I visited Iberostar Paraiso Beach July 2-7 with two young adult nieces and my 11 year old daughter. We checked in around 4 pm there were no problems with getting our rooms immediately. The desk staff was very pleasant and we even received upgrades to a building near the pool. The lobby is typical open air with seating and a bar. Overall, the ambiance is nice and the desk staff was pleasant.

After check in, the bellman takes you to your room in a golf cart. Trams run throughout the resort because of its size but if you are able to walk distances, it isn’t a problem. However, the trams run on the same walkways as pedestrians so you are always having to dodge them.

The Room: We had two rooms; one with a king bed and one with two double beds. The room was ok; it wasn’t as nice as I was expecting nor as nice as other resorts I’ve stayed in. While it was clean, it was dated and didn’t fit with the ‘luxury’ atmosphere that the resort purports to have. The hotel strives to be eco-friendly so provides large communal bottles of hand soap, lotion, shampoo, and conditioner. The mini bar was stocked with soft drinks, 1 can of sparkling water, and two Modelos. There is a filtered water station on each floor and refillable glass bottles are provided. At other AI resorts I’ve stayed at in the Cancun/Playa area, hard alcohol was provided in the room; however, none was provided. The bed itself was fine, not too hard or too soft. Water pressure in the shower was very low and I had a hard time keeping a consistent temperature. The room was warm and would not cool off.

Dining - Breakfast consists of the buffet. It was on the small side and was the same food every morning we were there, no change up except for the soup. Dinner options included the buffet or, if you were lucky, reservations at one of the specialty restaurants or availability at the first come/first serve restaurants. Dinner at the buffet was also uninteresting and was the same food every night. The drinks were ok; very weak and watered down. We were able to dine at the Mexican restaurant and the food was just ok.

Pool – The pool is beautiful and very large. Part of the pool area is for some higher class of guest but the majority of it is open to everyone. Considering the time of year of our visit, it wasn’t too crowded. There was no service at the pool; you had to go to the bar and the only bars available were swim up. The water was on the warmer side and was dirty with lots of debris floating in it.

Final thoughts - We were approached to do the vacation club presentation but I’m pretty good at shutting that down so we weren’t constantly asked. The resort WIFI was decent, even outside of the room at the pool. The grounds are lovely and there is a lot of wildlife which my daughter enjoyed. The fitness center is nice, clean, and well equipped. The staff is friendly overall.

Generally, I think this is a beginner level all-inclusive and there are better options in the area. The vacation club is a big turn off and I prefer to go to resorts where all the amenities are available to all guests.

I feel terrible saying this but this is the worst resort I have ever been to. The staff was not friendly or accommodating. Our room
Wasn’t ready and they kept pushing out the time until I didn’t want to wait any longer and we were downgraded our room to just get in a room at a reasonable time (4pm). We were pushed all the upsells which I refused. Food was terrible. Bug bites at dinner were even worse - inundated. Room was dirty including sheets and not updated. Dark and dreary. Grounds were not well kept as none of the fountains were on and there was dirty water lingering in them. We left after 1 night it was so awful. I would never rate this place a 5 star and honestly will never go to an iberostar resort again.

So, I wrote a review after coming back and maybe it is still out there, I did have one issue that i figured the resort would take care of, but they haven't so I take back all the things I said, now out of principle.

I went with 7 friends, so 8 guys in total.
We booked 4 rooms, two beds in each.
When we got there, we were told all they had was room with one king bed.
The options they gave us were to accept that we would get rooms with one bed, or pay an "upgrade" charge of $100 per guy to get rooms with two beds.
Now, the resort was NOWHERE near capacity and WE BOOKED ROOM WITH TWO BEDS.
After a long day of traveling we just paid the $100 to get in rooms and figured they'd make it right at some point after...well, 6 weeks later they haven't.
And to top it off, they flat out lied and are saying they offered us options which they did not, to fix the issue...one guy at the front desk v. 8 people checking in that all heard the same thing...hard to say all 8 of us didn't hear what options we were told which again was accept a room we didn't reserve OR pay more to get what we did pay for.
It is only $100, I get that...but it is just the principal.
All I will say is there...there are plenty of other resorts up and down the coast in this area and not only will I never stay at an Iberostar again, I'd highly recommend anyone reading this pick a different resort too because what you get may not be what you paid for and they will lie to you when called on it to remedy the situation.
Is the resort nice, sure.
But there are others - and I've stayed at them - that are as nice or better than will honor the room you reserve from them. Save yourself the headache avoid this place.