Royal Hideaway Playacar

Had a family trip in mid May 2026 with three rooms. We were in the building closest to the Lobby area, which was nice for evening dinners. I loved my room and the shower was amazing. Our concierge, Alberto, was so helpful. My phone didn’t work and he had it fixed within a couple of hours. He set up all our dinner reservations and was available whenever I had questions. The food was quite good and room service was hot when delivered. The housekeeping service was excellent as was the gentleman who stocked my water. The grounds were lovely and the pool was very nice. Great bartenders and yummy drinks. The only thing I wish they had was poolside drink service. Loved the Michael Jackson show. This is a much smaller resort than we usually go to, but I’m older so I liked not having to walk as much. Another plus was that you could get para sailing and jet ski excursions right from the beach in front of the hotel. Four of our group even went skydiving which was very close. Good value for the price, very clean and quiet (but not boring). Would definitely recommend.

We stayed 7 days in the villa walking distance from the beach. The location and atmosphere was lovely.

Where to start! So we came with the expectation that this resort was a nice quiet relaxing resort - this expectation was met and was perfect for the atmosphere we wanted - we are not into a party scene! During check in we were asked if we had a special occasion during our stay - we confirmed it was our honeymoon - during the 2 weeks there not 1 nice / special thing was done for us, although we spotted plenty of special anniversary gifts / sparking wine etc being delivered to other blocks / rooms almost daily. Perhaps they don’t like Brits?! The room was ok, AC worked which reading other reviews must be a rarity! The beach had plenty of beds, although the smell from the seaweed could be off putting, men and tractors out most mornings but all they seemed to do was pull it into piles then leave it - a tractor and loader was driving around but during the 2 weeks we were there I only saw a couple trailer loads being taken away! I can’t comment on the pool lounger situation as we didn’t visit it once but that’s more to do with us wanting some quiet time, not being surrounded by strangers! Jorge from the bar made sure we were well hydrated on the beach - he is a star and the cocktails were fab! The food was hit and miss, thank god for The Grill and Azia - Carlos at the Grill was amazing. We did eat off resort a few times - as we couldn’t be bothered dressing up for dinner (although when we did - it was a shame that others could just walk into the “formal dining areas” in shorts, TShirts and baseball caps and sit down) Our concierge. He was MIA most of the time and when we did see him, he presented like he couldn’t be bothered with us - again perhaps it’s because we were Brits and weren’t needy or perhaps it was because we didn’t tip him the first time we saw him (end of our first week there!) he even argued with us that the cleaners had been into the room - when we mentioned they hadn’t. if it wasn’t for Armando coming to find us then no one would have checked in to see if we’d made any dinner reservations or that we were ok! Overall the resort was what we wanted, to relax and chill. The only thing I would say is there is nowhere to go for a drink before dinner - the bar had no atmosphere so we ended up going straight to dinner than back to the room for drinks on the balcony as even though we didn’t want a party scene, would have been nice to have a pre or post dinner drink and say hello to other couples etc. We wouldn’t stay there again, and probably would not recommend to anyone, especially as it’s a long flight from the UK and the resort only seems to want to cater for Americans over anyone else.

Overall I'd say our stay was solid. The room and pools were nice and relaxing, although our room did not have functioning AC (and was not fixed even after a handyman came) and our shower was quite small as well. The room service took about an hour per order which felt excessive, and the food generally was not the greatest. On our last day my partner and I both got sick because of it. Additionally, most of the staff were kind, but often did not remember our requests and also were not the most competent. For example, one morning my partner and I walked from the last cottage to the lobby in poring rain during the storm and when we reached the lobby we asked the front desk representative if they could give us a towel to dry off a little, to which the representative immediately replied, "sorry we don't have towels here." We then continued asking, "where can we find one? there's really nothing nearby?" and then the woman responded "maybe you could try downstairs somewhere?" We then walked downstairs where we found the whole spa and grabbed a towel very easily! It was astonishing to us how the woman at the front desk was so fast to deny us assistance when there were towels so easily accessible.

Stayed June 7th 12th 2026 rooms 2922 and room 3114 The hotel was very clean, the staff were friendly, and the pool area was good, service in all the restaurants was very good, and the food was very good as well. One downside was the sunbeds being reserved from as early as 5am, which made it difficult to find available loungers later in the day. The air conditioning was also not adequate. Our first room would not cool below 25°C “75F”so we had to switch rooms. The new room reached 21°C, which still wasn't ideal, but it was manageable and we made it work. Overall, we had a pleasant stay but unfailingly we had a bad experience with a manger, and the AC was just awful, for these reasons we will not be back. As for the issue with the Manger We upgraded to the Honeymoon Suite, but the air conditioning in the room would not go below 75°F (26°C), forcing us to change rooms. While we paid a $330 premium for that suite, the process to receive a refund was incredibly unprofessional and unsettling. I was required to provide a physical copy of my Visa card and write down the full number, and the manager failed to explain why this was necessary, leaving me feeling very uncomfortable. Furthermore, when I signed the refund paperwork, the manager repeatedly accused me of forging my own signature, despite my insistence that it was correct. His dismissive and confrontational attitude was the reason we will never return to this hotel.