Hotel Riu Palace Mexico

“Staying at Hotel Riu Palace in Playa del Carmen was an unforgettable experience! From the moment we arrived, the staff greeted us warmly and made us feel incredibly welcome. The stunning beachfront location provided breathtaking views and easy access to the beautiful Sea. The rooms were spacious, comfortable, and meticulously clean. The variety and quality of the dining options exceeded our expectations, offering delicious meals and exceptional service. The resort’s amenities, including the pools, spa, and entertainment, ensured there was always something enjoyable to do. The attention to detail and dedication of the staff truly made our stay exceptional. We cannot wait to return to this luxurious paradise!”

Amazing experience. Very clean hotel.
Very friendly and helpful staff. Awesome place also for pictures. But for all, good hospitality, clean rooms, entertainment is professional and experienced. Nice place to spent your holiday and chilling during your stay!

Love this place. I had a bad experience my first day due to paint coming off in the hot tub. We got a different room.

Breakfast/lunch/dinner was excellent.

I miss eating the roast duck during lunch time.

Will definitely come back here again with my family.

This was our 2nd stay at the Riu Palace Mexico and we loved it just as much as the first time in April 2023. The grounds are beautiful, staff are all very welcoming and attentive, food is good, and the beach is top notch. The location is great for nearby shopping, ferry to Cozumel and adventure parks like Xcaret and Xplore. Since I see some negative reviews I'm going to touch base on a few things that I hope will help others who are considering booking.
*The buildings and rooms are dated, but they are still very clean and we've never had any issues with anything not working properly.
*If you are wanting the best balcony view from your room then make sure you book the "superior" room. It will give you the views to the courtyard. This property does not have ocean view rooms, but the courtyard and fountains are still beautiful.
*The pool chairs and beach chairs fill up fast so I suggest going down before 9AM to save your chairs for the day. Everyone does it, so don't feel guilty for doing it also.
*I suggest bringing ear plugs because you can hear people in the hallway and doors closing while in your room.
*The pool bar closes at 8 PM and the night time entertainment is usually over by 11PM. If you're wanting the late night party scene, you can simply just walk next door to the Riu Tequila as they have that late night party atmosphere.

Thank you Riu Palace Mexico! We will be back!

Great hotel! In a gated neighbourhood and a 30 min walk into playa del carmen town, so you dont feel trapped in one place.

Food is fantastic for a resort. We loved eating at the Mexican and Italian a la carte restaurants. We had breakfast in bed, courtesy of the complimentary room service.

Plenty of service. Always asked us for drinks whenever we sat down. Even had beachside service where servers will walk around the beach with beer pina coladas and water, so you dont even have to get up.

Palace has its own section of the beach that the other Rius cant access, but by 10am most chairs are claimed by othet guests.

Ample wifi access, even got access while on the beach. Limit of 4 devices though.

Only complaint is that decor is a little dated.

Stayed 11 nights in Riu Palace. One of the best highlight of vacation was the beach. We certainly had the best beach in playacar, wide, sandy, palms providing enough shade, nice turquoise sea and warm enoughas well! Walkable beach to both sides, walking towards right gets you to empty beach with no people, which was amazing, walk to the left you get to Playa del Carmen in 30-40mins easily. Location of hotel is big plus, it's in restricted. Zone with checkpoints, so feels very safe to walk there in the evening also by yourself. Outside hotel you can walk to Playa del Carmen as well in 30min. Smaller shopping centre/pharmacy is 5 min walk outside hotel.
Hotels itself in nice, spacious, walkable with nice surroundings and palms, green plants and it's animals 😀
Hotel halls required new paint as first impression looks like you enter 2* hotel, walking towards your room. Rooms are nice spacious, bar with alcohol is nice feature and also hot tub. Room could use some refurbishing as well, especially hotel has too much purple for my taste. Room is cleaned every day, even 2x a day.
Restaurants offer tasty meals, we went there because of unlimited a la carte, however buffet had so many and tasty choices we dined there every day. Bars could offer more mixed drinks, rather then those mixed with ice (in smoothie machine or what was it).
Employees are friendly and provide excellent service, tipping is not expected but appreciated. You get prompt service every time.
Animation team does awesome work, we loved Kahoot quizzes every night!!! Evening shows could be better, visiting the resorts it's always the same (Michal Jackson, ABBA, etc..) Riu párty was also amazing, we enjoyed it a lot!!!
Big advantage as guest you can visit any other Riu hotel, we walked in all rius in playacar to see, also you can use the services there. Also we took trip to Cancun and stay one there at Riu. We recommend, Cancun has worse beaches but sea is more turquoise. When it came to guests, it was not a party hotel, more for couples who wants to chill. Not many kids either, it's not really family oriented hotel (just one small kids playground).
To conslude: Pros - beach, hotel surroundings and animals, service, location and proximity to Playa del Carmen (shopping opportunities).
Cons- hotel could use some reconstruction in rooms/halls

What a vacation! We had such a blast. The Dia De Muertos party was amazing. The #riuparty across the street was absolutely amazing. We have no major complaints. The food was great. The reception/restaurant/entertainment staff couldn't be any better.

