GVal

Looking for an AI near Playa Del Carmen and we are considering Riu Palace. Things of importance are few to no kids, quality of food, pool, beach, topless sunbathing, nightly entertainment, and the rooms.

Thoughts please.

GVal

ttt

Little_Man

assuming you've already looked at tripadvisor.com?

I have been by the resort (not gone in), and it looked very upscale and attractive...but I'm not interested in Al's, so haven't stayed.

Cerlaurie

GVal, we stayed at the Riu Palace in 2003 and 2004. Both times were in March around Spring Break time. The first time there were almost no kids, last year there were several including rowdy teenagers - we were pretty surprised. I thought the food was pretty good but not great. Breakfast and lunch are all buffets but there are a couple of choices for ala carte restaurants for dinner. There is some type of entertainment every night - usually some kind of cheesy Michael Jackson (maybe not this year) or Grease type of thing. Some nights they have a band in the courtyard which we enjoyed. The beach and pool are very nice. Not sure if you are for or against the topless sunbathing but there are alot of woman that do sunbathe topless at the beach. The rooms are very nice. I believe all are junior suites.

mzambo

Stayed 2 years ago, loved it!!!!!
very short and inexpensive cab ride into Playa del Carmen, which is a very quaint little fishing village, much preferred it to Cancun's commercial appeal.

The food was very good lots of variety, huge buffet..... can tend to tire of the buffet thing after awhile, we ate in Playa one night....

The rooms are junior suites, 2 double beds together (cannot be split apart) to form a King, a step down into a loveseat area, and your patio or balcony... VERY CLEAN, SPOTLESS!!!!! Mini bar stocked, although it was not premium liquor.

Pool area very nice, with a powder white sand beach and incredible turquoise caribbean blue water!!!! Yes there is topless, this is a european desitnation...... I do not remember seeing many kids there at all, in fact our 16 year old was not happy about that.

I don't know how you can beat this resort....

You also will have access to the other 3 Riu resorts, the Tequilla right across the street and the Yucatan and the Playacar, you can use their pools, bars, etc, attend their shows, they just prefer you eat at your own resort. All the Riu's are a bit different and worth wandering over to, the Yucatan is very tropical with it's jungle like foliage, the Playacar more modern, and the Tequilla has a cool pool as well as a disco type bar.

Have fun!!!!

Kat6688

Twice we've been to the Riu Palace once in April 2004 and Dec 2004. The resort is in a horseshoe style with the restaurants at one end and the beach at the other. The beach is a bit of a walk from the hotel but lovely white sand. We usually ate breakfast, then spent the morning at the swim up bar pool, lunch near the beach then the afternoon at the beach. You can't go wrong here but try hard to book a room closest to the pool area.

GVal

Getting ready to book for early February, looks like it's between Riu Palace and Secrets Excellence. The two remaining issues are : postings that discuss difficulty making dinner reservations at Riu and cost/time to get into Playa from Excellence (I'm assuming there is no issue with topless sunbathing at S.E.).
Appreciate your help.

cookbound

Hi Gval,

We were at Rui Palace last Aug and plan on heading back this Thanksgiving. We really enjoyed it, however, I'm not a fan of AL so we tired of the buffets and this time will choose to do Rui w/out Al if possible. The only meal I enjoyed was breakfast. Lunch was weak, same buffet every day and dinner the same. We didn't make it in time for reservations at the a la carte place so can't comment. The rooms were very spacious, nice and comfortable. I know there were kids there, but not enough to distract, in fact we only saw them at breakfast and lunch.
We don't have kids and this is an issue for me as well.

It's a very short and cheap taxi ride into town where I would recommend eating your dinners.

They have a great beach, plenty of lounge chairs. The only down fall is that the beach is very far from the rooms (if they put you near the main building where we were), they don't come around serving you drinks so it's a hike to get to the bar and they give you tiny glasses and the ice is melted by the time you get back to your spot on the beach.

I would have to agree w/a previous post that the entertainment is cheesey, like a cruise ship entertainment. This in my opinion was the best of the palaces we went to check the others out and preferred Rui.

I don't know anything about Secrets Excellence, but let me know. Like I said we are headed back at Thanksgiving.

Good luck!

Cerlaurie

GVal, check out this website for reviews/trip reports on resorts near PDC http://www.ramproductions.com/survey/topres.asp.

A friend of ours stayed at the Sunscape earlier this year and they visited Secrets and said it was very nice. Another couple stayed at the Aventura Spa Palace which is an adults only all-inclusive and really liked it. The down side at the Aventura is that it isn't on the ocean but there is a manmade beach.

I don't think you can go wrong at the Riu in early February. I think there were so many kids last time we went because it was spring break. The location is very nice because it is so close to town. We also rented a car one day and drove to Tulum which was fun.

Also, just a note, Riu Palace is NOT a palace resort.