The Best All-Inclusive Eco-Resort in Mexico for Families

Looking for the best all-inclusive eco-resort in Mexico for your next vacation? I can help!

We’ve visited Mexico a lot since our first couple’s vacation in 2008. We even lived in Playa del Carmen for almost a year from 2021 to 2022.

Before starting our full-time travels as digital nomads in 2019, we almost never went to the same place twice.

A notable exception to this practice has been our multiple stays at Hacienda Tres Rios, an all-inclusive eco-resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico.

Riviera Maya is the stretch of Mexico’s easternmost coast on the Yucatan peninsula. It extends from Cancun to the area south of Tulum.

It’s also one of the most diverse destinations with excursions that appeal simultaneously to history and culture buffs, sun and beach worshippers, and eco-adventurers. A simple Cancun itinerary can include all those things in just one week!

Thus, this bio-diverse, unique, and beautiful place is perfect for an eco-conscious traveling family that wants to experience a fabulous luxury eco-resort.

What makes an all-inclusive resort eco-friendly?

Not every all-inclusive resort is an eco-resort. Sustainable hotels are businesses that seek to reduce their environmental impact through green best practices.

They focus on improving everything from maintenance, services, logistics, products, and supplies. The primary focuses revolve around saving energy, reducing waste, and decreasing water usage.

Hacienda Tres Rios focuses extensively on each of these pillars. It even provides its staff ongoing training to remain a top all-inclusive eco-resort in Mexico.

Hacienda Tres Rios is an all-inclusive eco-resort

In fact, Hacienda Tres Rios and the other hotels owned by the same parent company, Sunset World, all receive over 50% of their total energy from renewable resources.

The entire Hacienda Tres Rios hotel is powered by clean energy generated by Mexican wind farms.

Plus Tres Rios Resort has received a number of international awards since 2009 both for its environmental initiatives and for being a family-friendly resort. It was named Mexico’s Leading Family Resort in 2020!

From simple things that all hotels seem to do nowadays, like asking guests to reuse towels, to federally mandated rules, like eliminating straws and single-use plastics, Hacienda Tres Rios does it all.

What many people don’t know, though, is that the CEO of its parent company was one of the major supporters of the Mexican government’s plastics ban.

All-Inclusive Eco-Resort: Construction

The construction of massive resorts often results in the clearing of natural ecosystems. Especially in Riviera Maya, the cenotes are filled in which damages the underground water system.

In addition, the mangrove forests that absorb carbon dioxide and prevent shoreline erosion are often lost when they are cleared to make way for these mega-resorts.

Authentic eco-hotels seriously consider these challenges when designing their properties. They ensure that the smallest footprint possible is made, which enables both mangroves and cenotes to continue protecting the natural landscape.

Sunset World Group did exactly this when they designed their all-inclusive eco-resort at Hacienda Tres Rios. The buildings are no higher than three stories to ensure that no cenotes were damaged.

There are also large amounts of mangrove forests both around and among the buildings. They even provide guests with tours of the resort to showcase these successes and educate visitors on their environmental efforts.

Don’t all-inclusive resorts have a ton of food waste?

Yes, there is a ton of food waste at many all-inclusive resorts. Sadly, wasted food accounts for a quarter of the world’s total greenhouse emissions.

The oversized portions and buffets at many resort restaurants result in a LOT of the food being thrown in the trash.

In addition, many all-inclusive resorts import food in order to cater to tourist preferences. More emissions are generated the further the food travels, due to the fuel usage associated with shipping the food.

Unlike a majority of resorts, Hacienda Tres Rios composts its food waste. It does not end up decomposing in a landfill. Resorts that throw out their food are adding over 20 times more potent emissions than carbon dioxide!

Thankfully, a successful all-inclusive eco-resort, like Hacienda Tres Rios, blends a luxury experience with authentic sustainability.

In addition, Hacienda Tres Rios sources almost all of its food locally within the Yucatan peninsula. They even grow some of their produce and herbs on-site and they have their own farm in Merida.

