A picture paints a thousand words,  so photos first, reviews later.  Back to Mexican Resorts.

Generations Riviera Maya:  Generations Riviera Maya is a new resort built right next to El Dorado Casitas Royale.  It is also a part of the Karisma Chain, but offers an upscale option for friends and families with children.  This family-friendly beachfront all-suite, all-butler resort is located about thirty minutes south of Cancun International Airport.  Playa del Carmen sits about twenty-five minutes further south of the resort as well, so day trips to either Cancun or Playa are easily done.  We have not stayed at this particular property, only one of its sister properties, but we did spend quite a bit of time visiting and photographing the resort.

Size: Generations Riviera Maya offers 144 family suites .

Star Level: In terms of service and the overall property, we would rate this resort 4 Stars.  The staff was friendly and accommodating whenever we interacted with them, however, since we did not stay overnight, this rating is based alone on the several hours we spent exploring the resort on a formal site inspection as well as a little time on our own.  If you visit this resort with your family, please let me know what you think.

Category: This resort is fun and active.  The major selling points of the resort are it’s huge pools (see photos below) as well as the very unique addition of swim up suites on the first, second, and third floors!  Ingenious, really.  Just be careful to watch your children.  They have also built their restaurants one on top of the other, in order to allow all restaurants to have fabulous beach views.  It’s stunning, really, and I wonder why no one ever thought to do this before.  What a fantastic idea.

Beach: This resort sits on the same long, sandy beach as it’s neighbors at El Dorado Royale and El Dorado Casitas Royale.  Just like those resorts, the beach here is not powdery soft white sand and can be a little rocky in some places, but it’s still quite lovely.  As other beaches in the area, there are sandbags and concrete pylons in the water.  While they might not look too attractive, they’re really important in preserving the beaches and sea life in these areas from erosion.  It’s encouraging to see the efforts being made here.

Rooms:  The rooms at the all-suite, all-butler Generations Riviera Maya are absolutely lovely.  They are spacious, comfortable suites tastefully decorated and offer choices from a basic suite all the way up to a three-bedroom jacuzzi suite with infinity pool.  It’s a great choice for family reunions.  With just a few exceptions, most of the suites have ocean views.  The ones I would stay away from are the ones closest to the block of restaurants, as they face the restaurant doors on each level versus the ocean.  I would NOT want to be in one of those, no matter how nice.   We truly loved the unique connected swim up pools on floors one, two, and three.  Guests are able to relax in their own space but join their friends and family in the pools just outside their rooms.  Make sure to view the photos above, as the photos should give you a much better idea of what this looks like.  Additionally, the resort offers many child-friendly items like strollers, play pens, cribs, and even baby food!  Yes, it’s a very family-friendly resort.

Activities:  Aside from the beach and pool activities available at this resort, if you are over 18 years old, you are also allowed access to the adults-only El Dorado Royale and Casitas Royale next door!  This applies to dining, activities, and entertainment (see nightlife).  There is also an Eko Kids’ Club for those ages 4-12.  See photos above to get a good idea of what they offer.  And of course, there are babysitting services, if mom and dad want to spend a little time alone.

Nightlife: There is nightlife at the resorts, with music, shows, entertainers, etc.  We typically enjoy quiet nights, so we have not spent a lot of time enjoying the active nightlife.  That said, it is possible to have quiet, intimate evenings, if that’s what you prefer.  You could also catch a taxi (or colectivo) to nearby Playa del Carmen or Cancun for the evening, exploring the many dining and entertainment choices of either.  It would be a shame to come all this way and not get to experience a little of the culture around you.

Dining: As I mentioned elsewhere, the Karisma Resort chain touts its “Gourmet All-Inclusive” theme.  Additionally, in 2009, El Dorado Royale celebrated the first harvest of their very own Greenhouse, the first ever in their region. Their 70,000 square foot Greenhouse now produces organic herbs and vegetables not only for their resort, but for all of the Karisma and Azul properties in the area. And if there is leftover produce, they sell it to their employees for pennies on the dollar. We think it’s an excellent concept and we hope it catches on in the area.

Generations Riviera Maya benefits from the Greenhouse, and you can count on dining experiences made with fresh ingredients.  Unfortunately, most of the main dining rooms were closed during the lunch hour, so we were not able to sample the restaurants at this resort.   What I can tell you is that the ambiance and cleanliness of the restaurants was fantastic, and hopefully one day, we’ll have an opportunity to dine here.

Service: It’s too difficult to comment on the service at this resort, as we did not encounter too many staff members on our visit.

Overall: This property is truly unique.  As mentioned above, the pools (both the main pools as well as the walk out pools) were pristine and offered tons of fun.  Having the dining venues look out onto the gorgeous Caribbean Sea was another brilliant idea that made us fall in love with this resort, however, we would have to stay overnight to give it a full review.  If you end up staying at this resort, please drop us a line and let us know your real thoughts.  Thanks.