Wide panorama of lawn, coconut palms and a sand circle framed between two curved white walls

RIVIERA MAYA, MEXICO · ROOM GUIDE · 5 MIN READ

Grand Velas Riviera Maya: Jungle, Beachfront or Grand Class?

Three resorts in one, just next door to Mayakoba: an ultra-luxury beachfront for honeymoons and anniversaries, and a kid-safe playground at the beach and another in the jungle. The only question is which one you are booking.

By J.C. Mercer

Verified stay·paid in full

Stayed March 2025 and March 2026
Room booked Zen Grand Pool Nature View Suite; Grand Class Oceanfront
How it was booked Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts, public rate
What the channel bought Seemingly nothing — the resort is already all-inclusive, and no upgrade appeared to land.
Value verdict The value is there if you appreciate an all-inclusive.
When to go Anytime you want the all-inclusive without Hotel Xcaret’s more hectic energy. Book this stay

Booked the way any other guest would book it.

The three ambiances

Grand Velas is not inside Mayakoba, whatever the internet says. It sits just next door, on its own land behind its own gate, and its only tie to the name is a partnered golf course five minutes away. The more useful way to hold it: this is three resorts in one. At Mayakoba your key opens three neighbouring hotels; here it opens three sections of one resort — an ultra-luxury beachfront built for honeymoons and anniversaries, and a kid-safe playground at the beach and another in the jungle. Choosing among them is the whole decision.

Curved white wall reflected in a shallow turquoise arrival pool, seen through a vehicle window — One gate, one drive, and then a fork in the road that decides most of your holiday.

Most resorts offering a room choice offer two: water or garden. Grand Velas offers three and calls them ambiances rather than wings, which is marketing language over a real structural fact. Each has its own lobby, pool and restaurants, and guests may use all three wherever they sleep. Zen Grand is the biggest, set inland in jungle and mangrove. Ambassador overlooks the beach and has the largest pool complex. Grand Class is oceanfront, with the infinity pool and the starred restaurant. The spa is in Zen. The beach fronts Ambassador. Wherever you sleep, something you want is somewhere else.

Zen Grand is the quieter half of the property, and its rewards are the spa, built partly into a natural cenote and the strongest single thing the resort has, and the grounds: a deer grazing between banyan trunks, an oriole working the palm fronds, a stone-walled cenote sunk among ferns a few minutes from the room. The inland pools are tiled emerald rather than blue and sit under the canopy, cooler and quieter than the beachfront ones. The jungle suites are for nature lovers: very relaxed, very secluded, the kind of quiet you keep while waiting for the monkeys to swing through. They came through once — the wait, it turns out, is part of the amenity.

Emerald mosaic-tiled pool reflecting royal palms, with loungers and umbrellas along the far edge — The inland pools are tiled emerald rather than blue and sit under the canopy – cooler and a good deal quieter than the beachfront ones.

The cost is distance. The hotel says the shuttle takes two or three minutes, and the drive itself is nearer five; door to door, with the wait, the loading and the other guests dropped on the way, it is closer to ten, which is enough to make you quietly give up on the morning yoga class rather than build a day around a van. Zen sits about a mile back from the water, and it is not a walk you would want to make twice a day in that heat.

A deer grazing on a sunlit lawn between banyan trunks, seen across a flagstone path — Real jungle, not a stocked attraction.

Looking down into the cenote from the walkway — The cenote, from the walkway.

And there is a harder problem: the building is older and darker than the other two, and it shows — burned-out bulbs, pictures hanging askew, rooms that want the lights on at midday. Book Zen knowing it is a different product, not the same one seen from further back.

Ambassador is where families live. The pool is the biggest of the three, with a zero-entry children’s section at the back; the kids’ club and the teens’ club are here; the buffet, the Mexican room and the Italian are here. Every suite has an indoor jacuzzi and a wood screen that opens the bathroom to the room, and the ocean-view suites put the doors at the foot of the bed.