This means that visitors get a farm-to-table dining experience during every meal, even at the buffets.

All-Inclusive Eco-Resort: Things to Do

Like many resorts in Riviera Maya, there are multiple swimming pools, the beach, a variety of restaurants, and nightly entertainment.

At least one night there is a Mayan cultural show. On another night there is a Mexican fiesta that showcases dances and music from all around Mexico.

These are pretty standard amenities and Hacienda Tres Rios offers them as well. However, they also have some unique entertainment activities that our family truly enjoys.

Dining Experiences

There is an outdoor pizza place that serves made-to-order pies until 4 pm. Since all kids seem to get hungry before what an adult feels is a good dinner time, we love swinging by to grab a small wood-fired pizza in the late afternoon.

This helps prevent Little Man from getting “hangry” before we adults want to eat dinner.

Twice a week, the casual dining pool restaurant is converted to a rodizio-style dinner. This is a Brazilian steakhouse that serves a variety of meats.

Waiters bring them around to patrons on large skewers. Sunset World Members can make dining reservations for this popular dinner while non-members have to show up and wait for a table to become available.

One of our favorite dining experiences there, though, is the surf & turf dinner. Once a week, Sunset World Members get to have lobster and filet mignon served at the restaurant of their choosing.

The meal has to be ordered in advance, but the experience is always a fun one. It’s probably the only time we get to eat lobster since we tend to make more budget-friendly dining options on a day-to-day basis.

Restaurants

The sushi restaurant is one of my favorite restaurants at the resort. It has a hibachi grill, which requires reservations a few days in advance due to very limited seating.

It’s restricted to ages 12+ so we just get a table next to the hibachi area. This allows us to watch them cook but then order all our favorite sushi dishes or try new ones.

Little Man learned to adore sushi during our time living in Malaysia. Thank goodness it’s an all-inclusive eco-resort because he loves to try all the rolls!

My other favorite restaurant is the Mexican hacienda. It’s called Alibreje after the Mexican spirit animals made popular in the cartoon movie Coco.

The decor is amazing, with its hand-carved artisanal chairs. Little Man loves the way they make guacamole. We have to order two servings: one for him and one for the adults.

Every time we go, they have different specialty dishes showcasing a different part of Mexico. It’s truly a culinary delight!

David’s favorite is the Italian restaurant. While I do think the food is good, I just don’t get overly excited about giant plates full of carbs. Nothing makes David happier than a huge plate of fettuccini alfredo, so we always come here once during our stay.

Unlike other all-inclusive resorts where restaurant reservations are limited to a few times per week, Hacienda Tres Rios doesn’t place any limitations on their fine dining restaurants. Any guest can go to any restaurant they wish as often as they like.

We once encountered a guest who ate at two restaurants a night during his one-week vacation. He wanted to try everything and said that eating two dinners was the only way to do so.

Eco-Friendly Activities

Before becoming an all-inclusive eco-resort, Hacienda Tres Rios was a 326-acre nature park. There are ten cenotes on the grounds as well as a mangrove river. Guests can swim in the cenotes as well as swim, kayak, or snorkel in the river.

It’s a great place for kiddos snorkeling for the first time because it’s not too deep. In addition, the current keeps everyone moving so kiddos who get tired of kicking will still keep moving forward.

The river snorkel ends at the beach, where the river dumps into the Caribbean. It’s a great spot for kiddos to hang out and play in the sand.

In addition, there are dirt trails back to the cenotes at the resort. Hacienda Tres Rios offers guided tours of the trails and cenotes by bike, segway, and even jungle carts. The latter are basically 4-wheel, low-rise pedal cars.

There are bikes for both adults and kids. However, we have only managed to try the jungle carts and segways so far on our stays there.

Once a week, a staff member even provides an in-depth tour of the gardens that provide all the decorative plants for the resort as well as some foods for cooking. If you’re really interested, they’ll even show you the compost heaps.

Yes, I asked during our tour so I can vouch that they do exist. The hotel truly “talks the talk and walks the walk” when it comes to being an all-inclusive eco-resort.

