Riu Playacar Hotel

1 reader found this review helpful

Situated on the beach it is difficult to fault anything at this hotel. The food was unbelievable with a choice that took longer to choose than to eat. Apart from the main restaurant the Steak House, Mexican, and Asian restaurants were all excellent. The staff go out of their way to provide superb service and the whole complex is spotless. bedrooms were very airy and the blocks were small and quaint, only downside was the noise when guests returned from the reps' bar crawl twice a week (however having been on it you just have to try it). This leads me onto the trips, the "MUST DOs" are XEL-HA an unbelieveable park istuated on a fresh water laggoon: Swimming with dolphins: and the bar crawl incorporating a trip to "Coco Bongos" club: and the jungle tour which gives you the chance to snorkel and drive a speedboat (just like miami-vice). For shopping plan a visit to La Isla centre at Cancun. Although a 1 hour drive away the air conditioned coaches make it seem closer. We travelled with Thomson and would recommend them to anybody with more leg-room than I have seen in any aircraft without paying extra.
Beware of the weather, we believed that the wet season would be finished end of September but 2nd week it rained every day and was forecast to continue through to November.Even this won't spoil the enjoyment of this Country.

2 readers found this review helpful

Accomadation
We have just returned from the Riu Playacar our second visit having gone there last year. The rooms are very comfortable, our room last year had two double beds and this year we had a room with a six ft. wide bed (queen?), on the end of the block overlooking the pool with a large balcony with sunbeds. A well stocked mini bar with four optics Tequila, Rum, Vodca & Gin, with beer (corona), soft drinks and water, in the fridge, restocked every two days.
Food
The reason we chose this hotel. It was excelent. A roast every night beef, pork, ham, duck or baked fish usually Red Snapper, the beef was delicious. Two fried fish every night Grouper, Dorada or Salmon also delicious, steak pork chops, fajitas, paellas, pastas, pizza and burgers with plenty of vegetables, salad even the chips are good, and much more.
Steak house a choise of four mains with fixed starter and desert. Asian A mix of Japanise and Chinese, sushi, peking duck, spring rolls etc. buffet style. Mexican various dishes also good.
Pool area
Two round pools one with fountain one with pool bar, whirlpool and childrens pool. lots of sunbeds around pool and beach area. Games in and around the pool during the day. Barbaques and large paellas during the week. The Riu Yucatan and tequila are close by where you can walk down the beach to the Yucatan for lunch and use the facilities. The tequila is across the road from the Yucatan whose facilities you can also use. The entertainment is mainly dancing with a Michel Jackson show one a week.
There are some shops directly across the road where you can buy jewellery t-shirts and souvenirs.
Beach
There is a lot of erosion across the beaches, becauce of the rough seas, the hotels are putting measures into place to break up the the waves and regain more beach. There is a roped off section in the sea for swimming.
Playa del Carmen
Downtown Two kilometers away ($5us taxi). with a main street and usual shops (with plenty of bargains), bars and hotels. You can catch bus to Cancun 75min from here.
Sightseeing
Chichen Itza is a bit special and worth a visit it gets very hot and not much shade take plenty of water and a change of clothing. Tulum is just down the coast also worth a visit. Xel-Ha is a eco park It is a large and beautiful lagoon, where you can swim with dolphins, snorkel (I saw Barracuda Stingrays and conch and many more fish) ride an inflateable down river, or just relax. Have the all inclusive offer with your trip its good value and, get in the water before you eat, visability is lousy in the afternoon.

Myself and my partner spent 2 weeks at this hotel and found it to be the best all inclusive hotel we have stayed in so far.
The hotel and rooms are always spotless and the staff are the best I've experienced yet - they definitely made our holiday, especially Alex at the lobby bar and Fernando in the restaurant, they are always so happy and can not do enough for you. We were there during hurricane Dean and could not believe how great all the staff were, still preparing a full cooked breakfast for us all during the storm!
The drinks were great as you can get both local and International brands and a great choice of cocktails and Tequila slammers! There was always fresh fruit smoothies in the restaurants and the bars too.
There was a good choice at the buffet restaurant but we also loved visiting the Mexican and Steak House A La Carte restaurants for a change. We were not keen on the Asian one.
Staying at this hotel you can also use the facilities of the Riu Tequila and Riu Yucatan, so we had a few drinks there for a change but I think the Riu Playacar is the nicest. The Riu Palace also looks amazing, and some people we met staying there loved it.
For trips we did the Cancun night out which was great and Coco Bongo's is amazing, a must do if you have never been to Cancun before. We also did a Catamaran trip and the Jungle Tour where you race your own speed boat, which we loved.
I would definitely return to this hotel some day, however as we had some days of bad weather and a hurricane I would probably go in Winter or Spring time.