Zoetry Paraiso De La Bonita

Dates: 5/27 - 6/2 Prior resort experience in Mexico: Zoetry Paraiso x2, Secrets Capri x2, Riu Tequila Prior AMResorts experience: Zoetry Agua PC, Breathless Punta Cana x4, Dreams PC x2, Secrets St James MB. Since I had such a great time the first time around, I stayed a whole week last year, and had an even better experience thanks to Victor poolside and Cesar at Kaax, so I came back again this year for round #3. Some changes to note: there is now the Impressions section which is amazing and beautiful but not in my price range. I did get a chance to eat at the Dragons restaurant, which was such a fun and tasty experience. It's Asian fusion cuisine and was excellent. Worth a try if you can get a free seating. I declined the Impressions tour because I don't care to see something I can't afford. Another change is that they are trying to limit smoking on the resort to specific areas. FYI if you're a smoker. See my previous review for most of the details about the resort. I got a room upgrade which doesn't really affect me at all. I don't care if I sleep on a double or king. It was a nice gesture though. I stayed in Fiji, and the AC was reasonable but could've been better. Otherwise the room was perfect. The resort stretches for a while, so I had to walk farther, but it was pleasant, and if I felt lazy, the bellmen are more than happy to drive you to your room in their golf carts. Recent tropical storms made for a dramatic amount of seaweed, much much more than the last two times I came, but I'm a pool guy, so I didn't mind. The smell, pungent indeed, wasn't an issue as I never had my suite windows open. They work at clearing it away but it was hopeless for the time I was there. Miguel the poolside waiter was so fantastic. He had me set up in a good spot every day, kept the drinks coming. He made my week wonderful. The poolside waiters will set up the towels on the loungers for you, set up and adjust umbrellas, and get drinks and food from the bars and restaurants. You never have to leave your lounger except to use the bathroom. The wifi on the far side of the pool isn't the greatest. Cesar at Kaax is still there, and still makes every breakfast feel special. And even though La Canoa is fancier for dinner, I still preferred Kaax for most meals because they had more Mexican flavors. For a change, I ate at El Chiringuito several times. As a solo traveler, their dinner wasn't worthwhile, because most of their menu is for couples. Their lunches were great though, and I recommend the half chicken. This time I finally did the Isla Mujeres boat tour. The boat runs three times a week for free, with drinks included, but keep in mind the Isla Mujeres is NOT close. The ride out there is about 90 minutes, but it's scenic, and they bring a fully stocked cooler. When you get to Isla Mujeres, everything costs money including the amenities at Zoetry Villa Rolandi. I opted to have a cab tour of the island, which was fantastic but there's a lot to see. We had the option of landing at Villa Rolandi or being dropped off on the North Beach, which is crowded but beautiful. Franky and Severino made the trip fast and fun, and I will probably do this again next time. I didn't do the sunset champagne cruise, but it's also included, so maybe next time! The animals are still loud and plentiful, but you stop caring after a day or two, except the peacocks. They clearly prefer staying by the tennis courts, which is where my room was. And I never knew that peacocks made noise, muchless THAT much noise. But I didn't care. It was so cool having peacocks living right outside your door. At least a couple times, one flew up to right outside my door. Special thanks to Erika at Dragons for letting me experience her restaurant. I had such a great time. I want to comment on comparing Zoetry resorts. Paraiso set a very high bar for other Zoetry resorts, and I enjoyed this place so much more than Zoetry Agua Punta Cana. Agua had nicer pools, better beaches, more restaurants, higher food quality, and better rooms, but none of that matters when the service at Paraiso is so much better. It's so amazing to have multiple people on staff know my name and room # so after a day or two, it was like I belonged there. The only criticisms I have are: The decor and room fixtures are getting dated. Need to update soon. The seaweed was a problem this time, but that's really weather dependent. At other AMResorts properties, at this level I typically expect a personal concierge or at least active service from a concierge assigned to me. Still everyone was extremely attentive. Overall, this resort is still king for relaxing and unwinding. If you haven't already figured it out, this is NOT a party resort, but somewhere to unwind and de-stress. I am already pricing out another trip in December. Why would I stay anywhere else?

