Royal Playa del Carmen Beach Resort Review Top All Inclusive Mayan Riviera

Constituyentes No2

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo

77780, Mexico

Tel. 52 (998) 881 7311 or 881 7312

Fax. 52 (998) 881 7314

http://www.realresorts.com.mx/The_Royal_Playa_Carmen/

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• 432 Rooms
• Situated on the beach
• 4 restaurants, 5 bars
• 2 pools
• SPAzul - eco-holistic spa
• 45 minutes from Cancun International Airport

The Royal Playa del Carmen is a part of the Real Resorts chain.  It is located in Playa del Carmen on a beautiful stretch of white sand beach.  The hotel has 432 rooms in a 3 storey Mexican design complex.  The resort is located 45 minutes from the airport, and a 45 minute ferry ride from Cozumel.

What people are saying

• Huge lobby
• Spacious, clean rooms (ask for an ocean view)
• Great food
• Beautiful beach
• Convenient location (1 block off Fifth Avenue)

Editorial Review

The Royal Playa Del Carmen is a popular destination, and it is always bustling with activity and entertainment.  It has recently introduced a first of its kind Online Check in.  Guests merely have to register online from the official site.  Thanks to this, many don’t have to wait in line at the check-in desk. and simply receive your key card at the reception upon arrival.  Suites at the Royal Playa Del Carmen range from a junior suite, right up to a Presidential Oceanview suite with a private pool.  Suites now have the “Royal Beds®” which are quite comfortable.  The ‘Royal’ category rooms come with an newly developed ‘Royal service’. Favored guests can avail of the Royal Housekeeping that enables guests to decide upon the time for the upgraded turndown service and daily suite make-up. Every Royal Service Suite comes with a a 32 inch LCD tv, a pillow menu, upgraded in-room mini-bar, Bose stereo and speaker system, upgraded bath amenities and much more!

There is also something for every sports enthusiast.  If you are fond of water sports you can choose from any one of the non-motorized water-sports, or opt for a good game of tennis at the tennis-courts.  Many dive operations also offer excursions to the neighboring waters of the area.  Cozumel is only a ferry ride away.  The resort also features beach beds with canopies which can be quite relaxing on a hot sunny day.

The Royal Playa Del Carmen has recently introduced the Royal Service® and Royal Housekeeping®, which promises to cater to every need of the guest, and give them an exceptional experience during their stay at the hotel.  Royal Playa Del Carmen’ signature eco-holistic SPAzul offers a wide range of Mayan-inspired and traditional massages and full-body treatments.  There are well-being and lifestyle programs, a state-of-the-art modern Life Fitness® Center with spinning, Stott Pilates®, yoga and aerobics.  The hotel offers two enormous fresh water swimming pools, a wedding gazebo, a tennis court, a grand ballroom, which can also be divided into 12 separate meeting rooms. There is a “magic box” for 24 hour room service delivery, a spacious marble bathroom, private terrace and a balcony with hammock.

The Royal Playa Del Carmen Hotel has restaurants to satisfy every palate.  You can visit the restaurants at any time of the day, and find a seat waiting for you.  As well, you don't have to make reservations.  Head to the Maria Marie for a Mexican-French à la carte dining experience or go to Spice for extravagant buffets that feature innovative, international cuisines and a remarkable à la carte menu, along with fantastic show cooking stations that are sure to delight and entertain you.  Pelicanos serves tasty Mexican and exotic Caribbean food.  For those of you who love to get high on the most exotic drinks and tequilas, you can head to either the Lobby bar, the Martini Corner Lobby Bar, or simply go to the Trade Winds Pool bar and Swim-up Bar.  The Lobby Bar has live music playing from 9pm to 12am.

The Best Feature about the resort is its superb location.  It is on one of the best stretches of beach in Playa del Carmen, and just a 5 minute walk to the shopping on 5th avenue.

12v2

Reviews

Sara Tharakan

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Age: mid-30’s, Married

Where: Royal Playa del Carmen, Playa del Carmen, Mayan Riviera

When: January 2007

Capsule Summary: Great Resort, Great Location.

Our Rating: 4/5 Stars

My husband & I booked a 2 week, all inclusive, vacation at the Royal Playa del Carmen, from Jan 2 – Jan 16. through Air Transat Vacations. (We had 4 friends join us during the 2nd week.) When we’ve gone to Mexico in the past, we’ve usually left the airport around 6 am, arriving sometime around noon. The flight this time left at 9:00 am and we got there in the late afternoon, with the flight time being approximately 5 hours. Because we left on the 2nd, the flight was jammed (its still high season), and if you know anything about these kind of charters, you know there isn’t much seating room. About 2 weeks before we left, we called Air Transat and reserved 2 seats near the rear of the jet along the windows, where the seating configuration has only 2 seats along that side. This costs a little more, but we felt it was worth it because we didn’t have anyone else beside us.

