đŠ© The new Margaritaville Island Reserve Riviera Maya resort in Mexico’s YucatĂĄn is for adults only.
Ready for a sun- and tequila-drenched escape? Margaritaville Riviera Maya, an all-inclusive five-star adults-only resort by Karisma, opened in June 2023.  We spent a week here in August 2024 and were very impressed with the resort. From food to staff to accommodations and activities, here is what we found.
Rooms, Suites and Villas at Margaritaville Riviera Maya
The property is oriented in an ocean-facing horseshoe that affords ocean views to most units. There are 355 rooms and suites, yet the property is compact and very easy to navigate. The rooms on the ground floor have swim-up access to the pool, and the grounds are lushly landscaped. We stayed on the ground floor so our sliding back door offered easy access to the pool that winds around the property. The king bed was very comfortable, and the spacious room also included a sitting area and a desk. The bathroom included a shower, plus a nice tub with bath salts.
Dining
We found that there were plenty of good dining options for us, ranging from casual buffets to more upscale steak, seafood and Italian. Overall, the food was delicious. We consider ourselves foodies so we were pleased with the variety and quality.
Restaurants at Margaritaville Riviera Maya
- The Boathouse – Breakfast buffet daily with a large variety of international dishes and stations where some things are cooked to order, like eggs or fajitas. Most everything was really good – especially the scrambled eggs which were so creamy. Also serving lunch and dinner on select days. Casual.
- Landshark Brewery and Grill – This signature restaurant has two large terraces overlooking the ocean. Offering lunch and dinner, you can enjoy a variety of beers including Landshark, brewed right on site, plus bar food like wings and sliders, salads, burgers, grilled fish and Mexican food. Live music after dinner.
- Frank y Lolaâs – Modeled after an Italian trattoria, this dinner restaurant has a lovely ambiance and puts out nice food, including pastas, seafood, and pizza from their wood-burning pizza oven. Some of our favorites included the meatballs, penne with vodka sauce, calamari and the grilled salmon. Reservation required.
- JWB Steakhouse – Upscale steak and seafood restaurant open most nights for dinner. Reservation required.
- License to Chill (Beachside Grill) Casual place for tacos by the pool, perfect for lunch or a snack. Really good carnitas and carne asada tacos, plus delicious aguachile tostadas. Includes wet feet bar so you can dine with your feet in the water.
- Joe Merchantâs (coffee and provisions) – Coffee shop and convenience store with selection of beverages, fresh pastries, and snacks. Sometimes we skipped the big breakfast buffet and started here with specialty coffees and pastries. Open 7 am to 11 pm daily.
- Mexican Dinner Show – At The Boathouse, this lavish Mexican dinner is accompanied by a show.
- Surf & Turf Dinner (extra charge) – This special and delicious dinner of steak and lobster is available every week – check with your butler if you’re interested!
Bars
Salted Rim Margarita Bar & Lounge – Located behind the lobby, the Salted Rim is a spacious venue with a large bar, perfect for chilling with a drink. Wide selection of tequilas, mezcals and bacanoras, plus
Five O’Clock Somewhere Bar and Swim Up Bar – Located between Landshark and the pool, this bar includes swings over the water.
S.O.S. Swim Up Bar – This bar is easily accessed from the pool that snakes around the property. Walk over… or swim from your room!
Activities
Margaritaville Riviera Maya offers quite a few activities, listed on the calendar in your app and often promoted when you check in. There are fun events, special dinners, classes and tastings to choose from.
- Margarita Madness Foam Pool Party – A mainstay of the resort, the foam pool party kicks off every day at 4.
- Beer Tasting – We signed up for the beer tasting, which took place at Landshark and lasted about 30 minutes. The brewmaster Diego started by walking us through the tankroom, explaining the process, then we settled at a table where four beers were presented to us: a lager, a hefeweizen, a brown ale and an Irish red ale. We found them all cold, fresh and eminently drinkable.
- Tequila Tasting – We did this (I mean, of course we did) and it was a lot of fun learning about the proper way to taste a nice tequila (rather than just slamming it with a lime and salt chaser – there’s a time and a place for that as well!) The sommelier was very knowledgable and informative.
