Catalonia Playa Maroma

We spend one wonderful week at this resort. From January 2- 9 2007. The hotel was very nice the rooms were clean.. The beach and water was perfect. The pool was pretty big and so nice. Not much for English speaking mostly all was in Spanish (which is normal) but alot of Italian. The food was good, breakfast being the best. The alcohol selection was amazing. If you tip about very second time the service was non- stop, needless to say that you did't have to get up much at all. We booked our trip through Signature which was the best ever, they took care of everything we needed at anytime our rep was there taking care of us. We went out on the Captain Hook Tour which was sooooo good and a nice evening out. We went the Akumal two years ago, it was very nice also but this resort won us over with the pool and beach alone... Disco began at midnight and was really good for the night life entertainment, met alot of people and very much enjoyed. I would go back to this resort again and recommend it for couple vacation or group.

This is a great resort. The food is really good. They have a large buffet which servers primarily Italian food. They also have 3 restaurants 1 of which you pay extra for which serves steak and lobster. The other two are a Medetarainian restaurant and a Mexican restaurant. They have a large pool area with a bar beside it. They have a lunch buffet which comes out around 11:00 am and lasts until 4:00 pm beside the bar. The beach area is very large and clean. There are lots of lawn chairs at the pool and the beach to lie on and soak up the sun. The hotel and the grounds are very clean. They have cleaning staff constantly cleaning the grounds, washrooms, floors, etc. The hotel also has many security people watching the grounds and beach area. The hotel itself is very secluded. It it's quite a distance from the main highway and there is nothing close by. If you want to go anywhere outside the resort, it's by cab. The hotel also has photographers which go around the pool and beach and take your pictures if you want. They use software to pose them in different settings and magazine covers. The pics are really good. They post them on a board and sell them to you if you want. The resort also has activities such as beach volley ball, tennis, table tennis, archery, water activities. They have a kids club where you can drop your kids for a few hours in the morning and late afternoon. They have late night shows and a piano bar. Although they don't play the piano at the bar as it's out of tune and most keys stick. They have a guy who plays guitar and sings along with pre-recorded music while sitting behind the piano. One downside to the resort is English is very uncommon. The front desk people speak a bit of English, but pretty much no one else does. The spoken languages are Spanish and Italian. It can be very difficult or impossible to make yourself understood at times. It's a good idea to brush up on some basic Spanish and know how to ask for your favorite drinks in Spanish. Overall, it is a great resort, and very relaxing. I definitely would go back again.

