Our Favorite Resorts in Playa del Carmen

Sometime when traveling you never fully know all the ins and outs of resorts until you get there, when booking with a travel agent or Expedia. You never know what kind of community it will be in or all alone with a hotel a ways away or one joining it. When driving to the Paradisus you drove past the local military base and through what seemed some rough parts of the town. Then you hit a private gate that is about 20 feet tall with huge walls surrounding the hotel.
Getting off the airport shuttle after finally reaching the resort, opening the door and the humidity instantly hydrating my skin, getting met with a royal blue purplish drink and a cold towel. Talk about a great first impression. Walking into an open area with beautiful white fixtures, a pond in front of us with koi and turtles swimming around. You just feel like you are in Heaven. We got all checked into our room and went down to check out the beach, which is one of the first places I love to go!

The beach is beautiful, a little more narrow but soft white sand and clear blue water. The Paradisus Playa del Carmen Resorts are split into two hotel; the la Esmerelda(family) and la Perla(adults only). We decided to try the family side out after having an amazing experience their at la Perla, about 4 years back. On the family’s side the beach is a little more open and goes further back up towards the hotel, whereas the adults only is the narrower side.



We love this hotel SO much and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to travel to Mexico. Their food is great with lots of different types of restaurants, so any type of cuisine you like they have something to offer. They also have buffets every night if you are just interested in getting food before the other restaurants open up. It was nice because we would hit up the buffet with our daughter earlier and then put her in their kid’s care and then have a nice adult dinner with my parent’s or go on a date with my hubby. Their kid’s area is AMAZING and our girl still remembers things from there and wanted to go back every night because she loved the girls who worked there.
Their breakfast spread was awesome! The thing I love about being in the tropics is ALL the fresh fruit! Having all sorts of fruit that we aren’t able to get here in the U.S is such a treat. Our girl is a fruit lover so having all the choices of fruit is like a kid in a candy store

La Esmerelda has a fun kid’s pool with a pirate ship as well as big inflatable structures to play on in the pools. There are games at the Cabana Hut to rent out to play in your room or pool side in one of the fun palapas. We spent a lot of time in the afternoon in the palapas after nap time. We would order snacks from the pool side wait staff and sit and eat nachos, fruit, and have a drink!


“Travel far enough you meet yourself” – Cloud Atlas
Looking to book a trip this fall or winter? I highly suggest one these two Paradisus resorts, we usually book through Expedia and have found the best deals there to both Paradisus Resorts.
Happy Travels!