This is a truly beautiful spot and the staff seem to really appreciate their guests' needs and want everyone to enjoy the time spent at Royal Hideaway. All in all, it is likely a good value if your expectations are reasonable. The rooms are very pretty and certainly clean and serviced twice daily. Also, with the layout of separate buildings, we felt it was nicer than typical hotel atmosphere. The room mini bar is more a mini fridge, stocked with soft drinks and water and I think could be better done. Of note, a few snacks in room would be appreciated and room service menu is very limited for a resort of this level. Also, don't expect to watch much TV at night (in English) but this is most likely location limited and not a resort issue. There is no night life to speak of, but the Trivia night is not to be missed, just don't expect a party atmosphere and if this is what you want- choose another resort. We wanted and very much enjoyed just relaxing for the most part. The "show" night is enjoyable, but don't expect a broadway performance and you'll have a good time. As for the food, it was average, with above average presentation, and you will never have to be hungry, but the restaurants are not outstanding. I enjoyed the Japanese the most and my fellow vacationer enjoyed the Italian the most. There was a Speciality Drink of the Day at Spices the night we ate there that was amazing and if you enjoy trying different mixed beverages, we recommend you try these each night. To those who want to complain about the dress code- the resort certainly addresses this in the resort information and so if you don't want to comply, choose another location. We enjoy adult atmospheres. To us, the breakfasts in both areas, were the best meals and quite good. The omelets are delicious and variety of choices as large as any breakfast buffet you usually see. A nice touch at Spices in the mornings are readily served "mimosas". The beverage selection is huge and unlimited, but most alcoholic beverages seemed very weak and so again, don't go here for unlimited crazy partying! One good thing about this is that in 6 days/5nights we saw no one out of control, which I understand happens at some all-inclusives. The spa was a very nice experience- both of us agreed that our massages were as good as we've ever had and so we'd highly recommend these services. The beach and pool area are well done with a great infinity pool and lots of shade on the beach, if you want, with lovely trees. Some reviewers complain of the "saved with the towel" chair system at the pool and beach, but it was never a problem for us and there are more than enough chairs. We did feel that at times they ran out of clean towels and could be better organized in this regard. We unfortunately had a lot of rain during our mid May visit but were told this is unusual and even then staff is always on hand with umbrellas when needed and there was still plenty of sun time. Didn't make it to the Fifth Avenue shopping but understood from our Olympia transport driver that it is in walking distance. Would recommend Olympia as they were very efficient and felt very safe.
We really enjoyed the kid-free resort choice and are happy to have enjoyed our vacation time in a relaxing, quiet tropical location and would recommend the resort if this is what you are looking for. Overall, a very good and restful vacation.

Can I get you anything? Is there anything else we can do for you? How is your stay so far? A welcome back note in the RH daily papar. The staff at the Royal Hideaway so spoiled my boyfriend and me last week, that I am having a difficult time adjusting back to reality. We decided to go back to the Royal Hideaway because our experience last year was stellar. I think this year was even better. I was so ready for a relaxing vacation, and this is what we had - with great service at every turn.

The beach is amazing. The grounds are beautiful. Such a great location.

We found the food to be outstanding. We ate breakfast at Spices every morning. I am usually not a buffet fan - but this was amazing! The fresh fruit selection was out of this world, and there was always something new and fun to try. Made to order omlettes were fantastic.

Our favorite restaurant for dinner was las Ventanas. What a treat to have Michelin rated restaurant included in an all inclusive! We love the concierge (thanks Eduardo) concept, that keeps the restaurants running like clockwork in the evening and provide great service to us.

We enjoyed relaxing in the evening at the Bar Allegra. It was just enough entertainment for us, and again, great service.

Also, I had read some comments about corporate groups getting out of control. There was a corporate group there with us, and it was just fine. They even left a bit of extra room at the pool while they were in meetings.

It's also a great thing that kids are not allowed, love that.

Overall we had a great experience. It was great to be pampered with great service, food, and cocktails. This is a first class experience, and we look forward to our third and thirtieth stays.

My husband and I spent May 12 thru the 19th at the RH. We arrived at the resort which is about a mile from downtown Playa del Carmen. We were greeted at the entrance and escorted to the lobby for a quick and easy check in. We were asked if we wanted a copy of the newspaper delivered to our room everyday which I said yes but we never did it the entire time we were there. Our room was not ready until 3 (we were told jus to go to our building #23 and the concierge would show us our room. We changed and went down to the beach area. We were starving so we stop and ate at the Deck. They have wonderful seafood cocktails and a excellent brownie with ice cream. At three we went to our building met our concierge who took us to our room on the 3rd floor and our luggage was waiting for us. The room was roomy, with a desk, separate bathroom area with a walk in closet, tub, shower, separate toilet and double sink. We had a balcony that overlooked a small relaxation pool.