Kids Club

This all-inclusive eco-resort also offers an 18-hole mini-golf course next to the remodeled and expanded (in 2021) kids club. My son chooses to spend more time than I imagined in the Kids Club.

In addition to activities, the kids club staff also arranges a variety of outdoor fun from swimming in the pool to building sandcastles at the beach.

What we like best is the fact that the kids club offers late nights several times a week. They have movie nights, campfires with smores, and even a pinata on Fiesta night.

This allows parents to have solo time in the evenings, which I really appreciate. Next time we go, we are putting Little Man in the kids club for a late night and making Hibachi table reservations!

The best part about the late nights is they are included with every guests’ booking. Hacienda Tres Rios doesn’t charge extra to parents for taking advantage of the scheduled late nights.

Other Unique Activities for Kids

One of Little Man’s favorite activities is playing pool with David. They play several games a day, every day. There are several pool tables across from the patisserie, which Little Man quickly figured out serves homemade ice cream daily.

There’s also a ping pong table on the covered verandah next to the lobby. However, the staff occasionally moves it out to the main pool for family-friendly tournaments.

This is just a small part of the very busy activities schedule available at the main pool. All the activities are kid-friendly, even the water volleyball tournaments.

Little Man also enjoys going up to the private Member’s Only rooftop area, overlooking the ocean. We sit in a hot tub, he drinks a Coke, and the adults enjoy martinis.

This is the only place in the resort where you can get a martini any time you want. Normally, the general martini bar is only open a few days a week as the spot alternates with tequila tastings and other adult activities.

Customer Service

The biggest surprise was how many employees remember us from year to year. They are truly kind in asking how we’ve been since our last visit. Once we arrived, our favorite concierge from last year was waiting for us with a welcome gift!

I thought that was nice, but of course, she knew we were coming. I didn’t think much of her pleasantness until she hugged us goodbye on our last day. This was pre-pandemic; there’s no more hugging these days.

The dive guy with whom we never even booked a tour came up to us in the lobby our second visit to Tres Rios and asked if we were there the year before. He even remembered giving us a free mini scuba lesson in the pool.

When he found out we were going to take a day trip into Playa del Carmen, he grabbed a map of the town and wrote down a few restaurant ideas for us to try.

That same week, one of the restaurant hostesses said she remembered our son, saying how much taller he is this year.

Just before we left for the airport in 2018, our favorite buffet server from the prior year came up and asked if we had just arrived. He hadn’t seen us all week, mostly because we hadn’t eaten in that restaurant as often.

When we told him we were leaving, he was really sad and asked how we’d been. He even remembered we were from Chicago!

Top Service even in Tough Situations

The level of staff friendliness and courtesy consistently exceeds my expectations. This is even true of staff who don’t directly benefit from remembering guests.

The best demonstration of service, though, is how a resort deals with something that’s wrong. The resort butler and housekeeping staff went above and beyond to help me find a bag I left at Fiesta night once. Nothing was missing!

When Little Man accidentally locked himself in the bathroom, there was a gaggle of maintenance people and a supervisor in our room within five minutes when my son locked himself in our bathroom!

They came prepared with power tools and he was out just minutes later.

Another year, long before the pandemic, our son got sick in the middle of the night. (I’m pretty sure it was from my bad parenting and his eating too many sweets later in the evening. Neither of us adults got sick and he was fine the next day.)

Housekeeping was in our room mere minutes later, even though it was 2 am. They changed the sheets on the bed and brought us extra bottles of water we hadn’t requested. It was a touching extra level of service.

Conclusion: All-Inclusive Eco-Resort

Having been to all-inclusive resorts with mediocre food and service, I thought I wasn’t an “all-inclusive person”. Based on some bad experiences, I also thought that eco-resorts were just a gimmick.

I just needed to find the right resort. Hacienda Tres Rios has a bit of a Cheers vibe going on. Everyone may not know your name, but they certainly know who you are even a year later.

Their obvious dedication to sustainable tourism as well as their excellent service makes them an ideal all-inclusive eco-resort for families visiting Mexico.

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