Royal Hideaway Playacar Reviews

Was a great vacation with girlfriend...relaxing, tranquil, comfortable. Things did die down early in evening...even at the bar that was open til 1am...just not much activity there, but rest of morning and day time was great. Great food options overall, though desserts weren't the most tasteful...concentrated too much on presentation. Would definitely go back

Ok, I'll try to be brief and to the point. Rooms are not 5 star. While clean, the rooms are dated (including tile and plumbing), and I don't see why the resort cannot keep the rooms in "like new" conditions, since the quarters are separate 24 room villas and can be shut down for maintenance one at a time. All of the public space (which should be harder to shut down) is in great condition. Also I have seen way more generous mini bars and bath amenities in 3-4 star rated resorts. TV channel selection is definitely substandard for an expensive resort. Food and service: Japanese fusion restaurant falls short authenticity wise, otherwise the food is great. Do not listen to reviews saying otherwise. Reasonable people do not expect Peter Luger’s porterhouse in an all-inclusive resort. Yes, I'm from New York, and very demanding when it comes to food, but I have been to 12 different all-inclusive resorts, and Royal Hideaway is at least as good as any of them or better. Also there is no limitation on number of restaurant bookings, booking is done at any time during the day by villa concierge. Service is the best I’ve seen yet. I would say overkill (shoe shine boxes in rooms in Caribbean resort? Changing your drinks because they might have gotten warm? Etc.). Staff really goes out of their way to be friendly and helpful. Villa concierges are very helpful. For the first time I didn’t have to look for travel agency representative to arrange for pick-up time, it took concierge about 2 minutes to do. Resort provides a variety of small conveniences like newspaper clip copies daily etc. The only deal breaker I see for some people (like myself) is that this is intentionally a VERY QUIET place. If you happen to be single or not looking for extremely quiet time – do not pick this resort. Entertainment is close to 0. There’s a dinner show once a week, that you have to book a reservation for. You get a duet singing for about an hour at lounge most evenings and that’s that. No music to speak of by the pool or at the beach. Activities are very few. Resort DOES NOT EVEN HAVE A PROPER BAR swim up or otherwise (there is a small bar at Las Ventanas restaurant that you can book for dinner). That’s a first one for me.

I really enjoyed this resort. The staff was friendly and kind. I would say the best part of the resort was the beach. It's vast and beautiful! It was not crowded like the resorts I noticed on my walks on the beach. I thought the food was very good at most restaurants and the beverages were high quality. I guess my only complaint would be the anniversary package. I had mentioned that it was our 20th anniversary and I was hoping for something along the lines of a bottle of champagne in my room or something special to celebrate our milestone. All that appeared in our room were 4 balloons and a note. Kind of a let down. Aside from that we really enjoyed our stay and would go back to the same resort.