Vidanta Riviera Maya: Experience the Mayan Riviera in Luxury

The vacation of your dream awaits you at Vidanta Riviera Maya. Located on the Mayan Riviera about 40 minutes from the Cancun airport, Vidanta is situated on over 1,000 pristine acres consisting of lush jungle, gorgeous Mayan architecture, pools, lakes, beachfront and hidden surprises like flamingos and crocodiles.  More on those later!

I cannot recommend this resort enough for the family trip of your dreams.  You will be pampered.  You will relax.  You will swim in gorgeous pools, eat incredible cuisine and sleep like a baby in your gorgeous room.

The Pools

The grounds and pools of Vidanta Riviera Maya are absolutely stunning and perfectly manicured at all times. Our favorite part of the resort is the Beach Club, a stunning beachfront cabana-based club with gorgeous pools.

But honestly all of the pools are architecturally stunning, featuring bright blue water, tons of seating, cabanas, full food and drink service, sunscreen, water and activities for both kids and adults

The Beach Club

The entrance to the beach club greets you with a full bar, stunning infinity pools overlooking a picturesque beach filled with palapas, seating areas, tide pools and gentle surf.

The Beach Club is made up of cabanas situated around scattered infinity pools, giving you a private area to relax, eat and sun bathe with your family, with private entrances to each pool.  It’s a completely unique take on a swimming pool, since there are several pools most of which have only private access.   That means you mostly get to enjoy a pool to yourself.

Of course if you want to make friends you can, but I love the privacy and relaxed element of the beach club.

There’s also a giant chess set, which was so fun for my son who is learning how to play in kindergarten.

The Grand Mayan Pool overlooks a man-made lake, with a mesmerizing infinity’s pool.  A beach play areas loops around the pool with sand toys for the kids to play next to a graduated entrance to the pool.

This pool is perfect for the entire family, with activities like giant Jenga, Connect 4, Pinterest Pong, and the Joy Squad. Throughout the day, the Joy Squad hosts activities like obstacle hunts, cupcake making and other fun interactive experiences.  Some are designed for adults and some are just for kids (more on that later!).

The Main Pool

Overlooking the beach is a huge, sprawling pool that curves around to feature tons of private seating areas and unique features like a Dragon Snake coming out of the water.

This pool is the most happening of all pools, with tons of people-watching, activities and of course, crystal blue water.

The Beach

Vidanta Riviera Maya is situated right on the beach with soft, white-sand beaches.  Many resorts in Riviera Maya and Cancun have rocky beaches that are not particularly kid or swim-friendly, but not at Vidanta.

The entire beachfront is lined with various types of palapa, hammocks, seating areas, and places to play in the sand.

When the tide goes out, there are tide pools located right in front of the Beach Club.  My kids loved the tide pools and got to see crabs, sea snails and a few other sea creatures.

The Rooms

The resort has 5 different hotels for you to choose from with diverse architecture and offerings, ranging from the most opulent to the more typical hotel room.  The Grand Luxxe is the most opulent, and then there is The Grand Bliss, The Grand Mayan, The Bliss and Mayan Palace.  Each hotel is luxurious and features incredible amenities for an amazing vacation.

We stayed at the Grand Luxxe, featuring incredible ultra-luxurious suites that will absolutely blow you away.  Every detail is perfect, from the living room windows which open fully to the oversized patio featuring a plunge pool, multiple seating areas and outdoor dining space.

The bedroom features an ultra-comfortable king-size bed, flat screen tv with apple tv so you can watch Netflix, Hulu, etc, a desk, sitting area and wall of windows with a gorgeous view.

Each bathroom features an oversize stand-alone jacuzzi tub, huge shower featuring a rain shower head, large walk in closet, L’Occitane products and delicious-smelling aromatherapy bath products.

The gourmet kitchen features top of the line appliances, a large fridge, plates, utensils, cups, all cooking supplies and a walk-in pantry with a full washer and dryer.

The room is so incredible that we never wanted to leave.  We could live happily in this suite forever!

The Food

Earlier this year, I traveled to a resort in Mexico and I kid you not, there was NO MEXICAN FOOD at this resort.  Everything was “American food.”  I don’t know about you, but I look forward to the food on my trips as much as relaxing and laying by the pool.

Call me a foodie, or a food lover, but food is very important to my vacations! And the food at Vidanta Riviera Maya is next level incredible!

The Beach House Food

The food at the beach house ranges from fresh fish, ceviche, steak tacos and loaded nachos.  The portion sizes are large and the food is fresh, incredibly flavorful and delicious!

A fresh fruit salad with lime and chiles

Grilled shrimp with lots of garlic

Fresh whitefish ceviche. I could eat this every day of my life!

Our lunch food spread at Vidanta Rivier Maya Beach Pool

Blue Fish Restaurant

Located by the Grand Mayan Pools, Blue Fish restaurant is a gorgeous, high-ceiling palace of a restaurant featuring lots of fresh fish.  It’s a gorgeous ambiance, and the food is delicious.

Hidden Gems at Vidanta

Vidanta Rivieria Maya is situated on such a large property, and there are hidden gems around every corner.  A wooden walkway stretches across the property called a Palafita, which you can use to walk everywhere.  Or you can take shuttle carts or golf carts around the resort.

A few of my favorite hidden gems are Flamingos near the Grand Mayan pools and crocodiles!  Plus you will see lots of animals around the resort including iguanas, lizards, tropical birds and more.  My kids loved seeing all of the animals!

Kid’s Activities

There are activities for kids at most of the pools, from singing, giant Jenga, ping pong, bags (cornhole), pinatas, movie watching, scavenger hunts and more!

Harper, Grayson, my mom and I all joined in a cupcake decorating class as part of the kid’s Joy Squad.

First, we started out with a demo on how to decorate using various techniques.  Then it was our turn to start decorating.  We frosted the cupcakes, decorated using tons of ingredients, and then we ate them.  And they were divine!

Harper putting an M and M on her nose after cupcake decorating

The Spa

Joya, the only Cirque du Soleil in Mexico

Home to the only Cirque du Soleil show in Mexico, Vidanta created a location for Joya on a vast backdrop of jungle, looping wooden walkways, and lakes and streams for the theater.  It’s situated behind the property, tucked away into the jungle, which I loved.

The show incorporates Mexican history and tradition, and features the only dinner and show in the Cirque du Soleil family.  More on Joya in an upcoming blog post.

Visit Vidanta Riviera Maya!

I can’t recommend Vidanta Riviera Maya enough.  The employees are sweet, friendly, kind, thoughtful (one server who could barely speak English checked in on my order to ensure it was gluten free.  When it was not, he refrained from ordering one dish and came back to me with other recommendations).

Everything about the resort is top-of-the-line, ensuring the vacation of your dreams!