Review : RIU Palace Riviera Maya

A wonderful Cancun Holiday



The Hotel Riu Palace Riviera Maya is one of the latest addition to the Riu family in Playa del Carmen. The hotel is located in the Yucatan peninsula that is 2.8 km / 1.8 miles from Playa del Carmen.



Official website : RIU Palace Riviera Maya, Mexico

Also available to book RIU hotels at Thomsons online :

















General hotel amenities

The hotel is very grand but also modern, there are some very impressive features - massive ceilings, lots of marble, nice chandeliers for example. The pools are superb. There is one that is like a raised infinity pool and then there is a large pool linked to that by a waterfall. There are swim up bars of course. The gym was nice, all brand new equipment and good air-con. Lots of American and Canadian guests when we visited.

Room

We were on the highest floor, with a sea view.
Cleaning was excellent with different "sculptures" made out of the towels each day.
I think this is a RIU trademark - there was optics in the room!

Food & Beverages

While a lot of people are now familiar with the all inclusive service concept, RIU All inclsuive is a class above, even more so in Mexico and The Caribbean. The all inclusive facilities are available 24 hours a day.

We tried all 4 la carte restaurants and weren't disappointed at all. In a way I preferred the buffets just because of the massive choice but the service was very good in the a la carte restaurants.

You could eat and drink 24hours a day because the sports bar was always open and apart from the bar had a bit of self service food - fruit, sandwiches and nachos.
Did the buffet for breakfast which was superb and catered for all lifestyles /nationalities, you could go healthy with lovely fresh fruit, yoghurt etc or pig out on fresh doughnuts or pancakes.

Location and surroundings

Nice beach, a little bit slim ( I think a hurricane a few months before had "taken" a lot of it away!), lovely blue sea, but we spent most of the time by the pool as there was more shade there. There were some nice hammocks on the beach. The resort of Playa Del Carmen is just about walking distance if you are fit and is very nice, a lot more laid back than Cancun.