Hotel Maya Caribe Faranda

What we liked most was the location. The ferry dock is within 50 yards, the ocean view is beautiful, and a public bus just outside the resort goes downtown for one US dollar. One afternoon we walked all the way to where Coco Bongo is, about 45 minutes. Neither my girlfriend nor I felt unsafe, and we enjoyed our stay for what we paid. I'd come back if the price were right. I'm describing what we saw, not saying we didn't enjoy it. It's an older, somewhat rundown resort. The buildings look like they haven't been painted since the early 2000s. For us it worked as a budget option, under $400 per person for a 5-day trip, since we mostly used it to lie in the sun. The buffet included a nice variety, though there was no high-end liquor. This isn't a fancy place. Finding a lounge chair by the pool or beach was hard on many days. There were so few that people put towels on the courtyard grass or lay directly on the sand. That was my girlfriend's biggest complaint, since she wanted a chair to enjoy the sun without sitting on the grass. Noise could also be an issue. The nearby RIU has a generator that makes a lot of noise, so I hope you don't get a room close to it. Weddings take place in a courtyard, and people in rooms facing it said they couldn't sleep because the weddings were so loud. Our room was on the generator side, but after two days we got used to the rumble.

The views and scenery are lovely, but the reception manager's unpleasant manner really took away from them. The customer service overall was poor. One bartender near the burger area was a real exception: he was exceptionally polite and went out of his way to help. He deserved an award, and the others could learn from him. The rooms are dated and badly need renovating, while the food menu didn't change during our stay. I'd be wary of choosing all-inclusive. For me, this was around a 2.5 or 3-star place.

Apart from the location, this was the biggest tourist trap I've ever encountered. The place is falling apart, the restaurants are terrible, and somehow the drinks are even worse. The payment system is completely Kafkaesque. Instead of “location, location, location,” I'd say “avoid, avoid, avoid.”

This was awful from arrival to departure. They know the photos don't match what you actually get, and when you go back asking for something more comfortable, that's when the scam starts. It all felt set up to rip off guests. I paid for a 5-star hotel but would rate it -1. The food and entertainment were poorly organized too. The pictures need to come down because they don't show reality. To me, this is consumer theft, and the place belongs in the motel category.