El Dorado Royale, a Spa Resort - All Inclusive- Adults Only

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

17859 reviews

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  El Dorado Royale & Exotic Travelers Not What They Used to Be

  This review is in regards to our recent visit to El Dorado Royale in Riviera Maya, but it also involves Exotic Travelers, their new Member Services, and Fly-back Mexico. We arrived on Saturday February 7th and were taken to the resort for our 7 day stay. In the past, Grupo Lomas would transport us by Lincoln Navigator but this time it was reduced to a Volkswagen Bus. Being Sapphire Elite members of Exotic Travelers for 12 years, the room was what we expected. On Sunday we went to the Exotic Member’s area on the beach and found a Bali Bed where we were approached by Tony, from Exotic’s Member Services. He explained to us that they were no longer hosting Member Updates in their offices but opted to meet with members in a more casual atmosphere to try and find out what they can do to make their services better, rather than just try and sell us something extra. I explained to him that our trips in November of 2024 and in April of 2025 I processed the paperwork within the 45 day window to secure our Fly-back funds and both requests were denied as I didn’t include a Letter In Good Standing from Exotic, which I wasn’t told Fly-back added. In August of 2025 I received a Letter In Good Standing from Michell Guzman, in the Exotic legal department, with a suggestion to submit to Fly-back explaining to them it wasn’t needed when we signed our contracts. That suggestion was denied. I told Tony I hold Exotic responsible for us losing $4,000.00 since they promoted the Fly-back program and specifically, because we didn’t receive the additional letter for almost a year after it was added as a requirement. Tony assured me that Exotic was in communication with Fly-back and would see what they could do. He also offered a complementary 50 minute massage for my wife and I, and that he would be in touch with further details on Tuesday or Wednesday. Never happened. It appears his visit was merely Lip-Service and Empty Promises! Side note, I was so disgusted with Exotic that last year I canceled our reservation for December 2025 to El Dorado Royale. But let’s continue with this vacation. I was deeply troubled to learn that the Cabana Pizzeria no longer offered gluten-free pizza, or gluten-free hamburger buns. My wife is celiac. They were something she looked forward to year after year. At another dinner reservation we found out that the D’Italia restaurant stopped offering gluten-free pasta. Why go to an Italian restaurant if you can’t have pasta. Needless to say that restaurant is now off the list! Another of our dinner reservations we had was at their new Mediterranean Restaurant. The food was very good and service excellent, or so we thought. It seems that something they told us was gluten-free wasn’t. My wife spent the night on the bathroom floor vomiting. Another restaurant off the list. No matter, there’s always room service… On the menu it instructs to dial ext. 62 to place the order, but neither phone in the room worked! I ended up calling our Butler, Claudio Delgado, who had the night off. He took our order and placed it for us. Claudio was definitely a highlight in our dismal experience! I know Mr. Martinez, who is the El Dorado Resorts, has always expected his resorts to be the finest they could be, let alone have a 4 Diamond rating with Conde Naste, but it appears, they don’t seem to care anymore. Under the circumstances, I don’t know if I want to gamble and have a repeat of this experience in the future.

  Feb 18, 2026
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  Disappointing

  We are members of Exotic Travel Club and our son and friends utilized our membership at El Dorado Royale at the end of 2025. Upon arrival, 2 rooms were without running water, one room had bugs and a broken balcony door. Dinner reservations were non-existing. The issues of running water and bugs were resolved, but it was not until my son sat in their office that they made some accommodations for these conditions. They ultimately did get into some restaurants. Room service was not timely (2-hour wait), thus they did not use this service. My son and wife had previously utilized our membership a number of years ago and were very happy with the accommodations. It is apparent that this resort is not the caliber it once was, and he was very disappointed and embarrassed to have recommended it to his friends. I reached out to Exotic Travel to get some of their monies refunded for their stay. However, I was not successful in doing so. This is also very disappointing and would not recommend either this resort or membership with Exotic Travel.

  Feb 17, 2026
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  Great food and drinks, but restaurant booking process and capacity is poor.

