“Late November we were at the RIU Palace Mexico for the first time. In short: wow, just wow.I don’t know where to start to describe the hotel, it’s pretty, well maintained, well cleaned – and the staff is just very friendly. Never have I encountered friendlier staff then here.We booked our trip through TUI.nl – which included the flight from Amsterdam and transfer from Cancun airport to the hotel. The buss ride takes an hour.Food;Most of the time we had breakfast at the hotel. Twice we left the hotel too early, so we had breakfast in the “24 Lounge” which offers some food and drinks 24/7.For dinner, we’ve only seen the buffet restaurant twice. It contained a lot of good food though. Mostly we visited the a-la-carte restaurants which are also included in the all-inclusive. Not that the buffet was not good, but we don’t eat that often in a-la-carte restaurants, so… It was quite an experience. The a-la-carte restaurants are not so big in size, but strangely enough, there was never a queue. Reservation is not required.Pools;They have multiple smaller pools with a good number of loungers. Some of them have an umbrella, others have some kind of a fabric roof. One pool has a pool bar. Next to the pools, they have quite some loungers on the beach as well. The beach is pretty wide and deep. So, lots of room.They offer free towels. You get a towel-card which can be exchanged for a towel. The towel-card has to be returned during checkout.We spent two days at the beach / pools, without seeing any loud guests. There was some entertainment at the pool sometimes, but that was to be expected and not disturbing.Room;We booked a normal room, which looks exactly like in the pictures. Two nice beds next to each other, a table with sofa, table with two chairs, a bathtub in the room, shower and toilet. They offer toiletries, etc.First surprise when entering our room, were the bottles of alcohol. Apparently, the liquor bottles and the fridge are restocked every day. We had planned so many trips and activities, I had almost no time to drink.Weather;I always found the pools to be cold at first, same for the sea. It took me a minute to get used to the cold water. But I guess that was because of the weather. End of November 2019, it was always 28 degrees, rarely a cloud, and no rain. But this is still the winter season, so in the mornings and evenings it goes down to 20 degrees (which is still very nice!). Which leaves the water with less time to heat?Playacar;The hotel is located in the Playacar complex, which is an enclosed area with normal houses and hotels. Security is good, you can’t enter the complex without telling security what you are coming to do.In the complex is a small shopping area where they sell tourist stuff. There’s a pharmacy, and a Starbucks.Money;There’s an ATM at the hotel, which only has a Spanish interface. I used my phone and the Google Translate App. But I could not get it to work with my Mastercard. The hotel lobby also exchanges Pesos for Euros (and I guess USD).Next to that, you can visit the banks at 10th Avenue in Playa del Carmen.All prices seem to be in either Pesos and/or USD, but as I was in Mexico, therefor paid with Pesos or with my Mastercard.Taxi;Playa del Carmen is about 40 minutes away, on foot. By car it’s more like 10 minutes. There’s a standard (one way) rate between Playa del Carmen and Playacar, which is 120 Pesos. After 10PM it is 150 Pesos. Advice is to have you drop off at 5th Avenue. Which is where the shops start/are at.We’ll be back!”
— Paddy Johnsson