Riu Tequila - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

12616 reviews

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  Wonderful experience and family friendly

  We just got home from Riu Tequila. We stayed Sunday through Saturday, family of 7 with kids aged 3,6,9&16 with three adults. We do not drink and hoped it would not be “the party hotel” but selected this hotel based on budget. It did prove to be a decent family friendly option. It was really nice. Everyone we came across from hotel staff was extremely friendly and helpful. Entertainment: apparently my husband ad teen son caught a really awesome circus act the Sunday night we arrived. The kids and I were tired and went to the room after dinner. I wish we had known, as that was the best stage entertainment of the week. They had a piñata for kids to hit one night, the kids loved that, and there was a Michael Jackson show one night that was pretty cool, but the other entertainment was pretty lame like game show type stuff and not very entertaining. The neon party Friday night was a total blast, my husband and two of my kids enjoyed all of it. Very family friendly. We all waited in line to get neon glow paint on faces and the music and lights were fun. Too much for my aunt (very loud rave music and flashing lights) who took the littles back to the room. VERY packed because alllll of the hotels come. Standing room only unless you camp out at a ta le early in the day. We had purchased “glow” shirts for about $11 USD earlier in the week and they were perfect for the party. Rooms: we got a room in the top floor of 800 building in the back. Very quiet most of the time. The rooms have everything you need and they are quick to respond to the ap for more towels or water. I called reception probably 10 times over the course of the week and no one ever answered but they responded quickly to the ap requests. Like within 10 min. We booked with a TA who told us we were getting a suite for our large family of 7. At least in the building we were in there are hallways with a door that closed and locks, each leading to two rooms. We did not get a suite but we did get two rooms that shared a hallway. I do wish we had been able to keep the doors open to more easily go back and forth, but it worked out ok. The beds are SMALL. Like it says 2 queens, but they are the size of the full beds we have for our kids at home. They are not “true queen” sized just FYI. Until the party people moved in and started smoking below us we absolutely loved our room and building. There is NO PRIVACY for shower. No door to close to bathroom area for changing and even having a towel over the shower door doesn’t quite cut it (leaves a gap right where you don’t want one when moms and teenage sons are trying to shower in same room). Luckily we had two rooms we utilized strategically, but be warned, if I had known I would have brought large binder clips to try and let the towels hang further but there just is no place at all the have privacy to change. Walk to the beach: with small children it is definitely a 10 minute walk. An adult at a brisk pace no more than 5. The shuttle is a golf cart with three rows and this trip reminded us that people all over the world are rude as hell. Several times we waited for the cart and a family or teenagers (or a family with teenagers) would run up and try to jump on before you. I saw it happen to others too. It is a nice walk, you do cross the street. Food: the food was more than decent. We did not feel the need to eat away from the resort. Plenty of variety and options for kids at the main buffet in the main building. Many options in the main buffet (Rosa rioja) were above average, most was good not great. Several seafood options better than average. Hot dogs hamburgers and pizza every lunch and dinner. Dinner items are slightly better than lunch items. Breakfast at the main buffet was FABULOUS, anything and everything you could ever want. Ends at 10 am daily. The burger and salmon were great at the steakhouse and the Asian buffet had great options as well. The Italian restaurant we didn’t end up ordering off the menu there, they have a small buffet and like 5 entrees in a menu but none looked awesome to us. We also did not try the beach Mexican dinner, but we did enjoy their lunch buffet (at the beach).(beach restaurant at Yucatan is lunch buffet and then switched to Mexican restaurant for dinner). They have a 24/7 sports bar with pool tables and meager food offerings. But more than decent if you missed dinner or need a 1am snack. They had like a pot roast type meat and potatoes that were very good, chips, salsa, guacamole, fruit, nachos, and a big cooler of ham and cheese sandwiches and burritos. They also have hot dogs and hamburgers. All self serve. The grill at the pool is also great, basic offerings but they did have ceviche that was delicious in addition to the burgers and hot dogs and nachos. Something definitely changed on Thursday, it was extremely quiet and peaceful Sunday through Thursday. It’s like the crazy party weekend crowd showed up. Definitely more people and harder to get chairs at pools and on beach. More loud music and waaay more smoking. What we did not like: smoking EVERYWHERE. I come from a state where smoking in public is not legal and I just didn’t realize what it was like before. You can’t escape it. We could not enjoy our balcony because there were kids smoking cigars and cigarettes right underneath us. Our clothing we laid out to dry smelled of smoke. At the pools, smoking, on the beach, smoking. We were sitting in chairs behind the lifeguard tower for a while and that was the worst, the lifeguards and people who try and sell you tours and pictures are right there SMOKING and leaving their butts in the sand. The sand itself was full of cigarette butts, not thousands but I counted 12 walking across the beach on just one walk. I do think they need to restrict smoking to certain areas. That would be the only reason we might not return. I was so excited when I saw designated smoking areas around the tequila property but apparently it means nothing or nothing is enforced. It’s much worse at beach then at tequila. There is a ton of seaweed (November) but honestly it didn’t bother us at all. My husband was at the very back of the water where buoys are and he was stung twice by a jelly fish, he said it felt like fire and hurt until the lifeguard sprayed it with vinegar then it didn’t hurt at all. As a large family we usually do laundry on week long vacations. It was extremely expensive here. You pay per item, it was $1 per sock! They did a great job but it was not affordable. I did do the massage for my aunt and I, it was very pricey but they did a good job. All in all I give Riu Tequila 4 out of 5 stars. If they change their smoking policy we will absolutely come back. Again the staff were amazing and it was definitely worth what we paid. We used a really awesome local guy down there to arrange transportation and tickets to Xcaret and to guide us on a tour of pyramids and cenote and it made the experience even better. He also does transport to and from airport and we will use him next time. We did have some issues with the Amstar the TA set up.