Some other examples of classes that could be on your calendar – they change often:
- Wine Tasting
- Mixology Lessons
- Yodeling Contest
- Cooking Lesson: Guacamole
- Cooking Lesson: Ceviche
- Chocolate Bonbon Master Class
Fitness
- Gym: Fins-Up Fitness Center – the gym was big enough, encompassing two rooms, with modern equipment, towels, and machines. It was quiet when we went.
- Pickleball â and Glow Pickleball Party
- Volleyball
- Aqua Fit
- Aqua Zumba
- Stretching in Paradise
Entertainment
There are always a lot of entertainment options detailed in the daily calendar, such as:
- Live music at the Landshark
- Music Trivia
- DJ Sessions
- Acoustic Session
- Karaoke Night
- Dance Lesson
- Violin Session (at Salted Rim Bar) – We sat in for one of the violin sessions and it was lovely ambiance for sipping your drink and having a conversation.
Relaxation
The resort’s spa, St Somewhere Spa, offers 10,000 square feet of rest and relaxation. There is a nice water area with wet and dry saunas, a cold plunge, therapeutic jets, and a hot tub. The services are not the cheapest but we worked it by attending their update presentation for Prestige members and got free 50-minute massages that were really nice. If they’re trying to get you to join Prestige, see if they’ll throw one in during your stay. The spa includes a full-service beauty salon.
Excursions
Although we stayed at the resort the entire time, you can also arrange a variety of different off-resort excursions through the concierge, including:
- Golf – El Tinto Golf Course – located 25 miles away in the Cancun Country Club, you can arrange a tee time and transfers with your butler.
- Scuba Diving
- Snorkeling – Reefs or cenotes. May-September is whale shark season so don’t miss a chance to snorkel alongside these gentle behemoths.
- Deep sea fishing
- Tulum, CobĂĄ, Cenote and Playa del Carmen
- Catamaran adventures
Check out our post on Playa del Carmen if you want to explore the fantastic Riviera Maya!
Pros and Cons of Margaritaville Riviera Maya
Pros
- Adults only – no kids
- Excellent service – personalized service means you’ll feel the warmth of Mexico
- Brand new and beautiful spaces – shiny new property, lushly landscaped
- Really good food and lots of choice
Cons
- NO BEACH
- Small property – we like to get our steps in, so we wish there were a little more room to roam.
The biggest (and really the only) con is that there is no actual beach here. The resort is right on the ocean, but erosion destroyed the beach so they built as close to the water as they could. Itâs not possible to go down to what little sand is left, so if you require an actual beach with sand, you should look elsewhere in the Riviera Maya. If itâs not that important to you, then you will have plenty of water time in the many lovely pools around the property, as well as that sensational ocean view (without the messy sand).
đŽ Comparison to Margaritaville Island Reserve Riviera Cancun
We stayed at this older Margaritaville Island Reserve resort, which is larger and family-friendly, several years ago. While we really liked it – and appreciated its larger resort size – we found our overall experience at the new property was better. But we got to go to it anyway; since we are Prestige members, they drove us over to this resort (about 25 minutes away) so that we could enjoy our Gala Dinner on the beach.
đŽ Comparison to Margaritaville Cap Cana (Dominican Republic)
We stayed at Margaritaville Island Reserve Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic in late 2023, and our experience there was so poor we left after a few days (which we almost never do). The resort itself is beautiful, situated right on the ocean, and the room was really nice â spacious and well-appointed. We were a bit annoyed that a key restaurant like Landshark was closed the entire time, but we were willing to roll with it.
However, we found the service there ranged from indifferent to rude. To be fair, rumors were swirling that the resort was about to be sold and we believe this may have influenced the attitudes there. We are generally very easy people. However, the last straw was when a waiter at Cheeseburger in Paradise said âF-youâ to Mark after we had waited thirty minutes for drinks, even after eating our burgers. At that point, we just packed and left.
I am ecstatic to report that not only was our experience at Riviera Cancun much better than that, but it was hands down the best service weâve received at any of the Karisma resorts weâve stayed at in the Riviera Maya over the past five years.
Weddings, Meetings or Other Special Events
The resort can accommodate groups of any size, and offer a variety of intimate venues for meetings, dinners, or other special events. Their signature Sky Wedding
location on a private rooftop terrace features stunning panoramic ocean views for an unforgettable ceremony.
How to Book at Margaritaville Riviera Maya
Booking.com is the best place to check availability and reserve your dates.
