Panama Jack Resorts Gran Porto

We have stayed at this resort many, many times over the years and through different branding (formerly Gran Puerto Real and Panama Jack). The amazing thing about this lovely resort is that so many of the staff have been there since before we started visiting around 2009. Why would we stay anywhere else in Playa when we are greeted (and treated) like family? The hotel was quite full around American Thanksgiving and there were several weddings going on. Our preferred room is an Oceanfront King (under former branding these rooms had a "family jr. suite" designation and included either a king, or 2 queens, and a bunkbed but with the move to all-adult, they're now all kings, as far as I know). Our assigned room on the top level had a teensy balconey with no roof. Francisco was sympathetic to our need for a bit of shade for our pale Canadian complexions and upgraded us to a lovely suite with 2 balconies, the larger of which was covered. The sea was free of sargassum and many hotel guests enjoyed wading in the clear water at the pier end of the hotel. There's lots of sandy beach and lounge chairs to enjoy with a hotel bar nearby under a palapa for those that are not into the pool area. The food was great, the bed comfortable and the a/c worked flawlessly despite outside temps around 30 degrees celsius and a humidex around 35. Many of the rooms, including ours, have had new PVC sliding doors and windows installed which has cut down outside sounds (surf, pool music, etc.) It's good to see the owners spending money to maintain this iconic Mexican resort and we look forward to visiting our home away from home again in April.

My wife and I enjoyed our week-long stay at the Wyndham Alltra Playa del Carmen. We had a nice, large, clean room; the staff was generally quite pleasant and efficient; and we enjoyed the resort's easy-walking proximity to Fifth Avenue, the local Wal-Mart and plenty of shops and restaurants in-between. The resort itself was full of inconsistencies but, thankfully, none of them was a deal-breaker. For example: Service was mostly good but sometimes not; the food was mostly good but sometimes not; and the waiters in the restaurants were mostly familiar with the menus but sometimes not. We were puzzled by the lack of access to drinkable water - a dispenser in the snack area to allow us to refill our own water bottles would have made a LOT of sense - but at least it was available upon request. Overall, we felt we easily got our money's worth. The strong points: Location; overall service and staff-friendliness; general upkeep; availability of meals, snacks and beverages; overall food quality. The weak points: Small beach areas; limited access to drinkable water; excessive use of single-use plastics (such as water bottles and snack containers).