Royal Hideaway Playacar

Carlos Quintal in the “grill” restaurant was superb. I observed him meticulously setting up tables that looked absolutely perfect initially. He pandered my sub par Spanish and provided a perfect experience for my spouse and I. Give this man a raise!!

Overall the experience was wonderful. We cannot say enough about Mary-Ann, Alexa, Carlos, and Roberto on how engaging and welcoming they were. They really helped make our experience fun. The atmosphere with so many people from different countries made it fun and interesting. The activities were fun as well. The beach and pools are great except the temperature of the endless pool could be warmer. Our room was amazing and very clean. The food generally was good. My wife has allergies and she limited options is the only issue. However, you did have more gluten free desserts than other resorts we have been to which she loved. In all we enjoyed our stay and will most likely return.

We had the best spa experience with Norma and Yomara. My mom’s shoulder was injured and Yomara helped care for my mom with a gentle kindness. Norma was so strong and sweet always checking in on my experience. We had such a great experience, we booked another massage with them the very next day. Can’t recommend both Norma and Yomara at Royal Hideaway spa enough. Gracias!

Just 50 mins south of Cancun, the hotel is a 40 min stroll south of the town, amongst a line of hotels along the beachfront. All the public areas, grounds & gardens, pool area, beach, lobby and many terraces and places to sit/drink are absolutely meticulously kept and make the place look wonderful. The rooms are spacious and well equipped, as some comment in other reviews maybe ready for redecoration but nevertheless well appointed - a good in-room minibar, Nespresso machine, hair dryer, iron and board, walk in wardrobe, comfortable chairs on terrace/balcony. The beach front is glorious and the hotel is smaller than those on either side and more peaceful as a result, with a pull up shade 'hood' for each pair of sunbeds. The pool area is beautiful. The only snag was we never managed to sit by the pool as it seems a majority of guests get up at 5 and 6 am 'reserve' their beds, a minor but annoying quibble, especially when they are still empty towards late morning. The restaurants on site are OK. We, as Europeans, found the dinners to be a bit bland and lacking of flavouring but we appreciate they cater for the majority of their guests (mostly Canadian and American), this we spoke to all thought the dining to be superb. Certainly everything is well presented and fresh. Breakfasts and lunches in The Grill are very good indeed, varied each dyad super fresh salads, fruit, warm meat dishes and a pizza oven on the go. There is a menu choice offered every day alongside a generous self service buffet offer. We only 'discovered' on our second to last day that you can have breakfast served in Spices restaurant upstairs, this was fabulous and much quieter and we wish we had known about it earlier. The staff are all without fail a treat, welcoming, smiling, happy to serve, an absolute credit to the hotel, which comes across as really well run. A special mention to Carlos Quintal in The Grill who looked after us several times, a delightful, efficient man. We did 2 trips out. One we did independently to go snorkelling at Cozumel (see other review). A 200 peso taxi ride to the ferry terminal, bought tickets to Cozumel, walked 3 blocks to Deep Blue dive shop. The reason to go with a dive shop is they take you along with their divers and you get to see Palancar which you can't if using a beach snorkel operator. Superb. The other trip was to Cenote Case Tortuga, which we did via one of the trip operators who patrol up and down the beach. Again very good.

Do Not Come Here! Last day and still here and looking forward to leaving tomorrow morning. Thee worst experience I have ever had in all my travels to Mexico over the past 20 years...and frankly in all my vacations! God forbid you have an issue or are promised something. The management here never resolved anything with any real compensation (moved from first room that had broken ac/fan/safe to a downgraded worse room with major plumbing issues, so had to move again…booked spa appointment and they tried to have the sales lady for spa give me my massage, not to mention lied about the costs, and so much more)... lies and fake resolutions. They continue to take away from what was supposed to be a short yet relaxing vacation. First time crying while on vacation from this extremely poor experience. I plan a more detailed review to come soon. Emotionally and physically exhausted from this experience…imagine, lipstick on a pig.