Essence at the Fives Beach

Just had our wedding here and spent the week with our friends and family. It is such a beautiful resort and all the staff are so kind, attentive & truly care about providing the best experience. The wedding team is so thorough and helpful! Isa & Mar are amazing. The spa service was exceptional! Gerardo and the rest of the wedding wait staff were more helpful than I ever could’ve imagined! If I could give every employee a special shout out, I would because they are so great! Just to name a few others; Bernardo at breakfast, Jose & Marco at the pool volleyball, Christian Fenton at our private dinner, Miguel with our room service, and can’t forget our maid Jose Hoil! Definitely book your trip here! You will have a lovely time! Read less

I just reviewed a different resort that we stayed at earlier this month in Mexico that we enjoyed immensely. I felt compelled to go back and review the Fives where we stayed in August of 2023 because there was such a contrast in service and quality of stay in comparison to where we stayed in Mexico for our most recent family vacation. Where do I start? I upgraded and upgraded, thinking I was booking an amazing experience for my family with a 'Run of the House' Epic Collection One Bedroom Residence. I thought by booking something called 'Run of the House', we would have priority booking, priority everything. We did not. The roof top jacuzzi was broken and dirty, there were no seat cushions and no sun coverage as the umbrella was broken. The photos are extremely outdated as our room was run down as well. We arrived and had to wait hours for our room to be ready, with no restaurants open mid day and we were starving. The buffet was closed. The beach and main pool were at the far end of the resort and required a tram to get to and from. The pool was filthy, full of slimy sunblock and our bathing suits smelled. There was a Marley Coffee and Ice Cream bar that was great but at an extra cost, there was no perks at all for upgrading to the Epic Collection. The butler service was useless. There are many pool areas between the buildings but not a single lounge chair to be found after 6am. We went to the Thai Restaurant and could not eat the food. We eat Thai food all the time at home and this was horrible. We walked across the main square area to the Buffet for dinner that night and it was worse. Tiny buffet, long lines and really bad food. And this was in August where they were not at full capacity! We ate at the Italian Restaurant three times during our stay as it was the only food that was edible. The rest of our dinners were room service. We have been to Mexico several times and would not recommend this resort at all. Read less

Amazing 8 nights at this hotel. Am surprised that its not ranked higher - do not let that put you off. We usually stay at 5* resorts in the Caribbean and what stands out at The Fives Beach is the atmosphere and experience. Genuinely the nicest and friendliest staff I've encountered. In the evening, there's almost a village vibe where people sit in the square to enjoy the evening entertainment. I had not fully appreciated that the hotel is immersed in a natural jungle meaning that you live in the midst of monkees and other amazing animals. Jungle walkways offer shortcuts around the hotel. Beautiful sandy beach and amazing food - incredibly tasty! Every restaurant is high quality and enjoyable. As a family of four, we've had the best time. Weather in June/July is a lottery - we were lucky but the arrivals had a week of rain in store. We had a penthouse suite which was lovely but you get minimal use from it. If I'd book again, I'd forego that and just get a bigger apartment. Read less

