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About
4.0
#34 of 38 all-inclusives in Playa del Carmen
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Value
Ideally located in an area of 445 acres in a prime position on the beach on the Riviera Maya, BlueBay Grand Esmeralda combines elegant Mayan features with contemporary design and a wide range of service to suit the most discerning traveller. BlueBay Grand Esmeralda provides a relaxed atmosphere for holiday makers. The hotel features 979 elegant and well-appointed rooms and suites with the option of a sea or garden view.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
I have been to 4 star resorts but that doesn’t mean you can’t have just as much fun at this resort. I have to say the only reason I really did that rating is one the beach. When I go to a resort one of the big attractions is the beach, I had no idea a beach could be so chocked full of seaweed. No, it’s not the resorts fault there is seaweed all over but I think the break walls and the location and the currents all bring it right to this beach. They are fighting a losing battle, trying to clean it up. It produces such a horrible rotting smell that wafts into the pool area. On a positive note you could walk 10 minutes either way I neither swim in the ocean or swim in a beautiful river which we did. The second reason is rooms are a bit in need of some loving care, cracks in walls and older. If you were a bit older you may not be able to get in tub easily. the maids keep them spotless and just to let you know we always tipped or maids, and we always tipped our hard-working waiters. I don’t know if anybody else does, but they deserve it I thought. The motel doesn’t have all the restaurants that I had previous resorts I’ve had but the restaurants they do have are excellent and the Buffet had tons of variety . The pool activities team were enthusiastic. Resort was s easy to find your way around. Bring bug spray if you have a susceptibility to bug bites I got chewed. Well, my friend did not. I guess it depends on how good you taste the bugs. Good on. There was a deer, Coate, and Sereque on resort. I had a really good vacation there.
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Date of stay: March 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from DIRECTOR GENERAL, Director General at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda
Responded Mar 24, 2023
Dear Friends: I wish to thank you for your feedback and for your preference. We regret that your experience with us was not at the level of their expectations, we will share your comments with our executive team to improve our service and our resort. We are at your service anytime and thank you again for your comments, Best Regards, Bluebay Family.
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This resort is adequate not a 4 or 5 star place. Maybe adequate is what’s expected for the price. I have nothing to compare to. Negative: 1)You must book dinner reservations the day before. You cannot even book them for all days of your stay at the same time. You must get in line at 7 AM to make these reservations and often times only certain times are available or certain restaurants - even though the restaurants did not seem to be full at all I.e. there were often many tables that were empty. 2) The sales staff is constantly trying to sell you a timeshare although they don’t tell you that. They draw you in by saying they have information to share with you or to show you where things are but ultimately the reason is that they want to talk to you about a timeshare. Even the airport shuttle guy was pushing an excursion on us. 3) The rooms are adequate they appear to be on the older side and the pillows are very flat pretty much like pancakes! 4) The TVs are very very small and old and the picture quality was terrible. 5) Often times the room did not get serviced until very late in the afternoon one day it was so late that we needed to get ready for dinner so our room did not get service that day other than getting new towels which we had to ask for. 6) There really isn’t much beach and what is there is not nice blue water - it’s brown from all the seaweed. There is a lagoon which is approximately a 10 minute walk. There is quite a bit of garbage along the beach while walking to the lagoon 7) The restaurants were OK enjoyed the Mexican restaurant, the French restaurant was pretty good also, the seafood restaurant was terrible the buffets were OK not spectacular but decent. 8) there were wild animals walking around raccoon like creatures that were all over the place and even went up onto the tables and chairs and the outside eating area. 9) Not much entertainment to offer. What there was, was not very good 10) Was there over a weekend and I would have expected a lot more to be going on but instead it was quite dead nothing to do no entertainment. 11) no WiFi and on top of that they want to charge you! Then say they’ll give it to you like it’s a big deal only to find out it doesn’t work anyway. Positive: Pool areas (2) were pretty nice Grounds and layout were nice. Nice to walk around. Staff - some were nice and helpful others were not
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Date of stay: January 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Frederic C, Director General at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda
Responded Jan 16, 2020
Dear friends, On behalf of all the staff of BlueBay Grand Esmeralda I wish to thank you for your preference. We regret that your experience with us was not at the level of their expectations, We are at your service anytime and thank you again for your comments, Best regards!!
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The pool was the best thing about the resort. It was large and had lots of seating. It was a little dirty but nothing that made me not want to swim.
The grounds and landscaping was the second best thing. It was beautiful and well kept. Lots of animals on site too which was fun to see. A big downfall was a strange smell that lingered around wherever you went. It was a mix between sewage and fish. Not your normal beachy smell.
The drinks were good, just your typical all inclusive resort drinks.
The rooms were not great. The door to my room had about a 2inch gap between the bottom of the door and the floor so leaves and dirt would always blow in and who knows what sorts of bugs. It was outdated, and the few pictures that were hanging in the room were hung crooked. The walls are also paper thin. I woke up one night because one of my neighbors sneezed. They did bring fresh towels and make the beds and restock the fridge everyday which was nice.
