A few months ago, Ryan and I enjoyed a wonderful first anniversary trip to Riviera Maya, Mexico. It was both of our first times visiting Mexico, and what truly made our trip so great is that the all-inclusive resort we stayed at truly exceeded all of our expectations! I'm excited to share a full review of TRS Yucatan (an adults-only all-inclusive resort) with you today.
It's also important to note that our lodging at TRS Yucatan was completely free thanks to credit card points! Check out THIS blog post for all of the information on how I was able to earn points and miles and successfully redeem them for a free vacation.
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TRS Yucatan is the adults-only part of a mega-resort complex in the heart of Riviera Maya, Mexico. TRS resorts are part of Palladium Hotels, which is a hospitality group that mainly has resort properties in tropical locations and a handful of European countries. The TRS locations in Mexico and the Dominican Republic are always paired alongside their Grand Palladium family all-inclusive resorts, turning the general area into one mega-resort complex. TRS guests are able to use all of the restaurants, pools and other facilities at the neighboring Grand Palladium resorts, but Grand Palladium guests cannot come over to the TRS side- keeping the TRS portion of the mega-resort a bit quieter (both because there aren't kids on the TRS side, and just less people in general!). Ryan and I really liked the sound of this. Staying at an adults-only resort sounded a lot like our wonderful honeymoon at Sandals Royal Barbados, but we liked the fact that we could still access the family side for more choice with dining, pools and entertainment. This sounded like a win-win to us!
Palladium is a direct partner of Wyndham Hotels' rewards program, so US based travelers that have credit card points with Wyndham Rewards can use those points to book stays at Palladium resorts, which is what we did! It currently costs 30,000 Wyndham points nightly to stay at any of the TRS properties in Mexico or the Dominican Republic. (I talk in depth about the credit card points and miles strategy that I used to book our lodging at TRS for free in this blog post!).
Before I go any further, let me say that TRS absolutely exceeded our expectations in all categories! I want to preface this next point by saying that we loved our honeymoon at Sandals Royal Barbados, and had such few complaints about it. But after this trip, we mutually agreed that TRS Yucatan exceeded Sandals in some important categories! We were able to take this trip for free with credit card points, but even if we had been paying the nightly rate, visiting TRS Yucatan still would've been at least one third cheaper than our Sandals honeymoon (maybe more?!). That felt wild to us, since we thought it was better than Sandals in several ways!
One downside of TRS resorts is that they don't provide airport transportation included with your stay (Sandals gets the upper hand on that!). Guests can fly into the big Cancun airport, or the new smaller international airport in Tulum. Ryan and I found our flights on credit card points through Cancun, so I then looked into booking transportation for us. I ended up using a company called VIP Riviera Maya, that I found by recommendation of a travel Facebook group. Ryan and I had a private round-trip airport transfer in a van, and it cost $175 USD (we also tipped each driver additionally). The resort is located about an hour and twenty minutes from the Cancun airport without traffic. We did hit some traffic when we arrived and our ride took more like two hours, but leaving to go back to the airport we didn't have any traffic.
One cool thing about TRS resorts is that all of them include butler service for every room category, not just the most expensive rooms! Each building of guest rooms at TRS has two butlers on duty each day. You can stop by their butler desk in the lobby of your building at any time, or you can message with your building's butlers any time by using WhatsApp. Our two butlers were so nice! We met with them at the desk the first night we arrived to set all of our dinner reservations for the rest of the trip. They also helped with any general questions that we had for the rest of our stay, and for booking golf cart transportation! The resort is huge (since it's part of a four resort mega-complex), and butlers can help you book a golf cart ride to get to different further away points at the neighboring family resorts.
TRS has no shortage of places to enjoy time in the water and sun! The main pool at TRS is their stunning oceanside infinity pool. It's gigantic, and up on a rocky hill that borders the ocean. This was by far my favorite of the pool options! Such beautiful scenery, and everything you could want (and more!) for a resort pool. It does get busy during daytime hours, so I do recommend trying to get an earlier start to claim your chairs of choice either before or right after breakfast.
There is also another pool bordering the ocean at TRS which is a fully saltwater pool, surrounded by big rocks which almost reminded me of the beaches in my home state of Maine! That pool was never as busy at the infinity pool, so you were almost always guaranteed to find a spot at that one (although a lot of the chairs were in direct sunlight). The pools on the TRS side don't have any swim-up bars, but there are lots of full-service bars located right near all of the pools for each drink access!
Since TRS guests also have access to all of the neighboring Grand Palladium family resorts, you can also enjoy the pools at those! Ryan and I spent our first full day of our trip enjoying the largest pool at Grand Palladium White Sands. Even though White Sands is one of the family friendly resorts, we still found that pool to be relaxing and fun. There is also a "secret" adults-only pool hidden away in the woods between the White Sands and Colonial Resorts! We spent an afternoon at that one and really enjoyed it as well.
There is no direct beach access on the TRS side of the complex, but there is a large stretch of sandy beach and chairs between the Grand Palladium family resorts that TRS guests can use! It is a little bit of long walk, but worth it to enjoy. You can also have your butler set up a golf cart ride for you if you don't want to walk the whole way. Ryan actually said the beach was his favorite spot- he preferred going out there to the TRS infinity pool (my favorite spot!).
