My husband and I along with another couple spent the week at the Riu Playacar from November 27th to December 4th.
Our choice of accommodations is always a preference to stay at a RIU RESORT, we know we are guaranteed excellence service, food, accommodations, etc with a RIU.
Being our 3rd trip to Mexico, once to Cancun, the other to Puerta Vallarta, staying at the Riu Jalisco. But the RIU Playacar in Playa de Carmen was by far one of the best.

PROPERTY: Very well kept.

BEACH: The beach was one of the nicest. Plenty of chairs and lots palm trees for the shade. The only thing they are lacking is a little “beach bar” to get a drink, rather than walking to the pool bar, but we did recommend this to Eric their Customer Relations staff, and the next few days there were guys bring down trays of drinks.

POOL: Pool was very nice, pretty chilly. There are 2 pools, one had the swim-up bar and this is activities took place, the other section was very quiet and relaxing. There where plenty of chairs, and like the beach, had several areas with shade.

SERVICE: The service was great! They bend over backwards to make sure you are looked after. Very caring, all around.

FOOD: The buffet always had a huge variety and we liked just about everything. There are different food stations to choose from, always something for everyone.

Specialty Restaurants: There are 3 (Mexican, Steakhouse, Asian). We ate at 2, the Steakhouse & Asian.
Steakhouse was good, they give you plenty of food, so you don’t leave hungry.
The Asian was our favorites, we ate there twice.

ROOM: Very nice, ours was a king bed, overlooking the walkway with a nice view from the balcony, close to the pool. The only issue was we had tiny little bugs, like an ant, that were noticed around the washroom sink, nothing to complain about. The rooms were clean and a good size. For the amount of time you spend in your room, it is just to sleep, they were fine.

NOTE:
After our 3rd day were offered a special promotion from the front desk, that we could to go a stay FREE OF CHARGE for our last 4 days at the Riu Palace Mexico. We went and saw it beautiful place, talked it over and we TURNED IT DOWN, we like the atmosphere and treatment we had received from the RIU Playacar, that is how much we enjoyed it there. Looking forward to returning.

George & Rose Wilson, Barrie Ontario, Canada

To give you some perspective, my husband and I (both 30 yrs old) have traveled to Mexico several times…to both Cancun and Playa Del Carmen. We have stayed in many all-inclusive resorts, some considered a 3 star, others a 5 star.

BEACH: The beach was large and very nice. As other’s have mentioned, many of the hotels in this area have lost most of their beach, but the RIU Playacar beach was one of the nicest beaches. There were plenty of chairs and lots of areas with shade.

POOL: The weather before we arrived was rather cold, so the pool was pretty chilly…but very refreshing. There were 2 sections…one had the swin-up bar and was where the activities took place. The other section was very quiet and relaxing. There where plenty of chairs, and like the beach, had several areas with shade. Overall the pool was nice, but it wasn’t as clean as other resorts where we have stayed.

What I found interesting, was that unlike most resorts that have very few areas of shade, it was actually more difficult to find chairs with sun than with shade.

SERVICE: The service was great! Even at check-in…we were able to get in our room at 10am. We didn’t like the location of the first room and they let us move immediately.

FOOD: We found the food to be very good. The buffet had a huge variety and we liked just about everything. The buffet restaurant by the beach was open all day….so, if you wanted a snack or a drink you could just walk in and get it. They had soft drinks and beer on tap you could get yourself…this was really nice!! With this said…BRING AN INSULATED MUG!!!!!! The cups are super-small…I can’t stress enough how nice it was to have a big mug. We really enjoy going into the town of PDC so we only ate dinner at the resort a couple times and didn’t try the Specialty restaurants.

ROOM: Ok, I left the negative part for last. I want to first say that we are not those picky people who write ridiculous comments…but, the rooms were pretty bad. I was surprised to read the other reviews that said the rooms were great. I would first like to say that when we arrive they asked us if we wanted a king bed…of course we wanted a king! But, when they took us to the room it was horrible, very small and the balcony had a tall wall and overlooked a service area. We went to switch rooms and they said they only had a few king beds and those rooms were on the “corners”…so, I would say, avoid the king bed rooms. We then asked for a room overlooking the walkway….these had a much nicer view and were larger. But, there were bugs! This was the first time we have ever experienced this in Mexico. There were little tiny bugs in the bathroom area and tiny ants all over the room. The gross part was…I opened a soda, put it on the nightstand, and 5 minutes later when I reached for the soda there were ants all over it!!! That completely creeped me out. The TV didn't have good reception and was difficult to watch. The beds….well we are used to the beds being hard in Mexico, but these were really hard and the pillows were like rocks…and the bedding, well it didn’t make me feel very comfortable.

Overall, we did enjoy our stay, but if you’re looking for more of a luxury hotel with a “more modern look”, this may not be the hotel for you.

If you do choose this hotel…remember to ask for a hotel overlooking the walkway and bring an insulated mug!

Reviewer from Saratoga, NY

We spent the week of 11/11 - 11/18 at the Riu Playacar. We travel to the Carribbean yearly and have been to Playa Del Carmen several times. The Riu Playacar met all of our expectations - very nice beach, good food, well maintained grounds, clean and well decorated room, and cordial/helpful staff.
Beach - plenty of lounges. No rocks/coral in the water - sandy bottom and that beautiful aqua color water. Calm water. Some of the hotels nearer to town have lost most of their beach. Riu has not.
Rooms - comfortable, clean, well air conditioned. We noticed some musty smell when we first entered the room but once the air conditioning was on we did not notice it again for the whole week. Plenty of hot water and good water pressure. The daily maid service did a great jog and left us daily towel figures.
Food - the buffett was very good - something different every nite. The carving station had leg of lamb one nite, then duck, then roasted turkey, then roast pork. There was a pasta station, desert station, Mexican station, salad station and chef's special station. Every nite there was a different speciality dessert - such as crepes. Although the speciality restaurants were ok, they were not as good as some other resorts we have been to. However the service was always excellent.
Staff - A+ - everyone was courteous and helpful.
Grounds - nicely landscaped. Two pools - the activity pool with the pool bar plus a quiet pool. This pool also had handicapped accessibilty. It appeared the entire resort was handicapped accessible.
Although Travelocity rates this a 3 star (out of five) resort, I would give it 31/2 to 4. The staff is a major plus. The buffets were very good. The beach is excellent - the lounges around the pools all have pads on them and the drink choices were above average. The bartenders actually blended the 'frozen' drinks unlike at some resorts were they are just poured out of a machine.
The nitely shows were ok - some better than others. The dancers were excellent.
We would certainly go back to the Riu and plan on doing so.

Wow! We had a blast. The resort is all that we expected and more. The staff is amazing - we were treated like royalty.
The food was g-r-e-a-t. We ate at the Asian restaurant twice - great for sushi lovers. The buffets always had a huge variety of foods and if you couldn't find what you were looking for.... then the problem was not with the chefs!

Despite what we read about the beds, we found the rooms very comfortable - we loved the great "towel creations" that graced our beds each day.

A great holiday - the staff at the resort made this one of the best holidays we have ever taken. The Michael Jackson show was amazing.

I would definitely return to the Riu Playacar and would recommend it to our friends.

- Geri, Manitoba, Canada