Playacar Palace reviews
2324 TripAdvisor reviews
Wonderful all inclusive
Willi1264 (Cincinnati, Ohio) on Mar 23, 2024
Playacar Palace is truly such a wonderful resort. One of the best all inclusive around. The food is absolutely incredible. The service is impeccable. The resort has a very fun vibe. The staff here is just beyond amazing. They truly want to make your stay the best. I don’t know what else you could ask for. We have to give special shout outs to the below people for going above and beyond: Aaron and Ignatio -pool Sylvia- pool food Jonathan -madremia Inez -spa Virginia -spa Vanessa - concierge And so many more that unfortunately, we cannot remember the names. Truly a wonderful vacation. Thank you so much to everyone that helped make this the most amazing trip.
Very Good, But Not Great
JJVan (Vancouver, Canada) on Mar 20, 2024
Having stayed in countless 4.5/5 star Mexican hotels, I would say this one is very good, but not great. Straight off, if you want an expansive beach or poolside seating with umbrellas, you won’t get it here. The beach is minimal, not that it bothered me, but if it’s your thing, this is not the place to be. The beach is enough for loungers and volleyball though, and has beautiful sand and stunning water. I was happy with it. But it’s not a palm tree oasis, if that’s what you want. The pool loungers….ugh. Every lounger with an umbrella is reserved for members. Literally. Every. Day. So if you aren’t a member, and you want shade from 31 degrees and 82% humidity, this is not the place for you. This is the deal breaker for me. The staff are great, but to be fair, I’ve found every Mexican hotel to be that way. Mexicans have mastered the art of customer service. The food is very good, although I would say not as good as a few other hotels we have been in. Where this hotel excels: the location. Wander out the front door, you are in the prime zone of 5th avenue. You are not banished to the boonies like many resorts. Another thing it does well; with only 200 rooms, nothing feels packed. The loungers aren’t rammed together, no line-ups to breakfast..,,it feels laid back. I was worried about the size of the pool but honestly, it was mostly empty. A chill vibe. This hotel doesn’t scream with little children. Not that type of place. A few kicking about, but it’s not a place catering to them. We have a teenager and she loves it here. The room we had was very noisy and awkward. I doubt most rooms are this way; bad luck for us. The ridiculous oversized hot tub took up a third of the room and cramped us. It was awkward to access the balcony because of it. With local Mexicans facing complete drought and no water, it seems out of touch. We would rather have the space. Anyhow, something the hotel should consider. At the Grand Moon, the rooms are bigger and it’s easier to ignore! I like the location and vibe of this hotel but agree that it’s a bit dated. It could use a facelift. Nothing stands out as being “fantastic” or “luxurious”. Just a solid hotel that doesn’t overly stand out.
Great vacation!
Elizabeth B on Mar 19, 2024
We just got back, and loved our time At Playacar Palace. The staff is amazing, and truly what makes this place special. We thought the facilities were beautiful and very clean. We loved the location, as walkable to the shopping streets with restaurants and bars. We felt much safer walking around here than Cancun. Previous reviews are correct that the beach is small, but there was enough space for volleyball and enough chair and sand space to relax on the beach. It is true that you need to get up at 6am - 6:30 am to get decent pool chairs, but even then, a lot are already reserved for Palace members. By mid afternoon you can usually find some chair openings, and staff will sometimes help you, even without tips. It does help to tip the pool staff a few dollars for better service. We could only see two days at a time for restaurant reservations, and had to make reservations on the app, just after midnight , at least 3 nights - it would be nice if they could improve the timing of the reservation system. But we had no trouble changing reservation times, either. The food is good in all the restaurants, including the buffet, but not great - however for an all inclusive resort, we felt that the food was more than adequate. We reserved a partial ocean view, and didn’t get one, but they moved us to a full ocean view after a few days - Really appreciated this! This first room we were in, on the south side, opened to an atrium with trees and some really obnoxiously loud birds at dawn - it’s challenging to sleep for about 1-2 hours, but then they quiet down. We really enjoyed the trips that we booked through the hotel and airport transfers. Recommend private tours and transfers if you can afford them. Be aware for the dolphin experience, it costs as much for the photos as the trip. I had a wonderful massage on a sale day ( so I would check each day and wait til they have a 40% off spa day). Lilia was an amazing massage therapist. We would definitely recommend this resort and will be back.
