Just back from 2 weeks. Very relaxing, beautiful resort. Transfers went smoothly and our request for 3rd floor/building 6 was honored. It is worth while sending in an email to the staff a week or so before hand. Within 30 minutes of arriving we met a fantastic group of 6 from Iowa, US. whom we enjoyed evening meals and beach visits with.

Grounds gorgeous, lovely restaurants, amazing juice bar at the beach and fantastic staff. The beach and cleanliness were amazing! Lots of fun critters along a beautiful jungle path to and from the lobby and beach. Catalonia is in the middle of an expansive bay and swimming and water activities were wonderful.

If you are looking for elegant evenings out, you may be disappointed and that is not due to the food or the wait staff at Catalonia. The staff (hotel staff) are amazing and bend over backwards to meet your requests. However, dress codes are lax, (any attire is accepted at evening meals) and groups of drunken tourists of any nationality can make your dinner experience less than what you may expect. The worst eating experience was at our last evening meal at the grill when the 'Vera chicks' came into the restaurant clapping and shouting in Italian to advise their Italian patrons of the evening activities by the pool.

Ditto to the amazingly accurate description of 'Vera Boy' with pony tail who was an absolute jerk to anyone other than Italian guests.

Trying to join in to activities such as horseshoes and bocce ball tournaments were difficult - and darts was completely out of the question. Volley ball was greatly attended by all guests but was very exclusive during the first week.

We had three recommendations upon leaving and they were:

Dress code
Address drunken patrons
Activities - exclusive to Italians - noisy and aggressive Vera staff

We would not return - this is unfortunate as hotel staff were amazing and the location, resort and beach were everything we could ask for. Battling the daytime/beach nonsense was just a little grating.

We stayed here January 28th to February 4th. The ride from the airport was an hour, so don’t let that put you off. We had non-stop transfers and it went smoothly. I requested a high floor in buildings 5 or 6 in writing to the resort a week in advance. When we checked in, to honor that request we had to pay an “upgrade fee” of $70 per couple. Rooms were the same as in other buildings so I consider this somewhat of a rip off. But, it was worth it to stay in the building near the beach. The rooms were very nice, clean and large. Bathrooms were modern, with rain shower heads, plenty of water pressure and hot water. Bottled water provided in the refrigerator for teeth brushing. Also in refrigerator was beer (Corona), Pepsi , Pepsi Zero and cookies. When I called for more of anything, it was brought up almost immediately, and that includes extra towels. Beach towels are one per person, per day and there is nowhere to exchange towels for a dry one. They are exchanged at night, in your room, must be there by 6. I tried numerous times and various ways, but you could only have one per day. One night they were incorporated into our towel art, which resulted in 2 beautiful swans!
The resort is in a beautiful setting, on a beautiful white sandy beach, where you could walk for miles. They raked the seaweed daily and there was none in the water or rocks in the water. The pool was beautiful, chair space by the pool was hard to come by, as there was chair saving and it was very windy on the beach.
I had a Mayan Experience massage in the spa, highly recommended, ask for Oscar. Well worth the extra price for the Mayan Experience, it was very relaxing!
We tried all the restaurants and the Mexican was our favorite. Tapas was outdoors, overlooking a stream and the atmosphere was wonderful. The Grill was our least favorite, be sure not to get your hopes up on the crab cake. More like crab mousse?! Liquor was top shelf; they had every brand we wanted and the bartenders made every drink we asked for (and a few we helped with!). Breakfast and lunch buffets were great; I’m a somewhat picky eater and could always find something. There was great variety and lunch had different selections each day, grilling station and pasta station. Breakfast had omelet station and pancakes and waffles. We ate at the dinner buffet once and were not disappointed. No reservations or limits on a la carte restaurants, we just wandered into whatever we wanted.
Staff is very friendly and accommodating. We did tip but it didn’t seem to make a difference.
We took a taxi into Playa Del Carman for shopping, $20 each way.
I’m not really into entertainment but the shows were very good and definitely something I looked forward to each night, not cheesy.
A lot of Italians do stay at this resort and they do have different manners than I’m used to. At first I put it down to the language barrier but “excuse me” must translate into Italian somehow? Also strange is the whole Veraclub thing where it seems like kids are paid to suck up to certain guests who all seemed to be Italian. Hardly worth mentioning but it was odd.
Beautiful resort, only downside was the weather. It was not very warm, cloudy and rainy. Further south might be the way to go in January!

My wife and I decided to try Tulum, we have went to the Riviera Maya resorts on several occasions with great results and wanted to try something a little farther to the south. The resort grounds and the beach were excellent, the bartenders and wait staff were very polite. Unfortunately we were the only english speaking couple from the United States. We met two couples from Canada, other than that we encountered numerous Europeans that were inconsiderate, arrogant, and impolite. Also, include Veraclub staff with that description. If you are from North America I would recommend a different resort.

After reading all the reviews of this resort I had high expectations. I can happily say that this resort lived up to all the positive reviews I read. It was very luxurious and had a very friendly and helpful staff. I loved that they had all the vegetation in the middle with lighted pathways throughout. I was beautiful. So much better than the other resorts that mow down the natural vegetation and plant grass and flowers. Our little part of the jungle even had wildlife living in it. It was so nice to walk on the pathways looking at the plants and the creatures that lived there. Our room was gorgous and very comfortable. The pool was a great place to relax away the day with a fruity drink. The beach was clean and beautiful with white sand and the opportunity to walk out quite far before it became deep. The water was crystal clear and you could see a variey of fish as you swam. We were not crammed inbetween large resorts. There were only a few local houses and a bar up the ways so this allowed many long walks on the beach without the crowds. This is a beautiful resort close to many activities and a great enviroment to relax away your days.