The resort is small, and we were glad we were on the side of the grounds (blg. 23) because the noise at night from the other resort was so loud and went late into the night. The grounds are beautiful and well maintained.

Restaurants: Spices is open for breakfast buffet and Ventanas is also open. Ventanas you must dress up but Spices for breakfast you can go in your beach attire which we did since we wanted to hit the beach after breakfast. You can eat at Spices or the Deck for lunch in beach attire. In Spices they have an awesome fried maui maui shrimp on tortillas with chipolte sauce that is out of this world. You must try it! The drawback to the restaurants for dinner is that you have to make reservations or you don't eat. We like to eat early but a couple nights we had 9pm reservations. Some people that we met told us that they tried to get an earlier time slot but to no avail. Now these restaurants are not crowded at all. One of our 7 pm slot there was 5 tables being served and people couldn't get earlier times in. The food is good, we never went hungry but some things on the menu we didn't try due to the sounds of them. The Grill and Spices you can wear jeans but no shorts not even the women. It's 90 degrees and the poor men have to be in long pants everywhere. Now one night we were sitting in only bar open at night some man at the next table who was in jeans was bragging to how he wore jeans to dinner and was asked to change but he refuse and told him he paid his money he had on long pants and he wasn't going to change into dress pants. Everyone else followed the rules but you always have that person in every crowd!
There is a chef's table which is $150 each and since it was our anniversary we thought we might try it until we realized that the people sitting at the chef's table were ordering their food off the same menu we were eating from. Well someone is making my food while maybe not in front of me why would I pay $300 extra?

Staff: We can't thank them enough. EVERYONE called us by our name and a special thanks to Christopher and Veronica in Spices, Edwardo and Christopher in activities, Laura at the Deck, Deigo at the pool are, Bernardo at the beach. These people went out of their way to treat us special. They were wonderful and I hope that if you stay here you will meet them too.

Nightlife: NONE! They have a bar at night and have a couple of musicians but that's all. We've stayed at several other resorts that have great shows and entertainment so we were kinda bored at night. One night it rained and since the "entertainment" is outside we just went to our room at 8 and watched movies.

The Club Royale: the only show which is only opened on Sat & Thurs. We saw it on Thurs, the show was good but they only had to choices of entrees and when you make food in masses like that it wasn't our best meal. Several other people said the same thing. It is dark in there so you can hardly see what you're eating anyway.

Beach: beautiful wear, soft sand but people please stop using the sand as an ashtray! Pools are not huge, no swim up bar tho. There are lots of smaller relaxation pools scattered along the property which are nice and quiet.

We had a very nice time here but hated making the dinner reservations and the strick long pants policy and no shorts, not even dress shorts and the fact that there was no evening shows. AThet did have two guys on Friday night that were amazing tho! They sang Clapton, Pink Floyd, John Meyer etc and the singer was awesome.

This property is close to town and we walked to 5th Ave twice. I also jogged to town every morning for exercise and felt completely safe being by myself.

Side note: this resort does cater to corporations and while we were there a group from Toyota came in. These were salesman who exceed sales so Toyota paid for them and their spouse/friend to stay here. One day at the pool there was a group of them, drunk, trashing the very company that sent them them. One of them even said he wouldn't even drive a Toyota himself. You would think that if they are representing the very company that sent them there, who they work for they would be a bit more respectful. I hope that someone from Toyota who sent them there reads this and reconsiders their employees. And this is why I ONLY buy American!

This all inclusive was like none other that we've stayed. The service was impeccable, very clean and well kept and exceeded all of our expectations. The food was excellent and top shelf drinks. House keeping always kept our room tidy and seemed to know when we were gone so as to not intrude. We had room 2723 and it was very quiet, perfect location to pool and beach as well. I called ahead to make sure there were no corporate events and I also took other recommendations to book all of our dinners ahead of time. Everything worked out wonderfully. Super quiet and laid back. Not the place to go if you want to hear loud pumping music and whistles blowing to take shots as prizes. Exactly what we needed. Would recommend this resort to anyone and we will definitely go back. Thank you Carolina for the attention to detail and great villa service. Oh and visit the Spa,,it's extra but worth it.