Solid resort
57rupakm (Toronto, Canada) on Mar 19, 2024
The resort was very nice and well organized. The food was excellent (including the buffet) and there was so much to keep us occupied, that we did not spend as much time as we wanted wandering into town (ironic since this was a factor in booking this resort). Here are some observations based on previous comments. - Facility: I did not find the resort that dated. The facility was still in good shape, felt modern and was clean. - Pool chairs: There were comments on getting up at 6:30 AM to get pool chairs. We slept in every morning, yet we always found chairs in the middle of the day if we were patient enough. The concierge often helps if you give them a few bucks. No one gets annoyed if you stash your stuff next to a palm tree for a while you go into the pool and wait for chairs to be free. Note that upper-tier guests will have their chairs set up and reserved for them by resort staff. In our last few days, it seemed that the majority of chairs were reserved this way. Having said that, many freed up through the afternoon as those guests moved on to other activities. - Restaurants: We had no problem getting reservations for restaurants. You do have to book the restaurants early, but I did not have to stay up until midnight to book. I would recommend booking once you arrive (usually on the weekend) as most people are settling in and not thinking about that. You can book up to 3 days ahead of time on the Palace app and it seemed to work the first day you arrive, before actual hotel check-in. Momo (Asian) and Madremia (Latin) are busier than Trattoria (Italian). The Momo Teppenyaki is especially packed because there is only room for about a dozen people around the small bar. If late reservations are what is available, I would consider it, as you can easily be in the pool until closing at 7 PM or you can eat a light snack at the buffet to tie you over. - Sales presentation: We did not bother with credits or the sales presentation, because my daughter was sick with a cold the first day. I never felt like I missed out by not having extra perks for sitting through the sales pitch. I am not sure I would have enjoyed the added pressure to spend credits on my vacation when you just want to chill out. Most people did seem to go through the presentation to get credits for the spa or perks. Presentation or not, Mexicans are laid back, so I found it easy to avoid sales pitches. Also, I never felt like I got poor service or pressure for just wearing the normal wristband (i.e. because I did not do the sales presentation). - Service: Tipping a few bucks for each transaction helped in getting service. Service can be slow at the pool but was quick everywhere else. I appreciated that staff were friendly and that there were lots of them. - Transfers and tours: I recommend doing private transfers and tours if you have the money to do so. It took us 4 hours to get from the airport (normally an hour) because the Sunwing tour bus was dropping off so many people at different resorts. Alternately, we went to Chichen Itzá on a private tour and we were back by 4 p.m. which was nice. I hear the regular buses are not back until much later which would be hard with kids. - Beach: There was enough beach for three rows of chairs and a beach volleyball court. Maybe the beach will disappear in a few years, but it is fine right now. The seaweed situation in front of the resort is fine, as I believe they rake the seaweed weekly. Other places in Playa Del Carmen looked rough as the properties possibly did not pay to get the seaweed cleared. The beach also seemed less packed, being a little off from the town centre. - Water: The tap water is not drinkable and the shower water had a bad smell. The resort supplies a lot of bottled water, and all ice cube and vegetable washing water is purified, so you don’t need to worry about ice in your drinks and eating salads etc. - Weather: The weather in Playa Del Carmen in mid-March was perfect. - Room: We had initially booked a partial ocean view room with two queen beds, but upon arrival we were informed that we had been upgraded to a full ocean view room with jacuzzi, king bed and two cot-style beds for the kids, which seemed very nice, but in reality the room felt a little cramped (other furniture had to be squeezed together to make it all fit) and it seemed that all the rooms had a pretty great view of the ocean, due to the design of the building, so we would have been very happy with the original booking.
First time at Playacar Palace. Some great and not so great.
Tony R on Mar 18, 2024
We are members and have been to Palace Resorts on 4 other occasions. First, thumbs up to the entertainment staff. We got to know Daniel, Ana, Erik, Rodrigo, and Xiomara very well. They really did a great job to make it a fun experience. Rodrigo and Eric were outstanding. They knew we liked sand volleyball and made it happen every day. Rodrigo always made a point to come see me when I made it to the pool. The dining experience was not that great. The food was good but not outstanding. Keep in mind we are comparing vs the Grand and Sun Palace. Getting dinner RSVP's was a challenge. We had a lot of seetings at 8:30 and 9:00 where we missed the shows. On the upside we showed up late one day for Momo and Daniel was still able to get us in. The next day Daniel got us to the Hibachi table to help make up for the reservations we missed. Daniel at Momo was simply awesome and made the dining experience much better. Finally, the pool situation was not good. Everyone gets up at 6:00 AM to put towels on their chairs that were barely used they entire day. We did take over some chairs at 10 am and at 3:30 someone came to us to tell us we had their chairs??? With our group of seven we had to fight just to get a single chair for all of us. It was very frustrating just seeing empty chairs with towels sit idle all day. If you have kids with you then this place may make sense. If not and you are on a tighter budget go to Sun Palace. Smaller place and better restaurants.