I have traveled with a group of 35-50 year old lady friends to a resort town in Mexico annually for the past ten years. We usually stay in 4-5 star, all-inclusive resorts but decided to try this 3-star because of the option of multiple on-site restaurants needing no reservations.

I believe that this resort is rated too low compared to others with higher ratings we have visited in Mexico. I'd place it at a 4-star. Definitely 5-star for assistance from most of the staff, room service, entertainment, food quality and food/drink service. The only drawbacks that would make some visitors rate it lower were: only one girl walking around the pool and beach area offering drinks (we always had to go to the bar ourselves); they do not provide bottled water in the rooms like most of the 4-5 star hotels do; guests have to go to one of the bars to get ice for their rooms; they are adamant about not allowing late check-out but do allow you to shower and dress in the spa area (no place for valuables after noon); and maintenance never came to fix the broken light and TV in our room (we didn't push it that much though because we spend more time out of the room than in it).

The resort is beautiful and well-kept. The food and service was absolutely fabulous in all restaurants and all bars (except for a slight problem in the Sumo restaurant with the waitress not being able to tell us anything about the foods' ingredients -- also the food wasn't authentic Japanese but was very tastey). We tried all restaurants except for the Barn steakhouse. The drinks were all good though light on alcohol. Sweetly asking for double or triple of the desired ingredient solved that problem. We did tip off and on throughout our stay but not at every meal or for every drink.

The entertainment staff did a good job. Pool activities were silly and fun. The Thurs night show was audience participation and well done. The Sat night show included wonderful dancers, fire juggling and other impressive feats.

The pool is a nice size and overlooks the beach. A very large whirlpool overlooks the ocean (very relaxing in the evening). The beach was fairly small but that seems to be true for most of the hotels we've visited since the hurricane hit several years ago. We never had trouble finding enough lounge chairs together for the four of us but did have to get out early or hang around late into the afternoon a few days to get an umbrella.

The rooms themselves were very nice and had great views. We had one with ocean view and one with lagoon view. Maid service was good as well.

We just got back from our trip to Cancun on 7/6/09. The Golden Parnassus was a relaxing and well kept resort. The food was very good, especially Shangri La. We went there twice. Everyone at the resort went out of their way to make us feel welcome and were always friendly. We've traveled extensively and have been to alot of resorts where people are miserable. It was a refreshing break. We've already decided to go back next year!!

