Royal Hideaway Playacar

First time at this resort after visiting many other locations in Riviera Maya. The overall feeling was calm and relaxation. The grounds are outstanding, beautiful layout, very clean and very well maintained. We were treated so nice, with a glass of champagne at our arrival time, with a nice gift in treats and champagne for our anniversary celebration and also, another sweet treat right before our departure, which we are so grateful. This makes such a big difference since it was the first time the resort took care of us in such a beautiful way, just to make us feel special. The staff is so great, always willing to help you out in any way possible, from the Concierge reps. Ricky, who was so eager to answer to all our questions, to Candy that took car of our room, Brendan from entertaining team that was always so kind and funny and just a beautiful sight every day, Jose that was our servant at the restaurant and he was amazing with our table and Carlos Quintal that welcomed us every day at every meal at restaurants as the Host who is such a kind man, always going extra miles to make us feel good, and to make us feel special. I have only good words about this resort but I do have two things that I want to go over because I think this was the common discussed subject among many of the visitors. I don't want to call them other than suggestions for the resort on how to improve the experience of their guests. One of them is the Reserved tabs placed on almost half of the seats around the pool. I understand that there are some very special clients that probably pay extra to be treated as VIPs, but some of them don't even make the effort to show up, so maybe not quite fair to the other tourists. I woke up at 6.00 am because I wanted to be there early and I found seats all the time but the people coming after 10.00 am or after the breakfast, they had to go mostly to the beach seats that were still available. Another suggestion I have is for the resort to bring more shows in that stunning theater they have. The last suggestion I may have is regarding something I heard so many visitors talking about and that is the missing of the buffet option at dinner and somehow at lunch. For lunch, there are some items at buffet that you can grab but other items must be ordered at table, which takes more time than the full buffet option for all the food items. For dinner you can only make reservation to one of their 5-6 restaurants but not all of them are running every day, so basically, we only had 2-3 options for our dinner every day. If you stay 5-6 days, maybe you don't feel it too much, but we stayed for two weeks and after the first week, we kind of tired of the same menu for dinner. Yes, you can order in room service but the choices again are always the same, not much variety in the meal choices. Also, you can see why every dinner takes at least 1.5 hours to complete. I totally understand if some people like going to restaurant every night but I know that many of the tourists would prefer a full buffet option for dinner as well, as an alternative. Otherwise, I would say this feels as a 5 star resort , a hidden gem in Riviera Maya.

My husband and I took a quick get away and stayed at the Royal Hideaway Playacar. This is certainly a mellow resort and more for the older crowd. My husband and I are mid-30s and we felt a bit young here but we were looking for relaxing, not a party atmosphere. The grounds were very nice, clean and quiet. Dinner was excellent but oh my, the coffee was terrible. Breakfast was fine, nothing extravagant. Drinks were good, beach was nice but so much seaweed which apparently is normal nowadays. I think overall, if your looking for a quick getaway for reasonable pricing, this is a solid choice but I wouldn't stay longer than 4 nights. You'll eat well, sleep well and feel relaxed! ps: great gym!!!

We come here three times each year and love the experience. It's not for everyone, but works for us to be active, eat healthy food and truly relax. A beautiful beach with the opportunity for good watersports and a beautiful place to be with someone you love.