I'll preface my review by saying it seems there are is a lot of doubters when someone posts a negative review about the Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar. I myself doubted the couple negative food reviews I read thinking, "maybe these people are just really picky". Now that we have been, I'm surprised there are not more negative reviews.

Having been to the Grand Palladium for our honeymoon in 2005, we had a good basis for comparison, as these two resorts are close in price. We stayed at the Del Mar from July 5-July 12, 2008. The only category in which the Del Mar came close to the Palladium was the entertainment. The Star Friends are very friendly, lots of fun, and have lots of great activities. The property itself was also very nice, probably pretty close in beauty to the Palladium. That's about where it ends. All of the other pluses of our trip came from our excursions, which we didn't do through the hotel. Our last 3 a la carte dinners were pretty good, nothing spectacular, and they were the Japanese, Brazilian, and Steakhouse. It was our very first a la carte where the trouble arose...

We set up our first a la carte at the Mediterranean for the second night. We only got as far as the salad, which we got ourselves at the appetizer buffet. My wife and I both got about halfway through our salads when she drops her fork and spits out the lettuce in her mouth. She did this because she noticed there were tiny red bugs all over her salad, most of them still alive and crawling. Looked at my salad, sure enough, I've been eating bugs too. They were all over it. We call our waiter, show it to him, and he says "let me take it to the back so they can look at it. He goes into the kitchen, and 5 minutes later comes back. "I'm sorry, they didn't check the lettuce, we have new lettuce now if you would to get more." My wife was watching the salad bar the whole time, they never changed the lettuce. At that point we got up and left, and went to stand in line at guest services, where Iris noticed us and said "Didn't you two have a reservation?" I explained that we did, but left because we found bugs in our salad. At that point we were taken into the guest services office, where another gentleman had us fill out an incident report. At that point, the only thing we were offered was an extra a la carte night, which really isn't a big deal, seeing as how you can call and see if there are cancellations and get an extra a la carte dinner yourself. We've never had Montezuma's revenge in Mexico before, so I find it no coincidence that the sickness that followed the next several days must have been caused by the bug-covered lettuce that "hadn't been checked". 4 Immodium by lunchtime the next day just to extend the time between bathroom trips from 5 minutes to an hour. We were so sick the following day, we had to get up and leave our scheduled Mexican a la carte that night before the food even came because we were both very tired and dehydrated. Went to bed @ 7:30pm without having eaten dinner. Not something I planned on doing on my vacation. I wasn't expecting them to pay for the whole trip or anything, but I don't feel that a free a la carte even comes close to making such a horrible experience better. As stated in several other reviews of the Del Mar, the food is pretty much sub-par across the board. There were many times we went for the pizza, mozzarella sticks, or ordered chicken nuggets from room service because we just could not find anything we liked. My wife is diabetic, so she normally drinks diet Coke. i lost count count of how many times the diet Coke was out at the buffet fountains, with no signs of being refilled. At the beach bar I was told that they "just didn't have any more". I normally went for the Sprite, which was also frequently out, but you don't don't notice that till you take a big gulp of soda water. Yum. We didn't have any of these problems when we stayed at the Grand Palladium. The only way we would go back to the Del Mar is if it were completely paid for. I would not recommend this resort to anyone. In fact, once I submit this review, I'm sending an email to the customer relations people for the resort to see what they think about our complaints, I'm hoping for a little more resolution, because we feel like we wasted our money on this trip as it stands now. From my wife and I, the Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar gets 4 thumbs down.

I will start off by saying that this is my second stay at this resort. The Properties are beautiful and the staff are wonderful . We we even given a free Ocean Front Upgrade.

I was excited this being the second time coming to this resort, but i was disappointed by a few things. The rooms are starting to show their age. And the food was aweful. I am not a complainer, but the food selection has gone downhill. Lots of flies and not fresh food on the buffet. Even got a touch of Food Illness my last day there. I think it was from Eating at the beach bar.....
We lived off of fries and pizzas frm room service.

Also, we went for 4th of July weekend, I would not reccomend that based on the heat and humidity. With the property so vast and having to walk a bit, you can work up quite a sweat just giong to dinner. My first trip was in November and the Weather was much nicer!

I had a great trip overall, I love the pool and the beautiful ocean property. It was a great chance to read a book or listen to an iPod. I had a great time but will book a newer hotel next time with more Air Conditioned common areas as well as indoor restraunts.

My family and I stayed at th Del-Mar in June and had a great time. We stayed at the Quetzal last time(two years ago) and find both with different features. The Del-Mar is bigger but more to do. The Quezal is smaller and more intimate. I e-mailed the Del Mar before we left and got a room in the middle of the resort (building 15) and found it not to far to the pool and also not to far to the lobby. Good location. However they do have a tram in case you do not want to walk. The pool was wonderful and the beach was pretty good. The food was ok not 5 star but we could always fine something to eat. The steak house was good and so was the Japaneese.Top shelf alcohol was only in the lobby this time, maybe it is new policy, not sure. The crepes and taco's in the mall are a must do. The star friends were great as usual and work real hard. Don't know how they do all that they do all day!Over all a great relaxing time and would recommend this hotel.

Beautiful resort, we were there in 2001 and decided to take our family of ten back again. The grounds and beach area are as beautiful as ever. A lot of improvements on the beach, more activities. Star friends were super and frendly. T he entertainment was great with audience participatation. We notified iberostar before arriving and requested accommadations for the family to be housed in one building and all was granted. Rooms were kept very clean and timely. The only draw back was the food; it
was not as good this time as in 2001. The specialty resturants were not good and the service was slow. This was also noted by other guests. Drinks were made very strong some of which you could not drink. T he only place we got a good drink was at the lobby bar and some of the bar tenders at the beach. I really don't think I would return for a third time