My husband and I booked a last minute deal to stay at the Golden Parnassus in June. We booked the holiday less than 2 weeks before we travelled to Cancun and got an insane deal on the price. Now being honest we were just looking for a week of lazing around on the beach and were not too concerned with a fancy hotel. However when we arrived at the resort we could not believe our luck! The hotel was fantastic! The welcome on reception was very warm and a delicious cocktail was waiting for us on arrival. (A great start!) Our room was spacious and clean with a good sized bathroom with shower and bath. It also had a lovely view of the Nichupte Lagoon. Prior to arrival we had hoped for an ocean view but as we spent most of our time down at the lovely white sandy beach on the oceanfront it was a nice change to have a different view in the evenings as we dressed for dinner. In truth...yes the room was a little dated...but who actually spends much time in their room on holiday? The food in the hotel was excellent!!! There was an extensive buffet for breakfast and lunch with a wide variety of dishes available. Certain dishes like omelettes at breakfast and fajitas and stir fry dishes at lunchtime were fresh and made to order. There was so much choice and plenty of it. The waiting staff were so friendly and could not do enough to help...bringing us lovely glasses of chilled wine with our lunch each day. In the evenings there was a choice of 4 a la carte restaurants to choose from. The Shangri La was our favourite which was a beautiful reasturant with lovely views of the ocean and an amazing grand piano in the centre that played all by itself! The waiting staff here were superb. Rafael made sure we were welcomed each night with a chilled glass of champagne...a lovely touch! The menu was out of this world and my husband and I tried many of the wonderful dishes there over 4 different nights during our holiday. The beef tenderloin in a mushroom crust was a favourite of mine as was the shrimp navarin and the duck. The desserts were yummy too..when you could fit one in! All brand named drinks were availble in this restaurant to my husband's delight! The air con worked a treat in there too, to the point where I actually felt quite chilly, but it was welcome after the baking hot days lying in the sun. The Pier 12 restaurant was lovely too and my favourite dish was the coconut shrimp. Yum! We did not eat in the Japanese restaurant although friends we made at the hotel said it was nice. We were not big fans of The Old Barn restaurant although this was a favourute of most of the American friends we made. I guess it's just your preference. The pool bar overlooking the beach was just THE BEST! After we had checked into our room we headed down to the beach bar and there we sat for hours getting to know the staff and other guests. Jose was the best bartender and worked so fast keeping everyone with a drink in their hand. We ordered cocktails and before we had even finished Jose had another one ready for us. I've never seen a barman work so fast! Early into the holiday we bought 2 large insulated cups from the hotel's shop and our drinks were made for us in these as the little cups given out at the bar were rather small. Everyone had these...they make more sense too as they keep your drinks chillded for longer in the sun. During the days we would lie on sunloungers on the beach and all day long and Lilli, the beach drinks waitress would come by and take our orders. We didn't even have to get up and go to the bar ourselves because Lilli was always on hand to take a drinks order. She was very friendly and made us laugh. The lifeguard was very friendly too and helped my husband when he slipped on the steps leading down to the beach (no fault of the hotels I might add...my hubby doesn't often wear flipflops). He could not have been more helpful and checked on us a few times to see if he was okay - even rubbing cream into his back for him. He was very nice and chatted to us each day on the beach. The hotel was spotless and there were always staff around cleaning and tidying the grounds. My husband made use of the gym and thought that the facilties were great. Massages were avaialable right on the beachfront and there was a spa with various beauty treatments available. Each day there was a discount on one of the treatments and the beauty therapists would come by the pool/beach and advise you of these.
Some reviews mentioned that you would only get good service if you tipped the waiters and bartenders...NOT SO. The staff were great! friendly, polite, helpful, courteous anyway...they could not have done more to ensure that our stay at the Golden Parnassus was anything but first class.
What more can I say? The hotel exceeded our expectations a hundred times over and I would definitely recommend anyone to stay at this hotel as it was great! We are planning to return to Cancun next year and we hope to travel there with friends and we hope to stay at the same hotel again.

We stayed at the golden parnassus from 15 to 29 june and had a great time.

Yes the hotel is a little dated but its so clean that i stopped noticing after the first day.

The beach and pool are great. No complaints at all - white sand and sea that has 5 shades of bluee - wow. lily always asked if you needed drinks, literally every 30 minutes and nothing was too much trouble.

The restaurants are fantastic especially paradise, shangri-la and the barn. But all were great. We ate fillet steak for 2 weeks as it was just sooooooo nice.

Didnt try room service even though it was included, as doesnt seem right - part of the holiday is eating out each night, the americans seemed to use it permanantly which left the restaurants free for us. We also loved the breeze - great burger, fries, steak rolls, chicken rolls and nachos - all meat cooked to order and open till 6am. All steaming hot and very very tasty.

The bars are all great, but we prefered to beer garden, which is an indoor bar with pool tables. Fermin the bar man was amazing throughout. Tike bar is brill on day but at night we felt the americans who liked to drink allllllllll day were still located there in their swimwaer and made it very clear it was their territory on our first day. So we avoided it after dusk.

Well as far as tips go i didnt tip one single penny throughout as i prefer to tip at the end for people who have looked after me, and i didnt get ignored or treated differently because of this. Only problem was fermin got me soooooo drunk on last day i forgot to tip.Ill sort him out next year though - My bf was so drunk he fell over and broke his wrist (haha) we didnt find out it was broken till back in uk so saved medical fee's there.

We had 3 rooms in first 20 minutes, 1st floor lagoon - went in and man tiling floor. so went to reception who gave us second floor lagoon side-patio door would not lock so refused to stay there also it was right over a generator and no sign of lagoon as too low, insisted on higher floor and got room 507, could still hear generator slightly but room much better. Asked rep why all brits were in lagoon side when all americans bragging they had been given free room upgrades, he advised that thomas cook only have standard rooms on lagoon side for their contract - only people who upgrade their room get ocean view. the best rooms are 4th floor up and higher numbers as this is other end of building away from generator.

The rooms are clean, furniture good quality, huge flatscreen tv, very very confy bed and excellant air con (5th floor lagoon side) but the wardrobes, finish on wall and bathroom, left it looking 'older'. with just a little money spent in this area it would be amazing.But you really dont notice after the first day so dont worry.

We made some great friends and would definately go back again.
I loved evert minute !!!