Paradisus Playa del Carmen La Esmeralda

My Wedding Experience — Itzel at the Spa and Arturo with Outdoor Photos are the Best!
I chose the Paradisus resort for the location of my wedding purely on two experiences of trusted family members and friends who attended weddings their previously. Without having been to the resort, destination wedding, or even the Yucatan; I didn’t know what to expect.
First, to highlight the staff that far out-​performed my expectations:
Itzel at the Yhi Spa did my hair and makeup. I didn’t give her much to go on for my hair (because she is the expert), but she somehow took what I dreamt my hair would look like and made it better. I’ve never had so many compliments on my hair and makeup. She truly made me feel at ease and calm before the wedding and turned this low-​maintenance girl into a princess!
Arturo with Outdoor Photos was our photographer. I haven’t received the photos back yet, but I couldn’t be more excited to see them. He was so enthusiastic to take the photos and mostly took candid, in the moment shots instead of focusing on the posed photos. I was told he was a hard worker at editing photos… hope he can edit out the boys who apparently mooned the wedding!
So here is a quick rundown for people looking at the resort for weddings:
Romance Coordinator Representative in Miami — helpful but didn’t have a lot of information. Said I would find out more closer to my wedding date from our Wedding Coordinator at the hotel.
Vendors — They prefer you use their preferred vendors for decorations, photography, and audio. All were pleasant to work with.
On-​Site Wedding Coordinator — all communication was done by email but I read other reviews that said it would all come together when we had our meeting at the hotel. And it did.
Wedding Location — We chose the beach. It was really nice even though it is not private. Most people were respectful during the ceremony and photos and tried not to walk by. I wouldn’t change the location for the world.
Cocktail Hour/​Reception Location — We chose the Solarium however during our meeting with the coordinator it was revealed to us that the solarium is actually poolside. So we opted for the backup location which was in one of their conference rooms. I wasn’t too thrilled but when we walked in on our wedding day, I was blown away. It didn’t look like a conference room… it looked so romantic with the decoration and lighting.
Overall I would hands-​down recommend having a wedding a Paradisus. I would just tell you not to expect quick responses or knowing everything before arriving for the wedding… but it will all come together.

The best all inclusive family friendly hotel I’ve been to so far! We were staying at the Family Concierge section. My kids (4 and 2 year olds) loved it! Every day there was at least one surprise left in the room for them: different shaped balloons, special snacks with animal shapes, bubble bath ready and more.
The food at the hotel restaurants was really good. We are very picky about food, and we enjoyed trying the different types of cuisines every day. The Italian food at Olio wasn’t as good as we expected, but the atmosphere was really nice.
The customer service was amazing! We also had our own concierge person to help us out with everything we needed, such as making reservations for restaurants and for other activities even outside of the hotel.
We enjoyed the beach. They have beautiful cabanas and waiters serving food and drinks. They have water activities, and sports such as volleyball and soccer.
The kids club was great! They helped me out with putting my baby Mielle to nap. They have face painting every afternoon, which my son Ely loved. The crew was so nice! Especially Emily and Irina. Thank you! It’s open from the morning until 10 PM so that we could use the spa several times throughout our trip. By the way, when you’re in the family concierge the spa is included.
The only kind of negative thing I could say, is that babysitting costs $ 40 per hour for two kids. But it is also expected to be that expensive in this kind of hotel.
If you go to playa, you should definitely go watch the Cirque Du Soleil show Joya. It’s also good for kids (4 and up I guess). I wish I knew before hand, I would have taken my son for sure!
Also, Excaret is a must. It’s like a zoo in the nature. They had beautiful shows throughout the day. Our kids had a blast!
Sorry for making it so long, but I had to write how great this place is. We will definitely go back again in the future!

This is review for Family (kids friendly) resort Paradisus Esmeralda
The good: excellent service, rooms cleaned twice a day, on-​premises Doctor, nicely decorated and renovated hotel, overall very good night shows. I think if you get family concierge you get some extra perks (we didn’t have it). There is pool for kids which is pretty good with obstacles and slides and kids love it
The bad: food was pretty bad in restaurants and buffet. The best of the worst one was Fusion (appetizers were excellent) but main course like most of the food around the hotel just not tasty. (they have adults only restaurants and we have not been to those)
Beach sucks and huge disappointment for Caribbean. It has lots of stones and lots of seaweed (which is promptly cleaned) we bad to walk few minutes to the local beach which was sand only !
This hotel has this relaxing theme with very calm music throughout, which is excellent but it’s accompanied with dark, dim light hallways, passages and restaurants. I think it’s odd for a family hotel .
Wifi is wide open, insecure which is why it’s super slow or just heavily overloaded.
If you plan to do some errands as simple as use online banking or login to work be patient.
Main reason for 3 stars is beach and food