Hotel Review Mixed review, mainly due to what felt like a scam with our room reservations. Several months ago we began researching all inclusive hotels in Mexico and stumbled upon swim out rooms at The Fives. We reserved and paid for an Epic two bedroom swim up room directly through the hotel. Our friends also reserved a one bedroom Epic swim up room directly through the hotel (Gabriella was the representative). During the reservation process, we were told that even though we were traveling as two adults and three kids, our reservation was going to be labeled as four adults on their end to reserve this specific swim up room. Fortunately, I saved my emails from the representative with her guarantee that our reservation really was for five people. Our friends traveled with two adults and two kids; their reservation was made for three adults. Again, this all happened directly with a hotel employee. We arrived on July 11 and immediately went to the check-in counter. There was no welcome drink as promised. We were told that our swim up rooms were unavailable and that the reservation wasn’t for the correct amount of people. I showed them all of our emails and receipts for the specific rooms. They had no explanation as to why our rooms weren’t available, and kept trying to push us on another room type. This other room type was available when we booked but was much cheaper on a daily basis. This was a horrible start as we specifically chose this resort because of the availability of the swim up rooms. I understand things can happen, but this was clearly a scam. We found several others who had the same experience with the swim up room. The front desk staff offered us a penthouse suite which had an open rooftop. I told them we had no interest as there’s no enjoyment in using a rooftop in the direct sun and high heat. The staff would disappear and bring a new employee or manager to give us the same spiel. It was like buying a used car! We wasted a good amount of time arguing and going back-and-forth with them, but ultimately had to accept a different room for the first two nights. I mean what do you do when you’ve already paid and are in Mexico! The penthouse suite itself was nice and large, but the rooftop was outdated and in desperate need of repair. There was a large Jacuzzi tub on the rooftop, but it didn’t work. Additionally, there was absolutely no shade, so you really couldn’t enjoy the rooftop until night time. We tried to stay positive and enjoy our vacation after, but we were still pissed with what the hotel did. The front desk staff was unable to get us a dinner reservation that night, even though our Epic package advertised guaranteed reservations. We were able to make reservations for Mestizo, the Mexican restaurant, on our 2nd night. The reservation was for a very late timeslot, so I went to the restaurant to inquire if we could move our reservation to earlier slot. The manager told me that we didn’t have a reservation at all, and allowed me to look at all of the dinner reservations on his list. Neither our names or room numbers were on the list. Fortunately, he was able to sneak us in right as the restaurant opened. We had a great experience overall eating at this restaurant. It was probably our favorite restaurant overall. On our third day there they were finally able to move us to swim out rooms. Initially, they wanted us out of our old rooms at 11 AM so the bell hops could collect and hold our bags until our swim out rooms were ready after 3pm. We told them we didn’t want to be without our belongings for several hours. They finally agreed to keep our stuff in the old room and then moved it directly into the new rooms. Our swim up room was great! Again, the main reason for us booking with this resort. The two bedroom is essentially made up of a one bedroom suite with a bathroom and full size kitchen. There is also an additional/attached adjoining single bedroom unit with its own bathroom. We had several patio doors with swim up access to a pool, which was specifically for villas 17 and 18. For the last four days of our trip, we spent many hours out here swimming, lounging, and ordering drinks from a nearby bar. Highly recommend the swim up rooms, that’s if the hotel can deliver. Now onto a review of the hotel altogether. I would say the a la carte restaurants are some of the better restaurants I’ve experienced at any all inclusive resorts in Mexico. We enjoyed the Mexican, sushi, Thai, Italian restaurants. For lunch, we ate a couple of times at Lizzards. The food and service there was exceptional. The breakfast buffet was rather mediocre. They have a very small selection of foods and there is absolutely no rotation or change to the menu throughout the week. They do have an omelette station which worked well for a few of us. Bars - I would say the drinks were above average compared to other all inclusives. Cantina 1910 was my favorite. Try a passion fruit margarita! The pools were good. We used the Infinity Pool by the beach, as well as the Teen Pool and High Energy Pool. These pools can get pretty warm around lunchtime and throughout the evening, which is when we often found refuge in our swim out pool (which was much cooler and provided some shade). The beach area is pretty decent. A good portion of their beach is taken up by Bali beds, which you have to reserve and pay for. They do have some loungers available for guest. The sand on the beach was soft, and for the most part was well maintained and taken care of. There was some sargassum on the beach but the employees raked that out pretty frequently. The ocean area is protected by large man-made barriers. The water was relatively clear and we were able to snorkel directly from the beach several times. You can see a ton of fish by their pier. The hotel does lack in overall entertainment. I would describe the vibe as more laid-back. One of their nighttime shows, the Fire Show, was really good. We popped into a couple of other shows throughout the week to include the Urban and Circus shows, but they were pretty boring. The hotel provides an activity schedule and advertises small events throughout the resort such as sports and pool parties. We tried to attend a few of these events but could never find them, and none of the employees knew anything about the location of these activities. For example, the schedule showed a ceviche class on the beach at noon. We walked all over the beach and asked five or six different employees. None of them had a clue as to what we were talking about. Some other negatives: - [ ] The hotel really isn’t all-inclusive. There are ice cream and coffee shops on site that you have to pay for. There are no water sports available for free, which is weird in that every other resort I’ve been to usually provides free snorkels, kayaks, and paddle boards. - [ ] I don’t that the Epic package was really worth it. We were supposed to have ambassadors but they weren’t helpful and were hard to get ahold of. Some other positives: - [ ] Outside of the front desk, most of the employees we encountered were friendly and helpful. - [ ] The gym was adequate and clean - [ ] The property was relatively clean and well maintained So overall, our stay was enjoyable. I am just very concerned as to what I see as a scam with their booking and reservation process. My belief is that they have a hard time filling some of their other rooms in the summer so they overbook the swim up rooms, and then tell guests that they are providing them with an equivalent room (rooftop suite). Look at other reviews and their Facebook fan pages; you will see others with similar stories. Read less