Royal Hideaway Playacar

I’ve meant to write this review for awhile now. OMG! World class, gorgeous, sumptuous and stunning! Phenomenal and friendly service and decadent breakfasts on the patio taking in the ocean. Need I say more! Run, don’t walk then lay at the beach or by the infinity pool all day but stay at this resort!!! Photos are also spot on!

This was my first stay ever at an all inclusive so I can only compare it to non inclusive. In my overall opinion, unless you plan on eating and drinking you face off, stay at a different hotel.
Pros
Great long beautiful beach
Beautiful spacious rooms
Great massage
Clean hot steam room in spa locker room
Friendly service
Cons
Everyone working there has poor English.
Room service takes a good hour
Male staff incessantly hits on females
Male attendant in the gym is a complete creep. He took my headphones off of me while I was in the bike so he could hit on me/​ask me out, came up behind me and tried to massage my shoulders and doesn’t stop trying to interfere/​talk. Completely inappropriate and unprofessional
Limited menu by pool
Not a lot of healthy options at the restaurants
Wine included in all inclusive is terrible
Very VERY inconsistent water temperature in the shower. Good luck taking a shower with a few screams.

Muy buen servicio y excelente comida, en cualquiera de sus restaurantes. El bufet de desayuno varía cada día, y te permite ver el amanecer en el mar sobre su deck. Instalaciones agradables y buena situación, playa espectacular.

This place is absolutely amazing right from the word go! The staff, the beach, the food, the rooms everything was absolutely gorgeous. If you’re looking for an all-​inclusive adult resort, definitely consider Royal Hideaway. The property has individual villas with rooms, each with its own concierge to take care of all your needs.
Location — barely 5 minutes from 5^th avenue (downtown) and 20 minutes to Tulum and all the water parks (we didn’t visit any).
Beach — small, but beautiful. Plenty of chairs and a few bali beds as well. To snag a bali bed, make sure you reach early and snag one… it’s 1^st come, 1^st serve.
Restaurants — As an FYI — each dinner at Royal Hideaway is a gourmet experience in itself…4−5 courses… followed by sinful desert and coffee in the end.
**Pro tip** — eat light meals during the day and save your appetite for dinner! It will be totally worth it.
My favorite was the Italian restaurant Palazzo — the food was decadent and the service was outstanding. I had the Crab, fennel and capers risotto and the husband had the Ossobuco «Florentino» and he couldn’t stop raving about it. Initially I wasn’t too keen to eat Italian in Mexico, but our concierge convinced me! And everything at this restaurant was sheer perfection. Make sure you go!
Other meals I remember — Las Ventenas came a close second to Palazzo. For me, the appetizers we had here stand out in my memory: I had the Creamy rice duo with — goat cheese and roasted almond froth (vegetarian version) and it was really light, creamy and unlike everything I’ve had before. The husband had the Gnocchi with hibiscus reduction and sautéed baby squid and loved it.
We didn’t have any bad meals at the resort — if I had to pick the one I liked the least, it would be The Grill. The service was a bit spotty and the meal was not as good as the rest of the stellar ones we had.
Now for the pièce de résistance — Room Service! Yes, unlike other all-inclusive’s, here room service is included… and unlimited… of course you don’t want to abuse the privilege and should order discreetly, but I would highly recommend breakfast in bed! Nothing compares to that and for me it’s the ultimate vacation perk!
What else should you know? Yes, the spa is fantastic… the best I’ve been to. They provide individual lockers and steam and sauna is included in the treatment.

Not quite up to the standards of our last visit of a year ago. The grounds are still beautiful and the food for the most part is still very good, but there have been several noticeable changes and none for the positive.
Their great breakfast buffet has been degraded to something like you would get at a budget hotel.
The afternoon bingo game and just about every other day time activity is gone. They kept promising stuff and then it never happened. They kept saying, next week, next month. Evening activities here as before are pretty non-​existent too.
Many members of the food staff and this includes the maître d’s of at least 2 of the restaurants, seem incapable of handling any type of request or change.
We were told the place is under new management. I say bring back the old management.