My husband and I stayed here from Dec. 30 2006 - Jan. 1 2007. We had a terrific time, and my only regret is that we couldn't have stayed longer. When we arrived, the airy, spacious lobby was a welcome sight, and the front desk staff greeted us with very good English and explained the resort's amenities. Someone brought us an orange juice drink in a champage flute, and a friendly bellboy carried our bags to our room. The room was spacious with tiled floors and a balcony overlooking the courtyard. The bathroom was relatively small and had no ventilation, so the towels did not ever get completely dry. The room did have a musty, swampy smell, but we slept well and did not spend much time in the room anyway. We dined at the Pajarito restaurant the first night, and found that the food was quite good. The second night we got reservations for La Tortuga, which is usually a la carte, but was doing a buffet for New Year's Eve. I found that the food there was a notch better than at Pajarito. The snacks at the pool bar ranged from hot dogs and burgers to fruit salad and soft-serve ice-cream. Chips and salsa were also available. The food is put out around 11 am, and is pretty good then, but by mid-afternoon it was looking a bit sketchy, so I avoided the hot foods. Sometimes they have a special theme - on Dec. 31, they had a sortof Disney theme and had popcorn and cotton candy in a little cart by the entrance to the pool, while Disney songs played over the speakers. The beach was clean and well-maintained. We did not have any trouble finding a beach chair, and enjoyed a spin on the free kayaks. The pool could get crowded at times, so I generally spent my time at the beach. The "virgin beach" adjacent to the hotel was rather trashed-up and unappealing, so we stuck to the main beach area. Also, since many (if not most) of the guests are European, you should not be surprised to see topless women and children au naturel. If this offends you, you may want to steer clear. You should also be aware that Europeans do not respect the idea of standing politely in line - a man slid right in front of me while I was waiting at the pool bar - so you'll need to forgo the notion of waiting patiently and be more aggressive about approaching the bar. Because the clientele is mostly European, signage is mainly in Italian and Spanish. If you know a few words of Spanish, you should be ok. The maids are unlikely to speak any English, but the front desk staff and managerial personnel spoke English very well and seemed genuinely concerned that you have a good time. Damiani in particular was very friendly and helpful. We ordered a cake at the front desk for my father-in-law's birthday, and he made sure it was brought out at the appropriate time, and they even sang Happy Birthday in English. My in-laws experienced a few problems with their room, including: the safe did not work, and the A/C made a rattling noise. The hotel sent no less than 6 people to try to fix these problems, and offered them another room. We attended the show in the theater on Dec. 31st, and it was a medley of Broadway dance numbers, which was fun. The show was carried by two dancers - the back-up dancers lacked enthusiasm and vigor at times - but the show was entertaining. Overall, I really liked Playa Catalonia Maroma. The buildings and grounds were clean and well-kept, the drinks were free-flowing, and depending on your mood, you could take in the sun and surf, or relax in the quiet, cool, lobby with a drink and good book. I loved walking from our room to the lobby in the evening, with the tropical plants surrounding you on the path.

My family and I just got back from a one week holiday at the Catalonia Playa Maroma. Although we had a good time we would not go back again. The resort was advertised as a 4.5 star hotel but I would rate it no better than 3.5 due to the sub-standard hotel rooms (bug infestation, mildewy shower, extremely hard beds even by Mexican standards). The biggest complaint we had though was that the resort is not kid friendly at all. The advertised Kid's Club never seemed to be open, the playground consisted of one slide and the restaurants didn't open for dinner until 7:30 which was too late for our little girls. On the positive side the resort and beacha was beautiful, the staff very friendly, and the food was excellent. The fact that the resort was Italian (90%) didn't bother us as everyone was friendly we got to meet some nice people.

My girlfriend and I stayed at Catalonia Playa Maroma in December 2006. The hotel was rated as 4 or 4.5 stars, but we rate it as 3.5 stars. First of all, English is not their first or second or third language. Everything is in Italian, so if you don't speak Italian, you are SOL ([s**t] out of luck). The food was pretty good (4.5 stars), mostly italian, all sorts of pasta and pizza every single day. But you could always find something to eat. Entertainers were very friendly, however, once again, some shows were in Italian and Spanish (no English), so we were lost and we chose to leave or stay and pretend to understand. The beach was nice, clean, white sand, very peaceful and long so you could go for long walks/jogs. The hotel itself was interesting, very average, colourful and in the middle of the forest. If you are looking for some peace and quite and nature, this hotel is for you! The room was interesting - definitely needs some updating, the bed was hard as a rock! One day, there was a power failure, so no electricity or water for a few hours. Every single day, as we tried to blow dry our hair, the fuse would go off and we had to turn it back up again so we could have electricity. In order to get to our hotel, there was a 15 minute bumpy ride, from the main road to the hotel. This road was full of pot holes and was horrible to get through, was worse than turbulance! So if you can avoid not going outside of resourt, do it! There is no life right ouside of the resourt, it's very secluded, you have to cab everywhere, 20 mins to Playa Del Carmen and 45 mins to Cancun. So if you wanna party, this hotel is not for you. This resourt has some nice photographers, they take pics of everone throughout the day, and then post them outside their studio, and if you like, you can buy.