We had some minor issues with housekeeping not replacing towels/glasses, nothing major.

And our fitness buddy Evi was amazing. She took amazing care of our family. She became the daily adopted sister to our daughter and we couldn't be any more grateful and thankful to the attention she gave!

Great vacation. Water was crystal clear. No rocks. Staff was beyond great. Riu land is so fun for the kids. Start get to know you very well. Different activities each night. Food is great. Location is amazing. Starbucks walking distance! Haha

Staying here now for a few day & it’s really really nice ! We stayed across the Street last year @ RIU Tequila, which is very nice, but this place is definitely a level higher ! EXCELLENT food..things like Lobster & massive shrimp, duck, lamb & other high end food take it a step above. Excellent service, nice rooms, beautiful beach & amazing staff make it special

I literally left today and wanted to stay an extra day lol, the location was perfect far as being around little stores to shop at and just walk around the drinks were well worth it! Customer service was great far as the bars and restaurants! What I didn’t like was the room we stayed in for the king size room it was 2 beds pushed together! Ghetto our floor was leaking and the air wouldn’t work I was told we would be out in another room the next day NEVER HAPPENED, then I tried to make reservations for the steak house 2 nights in a row I was giving a buzzer NEVER WENT OFF and the same man that gave me the buzzer ended up working at the buffet and swore he buzzed me but I literally had that buzzer in my hand all night! So we were stuck eating at the buffet again! There was no apology or anything. Other then that it was good place for a mini vacation

Everything and everybody here is completely amazing. All of the employees bend over backwards to make sure that all needs are met with a smile. The grounds are beautifully landscaped and expansive.
There are five Riu hotels in a group. Only the Palace has an exclusive beach. If you stay at the Palace, you have access to all Riu properties!
Food is amazing and is one of the largest I've seen. Food is not overcooked and is seasoned very well.
We are still here and I will complete this review after I return home.

We are here currently on a two week stay just about to start our second week tomorow and honestly can't fault the place we are in a junior suite and the beds are comfy air con is great and the staff all over the hotel work so so hard they go above and beyond. We are very well travelled and by far the best service we have received all inclusive and food is on another level it is beautiful....the White Party on a Fri night is another level the entertainment team go above and beyond. We feel like we're being treated superb...100% recommend and will be back!! Thanks guys for all your hard work. Xx

Richard at the front desk, Manolo and Francisco at the front door, and there was one young staff member whose name I forgot was the best. The staff works so hard to make sure you are enjoying the experience. I would definitely recommend again.

If I can give 10 stars, I definitely would! My fiancé and I stayed here for baecation for 5 days and it was the best resort I’ve ever stayed at. The food, rooms, views, pools, drinks, restaurants, everything you can think of was amazing. On top of that, super clean! The best part was the staff! Nicest people ever!!! We plan to go again when we are able to and would love to bring our family next time.

Great hotel with amazing staff, thank you. My only complaint would be that no food was served hot enough, shame

We just returned from a one week stay at Riu Palace Mexico. Everything was wonderful. The room was spacious and comfortable. We loved the balcony and courtyard view. We did not like the bathroom set up however. We prefer a separate bathroom for sinks, shower and toilet. The toilet closet was claustrophobic! The jacuzzi tub next to the bed was unnecessary and a waste of space.
The food was fabulous! Can’t understand how anyone would complain about the food. Great variety too.
The beach is gorgeous and walkable. They do a great job of removing the seaweed daily.
The service is great and they always have a smile on their face.
One of our favorite Riu Hotels by far. We will definitely return!

Staff are amazing!! Can not do enough for you. Facilities are superb, have lots to do, free watersports, and lots of activities always through the day.

The food choice is next level!! Whatever your tastes or dietary requirements, it will be catered for.

You will want for nothing. It feels like there are three staff members for every guest.

This was an amazing hotel the restaurants where amazing, especially the fusion and Japanese. the staff couldn't do enough for you. The rooms are dated and are in need of updating.

We LOVED our stay. The staff was excellent, high energy, and very kind. Even the evening maintenance crew (specifically Fernando) were incredible at working to make sure we were comfortable. And the food was hands down the best food of my life. We ended up eating at the buffet pretty much the whole time because we didn’t want to leave the giant amount of incredible food.

The hotel also connects with a tours agency. We booked a trip to Tulum/a cave/swimming in a cenote/snorkeling with turtles. We booked it when we arrived and it was for the next day, and it was around $120 per person, which after attending it, was well worth it! We didn’t want to plan our excursions in advance, so it was nice to see a variety of options available at the resort.

The view of the beach here is BEAUTIFUL. Even with seaweed on some days, it was awesome.

The rooms feel old but functional. The cleanes and service are exceptional. Very friendly staff. Basic alcohol but good food. Great beach because they put hard work cleaning it from sargasum and trash. Definitely will visit again.