, but it was perfectly ok. Everything was clean, we had an AC, and the hotel was good at also providing us with a crib for our baby. We appreciated that they provided us with fresh bottles of reverse osmosis filtered water in our fridge everyday. The standards of the cleaning staff were excellent; my husband forgot his phone in the room one day and they have a practice that when they see a valuable, the cleaner stops cleaning and leaves a note to explain (i.e. they essentially ensure your valuable is not touched). I found that very respectable. STAFF: O-M-G, I can’t say enough kind things about the amazing staff at this hotel!!! They really do create the all-round memorable trip for hotel guests. >> El Mercado: All the staff were friendly and accommodating to make your meal experience amazing. I didn’t get everyone’s name, but here are the one’s I did get from the restaurant. Elizabeth – thank you for playing peek a boo with our daughter almost every day after you sat people at their tables. She loved it! Esther, Guadalupe, and Gabriel – thank you for the attentive coffee and wine service. Angelina and Aurora, I wrote your names down too for making our dining experience memorable. And, Bernandino (I think I have the right name), we had 10 minutes to finish dinner after getting back late from Xcaret, and you kept our fussy baby giggling playing peek a boo (while you of course were attending to your actual work). :) THANKS TO ALL OF YOU! >> Entertainment Staff: Kevin “Brown Sugar” was an excellent coordinator for the beach volleybvall games, and led a great aqua fitness class! He encouraged participation and really kept guests feeling engaged in the variety of activities the hotel offered. Thank you! >> Kids zone staff: I forgot to write down her name, but the teacher who allowed our baby to participate in the painting class, and to watch the older kids do Zumba, was excellent at getting the kids to have fun, be active, and stay safe. Kudos to the hotel for the excellent kids programming. >> Bar at Yucatan Pool: Carlos was great at making our drinks! There were other memorable staff, who’s names I forgot to write down (sorry!) POOL LOUNGE CHAIRS: As much as there is signage saying you cannot reserve a seat, people start doing it as early as 7 am and the staff can’t do much about it. Don’t leave any valuables though. I left some of our baby’s toys with our towels so we knew which blue towels were ours, and sadly someone took them. Maybe they thought they were free toys (??!!) but why would they when there were so many families around?! YUCATAN VS RIVIERA MAYA TIER: In the first days, we contemplated doing an upgrade of rooms/”tier” for our final days, but we soon realized we loved that our room was near the better pool that our child loved and the kids zone. Sure, it was an older room and we were restricted to always eating at El Mercado (or the crepe place for lunch, which was good!), but the cost savings were put towards participating in activities (Chichen Itza, Valladolid and Chikikan tour, as well as a visit to Xcaret Park). I think that was well worth it! I’d rather have the excellent hotel stay alongside some wonderful adventures, than pay more for a renovated room without the ease of access to the fun pool or funds to explore town.

Hotel quite nice but feel hemmed in .Shops ,bars and nice marina also dolphins. It's a half hour walk to main highway and taxis expensive.We usually travel on local transport impossible from here as elderly and unable to walk to gated entrance. Staff amazing. Problem at beach with seaweed and staff worked tirelessly to clear it every day. Entertainment excellent have paid to see shows not as good.

Catalonia Yutcatona 2/5 stars BEWARE This resort is advertised as a good all inclusive to try out with your family or relationship, absolutely not the case, I personally spent around 1250$ CAD on a 8 night stay at this Catalina resort it was definitely not worth it. You might as well try to find another resort in the area for the same price or something worth the money. I’ve been to many resorts and this was definitely not a good one. For starters out of a 8 night stay you can make 2 reservations for dinner…… and the other 6 nights you’re screwed unless you want to tip the Host’s money to seat you. The whole resort is a money grab, the bartenders are only giving good service if you are tipping them constantly and the second you stop the good service stops. The food isn’t good it makes you feel sick after. After you use up the 2 dinner reso’s you have they try to convince you to buy a bottle to have a seat at the restaurant. At the late night disco they only serve you if you are a women and they make the guys go to the back of the line over and over unless you tip them well. Stay away from this resort and spend a little bit more money to go to a nicer resort. Any other questions reach out