very disappointed with this 4.5 so called hotel, think it's more like a 3 star. our room had to be fumigated for the first couple of days it wa dirty, they fumigated but never cleaned up all the dead bugs afterwards, the bedrooms needed a good clean, the covers on the beds had stains on them, the bathroom always smell of drains, it was half painted the vent was thick with dust, the shower was dirty and moldy. The light outside our door was broken and there was always hair and stuff around our front door. o yes and to be woken every moring at 7am by the heavy machinary next door. entertainment starts after dinner around 8ish and finishes about 10pm, then everything is turned off, so you sit and wait for the disco to start at midnight? then all the workers come in and they play all their mexican music, no american hits, maybe it was for the workers? it could be open for hours or mins depending who's in there, overall the hotel looks old and needs a lot of work, especially cleaning, would not recommend it to anybody I liked.

We just got home after a week stay at Catalonia Playa Maroma. (nov 25 to Dec 2) We had a great time, but I can already say that I wouldnt go back or recommend it, unless you are fluent in Italian. I would say about 80% (or more) of the guests there were Italian. We found out on our last night there, that the hotel used to be an exclusive Italian club. The hotel itself was beautiful. Don't be alarmed by the road leading to the hotel. It is very bumpy and terrible to drive on. We were told that the road is not owned by the hotel, and the owners of the road refuse to repair it. The beach was nice. Great sand, warm water, although the water was rough the whole week we were there. I asked around, and apparently it is rough all the time. Not many people at this resort speak English, including the workers and entertainment staff. There were a handful who spoke English (Hola to Edgar, Freddy and Kazil). Although there was a language barrier, the entertainment staff included everyone. They were fun people and tried there best to get everyone involved. The nightly entertainment was okay. A few nights, the hotel brought in dancers from elsewhere, a few nights there were competions amongst the guests and then the animation team did a few shows. They did translate the shows into different languages (Spanish, Italian, French) but since there were so few English speaking guests, by the end of the show, English translations were dropped. If you are going to party, this is probably not the hotel for you. The resort quiets down alot right after the show is over. They do have a disco which opens at midnight. The animation team stays at the disco until 12:30. After they leave pretty much everyone else leaves as well. The food was okay. (I am a very picky eater, so for me to see it was okay, then it was good...lol) We never tried the a la carte restaurants, so I can't say anything about them. The snack bar by the pool was good, your basic hamburgers, hot dogs and french fries (and ice cream...lol) The rooms were pretty basic, but clean. The maids did a good job at keeping the rooms clean. (On the day of arrival, we did have to wait for our room to become available for about 4 hours, but other than that really no complaints at all about the rooms) The hotel offers a free shuttle every night into Playa del Carmen. You have to book it in advance though. Otherwise if you want to go into town, it costs $18 US for a taxi (one way) The hotel gets very quiet in the afternoons as well, which I found to be weird. Between 1 and 4, there is no music on and the entire animation team goes for lunch, rehearsals and siestas. I guess siestas are normal in Mexico, but I just found it odd that all music was turned off. All in all, the resort was beautiful and clean. It was a lot of fun, the beach was amazing, the animation team was great and entertaining. The only problem I had with this resort was that it catered way to much to the Italians. Speaking English was definitely the minority here. I didn't expect to go to a Spanish speaking country and have everyone speak fluent English, but I would have thought that more would have spoke English. Had I known it was a mainly Italian club, I would have gone elsewhere. It is for this reason only, I would not go back.

