Royal Hideaway Playacar

We returned to Royal Hideaway July 4-11 2026 after a previous visit in February 2022. This place did NOT disappoint! I remembered loving the food, the service and the people, and this still stands. This time around we stayed in Villa 25 with a Relax pool view room - the AC hovered between 21.5-22C, but considering the outside temps were 38-42C with the heat index, it was totally acceptable for us. The room & bed were very comfortable, and I always appreciate how large the bathroom and walk in closet is. The shower was definitely hot enough!

Given the heat and ocean situation as it is the height of sargassum season, we spent the majority of the time by and in the pools. They were immaculately clean and constantly being attended to. My S/O and I often got chairs on the beach next to the pool to enjoy the cooling ocean breeze (poolside chairs get HOT even with the umbrellas up). Our goal was to relax and recharge on this vacation and it was the perfect place to do so. The service at the pool was phenomenal, our group wanted to give a special shout out to Javier and Eduardo as they truly went above and beyond to keep a constant flow of drinks as well as bringing us our lunches and snacks poolside. We made sure to tip generously - they are working hard in that excessive heat to keep us comfortable!

On to the food - our entire group is a bunch of foodies who live in a major California metro area that doesn't lack for amazing restaurants and we were blown away by how delicious everything was. The coffee and cappucinos were a delicious start to our mornings, and the buffet breakfast never disappointed. The pool side meals were phenomenal - I ordered several hamburgers throughout my stay and could not get over how delicious and juicy the patty was, and it was perfectly complemented by a soft, pillowy brioche bun. The quesadillas were amazing, the guacamole and chips, the hummus and fresh veggies, as well as the fish tacos (from the restaurant) and tacos gobernador (shrimp and grilled cheese tacos from Spices) were lunchtime highlights.

Dinners were spectacular - we ate on premise all but 1 night. My "least" favorite was The Grill - the best part of dining there is the oceanfront view. We eat a lot of steak back home in the US and we prefer our steak over theirs. However, every other restaurant was a showstopper. Hibachi & Asian at Azia? Delicious. Mexican at Spice? Delectable. Italian at Palazzo? Incredible. One night the 4 of us were seated in the private dining room at Ventana's (Mediterranean) and it was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. We ordered several bottles of nice wines and dined on fresh salads, beef tartare, octopus, chicken with orzo pasta and lamb shank.

We also ventured across the street to the little shopping center where there is a Starbucks, 7-11, pharmacy and med center as well as many souvenir shops. If you need something like sunscreen, go to 7-11 where a bottle is ~$20 USD vs the RHP gift shop where it is more than twice that price! 5th Avenue shops of Playa Del Carmen are also a 30ish minute walk, which we did take the time to walk to one morning. There are some interesting Mayan ruins along the way, the walk is mostly shaded during those hours and completely safe. Each time we went downtown we took a taxi back (go to the official taxi stand across the street from mall, is is $10 back to the resort).

I would not hesitate to go back a 3rd time - for me the price/value/quality of this resort is tough to beat!

We had reservations at Spices for our first evening's dinner. Carlos Quintal and the other employees went above and beyond! We arrived early, and Carlos was able to seat us ahead of schedule. We enjoyed our meal, except for the fish course (well I didn't like the fish course - my husband loved his). After a long travel day, and a very bad headache, I was emotional. I felt bad telling Carlos that I didn't like the fish, but he was amazing and insisted that I choose something else instead. I was very satisfied with my second choice and desert was divine.