Grand Palladium Riviera Maya: The Resort Reviewed

In the summer of 2012, I traveled to Mexico and I booked my stay at Grand Palladium Spa & Resort at Akumal, Riviera Maya. I'm sharing this experience with my readers by reviewing the Resort - mainly referring to these variables:

• Infrastructures: The "physical" aspects of the Spa & Resort are going to be reviewed in this section
• Food and Restaurants: Who wants to go on a vacation with poor food choices? Not me, good food is an essential to my dream vacations.
• Events & Shows: Night Performances, Daytime events, Animation and Organized Sports.
• Grand Palladium's Staff: Having a good relationship with the Resort's staff is also a vital part of a good stay.
• The Beach: White sand, clear blue water, palm trees - now this is living!
• Wildlife: It's always great to see some critters, fishes and spooky animals that you aren't used to see.

These are the most important aspects I look to evaluate when staying somewhere. Fortunately, this Resort provided me with an awesome life-experience. Find out why below.

The infrastructures are very well maintained. During my short stay of about 10 days, I saw lots of people doing maintenance - changing foliage on the rooftops and cutting overgrown palm trees for example. The Resort was always top-notch, we couldn't complain at all because they clean after tourists with an amazing speed.

Actually, the only thing I can point out I didn't like was seeing hair on my shower on the first day - I know one mistake is easy to make but that disgusted me. Other than this small gross detail everything else was an example of what should be done.

The Resort had several distinct areas:

• 5 different Hotels inside the resort (you can visit them all but one which is private) connected by those small tourist trains.
• 1 Spa
• Several shops
• Some closed areas with crocodiles and other animals
• Several Pools
• Lots of Restaurants (Discussed further on)

They let you roam around virtually anywhere inside the resort, only barring you entrance to the private Hotel.

Luckily, for people who enjoy eating (like me), the Resort has lots of different options and restaurants to choose from.

Overall I was pretty much satisfied with all of the places I went to eat during my stay - it was one of the best gastronomical experiences in my life.

These are some choices you have available:

• Rodizio: Typical Brazilian Food - For those who don't know what Rodizio is: you sit and the waiters walk around with different pieces of meat for you to choose from. Eat different kinds of meat until you get your stomach full.
• Ribs & More: The "best of barbecue"
• El Dorado: Self-Service with lots of different food types from nations all around the world. This restaurant holds "themed meals" every night.
• Sumptuori: Japanese Restaurant in which the chef cooks in front of you in a very impressive manner. I was impressed and pleased, as the food was great. I just love Sushi!
• Punta Emilia: Seafood Restaurant that serves on the beach at night. The food was great and the landscape was awing. Racoons came to eat the food scraps we tossed them.

These are the five I visited. There are more Restaurants that I didn't had the time to go. You can see all of them in the following table:

Well, there are two kinds of events in Grand Palladium:

There are night events, which are in the hotels and are an amazing show of dancing, singing, acting and so on (think musical style) and there are day events, which include serving food on the beach, entertainers walking around and so on.

Night Events: I went to some of them and let me tell you that they have some real quality! They aren't just your average acting crew, they are top-notch athletes that happen to sing and dance as well! I was very impressed!

Day Events: Okay, these were great but a little comical. To illustrate why I thought these events were comical I will tell you a story: The story of how I was in the beach and a fat Mexican guy in a wolverine suit asked me to play volleyball... err... It was a great laugh but I don't think that was the intention.

The Staff is polite and works very hard. They hardly keep you waiting at all and are very nice, on the other hand their English is not the best - they can understand you and reply, but don't use slang and words that require a PhD to understand.

As for social and cultural differences, don't forget them. One time, after lunch, I asked for a little something to help with the digestive process (like a port wine for instance) - They brought me a special tequila of theirs that made me wanna die and cry nails so be careful on the alcoholic beverages. Be sure that their tequila is stronger than what you are used to.

Wow! The beach! I'll talk about the only bad thing first: The fact that the seafloor and some of the areas in the beach are very rocky. Sometimes I got hurt because of the seafloor that had sharp rocks popping out - but other than that it was a great experience.

While on the beach one day, I saw some yellow butterflies, not 10 or 20, not 100, thousands and thousands of butterflies (I knew they were migrating). The fishes swim to you and the water is warm and pleasant. You got to spend all day in the beach!

The waves are small, so if you are a surfer you're better of at Cancun (but yet again, why did you come to a quiet little gulf if you are looking for waves?)

Overall the beach was very pleasant, although you had to be careful not to step on a manta-ray.

The wildlife in Riviera Maya is very rich. I'm a Portuguese guy so I am, like you probably, not used to seeing exotic animals running around in the wild and next to you.

Here are some animals I loved to see:

Iguanas: You love them or hate them, either way they aren't the kind of animal you just have no opinion about. For me, I love them. There were dozens of Iguana roaming around everywhere in the Resort - mainly in the beach and on the grass in gardens. I fed an Iguana with a slice of banana and it nearly choked (see picture below) but don't worry - she waited for the banana to melt in her mouth and ate it!

Raccoon: The Raccoon there were really smart, they are used to tourists so they don't fear them and they eat the remains of the tourists meals. When someone left the table it was "chop chop time" for these cute critters.

Strange Lizards: Of different shapes and sizes. The one that impressed me the most was one that stood up on 2 feet and ran away like a human, sprinting on its two legs.

Butterflies: The ones in migration, simply beautiful. I regret not having a picture of that moment to show you.

Hermit Crabs: These little fellows were so cute walking around in their little "homes"... and then you realize you eat them in the seafood restaurant.

Crocs: Don't worry, they are not loose.

Overall, in my 10 days of stay, I saw over 20 different species of animals - just in the resort.

Overall, my experience with Grand Palladium Riviera Maya was an experience I won't soon forget.

Here are my final grades for the Palladium Resort & Spa - Mexico:

• Infrastructures: 8/10
• Food and Restaurants: 9/10
• Events and Shows: 7/10
• Palladium's Staff: 7/10
• Beach: 8/10
• Wildlife: 7,5/10

So, weighting all of this, my final rating for this resort was an impressive 8/10

I definitely recommend it!

Rui Carreira is a 24 years old Marketing Major who started writing for the fun of it, later turning it into part of his career.

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