Two warnings the brochure will not give you: ground-floor suites give up the view — you walk ten feet out of the room before you can see the sea — and they collect mosquitoes; and the stone hallways carry sound, corridor noise after dinner and lift noise all day. Ask for a higher floor, away from the lift.

Rumpled white bed and marble floor facing glass doors open to palms, lawn and sea — The ocean-view suites put the doors at the foot of the bed. On the ground floor the lawn takes a slice of that view with it.

Grand Class is directly on the sand, with a smaller, more boutique lobby of its own, terrace plunge pools, and the bistro, the French room and Cocina de Autor. Here is the thing to get right before you book, because the hotel has not. It is marketed as adults only, and the booking sites list it as a separate property with “Adults Only” in the name.

Oval whirlpool tub in a travertine bathroom looking through to a bed with red runner — The indoor jacuzzi behind its wood screen.

What the resort commits to in writing is narrower: the Grand Class pool and bar and its three restaurants are age-restricted; the suites are not, and the hotel’s own booking page for the Oceanfront Suite offers it to three adults and a child. So book Grand Class for the pool, the bar and the restaurants, which really are adults only. Do not book it expecting a childless corridor.

White parasols and teak loungers on a stone terrace running to an infinity pool above the sea — The one part of the resort the hotel commits to in writing as adults only. One umbrella per two chairs, and they go early.

The food is excellent for an all-inclusive — a phrase that usually does the same work as “fast, for a tortoise”, and here does not need the escape hatch. You will not find the variety Hotel Xcaret runs, but the best plates here stand level with the best bites there.

Side by side

	Zen Grand	Ambassador	Grand Class
To the beach	Shuttle, about a mile	Overlooks it	On it
Its pool	Jungle; coolest and quietest	Largest; zero-entry children’s section	Infinity; adults only
Its restaurants	Two	Buffet, Mexican, Italian	Bistro, French, and the starred room
Children	Family-friendly, in the hotel’s own words	Where both clubs are	The facilities are adults only; the suites are not
The building	Older and darker; shows it	Sound carries in the stone corridors	Newest feel; smaller lobby
Best for	Nature lovers — quiet, seclusion, the spa	Families and short stays	Honeymoons and anniversaries

The terraced guest block above the pool, palms all round — Ambassador: the terraced block above the pool.

The pool set into the jungle — Zen: the pool set into the jungle.

Which to book, by trip

Take Grand Class for a honeymoon or an anniversary — the ultra-luxury beachfront is what it is for, terrace plunge pool, sand at the door. Take Ambassador with children: both clubs, the big pool and the beach are there, and the zero-entry shallows make it the kid-safe end of the sand; ask for an upper floor away from the lifts. Take Zen Grand for quiet and seclusion, and accept the shuttle as the toll the calm collects.

A hand holding the printed daily weather card, dated 07/03/25, on a white bed — Turndown leaves a printed card with tomorrow’s forecast — the sort of thing that explains the service scores.

Take the season seriously if the beach is the reason you are going. The seaweed peaks in early summer and bottoms out in winter, and the cleanest months are November through February. There is a second beach problem that does not go away in the clear months: the resort keeps its sand wide with a submerged breakwater, which flattens the surf and leaves rock underfoot, and the concrete shapes are not much to look at.

Bring water shoes if you intend to swim rather than look. Book the restaurants before you fly, Cocina de Autor first. Loungers go before breakfast and the chair rules are not enforced. Bring repellent.

Really, though: Hotel Xcaret would likely be the better stay for ninety per cent of guests — more variety, more energy, more to do in a day than this resort offers in a week. The tenth guest, the one who wants a jungle that holds its silence, already knows who they are. The spa here argues its own case either way.

The beach is for energy, the jungle is for peace — and the best of the best is up the road.

Bottom line

Three resorts in one, next door to Mayakoba. The beach side is the classic beach resort — sun, energy, sand at the door. The jungle side is for relaxing in peace until the monkeys come through. And if you want the real best of the best in the region right now, go to Hotel Xcaret — the full review makes the case.

