Royal Hideaway Playacar

We had a wonderful and relaxing week at The Royal Hideaway Playacar. The food was good, there are plenty of activities if you want to participate or you can just relax by the pool or the beautiful beach! One advise is to make sure you book your reservations at the restaurants when you book your stay. Great place, I highly recommend it!

Just wanted to send some quick notes about our last visit and previous visits, around 10, to RH. Sometimes twice a year. (Sorry for any incorrect spellings). Valet-Daniel is great. Professional and efficient. Always greeting with a big welcoming smile when we arrive and actually sad to see us go. Pool Services-Luis (The King), Javier and Eduardo. Always friendly. Rare waits and knowing what we want/need all the time. Non stop. Sea Breezes for everyone!!!!!!!! Pool Activities, chairs, etc.- Roberto and Alexa. Roberto has really grown so much over the last few years. Engaging with everyone, funny and hands on. Great future. Alexa is new but could not be any sweeter and communicates with all the guests. Alexa remember: Listen, Ask and Educate. The Deck-Erik and Juan. They are the best. Breakfasts that last hours are truly one of the highlights of our trip. We want for nothing and constantly being looked after. Plenty of food and …………….. ohhhhhhhhhh the bacon!!!!!!!!! Also a new person Jacob. Looks like a manager. Has only been there for about a week or so but to us has an unbelievable future. Alegria Bar-Kudos to Lorenzo and Russ (Rosie). Could not be more friendly, solid bartender and server with the greatest smile. She just lights up every time we see her. BLDG 24 Concierge- SUCEL SANCHEZ. To us she is the JEWEL of Royal Hideaway. One of the main and many reasons we do come back. Knows RH as good as anyone but also a truly good person. Like others, she really cares about us but also proud of where she works and those she works with. Can not say enough about her. Sucel always goes above and beyond in everything to make our stay comfortable and enjoyable. From reservations to service she is truly a great asset to the RH. Oh and thanks for making sure Jameson’s is around. 😊 Conclusion. Are there fancier places? Sure. Larger? Sure. More comfortable and accommodating? I doubt it. Thanks to all of those above and those not mentioned, again you make our vacations special. Thank you! Mary and Rob Elzey Janet and Andy McGinty

Hotel is very good but the rooms are tired and need to be of a better standard. Staff are friendly and helpful and food selection and quality is good. The main reception area lift was never working and my wife is disabled and had to use stairs, this was reported but nothing was done.

This adults-only resort is quiet, calm and low-key. If you want rest and relaxation, good food, comfortable rooms and beautiful landscapes, this resort is for you. Each building of rooms has its own concierge, and you would be lucky to get Cipriano Malpica. He is warm, professional, knowledgeable and eager to help in any way he can. All the restaurants are good, but we especially enjoyed Azia with its staff of Fernando, Karina, Wilson and hibachi Chef Axel. They are all extremely service oriented and enjoy their jobs. Carlos Quintal in restaurant management knows what he is doing to create an efficient, well run dining room. The bars were not stocked with our favorite liquor (Midori) or Coke (they have Pepsi) but that is our only complaint.

My review of the Royal Hideaway is, unfortunately, an overall negative one. The hotel itself is slightly on the dated side. The check-in process took forever, and wasn’t particularly welcoming. The drinks are absolutely watered down – they barely taste of alcohol, and it got to the point where I couldn’t stomach much more fruit juice and syrup, without actually getting any of the desired effect of the drink. Each villa is supposed to have its own concierge – we only saw ours once in a 10-day stay, which wasn’t terribly helpful when we required assistance for a three-day bout of food poisoning, which I will come to later. As well as giving us food poisoning, the food here overall is bang average. Do not trust a single other review that says the food here is good – it is not. It is genuinely some of the blandest and least interesting food I have eaten. We didn’t have any difficulty booking into any of the restaurants, as all times were available, but certain restaurants were shut entirely on certain days. The hotel was only at 50% capacity when we stayed. The only food I can genuinely compliment here is the hibachi cooking at the Asian restaurant, and the lunch menu at the Mexican restaurant. Everything else is either completely plain (I was genuinely expecting a bit of Mexican flavour or spice) OR the chef had just learned what a jus or a gel was and decided to splatter it all over the plate in an attempt to be refined. Given that we heard multiple, verbatim, quotes from other (primarily American) guests saying “I mostly only eat meat and potatoes” or “we only eat chicken strips and hamburgers” it doesn’t entirely surprise me that the majority of these reviews consider the food to be mindblowing. It really isn’t, if you have tastebuds. Before getting to the crux of this review, regarding the food poisoning outbreak, I do have a couple of positives. • The resort itself is lovely and the beach was in great condition when we went – with almost no seaweed. • It’s great that it’s adults-only. • The entertainment and hospitality staff are lovely. Shout out to Alexa and Carlos in the entertainment team, and we eventually received the help of a lovely concierge called Sandra. • Entertainment is good during the day, with a variety of activities in the pool and classes like tequila tasting, guacamole making, ceviche making, sushi making, cocktail making and painting. I can’t really speak on what it’s like in the evening – mostly because the evening schedule is very clearly catered towards an older, American crowd who prefer to dine earlier – most of the entertainment ran from 8-9pm approx. My partner and I both suffered severe food poisoning after dining at The Grill (steak) restaurant at the Royal Hideaway Hotel. Within hours, my partner experienced extreme vomiting and diarrhoea, followed by my own illness the next day. We quickly discovered that at least four other guests who had eaten at the same restaurant on the same night also fell ill, AND subsequently discovered a couple of days later, when my partner tried to go to a pre-registered cooking class at the hotel, that all of the other participants (approx. 10 people) signed up to the activity had had to cancel – due to food poisoning. The member of hotel staff running the activity confirmed to my partner that the hotel was investigating the issue, and suspected “a bad batch of meat”. What made the experience even worse was the hotel’s dismissive and unprofessional response. When I first reported the incident, the duty manager suggested we might just be “unused to the local spices,” and despite assurances that the matter would be investigated, we never heard back. Staff took hours to provide basic assistance, and the restaurant in question remained open even after multiple guests were reported ill. The entire situation reflected a shocking lack of accountability and care — far below what we expected from a so-called five-star resort. Overall, I cannot in good faith recommend The Royal Hideaway. Upon a bit of further investigation, it does appear to be one of the cheaper resorts in the area, and I think the food, drinks and other amenities reflect this. My advice would be to try and save up a bit more cash and head somewhere where a 5-star rating is actually befitting of the resort.