Playa Trip Review - Royal Hideaway and El Dorado Seaside Suites

[Blythe]

I wanted to post our complete trip review here for anyone who is interested. BTW--my husband Rob and I went to the tequila barrel on the appointed night (albeit a little later than we all agreed, at 10:15, but couldn't find Don and Nancy and the rest of the gang!!)

We recently returned from a week in Playa in early November for our one-year wedding anniversary. We spent the first three nights at the El Dorado Seaside Suites (formerly the El Dorado Resort and Spa out side of Tulum--not to be confused with the El Dorado ROYALE) and the next four at the Royal Hideaway.
Our Champion Air flight from DFW was pleasantly uneventful. We lucked out (which I would venture to guess had something to do with the 2:30 p.m. departure) and there was virtually no line at customs in Mexico. This was our first visit, but other couples informed us this was unheard of in prior trips. We booked our private, A/C van transport through playadelcarmeninfo (.com) for $70. It was nice to breeze through all the sales people and tour buses, just looking for the sign with our name on it... Especially given that our first resort was an hour car ride from the airport. The driver was soooo friendly and we were at ease immediately.

The El Dorado Seaside Suites is a beautiful property, well-maintained and the staff was very friendly. As noted by previous posters, you DO need aqua sox to go into the water, it’s quite rocky. We enjoyed just sitting beside the beach in the lounge chairs, soaking up the sun (yes, topless was going on all around, but it didn’t bother us a bit). Waiters would come by every so often to check on you. We did notice some people snorkeling off of the pier, which looked like fun, but somehow we never got around to it. The fish we could see swimming beside the pier were better than any we’d ever seen snorkeling! Still kicking ourselves for not doing that…

The views were beautiful, though, and with a hammock right outside your sliding glass door, you can’t go wrong. We were in building 29—just steps away from the beach—we looked out the window each a.m. just to soak in the views. The hammock was a comfortable, shady place and read a book when the afternoon sun got hot.

Yes, construction was still going on in quite a few of the buildings when we were there. In fact, some of the people we met were in rooms that hadn't been renovated. Walking through the resort, we could see into the 'old' rooms under construction and I have to say there was a HUGE difference...the 'new' rooms had cream colored linens, cream walls and cherry-wood type furniture—WONDERFUL! The upside of the continued construction: is the resort doesn't feel extremely crowded. As a side note, we only heard construction during ‘business’ hours—it was never intrusive.

The beach here is very pretty, it’s a nice stretch of sand and it’s thankfully, very quiet. You won’t hear the conversations of the people next to you, unlike the Playacar hotels. Most of the guests we spoke with were from the US, although we did hear German and French a few times. Regardless of origin, everyone here was really pleasant. They did “activities” in the evening which were enjoyable and entertaining.

While we were VERY impressed with the room (in fact, liked the room and linens better than the ones at the Royal Hideaway), the food was miserable. We enjoy nice restaurants, so I would venture to say we are slightly harder to please than some, but there were a few nights we went to bed hungry. An example, my husband ordered a seafood quesadilla at the Mexican restaurant (supposedly the nicest of the three)--which the menu listed to contain Caribbean lobster--and the 'lobster' was imitation crab meat. And I fed most of my salmon one night to the feral cat begging at the table. For anyone expecting high-quality food, you will be sorely disappointed. If you aren’t a foodie, just bring a carry-on bag full of food, ask for a ocean view, newly remodeled room and drink some tigres with vodka or rum. You'll (probably) never miss it.

I wouldn't return just because of the food quality. If I heard, however, that they hired a new chef and improved the menu to go along with the recent renovations--we'd be back in a heartbeat.

A few other thoughts. I did read previous posts about the mangroves, and we were in a villa close to the back of the resort. We could DEFINITELY smell them each morning when walking to breakfast. I don’t recall smelling them in the late afternoon, but that could’ve been because we walked back along the beach (or the afore-mentioned tigre drinks). We brought scented candles and a plug-in room deodorizer, so we never smelled anything in the room.

Also, they didn’t have a safe key for the first two days we were there. This was disappointing to say the least and really took away from the ‘relaxation’ part of our stay. I don’t know why you’d advertise having safes and not have keys for every room. Not to mention, we’d call down to the desk, they told us they had a key, we walked all the way down to the desk, and they said, no--sorry--no safe keys. After three times of this run-around, we were pretty peeved. It was nice to find at the end of the stay (especially after all the hassle), they aren’t charging for the use of safes anymore.

