Barcelo Maya Caribe vs Barcelo Maya Beach

Two hotels, one complex, one set of pools

Barcelo Maya Caribe and Barcelo Maya Beach are two of the four hotels in the Barcelo Maya Grand Resort, at the same Km 266.3 address, both 48 miles from Cancun International.

Both publish eight swimming pools, described the same way: semi-Olympic, adult and wading pools for children. That is the complex’s water, shared.

Where Caribe publishes more

Water parks. Caribe names Barcy Water Park and Pirates Island, and states that Pirates Island carries an additional charge. Maya Beach’s page does not mention a water park at all.

Swim-up rooms. Caribe publishes Premium Level Swim-Up Junior Suite and Premium Level Swim-Up Suite. Maya Beach publishes Superior, Family, and two Premium Level oceanfront grades — no swim-up.

A second airport. Caribe publishes 52.5 miles from the new Tulum International as well as 48 from Cancun. Maya Beach publishes only the Cancun figure, and gives it as 48 miles in one place and 49 in another.

Where Maya Beach publishes more

Restaurants by name — Beach Buffet, México Lindo and Rancho Grande — and the 32,000 square foot U-Spa figure.

That is a thin edge. On published evidence Caribe is the better-documented hotel of the two.

The thing neither publishes

A room count. Not one of the four hotels in this complex publishes how many rooms it has, which on a site of this scale is the number a reader most wants.

Choose Barcelo Maya Caribe if

You want a swim-up suite, or you want the water parks named and the charged one identified before you arrive.

Choose Barcelo Maya Beach if

Neither of those matters and you prefer its room grades. Access to all four hotels is included either way, which is what makes this a narrow choice.

Where the evidence cannot separate them

Room counts, bar counts and Barcy Club age ranges are unpublished at both. Both publish a spa minimum age of 18 and no minimum age for the hotel. Neither publishes a mandatory fee schedule.