HM Review: Valentin Imperial Maya
Review with pics can be found on Trip Advisor
My husband and I stayed at the Valentin Imperial Maya from January 3rd – January 10th for our Honeymoon. We arrived at about 5pm and were greeted immediately with an offer of champagne and we were taken directly to the beautiful front desk area to check in. Check in was quick and easy. They did ask for a credit card for incidentals – they say they need to put a $400(usd) hold on your card, that seemed a bit steep to me, but we went with it. Just make sure they remove the hold at check out.
After the quick check-in process, we got into a vehicle that drove us straight to our room. The driver pointed out key points of interest (pool, activity center, etc.) on the way to our building. I thought that was nice. They carried our luggage in and showed us to our room, also pointing out a few of the rooms features (safe location, security measures) once inside.
We stayed in room 5219 (Building 5, 2nd Floor), which is the basic room - a Golden Junior Suite. In my opinion, this room is in a perfect location. It is located at the far end of the 2nd floor, allowing for a small ocean view (over the tree tops) from the balcony. If you’re looking for a real ocean view, book a 3rd floor room or a 2nd floor ocean front suite (Emerald Suite). Building 5 is very close to both the pool and the beach, although a little far from the lobby and entertainment.
The room and bathroom are a good size for a basic room. AC works great, but it is on a motion sensor – so if you leave the room or leave a door open, it will shut off. Very nice layout and décor. The bed was very soft and comfortable. I only had a few VERY minor annoyances:
1. The location of the smoke detector. It is positioned directly over the head of the bed. It has 2 small green lights on it that flash brightly every 5 seconds. When it’s pitch black in the room it can be rather annoying, especially if you’re a light sleeper like I am. My husband wasn’t bothered by it.
2. You have to reset the clock every single time you come back to the room. I’m not sure what the exact reason for this is, but the power seems to reset itself after you leave the room.
3. There are far too many light switches for such a small space! 18 counting the lamps, to be exact. You probably think I’m a bit crazy for being annoyed by this, but after 7 days I was still messing up which switch did what.
The food at this resort was far better than I expected from an all inclusive resort. I’ll break down what we tried.
Breakfast
Le Marche: We ate here every morning. It’s buffet style and everything is very good. All the fresh fruit you can imagine. They have a made-to-order egg and omelet station, which I did not personally try, but it was always crowded so I’m assuming it must have been good. The french toast, sweet rolls and diced potatoes were some of my favorites. My husband enjoyed the cold cereal selection – which included Corn Pops and Frosted Flakes, among others.
Lunch
There are 2 buffet areas for lunch. Le Marche and Mar y Tierra, both of which also serve breakfast. Mar y Tierra also splits into 2 sections at night to make the Steak and Seafood restaurants. We weren’t too impressed with the lunch, so we usually just filled up at breakfast and dinner.
Dinner – we didn’t try all the restaurants, but the ones we did try were very good.
Tierra (Steakhouse) – this was by far our favorite place, we ate there 3 times! The Ribeye and BBQ Ribs were all delicious. The baked potato was very good as well. Every waiter we had here was great.
Lobster Pot – we went here just to try it. We both ordered the Surf and Turf, the Filet Mignon was very tasty, but the lobster wasn’t very good. I also had the Clam Chowder, it was flavorful, but there wasn’t very many clam bits in it.
Il Olivo (Italian) – I had the chicken and my husband had the lasagna bolognese. My chicken was just ok, and he said the lasagna was very cheesey with little meat. Overhearing other guests on the resort, the Italian restaurant didn’t have very many fans.
Le’ Alsace (French) – We ate here twice and enjoyed it both times. The Chateaubriand was very good, as was the onion soup. The desserts were excellent! Samuel was our waiter here and he is a very fun guy, he definitely will make your dining experience enjoyable!
The staff was wonderful, all very friendly. We did tip at most meals if we received good service and good food. Tipping is not necessary, but the employees really do appreciate it and they definitely remember you if you tip. There are no reservations and we only had to wait once at dinner the whole week we were there, otherwise we sat immediately.
The pool was very nice, but also very cold. I didn’t see very many people swimming in it while we were there. Poolside drink service was fantastic, fast service and consistent drinks. We never had a problem finding chairs no matter what time of day. People do play the towel game, but we didn’t see it to be necessary.
The beach was great! Again, we never had problems finding chairs. There is a roped off swimming area to the far left – this area has a smooth entrance into the water. If you choose to swim outside the roped area, it looked to be more of a rocky entrance. There were red and yellow flags the whole time we were there, but we still went in the water a few times. The ocean was very warm and we had a lot of fun jumping the waves. Drink service is slower on the beach, you are best going to the beach bar for your own drinks. We did notice some large glass shards in the sand, so be on a lookout for that.
A few other things:
1. The resort is very large and spread out. If you are unable to walk far distances, this may not be the place for you. I enjoyed the long walks though because everything is so beautiful to look at. They do offer shuttle service if you call the front desk, I did notice a few guests utilizing that.
2. The paths are not very well lit. We did bring a flashlight and used it the first 2 nights we were there. After that we had the routes figured out and didn’t need it anymore.
3. The paths are not heel friendly. They are rather uneven and the wooden walkways have some large gaps that heels can get wedged in. Either keep your eyes on the ground or wear wedges or flats, ladies. No one wants a sprained ankle on vacation!
4. On the warmer nights, wear bug spray. I forgot one night and ended up with a few bites.
We would go back to the Valentin in a heartbeat. It’s a beautiful place and has wonderful employees. We were definitely not disappointed!