5 Hours later we were in Cancun, and herded into the Airport’s arriving visitors line. On board the plane, we were given a visitors card to fill out. You give the top half to the customs officer, and keep the bottom portion. DO NOT LOSE THIS CARD. You will need it leave the country after your holiday. After standing in the line for about 40 minutes, we were processed and then sent over to the luggage carousel. The terminal is new, but it seems that every flight was getting their luggage at our carousel. After retrieving our bags, we made our way through the various “visitor information” people [read time share sales] and onto the buses to the resorts.

We were fortunate that the Royal was the 2nd stop for the bus, the first was its sister hotel, the Gran Porto Real, across the street. It took us about 45 minutes to get there and, it was after sunset when we arrived. Check in was quick, and while we got something to eat at Spice, the buffet restaurant, the bell boy delivered our luggage.

The hotel was given a complete renovation in 2005, and the room we stayed in was quite nice, with a king sized bed, jacuzzi, tv, etc. The best part about it was that it was located literally 30 seconds from the beach.

Our typical routine was waking up around 7 or 7:30, ordering coffee from room service (free, 24 hr. day), have my husband run out to the beach to reserve a beach bed (a queen sized bed, shaded by a wood canopy), and then enjoy our coffee and slowly get ready for breakfast and the days activities.

The resort is fabulous, and well designed with a large pool, swim up bar, terraced areas to lounge, and great stretch of beach. The resort has 4 restaurants and several bars. The best part about the restaurants is that the specialty ones (Asian, French, etc.) don’t require reservations, its first come first serve. They also give you a little beeper if they are backed up and you can wander the resort or go have a drink while a table becomes available.

One of the nice features is that the main lounge area features free wi-fi access. So if you brought you’re lap top along, you can tap into the resort’s network. Otherwise, you can always use their internet café at a peso / minute. We had access to the sister resort’s facilities (Gran Porto Real) but found that its facilities were generally older and smaller, and the beach was not near as nice as ours.

Each room has a “magic box” which is essentially a small box with 2 doors, 1 inside the room, and 1 outside. They use this to leave items you’ve requested, such as towels or room service food items, so they do not disturb you. This does not always work as planned however. Out of the 12 times we called for coffee in the morning asking them to leave it in the magic box so not to be disturbed, 5 times their was a knock on the door saying “room service” and us yelling “leave it in the magic box please”. (One time, during the first week, the fellow insisted we had to sign for the coffee because of internal controls. This was the only time we had to do this.)

As far as housekeeping is concerned, we never knew when the room would be cleaned. Sometimes it was 10 in the morning, other times at 1:00 pm, and other times late in the afternoon. Theoretically you can request when you want to have your room cleaned, which we did, but it somehow got lost in translation. Regardless, the staff was always good, and the room left clean, although we never knew how many towels would be left for us for the next day. We attribute these small things to a lack of checklists and systems, and never blamed the staff themselves … we always left them a 20 peso tip. We just think management needs to do a better job of installing a procedure for them to follow.

As I said earlier, one of the best things about the resort is its location. It is just a 5 minute walk from 5th avenue, and a cab ride anywhere in the central zone is 30 pesos. If you forgot anything at home, they even have a Wal-Mart and the Mexican equivalent, Mega, just few blocks a way. But if you just wanted to walk up and down 5th, you could spend an entire couple of days doing that.

When our friends got there in the 2nd week, we all booked an excursion to Xcaret, a famous eco-park. You can find some ruins, several wildlife exhibits (turtles, dolphins, jaguars, parrots, butterflies, aquarium, etc.), underground rivers, and many other things to see here. You could easily spend a day or two viewing everything, but the one thing you must see is the show at night. We thought it would an amateur kind of production but it was just the opposite, it was spectacular. The first half is all about the history of Mexico from the early Mayans to the arrival of the Spanish. The 2nd half is all about the culture of the various Mexican states. The 2nd was just as good as the first, and entire thing took about 2 hours.

One night we gathered our friends and headed out to a disco (the resort does not have a dance floor and the place gets pretty quiet after midnight). We ended up at the Blue Parrot (just 4 blocks away) and for those wanting to dance in a unique setting will be happy they came. The dance floor is set outside on the beach and there is nothing better than dancing the night away by the ocean! The disco also has an evening show at 11pm that is worth catching even if you have to sit on plastic chairs to do so. The traditional Mayan fire show kept everyone entertained for its ½ hour length.

The Spa at the resort (Spazul) is worth checking out. Since we were there for two weeks, I went to have a manicure/pedicure after the first. It was a quick procedure but the girl was very nice and even through our broken Spanglish conversation we had a few laughs. Three of our friends tried the Reiki Massage and every one had a different experience.

The best parts of the spa are the pool/steam/sauna rooms. You simply walk into a divided (boy/girl) peaceful environment and can use any of these facilities for free. Not many people went to the spa so it was usually very empty. We went one night before dinner and ended up all sleeping on the beds after a hot tub/steam room fix. One warning is that the steam/hot tub will exfoliate some of the tanned skin that you might be hoping to take home with you so be careful.

Would we recommend going to the Royal? Absolutely. This was a first class resort, in a great location, with enthusiastic staff.

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