Gran Porto Real Resort & Spa Hotel

2 readers found this review helpful

Lovely hotel- not too big-tasteful- not an ugly concrete sqare. Very friendly helpful staff. Kept very clean. Lovely white sand beach onto turquoise waters. Some white sandbags on beach immediately in front of hotel, but you can walk slightly to the right to get around them, so not a problem. Had a junior suite without seaview which was located on a quiet corridor on the ground floor, at the front of the hotel facing Constituition Ave. Lovely room overlooking the gardens. The suites look exactly like the hotel's website. Our maid Addy kept our room spotless and amused us with her towel art every day. We were upgraded on the first night for free to a side ocean view suite on the same side of the hotel, but declined to pay for the upgrade for the rest of the holiday, as we didn't think it was worth the extra money and actually preferred the room we had originally booked. We were in room 107. We were also given a US$40 dollar compensation for the inconvenience of moving suite.
Personally I wouldn't have a suite overlooking the main pool, unless you like lots of noise. The entertainment team have all sorts of activities going on around the main pool during the day, and the evening show and Gravitas bar keep the noise up most of the evening until 11pm.
The standard rooms are on the 3rd floor facing the swim-up bar, which can get noisy with people slowly get drunk as the day goes on. You also have to share the terrace with your neighbours, so don't op for one of these rooms if you want peace and quiet!
There is a great little jacuzzi on the 5th floor which overlooks the 3rd floor pool and has views out to the ocean. It is generally lovely and peaceful, as its quiet difficult to find. There are also hammocks there for a lazy afternoon snooze.
The hotel has the usual international buffet together with some mexican specialities, and caters for most tastes. Thank you so much to Juan, our waitor for most evenings we ate in the buffet, as he helped us with our food allergy choices. The mexican restaurant was great- fab food- excellent service and again very helpful in dealing with our wheat allergy. The same could not be said of the Italian restaurant. The chef could not be bothered to adapt anything for us, so don't bother going there if you have an allergy to wheat. Hence I've given the hotel a slight markdown on the food front.
In future I would probably not go all-inclusive here, as its so easy to go out into Playa del Carmen to all the restaurants in 5th Avenue which is just a block away. Overall a great hotel and we had a great time here and would definitely recommend it to others.

1 reader found this review helpful

Hotel fantastic. Food is excellent I was a bit worried about having a dodgy tummy but all food was fresh and wasn’t left out all day. Rooms superbly cleaned everyday. Staff very friendly especially ****** on the beach bringing drinks all the time. Hotel kids club not very good for English as staff and kids in there were Spanish. Pool lovely. Evening entertainment dull mainly Mexican dancing which all looks the same, Michael Jackson show is worth watching though.
Entertainment staff lovely. Waiters fantastic love kids could easily get seat in restaurant no queuing. The suites are spacious but ask for sea view as hotel is right on beach and lovely. Recommend visit to dolphin discovery well worth the money cheaper than xcaret if you just want to do dolphins and not spend all day there.
I would go back to Gran Porto if they improved evening entertainment we found it a bit boring on eve and there wasn’t anything for our 4 year old to do. But if you are honeymooning like us you will find it fantastic.