Best Vacation Ever because of the people We stayed in both the main hotel area and the impressions suites. The main hotel is a bit dated but the suites are large and have ocean views. They are diligently dealing with the seaweed along with ALL the other hotels for at least 2 miles south (that was as far as we could walk.) For part of our stay there were 2 teams of 4 guys, a trailer, a tractor and they worked hard for days to get all the old seaweed cleaned up. They are continuing to work every day to keep the beach as clear as possible. The service on both sides Zoetry/Impressions is phenomenal. We spent our last 2 vacations at excellence and the service there is excellent, we had great vacations, ones I didn???t think could be topped. I was wrong, this was the BEST vacation ever. The people are phenomenal. Thank you Mrs. Ankara, hotel manager, you lead by example and have managed to hire and retain amazing people who are exceptional at what they do. Esteban - manager of Canoa, solved a seating issue for us the first day and continued to make each experience at his restaurant amazing. The head chef at Canoa, Jose Luis, is an ???artista??? who will also cook you off menu food if you have other culinary preferences. Every other guests leaves reviews on the food so you go expecting it to be good. It???s even better!!! Amazing food amazing presentation. Every waiter we got at every restaurant was wonderful a few of note at Canoa: Abraham made dinners fun and laughed with us, Jeremiahs make our first night and last night wonderful and Manny the bartender made my list of drinks from liquor.com. The mariachi singers are great. They have been together 27 years and if you want a special treat ask them to sing their favorite song. We got their top 2 favorites one night and it was beautiful. (Sorry I didn???t get the mariachi singers names or the name of the greeter who remembered our name as we walked in the door each evening.) The experiences with all the staff were amazing from the greeter and luggage carrier, Enrique, (I had to ask his name 3 times but I finally got it) who remembered our name on the first night and every other time we saw him. Caesar the manager of Kaxx who greeted us by name every time we saw him and walked all the way to other bar to get me a bottle of water. He showed kindness when it wasn???t required. I think it was Elias the ???boss??? at El chiringuito who moved a table and set up an umbrella for us on our first day so we could eat lunch looking at the ocean. It was just one more instance of staff going out of their way when they didn???t have to to be kind and generous. Gabriel our wonderful waiter at Kaxx asked the chef to make Tiramisu for us, off menu. Many thanks to Paul Grande the chef who made amazing Tiramisu for us. We moved over to the impressions building after the Tiramisu was requested and forgot to request it for lunch the next day when we ate at Kaxx and it was brought over the impressions restaurant Dragon, without our asking, and they had it ready for us the next night. Talk about impressive!!! Amazing organization and service!!! Andres was a fun beach waiter, we also ran into him as a staff member in Impressions. This very sweet and efficient man brought us chips and dip on the beach without being asked, he went out of his way to make sure our club soda???s stayed full and was the perfect mix of helpful and unobtrusive. It???s a hard line to walk and he was excellent and exceptional and remembered our names throughout our stay. Yuliana at the spa gave me the best 80 min massage of my life, then did my hair like a pro. I highly recommend the welcome the Welcome to Zoetry spa package. Thank you Abel, the very informed and helpful concierge for helping with the leisure cash and reservations. Monica was also a very helpful concierge who helped our stay go seamlessly. We had the most amazing experience at Impressions. The Zoetry is exceptional even if the furniture is dated and we wondered how it could possibly be any better. It was! The food: Oh my goodness! Chef Angel at the red kitchen where we ate lunch every day (if you do this lunch is amazing!). Angel made delicious, amazing, healthy, fresh and gorgeous meals for us, right in front of us. He also prepped the best mole sauce we have ever had for a chili relleno special request. Mole is his favorite dish. I don???t even like mole but his mole was amazing. I wanted to take Angel home with us. He taught us how to cook the best tempura shrimp we have every had. He didn???t have to and was willing to go the extra mile for us. Thank you to Carlos our butler for helping to set that up. Having a kitchen with a chef just waiting to make you amazing meals from breakfast to 3 pm is such a fun concept. Many thanks to the floating wait staff of the