Overall had an excellent time here. Was here last week and it was out first trip to Mexico.
The pros:
Service– The service was fast, extremely helpful, and just crazy good.
Concierge– I could lump this with service, but in reality, our concierge (Joanna) was so good that she reserves her own spot…
The beach– We took several walks all the way to Las Ventanas (about a mile down the beach), and the beach at Royal Hideaway is exponentially better than any we’d seen.
The pools– Good lord the pools were fun. ‘Nuff said. We were told to tone it down a few times, but in reality we deserved it.
The Grill– The best food of the resort. So good that I put it in the Pros column!
Breakfast/​lunch– All of the lunch/​breakfast places were great.
Cons
Food– Spices wasn’t so great. The Italian place was average at best (amazing service). Just not what I was expecting.
That’s about it…

Great hotel. It is only minutes from downtown Playa del Carmen about 30 minutes wallking. Which is awesome. You can either lay around by the pool or take a quick trip in town. The Chef’s Table is amazing if you really want to treat yourself to some awesome food.

Stayed here for a relaxing weeks vacation. We had excellent service from every person we came in contact with! It was really a nice touch that many of them remembered our names and would greet us by name. The beach was extremely clean the best for miles. The hubs and I would walk down the beach every morning and look at the other resorts, the Royal Hideaway was by far the nicest. It’s smaller and more intimate then most. All the Restraunt’s were very good with a nice selection. The only thing I can say was negative was the day we arrived we were tired and didn’t want to dress for dinner and wanted a casual sit down dinner and there wasn’t one. We ended up ordering room service. It would be nice to have one casual dinner place. All in all we had a wonderful time and when we go back we will not leave the resort to go into town or over to Cozumel.

I have to agree with many other reviewers. This resort is superb. The best aspect of this resort is that the service exceeded our expectations, all of them went out of their way to be friendly and helpful, particularly Sergio and Fernando (our concierge). As an example, my wife needed a small screwdriver to repair a pair of eyeglasses. Rather than simply dismiss this need, Fernando went to find one and brought it to us. Wow.
The room didn’t feel small, had a comfortable bed and was clean. We had a couple of issues in our room — one related to the phone not working and another with a light bulb being out. Both were corrected when we brought these to the attention of our concierge. The bathroom had a noticeable odor a few of the days.
The resort shows minor signs of age and rust but overall the grounds are well maintained, clean and beautiful. The beaches are pristine and don’t feel crowded.
We stayed for a week and for the most part, the food is top notch. The quality of drinks was excellent. I particularly enjoyed the fresh sushi at the Asian restaurant although the rest of the experience was not noticeably different than at Benihana. The breakfast buffet at Spices had a wide variety and we looked forward to it. The exception is room service. We ordered breakfast one day as well as a pizza late one night and regretted it both times. It arrived at the time promised but the food did not meet expectations and did not compare at all to what we got at the restaurants.
On the negative side, it’s about 45 minutes from the Cancun airport.
We enjoyed the show they had one evening but having said that, if activities and nightlife such as music and dancing is important to you, then avoid this place. Also you can definitely go to Mexico on a smaller budget.
On the other hand if your goal is to have a relaxing vacation, based on our experience I don’t see how you can be disappointed by this resort.

Hands down the best food at any all inclusive resort Ive eaten at. Tons of all organic and free range chicken plus vegetarian food choices. Staff attentive and nice. Rooms are superb inside. PROS… beautiful lobby and personable check in. Main pool is an infinity and smaller but nice. Food is beyond outstanding. Walk to plaza playacar plaza small market. No stupid cards for pool towels. Conceirge for every 10 rooms about 12 feet from your door. CONS… few beachview rooms. A bit of run arounds. yes Señor sailing is «included» but oh you sail youself. Want someone to take you? Its $$$. Gift shop grossly overpriced. Board shorts $ 135 bucks for guys. Showers luke warm. No shuttle to Avenida Cinco

Absolutely AMAZING resort! The service is beyond great — the staff’s superattentive, helpful and polite -, the resort is BEAUTIFUL and the all-​inclusive truly a ALL INCLUSIVE. The only thing you’ll pay extra for is SPA-​treatments — which I strongly recommend that you book because they are the BEST I’ve ever had — and tips. The food is really very good, the suites spacious and well organized, the grounds beautifully landscaped and the beach… WOW! And the fact that its adults only really makes a huge difference. I love this place and will definitely go back again!

This place is no-​holds-​barred when it comes to all-​inclusive. From the moment we were greeted with champagne while we checked in to them taking our bags to the front of the resort for check out, we wanted for nothing. A few notes, we stayed in an interior villa because many people on
recommended it for insulation from construction noise. I faintly heard the construction my first night, but nothing that kept me awake. Also, remember to do your restaurant reservations about a week before your trip. Otherwise you may end up eating a little bit later than you are use to.
All in all my husband and I had a wonderful time. The beach was beautiful, the food was delicious, the staff was always nice and extremely courteous, and there were more than just «house» liquor options when it came to the free drinks. I would definitely go here again.