See the full set: Grand Velas, Mayakoba — in frames. More Mayakoba: the Mayakoba set.

The Grand Velas gallery

Every photo on this site is my own, shot on the stay. Slide through →

The pool running out toward the water, the resort behind

Breakfast set out on the table in the suite

A school of snapper over the coral, snorkelling off the beach

Bougainvillea along the terraces of the guest block

The plunge pool and terrace outside the suite

The covered terrace and plunge pool looking out

Canals running between the villa buildings at Banyan Tree Mayakoba

MAYAKOBA, MEXICO · ROOM GUIDE · 5 MIN READ

Banyan Tree Mayakoba: Beachfront or Jungle?

There is a private pool behind the door of any villa you book, so the usual room questions answer themselves. The one that is left — sand or mangrove — turns out to be a question about who is coming with you.

By J.C. Mercer

Verified stay·paid in full

Stayed April 2022
Room booked Oceanfront Pool Villa
How it was booked Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts, public rate
What the channel bought An upgrade to a pool villa.
Value verdict Worth it. The beachfront villa was excellent — built for two on a coast full of rooms built for crowds — and the lagoon is the version of this place nobody else can sell you.
When to go Anytime. Let the season pick the side. Book this stay

Booked the way any other guest would book it.

The two sides

Mayakoba means village over the water, and the name does most of the explaining. Four resorts share a stretch of Riviera Maya coast threaded with man-made canals cut through mangrove, and the whole complex is built around water rather than beside it. Banyan Tree is the one that leaned hardest into the setting. Every accommodation is a villa. Every villa has a private pool. That flattens most of the usual decisions and leaves one that actually matters: sand or jungle.

The footprint splits cleanly. A relatively small number of suites and villas sit directly on the beach. The much larger share sits inland along the lagoon, tucked into mangrove and jungle, connected by paths you ride rather than walk. They are not lesser and greater versions of the same room. They are different holidays that happen to share a spa.

Bed, wood floors and a plunge pool looking out to the Caribbean in a beachfront suite — The beachfront suites put a wall of glass between the bed and the Caribbean.

The beachfront suites are honeymoon suites in all but name: luxury one-bedrooms with a wall of glass between the bed and the Caribbean, a private plunge pool on the deck, and the bed aimed so the sea is the first thing you see. Remote-controlled blinds handle the mornings you would rather not. They are cream of the crop and very tastefully done — restrained where this coast tends to gild.

What the beach side buys is immediacy: coffee on the sand in a dressing gown, the beachfront grill working next door, the pool kept for adults a few steps beyond it, and no logistics between you and the water. What it is not for is children. A room this romantic is wasted on anyone whose main interest in a plunge pool is the cannonball. This side is for honeymoons and for lovers — the jungle will give a family far more back.

Cabanas and loungers around the beachfront pool under palms — The Sands beach club and the beachfront pool, a short walk along the sand.

Inland, the villas sit in the mangrove with the lagoon at the door. The Deluxe Pool Villas are the volume category and the most common room on the property; above them are versions with separate living rooms, Spa Pool Villas with their own massage porch, and the newest category, rooftop pool villas with a private heated infinity pool and a full seating deck upstairs. The setting is the point. It is also where children belong: more room, more to watch, and none of what makes the beachfront suites special is anything a child will notice.

Birds, turtles, coatis, and crocodiles the resort tracks and relocates when they get large; you can kayak the canals past cenote entrances into the underground river, and my guide pointed out a crocodile on the way. He was very calm about it. I have decided he was right to be. From a lagoon villa you are inside the preserve rather than looking at it. The trade is distance: bike, walk or call a buggy to reach the beach, which is trivial on day one and, by day four with a toddler and wet towels, is not.

A small electric boat on the canal beside the villas, lanterns hanging in the trees — The canals are the transport and the attraction. The sunrise side faces this.

