Royal Hideaway Playacar

Pros:Beautiful beach, smaller resort,maintained lush grounds, comfy beds,and met wonderful people from all over. Cons: AC is AWFUL. Room never cooled down and ceiling fan was worthless. Resort is super clean but definitley showing its age(desilvered mirrors in rooms, tired looking rooms, sliding door that barely opened) Food was good for the most part, however Husband did get violently ill after fish at lunch one day unfortunately. Really wanted love...resort greq on me but lack of AC was deal breaker.

Firstly we would like to thank all the staff at this hotel for working hard to ensure we had a good stay. With few exceptions they are friendly and welcoming and very hardworking. A hotel is nothing without its staff. So, on to the other positives: we needed to relax and recharge after a few challenging months and we managed to do that here. There's plenty of entertainment during the day but it's not intrusive. We appreciated this. The tennis courts are very good quality and my partner appreciated this as he loves tennis and had sole coaching while we were there. The quality of food at the evening meals was very good and certainly comparable with other five star hotels we have stayed at in the Caribbean. The downsides for us are: the reception is very poorly staffed. We arrived exhausted to dind one solitary person manning the entire place and so had quite a wait to be seen. Not very good first impressions. Secondly there is very little by way of atmosphere in the evenings so if you are people who like somewhere to gather and socialise of an evening, or at least be in the company of others, you may struggle here. Thirdly, the air con here is generally very poor so we did spend a lot of time sweating! Fourthly , there are far too few sunbeds for the number of guests, meaning the only way to ensure you had one is to get down to the pool by absolutely no later than 0600. This wasn't a huge problem for us as we were rising early to work out on the beach but it was a cause of quite some frustration and disappointment for others. Lastly, the quality and variety of food at breakfast and lunch was very poor indeed. I would say more 2-3 star at best. It was the most disappointing aspect for me as I am quite a foodie. If food is important to you I would choose somewhere else. Overall, this hotel definitely needs to try harder to justify its give star status. I feel for the lovely staff who do work really hard to make things as good as possible but there's only so much they can do.

A very very disappointing stay. We are frequently visitors and I must stay this stay was hands down the worst!!! Such a beautiful resort that is now declining. The food quality has really declined. The air conditioning in the rooms were not functioning properly. Very difficult to sleep in a warm room. Avoid ordering a steak at the Grill! Very poor quality and full of fat and gristle! Our server Christine was miserable. No refill of water or drinks offered. Maybe not enough staffing?? Breakfast at Spices was not open our entire stay. Dinner menu at Spices needs a full revision. The setting is perfect…. The food horrible! 2 1/2 hours to be served a meal at Palazzo and again very stuffy without air conditioning functioning properly. Hibachi was only available at 9 pm, which is way too late for us as seniors

Booked Royal Hideaway Playacar for my bachelorette trip expecting “luxury adults-only resort” and instead got “slightly humid endurance exercise.” To be fair, the resort was clean and the grounds themselves are beautiful and well-maintained. Unfortunately, that was not enough to make up for the overall experience. The property is badly in need of updates. A lot of the rooms and facilities felt tired and outdated, especially for the price point. The AC in our rooms also appeared to be functioning purely as a polite suggestion. Sleeping felt less like a vacation and more like being gently steamed overnight. One room in particular had essentially no AC in the bathroom whatsoever, which made every trip to the toilet feel like a cardio activity. To make matters even more memorable, that same toilet eventually flushed black water. Nothing says “five-star relaxation” quite like sweating through your skincare routine while wondering if your plumbing is summoning a Victorian ghost. The palm-frond ceiling fans may have been intended to create a tropical ambiance, but mostly they created noise. Between the loud fan sounds and the weak AC, getting a decent night’s sleep was surprisingly difficult. The food was honestly one of the biggest disappointments. As someone with celiac disease, I was assured dietary restrictions could be accommodated, but in reality I spent most of the trip surviving almost exclusively on room service flan. By the end of the week I felt emotionally attached to that flan because it was the only consistently safe thing available. The one decent breakfast option was the table service restaurant, but every breakfast somehow became a 90-minute commitment. Nothing says “luxury relaxation” quite like wondering if your coffee will arrive before lunch. Pool seating was also a daily Hunger Games situation. Guests would wake up at 6 AM to claim loungers with towels for the entire day whether they were actually using them or not, and the staff did absolutely nothing to manage it. If you enjoy competitive towel-based real estate warfare before sunrise, this may be the resort for you. What really pushed the experience over the edge was the overall vibe from the service staff. While a few employees were lovely, many others seemed apathetic at best and actively annoyed by guests at worst. For a resort marketed as high-end hospitality, the energy often felt more “DMV on a Friday afternoon.” The crowd also skewed much older than we expected. We specifically did *not* want a spring-break-style party resort, but this probably isn’t the best fit for a group in their late 20s or 30s looking for a fun but still upscale bachelorette atmosphere. The overall vibe was extremely quiet and sleepy. What’s most disappointing is that this was my bachelorette trip — something we spent a long time planning and saving for — and the overall experience honestly put a cloud over what should have been a really special week. My group left feeling far more frustrated than relaxed. Overall, this did not feel like the luxury experience we paid for, and I would absolutely not choose it again for a special occasion.

Just returned from a seven nights stay. Check-in went smoothly and the grounds are beautiful. We opted for a sunrise room, but don’t really see the benefit in paying extra for it. Couldn’t really see the sunrise. Won’t go into what has been said already. Rooms need updating, no doubt. The AC was poor and room and restaurants yes were on the warmer side. Food was pretty good overall and service was good. It’s the details and consistency that matter.. No spoons at lunch yet have soup bowls next to buffet soup but have to ask for spoon. Put spoons next to bowls. Most umbrellas missing set pins so guests have to tie rope to keep it up. Have to get up at 6am to get pool loungers. Make it no reserve before 7 or 8. Housekeeping and turndown were great. Get with times and get app for resort with room key so no keycards, events and make own reservations. Beach is by far the best around. First few days said never return, but it did start to grow on us and we said might return if they work some things out Will see.