The fact that there are so many pools and beach spots on this gigantic mega-resort complex keeps every day of your vacation looking a bit different, and I loved that so much! My only big complaint about the beach and pool situation is that there are no general use hot tubs anywhere on the property. The only hot tub is located at the spa, but you have to purchase spa services to use that area.
I cannot stress this enough- the food at TRS Yucatan majorly exceeded our expectations! It was all-around the best all-inclusive resort food I have ever had. Because TRS guests also have access to all of the dining options at the neighboring family resorts, there are so many options! Similarly to all of the pool and beach choices, it makes it hard to get tired of anything.
We had breakfast every morning at La Dalia, which is one of the larger buffet restaurants at Grand Palladium White Sands (not a super long walk from where our room building was at TRS). This was definitely one of the Top 5 best hotel breakfasts that I've ever experienced! That's why we kept going back to La Dalia every morning instead of trying other options. They had a giant self-serve mimosa area, a large coffee and tea bar (that did specialty drinks as well!), a giant assortment of fresh breads and pastries, a charcuterie area, omelet stations, and so much more. I also loved the fact they had a hot Mexican food part of the buffet every morning! I am someone who loves savory breakfast items paired alongside sweet ones, so every morning I had my fill of pastries alongside some delicious savory Mexican dishes.
We had lunch most days at Helios, one of the main lunch buffet options at TRS. It's right between the infinity pool and saltwater pool. They also had a great buffet- definitely one of the better ones that I've been to compared to past tropical vacations! So many different cuisine sections to choose from, and everything cooked fresh and delicious.
Delicious dinner options are in abundance at TRS Yucatan! We didn't have a single bad meal for dinner, but one did stand out as the best. We loved El Gaucho, an Argentinian steakhouse at TRS! We loved it so much that we went twice! El Gaucho is a popular restaurant and it isn't open every night of the week, so reservations here can be harder to come by, even with butler assistance. We were so thrilled to get in twice. I am still dreaming about their empanadas and the delicious blue cheese sauce they served with the steak.
We also had dinners at La Boheme (French), Tentazione (Italian), and The Nest (Dinner Buffet at Grand Palladium Kantenah). La Boheme was my next favorite restaurant, I can be picky with French food, but I really enjoyed their menu and the vibe of the restaurant! Tentazione and The Nest were both fine- not outstanding dinners but also not bad at all. Ryan and I both really didn't have any major complaints about the food. Food is such an important part of a travel experience to us, so I think TRS Yucatan is worth staying at for the food alone!
The one minor complaint that we had about the food? We didn't love the American themed sports bar Xtra Time, located at Grand Palladium Colonial. Probably some of the worst sports bar food we have ever had. But if the American sports bar is literally the only meal flop of the trip.... that's still a pretty good resort and vacation experience for the food category right?! 😂
Since the mega-resort complex is so large, there's no shortage of things to do! TRS offered daily classes and activities that you could sign up for. Everything from yoga, pilates and other outdoor workout classes by the infinity pool, to mixology and cooking classes, painting and craft workshops, and more! The butler of your building can assist you with signing up for these activities and classes.
In addition to activities on the resort, there are so many different types of off-resort Mexico excursions you can do! You can visit the Mayan ruins, swim in a cenote, take a day trip to Tulum or the island of Cozumel... and the list continues! There's no shortage of third party excursion companies that you can book with.
Ryan and I opted not to do any of the resort classes and activities, and we also didn't book any excursions. While I've enjoyed both of those things on past trips, we really wanted this trip to focus on relaxation. We were both so burnt out from the past few months of renovating and moving into our first home. We needed a vacation that was truly relaxing! And TRS Yucatan was definitely able to provide that. But there are lots of activities to choose from if you do want a vacation that has a bit more going on than we desired.
The one extra experience that I did purchase was a treatment at the spa! The spa services all of the Grand Palladium resorts in the complex, and it is quite large. You get the most bang for your buck to wait to book spa services with one of the salespeople that they have hanging out by the pools. I was able to get a facial, massage and body scrub package for about $125 USD (before tip!), which is much cheaper than the prices they have listed.
I'll be honest- it wasn't my favorite resort spa that I've ever been to, but it also wasn't bad. It felt a little bit sterile and almost too big compared to some others that I've visited over the years. But I still enjoyed it and thought that it was a good value for the package I was able to get!
Ryan and I also enjoyed browsing the resort shops. Most of the shops are located in the Grand Palladium family resorts, but they had some fun souvenir finds. There is also free nightly entertainment open to guests of the all the resorts! Grand Palladium Colonial has a stage area, and that's usually where that happens. We caught a bit of the rock n' roll show one of the nights as we were walking by. TRS Yucatan also offers a cabaret show called Chic that you can purchase tickets to. Chic comes with the cabaret performance, and its own special multi-course dinner and drinks. We passed on doing Chic on this trip, but I would be interested to check something like that out if we ever go back.
Overall, we had a phenomenal trip to TRS Yucatan! We would be interested to go back in the future, or to try the other TRS properties in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. TRS definitely is a great resort to travel to in a group, we saw multiple friend group trips and (adult) family group trips while were there. I think that we would have a blast if we were able to take friends on our next trip there!
I'm so thankful we were able to visit this amazing resort practically for free thanks to credit card points! You can check out all of those details in this blog post.
Other Tropical Travel Posts:
God Bless,
xoxo Annaliese
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