My husband and I just returned from a week at the Excellence Riviera Maya. We had not stayed at this hotel before or any of their sister properties. The experience was outstanding. Whatever is important to you, I’m sure they’ve cornered the market in taking care of it. The sand at this hotel is not even hot! It’s crazy to imagine the heat and how that is possible, but it is! The property is very clean, the rooms are spotless, the service is impeccable. Their hotel staff was constantly around the pool whether it’s their spa staff handing out refreshing wipes for your face or their concierge just asking how your stay is going. We even had three representatives (entertainment, chef pastry and bartender) handing out beautifully sculpted fruit and iced tea and iced cappuccino down on the beach. We had a very casual conversation with two of the representatives only to have a plate of pastries appear in our room. When we arrived, we had a ”welcome” letter and a specially wrapped candle waiting for us. Every employee is smiling and always so cheerful. We oftentime joked if they were ”made” to appear so happy or if they truly loved their job. The food was excellent and the live entertainment was truly great as well. Even while having dinner on the beach, there is a harpist playing music. At breakfast each morning, there was someone playing the piano. The choice of alcohol was top notch. I don’t think we’ve ever stayed at an all-inclusive that had 7 different beers and also O’Douls for the non-drinkers. The liquor was also of premium quality. One day at the lazy river pool, we had not seen a bartender for at least 1.5 hours. My husband walked to the Grill restaurant and asked the representative if he could order lunch as we didn’t think we were dressed to go into the restaurant. He told him we’d not had a bartender at the pool in some time and we were hungry and wanted to eat lunch at the pool. The representative took my husband’s order and told him he would find us at the pool. Sure enough, 30 minutes later, here he came with the food along with a bartender and we had great service the remainder of the day. There are bands almost every night outside at the bar and the entertainment at the theater is better than we’ve ever experienced at any resort. There are many pools to choose from and always enough floats to go around. People tend to save spots, but by early afternoon, you could usually find a spot. The chairs on the beach could be more comfortable, and take your bug spray! If it rained, it seemed the mosquitos were out in full force at night. They do walk around and do their best to spray, etc., but I’d recommend taking your own bug spray! They have plenty of activities that compliment many varieties of entertainment (from Zumba to water aerobics, beach volleyball, etc.) It wasn’t a big ”party” atmosphere, and most people just kept to themselves. Not every room is oceanview although the views are pretty nice given most rooms have a pool to look at and the flowers, plants and trees and grass are so green and so well manicured. It’s truly a beautiful property that is very well maintained. We very much look forward to visiting this property again .. it was top notch all the way! The property is so close to the airport that it’s very nice to be in your room and well on your way to vacation in no time after landing from the airport. Truly outstanding experience .. we highy recommend!   updated 2 years ago