My name is Crystal Burton and me and my husband Michael Snowden have just got back home from our honeymoon in Mexico. We stayed at the Catalonia Playa Maroma. We thought the resort was gorgeous, very tropical and spacious. The pool and beach was amazing! We were happy to see others who we thought looked english however they were not..they were Italian. We found out after we arrived at the resort it was just opened to other nationalties in May 2006.However at first we found the Italians to be very ignorant and un friendly but we did not let them bully us. We were unfriendly back and that actually gained us respect..weird! There was an older italian man with his wife and daughter and they slowly warmed up to us and also another group did also while we were kyaking. The staff was amazing they tried to help us fit in by explaining things in both languages. Entertainment staff was great they acknowledged us everytime they seen us, shook our hands etc.. I had a great time once we were known at the resort by all.I reccomend when other canadians go there they should be tough and stand your grounds...as far as the walk way to the lobby.....push them off right back!!LOL I would go back (if a discount was in store) but definetly a good vacation..............they do need a bath tub in the room though! Crystal Burton Ontario,Canada

This was our first vacation and we didn't know what to expect. We figured out quite quickly that this resort consisted of predominately Italian guests who were completely unfriendly. For the first 2-3 days of our vacation we tried to be typical friendly Canadians, but it became obvious that the Italian guests were not going to be receptive. Our intention was to not let their behavior ruin our holiday, but after being pushed off the path between our room and the lobby and no one ever acknowledging our friendly greetings we were starting to NOT enjoy our stay. The second problem we encountered was the fact that since this hotel apparently only recently opened to international guests, other than Italians, none of the staff spoke English or very, very little. It became very frustrating as the days went on when no could understand anything we said or requests that we made. There was very little if any evening entertainment and what there was in the theater was entirely in Italian and along with the daytime entertainment. It was impossible to join in any beach activities because the directions were all in Italian. We felt like outcasts and completely unwelcome at this resort. The only good things that I would have to say about the hotel is that the beach was very nice and the food at the buffet was good, but the same very day. The buffet was only opened from 7:30AM to 10:00AM and then from 12:30 to 2:00 and then not again until 7:30PM. That is a long time to wait to eat supper. The snack bar food was exactly the same every day and quite disgusting. The rooms were large and we appreciated the free safe, but the beds were very hard and the rooms smelt musty. The shower was luke warm and there was no bathtubs. It had taken us a long time to save for this vacation and we were quite disappointed. I will be sure to do more research on the next hotel I book at. This was an expensive lesson.

Just spent a great week at VentaClub (Hotel Catalonia) at Playa Maroma. The rooms are very good and large, with a free safe in the room for your valuables. Very quiet and slept like a log every night. Pool is great, especially if you like to swim laps. There is a nice deep lap pool on the side where you can easily get your daily swim in. Beach is great, plenty of chairs and the water always warm. Food is good but no variety. Waiters are helpful. Sometimes had long queues for the pasta & pizza bars . They simply couldn't make the pizzas fast enough for the demand. Dessert, salad & fruit sections good. A good alternative for lunch is a hamburger at the snackbar by the pool - Mexicans sure know how to make a good hamburger. Cappucino was also great, as expected ! No problems with alcoholic drinks, whether it be the beer on tap (Corona) or cocktails. The hotel setting is very pretty. To walk from the reception/main restaurant back to the pool/beach you are surrounded by trees and light music and ocassionally see small animals (iguanas, furry ant eater, etc ...). At night near the pool you might even see a large hermit crab or two. You don't see the buildings until you take an exit from the boulevard to get to your own - good design touch. Evening shows are a bit of a gamble - some nights are skits or games and are entirely in Italian - the rest are good to very good as it is mainly dancing. We choose this hotel mainly for the beach and knew beforehand from other reviews that it was oriented to Italians. This is the only negative aspect to this hotel, everything else is above average. If you don't speak Spanish & don't speak Italian then you will have difficulty communicating with some of the staff - eg: beach & pool lifeguards. Some funny situations arise, eg: we asked a question in Spanish (my girlfriend is Mexican) to a Mexican shop assistant at the hotel and the answer came back in Italian, asked again in Spanish and the answer came back again in Italian - after the 3rd attempt they got the picture and responded in Spanish ! The entertainment staff are in general not interested in anyone who is not Italian and very surprised if you don't speak Italian. Our trip was orgainsed via "oad reizen" in Holland but we didn't see any Dutch people at all in the hotel. Heard a little bit of French around the pool sometimes.