red kitchen and the outside cabanas Luis, Rigo and Antonio. Chef Daniel Pacheco at Dragon I don???t think there are words sufficient to describe his level of artistry. Amazing food and he does incredible French if you stay long enough to try all the items at Dragon and want to try something else incredible. Erika the restaurant manager at Dragon is indescribably kind and thoughtful and good at her job. She went out of her way to make our stay special and make us feel pampered. Erika, Carlos and chef Pacheco arranged a special meal and dessert experience for us on our last day that almost made me cry along with a special dessert made by Rodolfo the pastry chef. The comfortable chairs, the flowers at our table, the candles. Our whole experience with Dragon was exceptional and Erika is an amazing manager to put all the pieces together and make a wonderful experience. Baldemar was our ???asumbroso??? waiter at Dragon. He taught us (at our request) one new spanish word a night and put a lot of thought into picking great words. He was so professional and fun at the same time and really managed to walk that line with apparent ease. Rutinof (Russo) does amazing flaming desserts. Have him make you a mexican coffee if you want to experience something truly amazing (with a lot of alcohol). I felt bad I maxed out after only a few sips. It was tasty. The banana flamb?? is a must have even if you don???t love banana. Francisco is the bartender at Dragon. He was AMAZING!!! I handed him my phone with all the recipes and I???m pretty sure he improved them. Such great drinks. Do try the lemon pie cocktail. Unsung hero. If you are like us and you???re wondering does Butler service really make that much of a difference? Yes, yes it does!!! At least is does at Impressions. We had butler service in the past that was fine. Oh my Goodness Carlo Arcero!!! I had about 100 things that he helped us with over the 7 nights we stayed at Impressions. He was so gracious and efficient, kind and helpful, organized and awesome! All of our concerns were addressed as fast as possible. He organized and arranged special cooking lessons, food, dinner reservations, spa reservations, decorating our room with rose petals and candles. Our balcony pool needed some attention and he had a guy there in 10 min. Everything was done with such a great attitude. He resolved an air conditioning issue in a way that was such an amazing blessing for us. ???We are here to pamper you??? and ???its a pleasure??? were things we heard often. We definitely felt pampered. Edgar was the other butler that we had the most contact with. He arranged for breakfast to be delivered to our room at a specific time with a specific menu (that I changed each day) and set up quietly on our balcony without waking us up each morning. He was quietly efficient with my requests and SO helpful and asking if there was anything that could make our stay more wonderful and then doing so. Many thanks to Raphael the head butler who leads by example and has not only taught these men but chosen exceptional people to staff the amazing 9 suite Impressions. We had less contact with Raphael than with Carlos or Edgar but he was amazing to deal with and so efficient and professional. All of the butlers are amazing. We had the most contact with Carlos who is so personable and very disciplined and able to manage so many moving pieces. The night we moved into Impressions there was a huge wedding taking place and we were happy to take backseat to that and Carlos took the time to help us get settled and help us with details even though there was a lot else going on. The thing that made Zoetry/Impressions the best vacation we have ever had was not the hotel itself, it was the people. Everyone we came across after check in without exception was kind and gracious and went out of their way helpful when they didn???t have to be. The people of Zoetry/Impressions make this resort the best overall experience and best vacation ever. People of note at Zoetry Carlos Arcero - butler Edgar - butler Raphael - head butler Esteban - manager of Canoa Abraham - waiter Canoa Andres - beach and bar waiter Angel - chef Red kitchen Erika - manager Dragon Mrs. Ankara - general manager Enrique - greeter/porter Abel - concierge?? Monica - concierge Manny - bartender Gabriel - waiter at Kaxx Caesar - manager of Kaxx Jeremiah???s - Canoa waiter from first night Daniel Pacheco - chef from Dragon Baldemar - Asembroso Dragons Waiter?? Paul Grande - Tiramisu Chef?? Antonio - waiter Red kitchen?? Rutinof- ( Russo) waiter Dragons Julianna Yuliana - spa?? Luis- waiter at Red kitchen/beach Jose luis - Canoa restaurant chef Rigo- beach waiter impressions?? Elias - El chiringuito manager Rodolfo- pastry chef?? Francisco - Bartender at Dragon - Hostess at Canoa