  Nov 23, 2025
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  Amazing!!!!

  I would come back anytime. You stay here and can use Riu Yucatan too. Beach club is awesome. Food is amazing. No reservation required for the extra restaurants. Sports bar even got Oilers game for us

  Nov 22, 2025
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  Excellent choice for holiday in Mexico

  Very good hotel with large rooms and staff were great really friendly and attentive All inclusive with good choice of drinks Food was varied with choices to suit most tastes wouldn’t say it was 5* but okay Contrary to what some say it wasn’t full of drunks rolling around the place but people just enjoying a holiday

  Nov 20, 2025
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  If I could give a 0

  This is the worst place I've ever stayed in Playa in 20 years (fourth time this year alone). And I've only just arrived. We travel all over the world and I have a pretty high tolerance for things but this place is just not good. The rooms are misrepresented on websites, front desk doesn't care. No one to take bags to the room which is a hike over a bumpy concrete path. Food mey to really bad. Ice machines are broken on one side of the resort and despite a request to the front desk, they insist no one can bring any to the room. The rooms are dated, tiles broken, etc. Guests tend to be a very loud crowd. Again, talking to the desk, they don't care. There are so many other better places to stay in the area, I strongly suggest staying elsewhere. One good point, they have a nice sports bar.

  Nov 16, 2025
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  Big cavernous bars & restaurants let down the general high class decor - not a place to relax easily.

  Supposedly a 5* hotel but having been to various places between Cancun and Playa Del Carmen over the years this was my least favourite for a few reasons. The design is strange - it seems reasonably impressive on arrival with a large reception and lounge area but that is unfortunately a theme throughout the hotel. Every area is large so it’s always noisy and echoey from the reception to the buffet restaurant to the main bar area. There are other areas to get a drink but nowhere calm and relaxing - there’s the snack and pool bar area where the swim up bar section full of overly drunk guests all afternoon but also plagued by the coaties which are large raccoon-like animals that just roam free in huge numbers trying to steal food from plates or grab drinks for any fruit garnish. And they’re brave and not put off by you sitting at a table or sun lounger. Signs are up saying not to feed but plenty of guests in their first few days seem to think they’re cute and frequently do feed them. The staff are fine - friendly and willing to help but they’re all going at a hundred miles an hour especially in the restaurants which adds to the lack of a calm atmosphere. The rooms are nice though and a good size - there are cold drinks in the fridge and 4 bottles of spirits to choose from and a coffee machine. Stock is only replaced every two days though so if you and partner want lemonade with your drinks or like a coffee to start the day they seem to let you work through all alternatives including the decaf coffee before replacing. Food is ok but nothing special both in the restaurants and the buffet. I never came away after a meal thinking I’d had a really decent meal though very generous with portions and the wine. The use of the beach is ok and can be walked in 10 mins or you get a golf cart lift down there but it’s basic and though there is a poolside bar at the other hotel you can use it’s quite a trek from the beach up some stairs and round the pool.

  Nov 12, 2025