The food was the worst thing about this place. The only decent food I ate was a steak from the steak house. Another downfall to the food is you HAVE to make reservations for the restaurants the day before. So everyday you have to walk the bit of a long walk but annoying walk up to the concierge desk, wait in a 5-30 min line to make dinner reservations. They don’t let you make the reservations all at once, you have to go to the desk every single day. Very bad set up in my opinion. There is no where at the pool where they have snacks available and they don’t allow you to bring food out from the nearest buffet which was a bummer because you couldn’t have your poolside chips and salsa.
The beach is unswimmable because of the large amount of seaweed piled up at the shore which is fine. There’s nothing much they can do about the seaweed but if you want to swim in the ocean, this isn’t the place to go. However there is a little spot where a river meets the ocean that you can swim at. It’s about a 15 min walk down the beach.
If you want to do a quick excursion that isn’t going to blow your entire day, there’s one onsite that does snorkeling at a coral reef a five minute boat ride away. It was pretty cool and saw fish, stingrays, and turtles.
There is also a nice beach volleyball court which is always a plus for me.
Overall, I would not come back to this resort solely because of the food.
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Date of stay: July 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Frederic Ceglarski, Director General at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda
Responded Jul 8, 2021
Dear friends, On behalf of all the staff of BlueBay Grand Esmeralda I wish to thank you for your feedback and for your preference. We regret that your experience with us was not at the level of their expectations, we will share your comments with our executive team to improve our service and our resort. We are at your service anytime and thank you again for your comments, Best regards!!
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They were very aggressive at check in trying to get you to take a VIP tour which is their word for timeshare. Rude and insulting . We waited way past check in for a room. The room was ok bed comfortable. But the fridge did not work well beverages were warm and the only ice machine in the building was broken. Cleaning staff was very friendly always around willing to get us what ever we needed. Food at the restaurants was good but you had to jump through hoops to get reservations. And locations changed without notice one night we had seafood in a really nice restaurant with comfortable furniture and nice linens the next time it was in a leaky thatched roof building by the pool with outdoor furniture.Seaweed ruined the beach but not their fault . The place is big with local animals all around. We liked walking but was able to catch a ride on one of the carts when it was raining they were always around. Do not expect any help from lobby if you turn down the tour. Down load the map and you will be able to find your way around just fine. Not what we expected but we made the best of it .
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Date of stay: June 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from DIRECTOR GENERAL, Director General at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda
Responded Jun 28, 2022
Dear Friends, Thank you very much for your visit and for sharing your positives and feedback, We are glade to read that you enjoyed you stay. We hope to host you again soon. Sincerely, BlueBay Family
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he room was very clean & when our fridge didn't work they replaced it with a brand new one. The only complaint was that we had on several occasions asked to have the light fixed going into our room & we never did get it fixed. A pet peeve is that some guests get up either extremely early or in the evening by putting their towels on the lounges, could you stop this.
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Date of stay: February 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Frederic C, Director General at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda
Responded Mar 4, 2020
Dear friends, On behalf of all the staff of BlueBay Grand Esmeralda I wish to thank you for your great comments and for your preference. We will make sure to share your kind comments with all our staff and it will be a privilege to serve you again in a near future. If you need any help for your future reservations please feel free to contact us anytime. Best regards!!
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Jan16-22 2020 . Noticed when tables were cleared silverware was left on tables were they used or not? Front desk staff was rude.. we were in building 8 needed a ride at 6 am to lobby were told to walk! Friend has bad back and unable to walk any distance. Coffee cups and glasses were not replaced only rinsed in bathroom sink. Fridge did`nt work was`nt even pluged in, shower door was broken,patio door lock was broken,battiers dead in safe. had to wait over 2 hr for someone to come. Service was bad noticed they were short staffed. entertament was pretty sad way to loud you could not understand anything. all in all a bad experince.
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Date of stay: January 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Frederic C, Director General at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda
Responded Feb 3, 2020
Dear friends, On behalf of all the staff of BlueBay Grand Esmeralda I wish to thank you for your feedback and for your preference. We regret that your experience with us was not at the level of their expectations, we will share your comments with our executive team to improve our service and our resort. We are at your service anytime and thank you again for your comments, Best regards!!
