Valentin Imperial Riviera Maya

Hi. 4 of us spent 10 days in April. We had the standard rooms; no upgrades. But we didn't need to. We have been to many resorts in the Caribbean over the last 2 decades, and we must say, this one "ticks" most of the boxes. This is the best overall experience we have had in terms of accommodations, food, service. A few things to note: - There is a lot of walking required. The resort is large with an abundance of gardens and foliage. Carts are available but if walking is difficult, this is something to consider. - Wheelchair and accessibility: my husband uses an electric scooter - the hotel was almost completely accessible, except of course the beach. The "separate winding pool" with rooms facing it, was not accessible. Other than that area, my husband could get anywhere. - The beach is BEAUTIFUL, sandy, spacious and long, with lots of palapas. Note, though, that like MOST OF THE CARIBBEAN, the seaweed is plentiful. Staff clean it every day, but the water has a lot floating in it which can be a turnoff. Here are a few of the highlights: - accommodation is very comfortable. Rooms and bathrooms are large; a/c was great; everything worked. We received turndown service every night (note you can stipulate the window you are requesting turn down, so it is always done when you like). Rooms are on 3 levels, there are stairs and an elevator and all rooms can be driven into by wheelchairs. - many guests think so highly of it that they have been here multiple times. We will return, as well. This is the best overall resort we have been to. - the restaurants are extraordinary. This is the first time we have been to a resort that does not take reservations, but they were not required. If you arrived before 7:00, you were generally seated immediately. If you arrived later and there was a wait, they supplied you with buzzers. You could go to the central plaza and enjoy a drink while you waited. There was often live music. Service was exemplary. - Note that long pants for men and appropriate dress are required for all except the buffet; we did see people turned away. Personally, getting a little dressed up for the evening is a plus for us. - there is a variety of entertainment at the central plaza from early in the evening onwards. - one of the biggest highlights was the staff. Without exception, everyone was helpful, friendly and professional. The concierges will do anything - A special kudo to OSCAR. We commented one morning that my husband was unable to access the gym with his wheelchair, and by that evening - they had built a ramp! Fantastic service in every part of the resort. Something to consider: - because it was windy the whole time we were there, many people avoided the beach. The one large pool was packed early; finding a chair early is a necessity, There are very few shade areas. I believe they are building more, but if you want a shaded area (or harder yet, the ability to move your chair from sun to shade), this is a problem. We were extremely pleased and will be returning soon.