  This is a resort of 3 hotels and not just El Dorado Royale. On checking in the staff were very helpful and offered a drink from the bar while waiting. But we were immediately disappointed to hear there were no more reservations for dinner. How can that be possible at 6pm for a 5 star hotel. We ended up ordering room service rather than visit the buffet at the family hotel. We booked an adult only trip. Room was fine although perhaps a little aged. The swim up room was really disappointing and wouldn’t recommend one. They are mostly all in the shade under lots of trees and not at all private. Our bed area was shared with the 2 rooms either side. Pools in Feb were really cold but i guess thats down to poor weather. The majority of sun-beds at the hotel are shaded which is a shame for sunbathing. The pool at spot has Bali beds in the sun but these have a wooden roof, with all the sun beds under trees. Common theme at other pools too. The one we liked for sun was tucanes swim up pool but the bar was shut all week. Bar staff visited 2-3 times a day but we ended up fetching our own drinks. The pool here is in poor shape with lots of missing tiles and needs a refurb. On a more positive note we found all the staff at the hotel very polite. Drinks were all fantastic, despite not having any drink menus. Favourite bar was the Martini bar at the lobby. Restaurants were all really good. We visited Rincon for breakfast twice and Sante Fe once. Both did a lovely breakfast menu. For evening meals you need to book on your first day for the entire week or risk not getting the times you want (via the QR code website). Food at the Asian and Italian were our favourite. Note the walk to some of the restaurants will take you up to 15-20 mins - this is a big resort. Lighting and signposting is quite poor for night times, so make sure to get your bearings before setting off in the evening. Having stayed at another El Dorado resort this ones not quite so good. The restaurant booking process put us off. It seems like the entire resort is 1 to 2 restaurants short as they are at max capacity all the time. Made the most of our trip with great food and drinks but doubt we’ll be back to this one.

  Feb 11, 2026
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  Beautiful resort with some considerations

  My husband and I stayed at EDR for 12 nights from January 25th. The resort is beautiful and well maintained but the beach is not swimmable as may have reported. The cold front across the U.S. brought unseasonably cooler weather except for a few days. We definitely would have enjoyed ourselves more if the weather was warmer. Just for context, we've been to over 35 all inclusive resorts throughout the west and east coast of Mexico over the years. Here are my personal observations. Transportation: If you do the Costco included transportation which is the company W2M BDXperience, you may want to consider private instead of shared transfer. Our flight was delayed and when we arrived at the Cancun airport we had to wait close to an hour for a shuttle. It was very frustrating. However, on our returned we were picked up in a private shuttle as I gather no one was leaving around the time of our flight. Staff: The staff who work at this resort are the best we've experienced in all the resorts we've been to. Too many names to mention. You can't go by a staff/worker without a "Hola" greeting from them They are a friendly, helpful and happy bunch of of workers. A big shout-out to Cindy at the Guest Services desk in the lobby. I reached out to her before my arrival for distilled worker for my CPAP machine and she was able to order it and also helped me with some of my dinner reservations. Restaurants: We didn't have any complaints. The food was very good at most of the restaurants...better than most all inclusive resorts we've been to. Reserve when you get there with your Concierge close to your building. There is also a QR code you can get from your concierge or guest services to get onto an app to book your restaurants. We had early reservations at 6:30 so it was easier to get. Our Room: we had a premium room in building 52 which was recently renovated so it was quite nice. Altho we didn't have hot water for the first couple of days but was fixed. The shower was great. The woman who cleaned our room was fab...had turned down services most nights...lots of towels and items like coffee etc. were replenished daily. Maroma Beach - this was a part of the more inclusive package. Clearly a highlight of our trip. Beautiful beach and food and drinks were included and good as well. Also included a three hour catamaran ride with snorkeling. Mobility issues: If you have mobility issues this resort may not be for you. There are no elevators at this resort and it's massive connecting three resorts. The shuttles for the most part were decent except after dinner hours less frequent to get. There are lots of stairs to your unit unless you have a ground floor swim-up unit. There are also stairs to the lobby and a number of bridges with stairs to the various pools where we stayed. BTW...the two pools near Spot and Fuentes restaurant were beautiful but water was cold. For us, the resort was too big and spread out. We were at EDR 25 years ago before Casita and Generation resorts were built. It was a smaller resort then and we enjoyed it more. Anyway, if the weather was warmer this time, our experience may have been different. But we made the best of it, we enjoyed the food and met some wonderful folks there.

  Feb 11, 2026
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  Great for Desitnation Wedding or intimate Vacation

  I traveled here for a destination wedding and truly couldn’t have asked for a better stay. From the travel agency, Forever in the Sand, to the exceptional hospitality from Lomas and the resort itself, everything was absolutely seamless. The resort is beautifully spread out, never felt overcrowded, and offers plenty of food options. The restaurants were excellent, 24-hour room service was a huge plus, and the golf carts running around the clock made getting anywhere quick and easy—though even walking to destinations was enjoyable. Overall, it was a perfect experience from start to finish.

  Feb 11, 2026