Becoming a Prestige Travelers Member
Prestige Travelers is the membership club for Karisma Resorts & Hotels. Weâve been Prestige members since 2021. It gives us access to many Karisma resorts in Mexico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Serbia and Montenegro, as well as lots of great perks at the resorts â Prestige Lounge access, room upgrades, a dedicated concierge and butler, discounts, access to special events and room service menu items, alcohol in the room, airport transfers and more. If you vacation frequently in all-inclusive resorts, you might consider joining this program.
But a Word Before you Join…
We want to inform you of some critical points. You can book any of their properties directly without being a member, but you don’t get the perks, benefits and special treatment. However, only you can determine if those extras are worth the investment.
You will have to sit through a sales presentation. They’re pleasant, but they’re also selling you. Keep in mind that they will present the rosiest and most ideal scenario. Make sure you get some perks or freebies (massage, special dining) for attending. Make it worth your time!
Calculate the Return on Investment
As a member, your savings are not going to be 50% +, as you might hear. We definitely save money on each booking, but let’s put it in the 15% range to be safe. You will receive benefits that have real value, but I typically put that value at $300-$500 per week of staying at the resort.
From there, do your math. If you visit their collection of resorts twice per year, how many visits will it take until you break even on the membership using the metrics above?
Let’s say you paid $7,500 for the membership. If you save 15% on your weekly booking, I will roughly value that as $500. It could be higher or lower depending on the final cost of your room, etc. Let’s make that assumption. Then, let’s assume $300 in perks value. This means you are putting savings + perks at $800 per visit. Your return on investment starts on your $7500/$800 = 9th+ visit or your 5th year of membership.
There are intangibles because you do get elevated service and VIP treatment and some extras that will vary by resort. However, these do have value; you can get some of the best rooms, for example, so if you plan on visiting regularly, arguably, the ROI may come faster.
Flyback Program
There is also a program called Flyback, which allows you to receive up to $2,000 per year for a visit once per year by supplying proof of your visit (airline tickets). It can take a considerable time to receive this, around 6-8 months, but we have successfully received this rebate. The program is only successful when new people keep signing up, so it has worked for at least 7 years (not for us, but a great friend who has been a member much longer), but there’s always a risk.
Interval World
There is a real benefit to also transferring weeks through Interval World. We’ve done this successfully and have gotten some excellent weeks at Marriott Resorts and others. It is a great way to accelerate your ROI if you are willing to be flexible and work the program. Personally, we are seeing ROI in our third year, but we’ve tried to maximize it, and we negotiated hard at the sign-up. NOTE: They do not always give this benefit (and they’ll try to make you buy it later) so do NOT leave without it!
Start Low and Don’t Overpay
Finally, what you pay for the membership makes all the difference. We’d only suggest the lowest level to start (Sapphire) to make sure you use it and get the benefits. You will need to walk out at the end of their presentation to get the price down. If you pay that first price, it will not be good. Play hardball. You don’t need the membership as much as they need you to sign up.
Download the App
Find the Margaritaville Island Reserve Riviera Maya app in the app store! Itâs packed full of information about the resort â restaurants, fitness classes, special events, and more. You can even use it to order room service, additional room amenities and services. Download it before you go.
âïž How to Get Here
You will fly into CancĂșn International Airport (CUN). From there it is a 25-minute drive south to the resort. As Prestige members, airport transfers are included. Otherwise, we recommend pre-arranging the round-trip transfers before you leave home. Arriving at the airport in Cancun can be quite chaotic. There are loads of vendors and taxi drivers vying for your attention. We like the ease of someone holding a sign with our name before they whisk us into their air-conditioned vehicle and off to our accommodations. Here are the two car services we use; both are quite affordable:
* Happy Shuttle
We love Happy Shuttle and you can book online.
* Kalido Travel
If Happy Shuttle doesnât have availability, we go with Kalido, which also does a nice job.
The Verdict: Margaritaville Riviera Maya
We loved our stay at Margaritaville Riviera Maya. If you enjoy the brand and all that it implies – sun, water, and margaritas in a chill setting – then you can do no better than this resort. It’s easy to reach from the U.S., it’s all-inclusive, and you won’t have to compete with kids for loungers and pool space. Plus, it was the best service weâve received at any of the Karisma resorts weâve stayed at in the Riviera Maya over the past five years.
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