Iberostar Grand Hotel Paraiso

After the wedding in Playa del Carmen, we decided to switch hotels to an all inclusive resort that was rated with 5 stars. Upon your arrival you get a cool towel and a fruity drink or champagne. I guess there are still lots of people afraid to go to Mexico and that's why the resort was only at 30% capacity when normally during this time of year they are at 80%.

After the bellboy shows you to your room, and you have about 5 minutes to look around your suite (all the rooms are suites), your butler comes to show you how to use the room. Yes, it is necessary because the room's A/C and lights run on a motion sensor. He also shows you the minibar which can be costumized to whatever you want, including VSOP courvoisier. And if you guys are serious drinkers, you can order the whole bottle to your room. I am not talking about just the mini bottles, but the bottles you see behind the bar.

Here was our room:

Some of you may be wondering why I included pictures of the bathroom. Well, to me the bathroom is just as important as the sleeping area. I always judge a hotel by its bathroom as well. If I am not impressed with it, I will move on.

There was everything you could ever need at this resort. They had 4 a la carte restaurants, including a surf and turf, and 2 buffets. There are other Iberostar hotels on the grounds you can go it at as well, but the Grand Hotel is the top of the line so we just ate there. The food was good, but it was not to die for. Don't get me wrong it was 10 times better than any other all inclusive hotel I've been to, but I was not wowed. I was wowed that lobster was included without an extra charge.

Of course there are day time activities for you to partake in like beach volleyball (which I felt like throwing up after we played, probably from all the dos equis I already drank), spanish lessions, and salsa lessons. You also get 60 minutes of non motorized water sports like kayaking, sailing, and snorkling included. There are also night time shows that were pretty interesting, especially at the rock show with the guy in pleather pants and spray tanned abs but somehow still had a muffin top? hahaa.

I will end with this picture I took from the balcony of the surf and turf restaurant. Here you can see the infinity pool and Playa Paraiso. When I got home and uploaded the picture I realized this is the same picture they have on their website (found here). I may be biased, but my image shows the hotel off better! And my image is straight from the camera, no editing. Hotels.com, Travelocity, or any other hotel website, if you would like to hire me to take pictures of your hotels around the world and review them I would be glad to :)