Our Stay at Grand Velas Riviera Maya

Today’s post is all about our stay at the Grand Velas Riviera Maya in Mexico. We stayed for 3 nights in the most incredible ocean front pool suite and had the best time at the resort. I am breaking down everything about our stay below along with all of my outfit details. If I left anything out or if you have a question, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll respond ASAP!

HOW TO GET THERE

Since Grand Velas Riviera Maya is located in the Riviera Maya area of Mexico near Playa Del Carmen, we flew into the Cancun International Airport. We took a shuttle provided by the hotel (super nice!) and the drive was 45 minutes.

THE RESORT

When we arrived we were greeted with glasses of Veuve (my kind of greeting) and a staff member who told us all about the hotel and gave us a map of where everything is.

Grand Velas is made up of three buildings or “experiences” as they call them: Zen, Ambassador and Grand Class. The Zen and Ambassador buildings are family-friendly and the Grand Class is adults-only. We stayed in the Ambassador building and loved it. This is the building that has the largest pool and is right on the beach. 

The awesome part of this resort is that you can essentially have all three experiences. While we stayed in the Ambassador building, we were still able to go to the Zen building and hang out at the pool there. Ambassador and Grand Class are right next to each other and Zen is a 2 minute shuttle ride. There are shuttles waiting at the front 24/7 to take you whenever you want!

THE FOOD

There are 8 Restaurants at Grand Velas that have everything from Mexican to Italian, Asian and French. A couple of the restaurants are adults-only but majority are family-friendly. 

We ate at Frida the first night which is authentic Mexican with a modern twist. The presentation of the food was like works of art and everything we had was delicious.

 

For breakfast we ate at Azul which is their buffet that also serves lunch and dinner. They had every fresh fruit juice you can think of, fresh fruit, pastries, breads, someone making omelettes or any style of eggs you wanted, crepes, pancakes, waffles, CHILAQUILES station (my favorite) and tons of other hot dishes (I may or may not have eaten a chicken enchilada at breakfast one day…). The restaurant is right on the ocean so it was nice to start the day with such a beautiful view!

Another morning we ordered room service that exceeded my expectations. As you can see we were pretty hungry this morning and I was very impressed with the quality of everything. Again, I ordered chilaquiles and they were so good as was the French toast. Ita said his omelette was great too!

The second night we ate at Lucca which was the Italian restaurant. I loved everything we had there and we were told the chef makes the pasta fresh daily.

We ate at the pool a couple of times and I will say we enjoyed the food more at the Zen pool. It’s the same menu, but for whatever reason it was better at Zen. The steak wrap was my favorite and I also liked the nachos. They made Mila grilled chicken that was really good too.

The last night we had dinner at Sen Lin, one of the Asian restaurants. The service was outstanding which made the dinner that much better. I swear someone was ready to swoop in to pick up our plates as soon as we finished every course. The waiter was also kind enough to offer us a wine tasting. He brought out three different wines throughout the meal for us to try and also brought out their specialty cocktail, the Lychee Martini. While it was good I was trying to avoid drinking straight vodka while taking care of a toddler so I stuck to sipping my wine. 🙂 

One thing I really loved about each restaurant is that the chef brought out a bite size “gift” before every meal. So the Asian restaurant was a piece of sushi, Italian was an eggplant parmesan dish and the Mexican was like a small chimichanga like dish and it was incredible. I just thought that was a special touch to your dinner experience! 

THE DRINKS

Every restaurant had a great wine selection that was part of your all-inclusive experience. Most of the restaurants also had specialty cocktails you could order as well. I wasn’t crazy about the mojito and Pina colada I first had at the Ambassador pool but then I ordered a Miami Vice (strawberry daiquiri and Pina colada) at Zen and it was delicious. Ita’s Michelada there was also really good. The Ambassador pool might’ve just been having an off day. 

Your minibar in the room is stocked with drinks and snacks daily but you can also order drinks to your room if you want! We had them send up a bottle of wine one of the nights we hung out on the patio after Mila fell asleep.

There are a few bars on the property like the Piano Bar and Karaoke Bar in the Ambassador. I toured the Koi Bar inside Zen and it is gorgeous! It is huge with plenty of seating and a giant screen to watch sports. We obviously didn’t spend any time here but it looked like a really nice place to grab drinks (it stays open until 3am!). 