Review of the hotel: Valentín Imperial Maya Stay: May 2026 Room: Top Floor Ocean View Prive Pool Dunas The hotel: It is a quite large hotel, not jointed to other resorts (take TRS Yucatán as an example). It is very well decorated, reminiscent of a Mexican Hacienda. As I said, it is big, there are not many carts available to take you up and down the property and the paths can be a bit tricky since they have a lot of turns and curves, so I would suggest you have this in mind. It has music all around the resort, which is great, but after mid day, you’ll find the same 10-20 tracks of Mexican music on loop, which might get bored/too repetitive after a couple of days. Roberto (I believe it’s his name, he was a smiling, friendly, young guy from the front desk) was very helpful for our check-in/out process and helped us with our questions about the property. The beach: Incredibly beautiful turquoise and cristalline water, shallow, great for swimming. Seaweed (sargazo) is a bit of a problem on the beach, but there’s a guy every morning cleaning it which helps a lot; inside the water seaweed is not much of an issue. The sand is beautiful and really clean. The pool: Huge pool, a really long inter-connected pool with a couple of pool bars. The water felt hot, not sure if it was because of the heat/sun, but it felt like it was kept hot by a heater. Enough space for everyone to feel you’re not in a broth. Guys from the pool bars were over pouring alcohol into the drinks, making them almost undrinkable, so maybe check on that. Michel, our waiter from the pool, was just fantastic and his service was greatly appreciated. Most of the music played along the pool was something you might find in a club in the US - hiphop, rap and some pop. Being in Mexico, I expected more latin music, but most of the guests were from the US so maybe that made sense for the employees. Activities: People from the animation weren’t very animated themselves, it felt that they were just doing a job (understandable), not like they were enjoying it. There are many things to do on the app, but some of them just didn’t happen (TRX at 09:30 as an example). Still, plenty of things to do for most of the morning, but after 1-2pm it’s just the music from the main pool. The gym was small and no all the dumbbells had their par, but was enough for someone who wants to keep a healthy lifestyle. The room: Spacious, big enough. It has a tub, but it can’t be filled with hot water and ours had a small leak (nothing that prevented the usage, but still a leak) and the bubbles were not functioning either; we didn’t enjoy it that much because of this. The private pool at the ocean front is from out of this world, so close to perfection, unfortunately, ours had a filtering system that had an awkward air input that made a very strong and uncomfortable noise every now and then; and the glass from the pool was dirty from both inside and outside (prior to our arrival), and that diminished the quality of the view. During our stay, this glass was never cleaned. The real CROWN JEWEL was the view. Oh, my. It’s simply amazing. Gorgeous. The sunrise on the Caribbean while you enjoy a cup of coffee in your balcony is something you need to experience at least once. That alone kind of made up for the rest of the room. Coffee machine is greatly appreciated, would be better if there were more options for coffee within the capsules. The food: The food from the buffet was really nice, it had rotations so you don’t feel like you’re eating the same everytime. The restaurant is huge, so I’m not sure if the occupancy was very low, but it almost felt empty most of the time. There are great differences between cooks when it comes to eggs, so wait after a couple of orders are made before ordering yours. Alcohol is mid-low quality, no good rums available (only decent was Habana 7), but it’s an all included, so it was to be expected. As for specialty food: There are no reservations (best), you might need to wait a little, but there’s the option to wait on some areas with coverage for a device that rings when your table is ready. Hands up for the guy at the coffee shop that let us know our table was ready (they were looking for ur through the radio). - Italian: Abelardo and Blanca helped make that night a very special dinner for us, and we are thankful for that. Unfortunately, other than the service, it was the most disappointing one. Tasteless food, one of our pastas even had curdling in it. Tisamisú is salvageable, but I wouldn’t recommend going there if there are other options available. - French: The best, with a huge difference. Great food, tasty, nice presentation. Creme brûlée was one of the best I’ve had. 10/10. - Mexican: I had really high expectations, but fell short from what I expected. The food was just ok. Not bad, not good either. - Beach restaurant: Pistaccio’s Cheesecake is a complete overkill, just go try it and thank me later.

Great staff, drinks and food Virginia at the lazy river was awesome room was amazing.

Stayed for 7 nights in mid April. Amazing vacation! We are a couple in our 50’s/60’s We have been to all inclusive resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean and prefer higher end resorts. The Valentin was truly amazing! The customer service and hospitality was second to none. Every single staff member from arrival to the GO team to the servers in the restaurants was gracious and lovely. I have never been to a hotel where the activity team remembered my name and used it throughout the week when they would see me around the resort. We stayed in a silver suite in building one. Location was perfect for us. We loved the convenience of being close to restaurants and the entertainment at night. The room was immaculately clean and well-maintained. We have been married for 30 years and the open concept bathroom was not an issue. I loved being on the first floor and having a patio facing the back. We spent most of our time during the day at the silver sport pool. The large main pool with all the entertainment was convenient to attend the pool cycle class but really not our scene. We called it the boom boom pool! Typically we spent the morning at the silver pool, had lunch somewhere and then went to the beach in the afternoon. Idyllic days!! The food at the resort really stood out as being excellent. Every morning we started our day with coffee and pastry delivery from room service. Then we would go to breakfast at Le Marche buffet. One morning we went to Mar y Tierra for an outstanding table SERVICE breakfast. For lunch, we went back to Mar y Tierra or the buffet and a couple of times we had food truck meals delivered to our seats at the silver pool. We tried every restaurant for dinner and never had a problem getting a table almost every day we had a specialty coffee drink in the afternoon from café sisal. What an amazing treat! The dinner service at each of the restaurants was refined and lovely across the board. We tried several of the bars and found that our best cocktails were the drinks of the day served in the restaurants. overall, the food really stood out as some of the best we have experienced on vacation. Prior to our trip I joined a couple of Facebook groups for fans of the hotel. My only regret was spending as much time as I did on those pages. For some reason, they seem to attract some unsophisticated travelers and it really made me nervous for my trip. Fortunately, my actual experience of the resort was of a respectful crowd. we are grandparents, but I never felt “old “and found many people in our peer group as as well as as younger and older. I understand why so many people return again and again to the Valentine. It is an amazing resort and I look forward to a second visit

First time here and would recommend to come back. Churros were tasty and food was good. Favorite restaurant was Mar y Tierra. Very friendly staff and felt welcome.