Royal Hideaway Playacar

A great time had by all. I would highly recommend a stay here. If being private is a concern, this place is for you.

This was my husband and my second visit to this lovely resort. It is elegant and casual at the same time and I thoroughly relaxed. The main building feels like you are staying at an aristocrats summer villa. The service is top notch and the food is delicious and creative. Try to get dinner resos so that you have time to see the shows which are usually at 8 or 9 and super fun. I loved dancing to the silent disco! The views are stunning and the beach is really pretty. It is a nice walk to the town of Playa del Carmen, but away from the noise. We loved it!

We absolutely loved our stay at the Royal Hideaway ❤️ we enjoyed all the Alacartes our favorite was the Azia we enjoyed 3 Dinners there the staff were all awesome a special thankyou to Oscar excellent waiter Our second favorite was the grill they make a excellent Rib Eye and again staff were awesome. Our third favorite was spices for dinner and our waiter Antonio was amazing 👏 We enjoyed breakfast off menu at spices every morning again excellent staff To mention Joana Carlos and Antonio everyone was so welcoming Our concierge Armando was excellent so helpful had all our suppers booked for 6:00 which was great Now during the day the pool staff and was so great Everything was amazing will recommend when we get home Met lovely people from all over

The hotel was nice. Beach is nice, but there are a few things that will make me never go back to this resort. 1. Transportation arranged by the hotel - they never showed up at the airport to pick us up. Cost us $120.00 US to take a taxi. No one answering at the hotel. and when we got to the resort - they said the transport company didn't have our flight information. However, when we were getting ready to leave at the end of our trip - they sent us vouchers for the lounge at the airport and it included our flight information. How would they have the return information if they didn't have our arrival information. And of course, there is NO ONE at the resort that could help. Wasted our precious vacation time, talking to a number of different managers / conceirge / etc. 2. The bathtub in our room - looked old and dirty. it was a jet tub....grungy. and the water from the tub tap was brown. 3. We had to wait (10 - 20 mins) every breakfast and lunch. There seems to be not enough seating / staff / capacity to manage the number of guests. Also didn't like that we had to reserve every dinner. There wasn't a place we could just go without a reservation. Beach is lovely. Relaxation pools are lovely - but the other things.....won't come back. Disappointing as I have gone to a number of other Barcelo resorts near there that were all better than this one.

Just returned from a week at The Royal Hideaway and wanted to give an honest review and answer some of the questions that I’ve read on the chat. Bit of background on us, from the UK, first time visiting Mexico, though have travelled extensively across Europe, Asia and the US. We booked through British Airways holidays, could not get a better deal booking separately, even direct with Barcelo and using cheapest flights. We arrived late evening in pouring rain but were impressed with the reception we received and were pre booked into the Grill which was a nice touch. More on the Grill later. Rather than give a day by review, I’ve updated by topic, hope this helps. Beds by the pool - no chance by the main infinity pool unlesss you are timeshare members. Beds are booked by each block concierge for VIPs and members. Ordinary bods like us - no chance (confirmed by our concierge when we asked). We were however able to get a bed each morning by the pool behind the infinity pool, nice pool and steps from everything. We had to be there before 08:00 each morning to reserve them though. Once reserved, most were kept by towels all day, regardless of whether people used them. Beds on the beach - lots of beds, not as comfortable as the pool beds but steps from the amenities and the pool waiters take orders and serve everyone on the beach as well as around the pool. The beach - stunning! As beautiful as the pictures, soft white sand, turquoise warm sea, palm trees .. beautiful. Walked along to Playa Del Carmen and back, very enjoyable. The restaurants - in our view…. mixed. We felt the formal dress was a bit over the top. Smart shorts for men should have been acceptable. I’ve eaten in Michelin star restaurants in dress shorts. Booking - we emailed ahead of time and requested bookings and times. These were confirmed the day before we arrived. In order of where we dined. The Grill - we dined here on our first night. Felt a little underwhelming, dark but not cosy, bland and a bit dour. Food was ok (steak) nothing too outstanding but ok. Ventanas - sorry but bang average, no where near 5* dining. Menu was bland and food equally uninteresting. Lots of pretentious drama without the quality. Our least favourite restaurant, we chose not to eat there again. Azia - the best meal we had. Great menu, lots of options, excellent service. First class night. Understandably difficult to book. Spices - An over formal Mexican inspired offering. Again, sadly just ok, not spectacular, hoped for so much more from a traditional restaurant 😞 We did eat here for lunch on one day. Menu pretty similar to the evening menu. Palazzo - Italian inspired with great ambiance and food to match. Second only to Azia. Service great too. The Deck (Breakfast and all daytime dining) - this is actually the Grill, same place different name on an evening. Not two separate venues … cheeky. Breakfast was buffet style with omelette station - shout out to the omelette lady, always smiling 🙂 to be honest, choice got a bit samey after 6 days. For info we went into Playacar one night and ate at Harry’s - now that’s how you serve food - spectacular and highly recommended. Drinks - quite a few comments re strength of daytime drinks. In our opinion, the weakest drinks we’ve ever had at any all inclusive resort. If these were bought in a bar you’d send them back - such a shame. In fact the only alcoholic drinks we had which tasted as they should was the wine, direct from the bottle in the restaurants. Btw… Allegria and the Sports Bar are the same building .. Cheeky .. Accommodation - we were in a top floor apartment so had lovely high ceiling and felt roomy. A/C worked well, and bed was huge! Sadly it needed an upgrade. Whilst everything was spotlessly clean, it was was very tired, felt lived in. In all honesty, definitely not 5*. Overall - we had a great time, staff were great, location great, beach spectacular. Food and drinks sadly hit and miss. Would we go again? To a Barcelo yes (based on previous experiences). To Royal Hideaway, probably not. (Note: my honest, unbiased opinion from actual lived experience. Based on several years of global travel, staying in various types of accommodation and eating everywhere from street food to Michelin restaurants).