Royal Hideaway Playacar

We absolutely loved our vacation at the Royal Hideaway. It's located in the Playacar section of Playa del Carmen, an attractive gated community within walking distance to the downtown and main pier (for visiting Cozumel, etc.). The hotel is set on a pristine section of beach covered in beautiful white sand. The ocean temperature was about 80F every day and calm enough for swimming. I'm an avid swimmer so this was important to me. The hotel also has two main pools (and several smaller ones) and two hot tubs. We also loved our very clean room, located in the building closest to the main pools and buffet eating area. We were on the second floor and had a balcony looking out at trees. Since we sat looking at ocean most of the day, we enjoyed this alternate view. It was peaceful sitting out there and seeing birds along with the Mexican version of a raccoon. Our bed was very comfortable and the nights were very quiet for sleeping. This is an adult-only resort and probably aimed at those who prefer a quieter hotel experience as opposed to a loud party scene. We felt they had just the right amount of daily and nighttime activities to provide fun diversions. Aqua-gym, trivia contests, and tequila tasting were some of the daytime activities. There were high-quality shows in the beautiful theater during most evenings, including a Michael Jackson tribute show, a circus show, and a traditional Mexican dance show. The performers were impressive. After the shows, there were often live music acts at the bar in the main building. We particularly loved the two-woman band and enjoyed the other bands (jazz, rock, and salsa) as well. This is an all-inclusive hotel and the food offerings were amazing. There are five restaurants offering buffet-style dining, a steakhouse grill, a Japanese habachi, plus Mexican, Asian, Mediterranean, and Italian food. Something for every palate and of a higher quality than we've experienced before at all-inclusives. Outside of the hotel, there's a small shopping area across the street in easy walking distance that has a full pharmacy, a Starbucks, money exchange, and some clothing and souvenir shops. A 20-minute walk takes you to a lovely aviary. There's a small charge to enter. We enjoyed seeing a variety of birds, from bright-colored parrots to flamingos and other water birds in a peaceful wooded setting. Another 10 minutes from there and you'd be in town, where there are many shops and restaurants. We enjoyed walking through there though it's quite touristy. Eventually we went off the beaten path and discovered a couple of restaurants frequented by locals that had better food. One standout was Lexi's Comida y Cafe. Delicious lunch and breakfast food with fresh bread every morning. Lastly (but not leastly) I'd like to commend the staff. From check-in to check-out, we were treated to welcoming smiles and friendly greetings, constant offers to be of help, and first class levels of service. I'd like to particularly mention Andres Lupe, Carlos Quintal, and Oscar at The Grill, our concierge Sucel, Yomara at the wonderful spa, and activity coordinators Roberto and Adriana for their friendly outreach and service that went above and beyond. This was our first trip there but will not be our last.

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.