Side by side

	Beachfront	Jungle and lagoon
Wake up to	Caribbean, direct	Mangrove, birds, water
Private pool	Yes, a plunge pool on the deck	Yes; some with a rooftop infinity pool
Beach access	Immediate	Bike or buggy, a few minutes
Wildlife	Minimal	Constant
Insects	The sea breeze helps	Repellent in the warm months
Sargassum	You see it from bed	You choose when to see it
Best for	Honeymoons, anniversaries, lovers’ retreats	Children, families, longer stays, repeat visits

Banyan Tree Mayakoba — Beachfront: the sea through the palms.

The obvious assumption is that beachfront sits at the top of the ladder. Here it does not, quite: the newest lagoon category opened above the beachfront suites, and that tells you what the property thinks it is selling. The beach is a Riviera Maya commodity, available at a hundred resorts along this coast. The mangrove is not.

The spa is the reason the Banyan Tree name carries weight in Asia, and the Mayakoba outpost holds up. Treatment cabins sit over the water, large enough that I mistook the first one for a guest villa, and the hydrotherapy pools, steam rooms and treatment range are the strongest single amenity on the property.

Dining runs deep. Saffron is the signature, Thai food served on decks suspended over the lagoon, and it stands with the best Thai kitchens I have eaten in on this side of the Atlantic. Oriente handles all-day dining and a breakfast buffet worth getting up for; Cello covers Italian; the beach club sits on the beachfront pool; Tomahawk does open-fire Latin grill; there is a burger shop and a kosher restaurant besides. The one to book first is HAAB, an open-air Mayan dinner cooked over fire in the jungle, with a Mayan host talking you through it and dancers in traditional body paint. It is the meal I still describe to people months later.

A chef presenting a whole grilled fish on a platter beside the lit pool after dark — Haab is cooked over fire in the jungle and served with a Mayan blessing. Both sides book it.

The villas come with bicycles, and the flat terrain makes them the sensible way to move; golf carts run you to the main building for meals when the evening calls for real shoes. The cart to dinner starts as a courtesy and ends as a lifestyle. Room keys open the restaurants at Rosewood, Fairmont and Andaz next door, which effectively triples the dining options, and El Pueblito, the small village inside the complex, has shops, a chapel and its own cenote. Food and drink are a full-dress resort operation, and the quality holds, which is not always true in this region.

Which to book, by trip

Summer, May to October: a lagoon villa, and that argument alone should decide it. Seaweed washes onto the Caribbean-facing beaches along this coast seasonally, the resort rakes and manages it, and some weeks are fine; but a beachfront villa in August is a room with a view of whatever the tide brought, with no version of the stay where you can look somewhere else. A lagoon villa has a mangrove view that is never affected and a beach you visit on the days it looks good. I went in April and found the beach clear, which is luck rather than planning.

Clear turquoise water and clean white sand on the beach at Mayakoba — A clear week in March. Between May and October the same view can carry sargassum.

A honeymoon, an anniversary, a trip the children sat out: the beachfront suite, and do not overthink it — that is what it is built for. Travelling with children: the jungle side, where the canals and the coatis do half the entertaining and nothing about the room is wasted on them. A longer stay or a return visit: the lagoon, in the volume category unless the private rooftop is truly what you want. Pack repellent regardless of which side you land on; outdoor dining needs it in the warm months and the decks at Saffron are the worst of it. Reserve HAAB and Saffron before arrival. Take the bikes seriously as transport, and the golf carts to dinner. And leave one evening free for a meal at a neighbouring resort, because the room key that opens Rosewood’s restaurants is one of the best things about staying anywhere inside Mayakoba.

Look elsewhere if you want everything within thirty steps. The villa density that gives you privacy also means the gym, the lobby, the spa and the beach are all a ride from each other.

The beach is a Riviera Maya commodity. The mangrove is not.

Bottom line

Sand or mangrove is really lovers or family. The beachfront suites are a honeymoon in room form — plunge pool, grill next door, the adults’ pool beyond it. Children belong on the jungle side, and the mangrove is what the hotel is really selling. HAAB and Saffron either way.

See the full set: Banyan Tree, Mayakoba — in frames. More Mayakoba: the Mayakoba set.