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After being at the pool in the morning we went back to our room early afternoon. Our door was wide open a man was in our bathroom. Our things had been moved around like he had been going through them. He then used a sealer to reseal our sink and got it all over our things in the bathroom. He then left after i kept questioning him. I had been talking with the front desk and the vip service and they were of no help. We left and went the the resort next door in the middle of our trip. I am working with them to at least refund the part of our stay with out success. We will never return and would not recommend anyone to go if you want to keep your privacy you are paying for. The service just passed us to the next person saying someone else would contact us with a solution. We wanted a room change at least so our room didn’t smell like chemicals and they didn’t come through with that until 3 hours after trying to talk with them and informing them we were leaving. NEVER GO UNSAFE Heacock23@gmail.com
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Date of stay: July 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from DIRECTOR GENERAL, Director General at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda
Responded Jul 27, 2022
Dear Friends: We appreciate all comments and we are truly very sorry that there were aspects that you did not enjoy on this vacation at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda. We apologize for not reaching your expectations during your stay., your opinions, as well as all of our guests, are very important to us as it brings us improvement opportunities. Thank you again and we hope to welcome you again at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda Hotel in a future. Sincerely,
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This was our first time staying at an all inclusive resort and I have to say I was expecting so much more. The rooms were clean, spacious and cleaned daily. The main hotel can be quite loud at night especially when people have been drinking late into the night or there has been an event at the 24hr bar although on the whole it is quiet and peaceful. Staff were helpful to a degree but also seem to want to serve you quickly. Food at the buffet was nice with a different cuisine each night - French, Italian, sea food etc. However this can get a little boring as they repeat after a few nights and there are the usual dishes that cater to the western culture which if you are looking for authentic cuisine you won't get here. Food at the restaurants were nice but you had to book the day before and if you did not get to a concierge desk early enough they were all fully booked by mid morning. The French, Mexican and steak restaurants are all worth trying - great food, large portions and delicious. Total contrast to the buffet restaurant. Cocktails at any of the bars at the resort were made with cheap spirits and tasted vile so we stuck to the beers which went flat in the plastic beakers they give you. We often found ourselves buying local beer (which tasted nicer!) and bringing it back to our room taking it to the pool when we wanted. Very large resort very spread out with different events for kids and adults. Two pool areas - the one my the beach/ sea but as often the most busy with zumba classes and activities. We tended to stick to the smaller pool as it was quieter. Lots of wildlife running around and the location is perfect between Cancun and Tulum. Most the excursions we went on are in the Tulum direction. I would go to Mexico again as there is a lot to see and do however I probably would not stay at this particular resort again.
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Date of stay: July 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Frederic C, Director General at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda
Responded Feb 13, 2020
Dear friends, We really appreciate your visit. Thank you for sharing your positives and feedback, We hope to hav the opportunity to host you again in the future, Sincerely,
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We have been here for hours. These are pictures of three different roaches in the room! Our mini bar was half empty with half empty bottles of water. We called for water after being at the beach and 40 minutes later still no arrival!! Our shower has been plugged up and we asked for a different room and they told me no and that they would send someone to fix it which they did not do. I am a travel advisor and I would never promote this resort. I want to leave tomorrow and we’ve only been here a day! we are leaving no matter how much it cost me to leave.
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Date of stay: March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from SOPHIEBBGE, Director de Relaciones Públicas at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda
Responded Mar 28, 2020
Dear CollNevs, Thank you for sharing your valuable comments. We certainly understand your discomfort about these unfortunate situations and offer our sincere apologies. Rest assured that your feedback will be turned to the involved areas with the objective to avoid similar situations with our future guests. Best regards,
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Nice gluten free food service for celiac. But beware of the wrongly tags at the buffet. Safer to ask directly to the chef Ramiro to prepare food straight out of the kitchen. He will do it with pleasure and smile. They even have gf bread and dessert. A la carte restaurants are great too.
All along the coastline, the beach is full of sargasso algaes, resulting from pollution. Workers are removing it every day but still not suitable to swim in the ocean because it is still in water and work to remove has to be done everyday.
And there is that scam about the time-sharing. CircleOne employees (hired by the hotel) approach you by telling you they would like to spend 90 minutes with you during breakfast to explain to you the VIP rooms for an extra 25$/person/day. They say they will give you massage of 90 minutes for two or credits of 100$ for their store. No need to purchase vip room. All you have to do is listen to them during breakfast and visit one of the vip room. But the scam is that they will try to pressure you into buying their time-sharing. Dont waste your time. People who got caught could not even get their free massages.
But it’s true you can upgrade your room to a seaview one for 25$/person/night anytime. Just go at the front desk and ask for it. We did it for the last three nights.
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Date of stay: March 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from DIRECTOR GENERAL, Director General at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda
Responded Apr 4, 2022
Dear Friends, Thank you very much for your visit and for sharing your positives and feedback. We are glade to read that you had a great time at BlueBay Hotels. It is always a great help to advise Concierge and the restaurant manager about your special needs. We hope to host you again soon, Sincerely, BlueBay Family
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45 minutes. All are American funds. $70.00 each way if you use the resort taxis. They will be waiting for you with a sign. Saves having to find a taxis .
Also shuttle bus, but not as comfortable.
New Orleans, Louisiana262 contributions137 helpful votes
Yes, all restaurants are included. There is a daytime buffet, a very nice evening buffet. The six a la carte restaurants require a reservation, made one day in advance. Each building has a concierge, so this is easy.
Food is quite good, especially the Mexican & the French.
There are more places to choose from in the Playa del Carmen area.
PRICE RANGE
C$203 - C$297 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
blue bay esmeralda, bluebay grand esmeralda hotel, blue bay grand esmeralda riviera maya, blue bay grand esmeralda mayan riviera, grand esmeralda, blue bay grand esmerelda, blue bay grand esmeralda resort, blue bay grand esmeralda beach resort spa, blue bay esmerelda
LOCATION
MexicoYucatan PeninsulaQuintana RooRiviera MayaPlaya del Carmen
NUMBER OF ROOMS
979
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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