Royal Hideaway Playacar

Royal Hideaway Playacar very thorough review My wife, our oldest son and daughter-in-law, both late twenties, and youngest son, mid-twenties returned from a fun, enjoyable and most relaxing, 6 day, 5 night stay at the adults only, all-inclusive resort, Royal Hideaway Playacar on Monday, 7/27/2026. It was the first all-inclusive for my wife and I, and our youngest, and the fifth for our oldest and our daughter-in-law (both of whom made all the arrangements and guided us throughout the trip). My wife had wanted to vacation at an all-inclusive for many years, and I don’t think we could have chosen a better one for a first time experience. The rooms, although ours didn’t include a view of the water, were beautiful, one with king size bed for our oldest son and daughter-in-law, and one with two queens for us and our youngest son, were both very spacious, clean and had huge bathrooms, with both a jet tub and separate shower, and balcony with two lounge chairs. The rooms included a refrigerator with a variety of sodas, and bottled water, and included an Nespresso coffee maker with several pods. The food at all the restaurants was outstanding and the service was very attentive and friendly. As a party of five, we ended up in a separate room at both the Asian and Mediterranean restaurants. The Asian restaurant included a sunken table with legless padded seats and backrest, for a more authentic feel. The Mediterranean meal included three courses and dessert. Our server, Argenisis, was an absolutely delightful young man, with whom our whole family quickly established a friendship that extend over two more evening meals. He was so nice, attentive and had an easy smile and sense of humor, throughout the two and half hours of our meal. We gave him a normal tip with the cash we had on hand, and afterward I got more money from our room and walked back to catch him before he left and gave him the biggest tip I have ever given a server. We were so pleased to have him again at the Mexican restaurant the next night. And on the third night when he was our server again at the Grill steak restaurant, his face was beaming as he walked over to our table and I gave him a guy hug as if he were an old friend we had known for years. Later, we made sure to get a picture with him and our whole family since he had been such a positive part of our stay. I spoke with the management staff and emailed them the picture to pass along to him, along with our highest praises. Lastly, our youngest son went back to our room after our last meal and went back to the restaurant to give Argenisis a tip out of his money! Breakfasts each day by the sea, in an open air restaurant, included a buffet with an ample variety of carbs, proteins, fruits, vegetables, including some different alternatives each day, and several days included an omelet chef to make your omelet to order while you watched, and the option of ordering from the menu. There was almost around the clock room service included, of which we took advantage several times throughout our stay, with breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night menu sections. The food would be brought to your room within 35 minutes and was as good as if you were in one of the restaurants. The beach at the resort is a man-made beach with beautiful white sand and probably a hundred lounge chairs, each with retractable canopies, some out in the open on the sand and many among the 50 or so palm trees for shade. The beach faces the east, and thus provided beautiful sunrises, on each of the two mornings I was up before 6:20 a.m. to enjoy them. There were six pools, with the two largest ones nearest to the Caribbean. We got up between 7-8 each day to reserve lounge chairs with towels from the nearby activities station. While at the pools, staff would pleasantly assist you and bring drinks or food from the adjacent snack bar and restaurant. That was part of the “royal” treatment at Royal Hideaway! Note: We came away without sunburns but had spf 60 and 100 sunscreen lotion, which we applied 3x per day, had long sleeved swim shirts and broad brimmed hats for my youngest son and I, who are more prone to sunburns. The resort had beautiful architecture, landscaping and was immaculately maintained. My wife and I continually commented on how the beauty of our surroundings contributed to the sense of pleasure we were having on the trip. The resort had an Activities board posted each day, including in the pool trivia contests, aqua gym/aerobics (hosted by Brandon and Adriana, both of whom were young, friendly, energetic, humorous and engaging with us mostly older guests), a wine bottle painting session one day, a very good live band one night, available ping pong table and equipment a couple days (which both sons and I enjoyed), a casino night with six game tables (roulette, blackjack-3 tables, and Texas hold ‘em poker-2 tables) and they supplied the chips to bet with, and separately a room with two pool tables. Our oldest son also scheduled for us to have a four-hour snorkeling tour over off Cozumel Island, which stopped at three locations, including a coral reef where we saw see turtles and some smaller non-aggressive-to-humans sharks, then a bed full of starfish, and a third location with a sandbar under about 3 feet of clear water where we saw 20-30 stingrays swimming between us and past us as we could stand and bend over watch them with our mask and snorkel tubes on. This was so cool to see all of these beautiful creatures in the wild next to you. It definitely made a wonderful, shared family memory that I would highly recommend as an addition to your stay at Royal Hideaway. For completeness, the AC in both rooms did not cool the rooms to our satisfaction, even though the thermostat in ours said it got as low as 20.5C/68.9F, it actually felt like 74-75F, and our oldest son’s only got down to 24C/75.2F, but felt closer to 78F. We removed the quilt and slept with only the top sheet, and made sure to keep the bathroom doors closed, and the south facing balcony doors and curtains closed. We asked on the first day and two subsequent days, but nothing ever seemed to change. Also, the safe in our room would not ever latch, so we just used the one in our oldest son’s room. Aside from the above, we could not have been more pleased with the shear beauty of the location, the absolutely fantastic food, and most of all the friendly, attentive staff, and our new-found friend, Argenisis, at the Royal Hideaway Playacar!

My 4 star review might be very misleading, here's why...the resort is amazing! Food was excellent, staff was very knowledgable and friendly (especially Barndon and Alexa), the place was clean. There we loads of beach chairs available on poolside deck and on the beach. We had a lot of sargassum, so we couldn't get in the water, but that's no ones fault. This resort would have a 5 star but it asks about our "experience." As a Canadian who has travelled to many resorts over 25 years, this is the first experience that I have had with Americans trying to have political conversations. It was very uncomfortable, as we were blamed for wildfire smoke, not supporting their current president (whom they felt were doing a great job, etc) on a daily basis. I have never in my life been hesitant to say that I'm from Canada ( as I am so proud of my country), but this was so upsetting. So...just a heads up to others travelling, you may encounter this as well. Resort itself is very high end and I had no complaints :)

We've stayed at Royal Hideaway Playacar multiple times over the years, and it continues to be one of our favorite resorts. The grounds are beautiful and impeccably maintained, the food is consistently excellent with a great variety of dining options, and the service is truly exceptional. Every staff member we encountered was friendly, attentive, and genuinely focused on making our stay enjoyable. The rooms are comfortable, the atmosphere is peaceful and relaxing, and the adults-only setting makes it the perfect place to unwind. The beach is beautiful, and the overall experience keeps us coming back year after year. We highly recommend Royal Hideaway Playacar to anyone looking for a relaxing, high-quality all-inclusive resort. It's one of those places that consistently delivers, which is why we continue to return.

great place to go and relax to be away from it all, while being waited on for maximum comfort. The entire resort was so immaculate and very clean. Loved everyone on staff, always attentive but not pushy at all. Loved the quiet atmosphere and never felt like the other guests were out of hand or crazy. We cannot wait to come back soon with some friends!

My wife and I had an amazing time at RHP! Highly recommend if you are looking for a quieter resort. We were definitely on the younger side at this resort (28 and 33) but we didn't mind. The staff was very friendly and was more than willing to help us practice our Spanish. The restaurants were amazing as well!