Riu Playacar

We love everything about this resort! The beach is amazing, the resort is small and cozy, the room is clean, everything looks new and modern! Plenty of food to choose from! It’s very convenient, that you don’t need to make a reservation for the restaurants! Day activities were great, my favorite were yoga on a beach, aqua aerobics, Latin dances, Zumba. Claudia is a wonderful instructor and human being! We’ll definitely come back!

If your looking for a cheap vaca with a lot of alcohol and quality food is unimportant then you’ve found your spot! The pools were clean the sand and and chairs by the ocean were clean! But there was this disgusting smelly weed coming out from the ocean which the resort had no control over they said it happens once every 3-4 years?!? But still we couldn’t swim in the ocean :( but the staff, now the staff was so awesome!!! Everyone one of them, and we mean everyone of them was the best!!! Their food was the worst food ever and we have been all over the world! I would give it a zero. It was horrible oh and there was very little entertainment, they tried but still very little. The rooms were clean and cool. NO elevators, be ready to use those leg muscles if your on the third floor!

Overall the resort was very nice and modern. I believe it was renovated recently. The rooms are nice. Any complaints about humidity are clearly user error. The placard on the wall clearly states you need to run the AC all the time to dehumidify the room. This doesn't mean run it at the coldest temperature either, we set it at around 74 degrees and it was nice inside. The restaurant choices are great, although not my particular cup of tea but definitely something for everyone. There's a shopping area immediately across the street where you can buy souvenirs and exchange money in addition to anything you may have forgotten to bring you can buy at the pharmacy/store. There was a safe box in the room which I used extensively and did not have anything stolen. We had our room made every day, which was done very fast every morning. So overall I would say the staff were great and very nice to us. The drinks are of course resort drinks made quickly, so quality is all over the place due to the speed and volume of drinks bar tenders have to make. I had a good piña colada made early in the morning and a not so great one made later in the day. Entirely depends on how busy it is. If you don't ask for a particular liquor brand of your choice, you will be poured the local variety of liquor by default for that particular drink. I didn't run into any issues asking for specific liquors that were available either. Tipping is always optional, but as you may already know, it's also very generous/kind gesture to do so given the pay workers receive in Mexico. I tipped bar tenders every 2-3 drinks. No one ever asked for one, but were very appreciative of tips received. The beach is great, there are chairs under palm trees which are a nice touch. Volleyball, beach Zumba, and salsa dancing lessons on the beach as well. They run a schedule with way more activities, these are the ones I personally liked. The shows at night are a little dull for my taste (29 year old). I definitely would recommend going out to the shopping district in Playa del Carmen if you're up for getting drinks and enjoying the atmosphere. I didn't actually go out, but it's certainly looked quite entertaining when I passed it on my way back from an all day excursion and it was also highly recommended by the staff. Speaking of which, Playa del Carmen is about a 20-30 min walk from the resort. It's a nice scenic walk to the shopping district off 5th Avenue (Quinta Avenida). The Playacar Community which the resort sits inside, is gated off on all sides and has controlled access (guards), so it's a safe area to be around day or night. I didn't feel unsafe at any point leaving Playacar on foot when I arrived to Playa del Carmen. I would highly recommend to stay on the 5th Ave path, and only deviate towards to the beach area as the inner city area is less touristy. Overall great experience and phenomenal location given the fact that all the excursions are not far away. Way better experience in Playa del Carmen than in the hotel zone in Cancun. There are even small little animals that roam the grass in the morning and the evening!!!

this is an amazing resort with lots of great and friendly people! i only had one issues! booking transportation with the package seems unfair to me! you pay for transportation from airport to resort and back but if you don't sit thru their sales speach for excursions they are rude to you when you attempt to schedule your return to the airport! if i have to sit thru a sales pitch then i should get the transportation free! this made me really mad and completely ruined a day of my trip! rest was amazing just a suggestion you may want to ask them to tone down on the sales pitch and attitude when customers have already paid for a service up front