THE ROOM

The rooms are huge and have amazing views. I was obsessed with all of the beautiful bougainvillea that lined every room’s balcony! Like I mentioned we stayed in one of their pool suites. This large room has a plunge pool and patio with a small table and chairs. We were really happy with this room because once Mila went to sleep, we could still hang out on the patio and sit in the pool if we wanted to. It was just nice to not feel like we needed to go to bed super early or be quiet and watch TV. Mila’s normal bedtime is 7pm but on vacation she went to sleep anywhere between 8:00 and 9:30. Even during one of her naps during the day we hung out in the pool and just left the patio door open. She was literally 3 feet away from us but we still went ahead and brought our monitor just in case. 

The bathroom had plenty of room with a big shower and jacuzzi which was great to give Mila baths in. Every night for turndown service the staff would make the bed and tuck Mila’s stuffed animals under the covers. It was such a little thing but her eyes lit up and she would giggle every time we came back into the room seeing them there. 🙂 I really appreciated the attention to detail and how much they helped keep our room organized every day (it’s incredible how quickly we can make our room a mess).

ROMPER

THE POOLS

Our favorite thing to do was to go to the pool. Mila loves the water and it was such a joy to see how happy she was splashing around. Did you see the giant turtle pool float she fell in love with? She asked about that thing every time we got in the pool but sadly it was only out there the first day. They had a bunch of pool floats and even did games every now and then in the pool like water polo and one time they had a giant bull pool float you could ride.

The Ambassador pool is huge and has a big kiddie pool that is not even a foot deep. The two other pools (one right in front of the other) were a little deeper but we could stand everywhere. You have a view of the ocean which was the best part!

Next door the Grand Class has a private adults-only pool that was beautiful. We obviously didn’t get to hang out there but it looked really nice. I never checked out that pool in the evening but I saw it around 11am one morning and it seemed pretty laid back.

As much as I love an ocean view I think I liked the Zen pool best! It felt like you were stepping into Bali… it’s in the middle of the jungle surrounded by the most lush greenery and palm trees and just felt very, zen. It’s definitely quieter and more peaceful at this pool. We loved that there were a couple of pools there that were a foot or two deep so Mila could walk around in the water. A lot of the time she just loved standing in the water by the edge playing with cups! 

SPA

The spa is beautiful and I had the opportunity to do the Hydrotherapy Spa Water Ceremony. You go through a 9-step water ritual that lasts about an hour that includes a clay room, ice room, sauna, showers, polar pool (it’s basically an ice bath!) and more. It’s complimentary with any spa treatment that’s 50 minutes or more. I honestly have a hard time relaxing and spending time doing these kinds of things but I think if you were with your significant other or a group of girlfriends it would be a lot of fun! 

FAMILY PERKS

I would definitely recommend this resort if you are traveling with kids. They go above and beyond to accommodate families and think of everything you could possibly need. They have cribs, bouncers, strollers, bottle sterilizers, etc. and also provide brand new (packaged) teethers, rattles, pacifiers, etc. free of charge. Basically their Baby Concierge ensures you have everything you need for your little ones.

I was able to tour one of the family setup rooms in the Zen building and it was so cute. They had a teepee set up on the floor with the stuffed animal resort mascot as well as cookies in the shape of him and special plates for the kids. Mila was too young for that but I feel like a little bit older kids it would make the trip that much more exciting for them!

The resort also has a kids club (4-12 years old) AND a teens club (13-18 years old). You could drop your kids off for a few hours or the entire day where they would be with someone coloring, playing games, watching movies, etc. When I toured the kids club they all seemed really happy and like they were having a blast! Now the teens club… I wanted to hang out there. It is huge and had tons of screens and comfy chairs to play video games, a stage for karaoke, pool, air hockey… seriously looked like so much fun!

*Just a heads up there was a bit of a seaweed issue while we were there. The hotel did a great job of cleaning it up so there were areas to get in the water but overall in the Playa Del Carmen area the seaweed was out of control. Hopefully it goes away soon but I would just check with the hotel or do research to see if it’s still there when you plan on traveling.

Overall we had a wonderful time at Grand Velas Riviera Maya. There are several Grand Velas properties in Mexico and we hope to visit another one soon!

SHOP MY VACATION OUTFITS!

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My Swimsuit, Mila’s Swimsuit, Sunglasses, Beach Pants, Necklace

DRESS

Similar Top HERE and HERE, Mila’s Top, Swimsuit Top and Bottoms, Sunglasses, Earrings

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Dress, Headband HERE and HERE, Sandals, Sunglasses, Crescent Necklace, Coin Necklace, Earrings, Swimsuit Top and Bottoms

Let me know if you have any questions! Read about my recent trip to Punta Mita HERE!

Thanks for reading!

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Thank you to Grand Velas Riviera Maya for hosting us. As always opinions are my own!