All in all, I would give the resort a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. As mentioned earlier, if they only improved the food to edible, safe standards (I didn't mention the few health code violation-type things that wouldn't fly in the US which we saw), I would be back. This place is an excellent value for the price right now. If you’ve already booked this resort, do not fret over the complaints we had. It’s beautiful and we had an excellent time. However, if they raise the price to the level of the ED Royale, I’d spend my money elsewhere.

The last day of our stay at the first hotel was spent on a tour of Tulum ruins and the centoes. We booked this through playadelcarmeninfo (.com) and Jeff was awesome. It was so nice to be on a tour with only 8 people total. What a change from the masses on the tour busses we heard about from other hotel guests!! We got to the ruins about 8:45 a.m. and were the first group to arrive that day. It was nice to get photos without scores of people in them. By the time we left a few hours later, it was a zoo! The cenotes and private beach we went to were awesome as well!!

On to the Royal Hideaway. Wow. It was breathtaking. The architecture was absolutely beautiful. Service was really good…the food was a welcome respite after our experience at the previous hotel. I am still drooling over the fresh calamari!! Yum…

Where to start…we left the El Dorado Seaside Suites at about 11:30, so we arrived at the Royal Hideaway about 12:30 p.m. Of course, our room wasn’t ready yet (not surprising, given our early arrival), so we went to eat at the Snack Bar. Oh my gosh, my husband got annoyed that I wanted to eat lunch there every day after that…we actually saw quite a few of the same couples at lunch—so I know we weren’t the only ones with that idea (smile).

The beach is beautiful (albeit much more crowded than the serene beach at El Dorado Seaside Suites). The beach beds, which look so inviting, have to be reserved at the crack of dawn—5:30 a.m. It didn't really bother us, since we had the same at the EDSS, but some of the guests were really irritated by this fact. As far as the main complaint I've read about: The only time I noticed any gasoline smells (from Barracuda) was the afternoon I went out to read by the beach about 4:30 p.m. The only chairs not taken were over by the dive shop, and I could smell gasoline as the jet-skiers came in and they were gassing them up.

We were assigned villa 3019. I got two of the three requests I made (king bed and close to the beach). Those were the most important (to us)—top floor being the only request we didn’t get. Now, I would NOT request this particular room if you will be annoyed by a view from your balcony of the wall to neighboring resort (for the record, we never heard any noise at night). However, we had just come from a beach-front room and weren’t planning to spend much time in the room at this resort. Also, we booked our room on travel-center.com and based upon about 3-4 months of research, I know we got a much better deal than most of the people there. However, I think we made up for that by tipping ($1-3) every chance we got. The people there work so hard, it seemed so rude to us that some vacationers wouldn’t leave a tip—even after a nice meal or drinks brought to your room.

Ventanas—the international restaurant—this was my husband’s favorite. We ended changing our reservations (yes, I would recommend making at least the first few days in advance unless you want to eat very early or late) for the last night to eat here again. We had salmon, Cornish game hen, crème brulee and lots of other goodies. Azia was under construction during our stay (sad about that!), but they had a few of the appetizers/entrees from Azia available on a separate menu at Ventanas. You were allowed to mix and match if you desired. I ate sushi the second night at Ventanas for my appetizer.
Palazzo— We ate here the very first night, were lucky enough to get an outside table…I would highly recommend this, it was great. I don’t remember exactly what we had, but I think I ordered a pasta dish similar to fisherman’s stew or cioppino. We enjoyed the meal, and even more so a glass of port wine afterwards.
Spices—Juan was excellent! Ask for him if you can. This was our least favorite of the restaurants (but that’s like saying Maui is your least favorite Hawaiian island). I don’t think we’re even comparing apples to apples with any other Mexican AI resorts. The tortilla soup was good…
Snack Bar—Unfortunately, the grill was booked every night, so we didn’t get to try it (being from Texas, our ‘steak’ expectations might’ve been too high anyway). However, as I mentioned previously, I could’ve happily eaten a double-order of calamari for lunch each day. The sandwiches and hamburgers were excellent. I didn’t think the ceviche was as good as it was rumored to be on these sites, but maybe we caught them on an off day. Everything else we ate at the snack bar was PERFECT!!

The bars were great, all top-shelf beverages. And the wine list was very reasonable compared to what you’d pay in a restaurant in the States.

The service at this resort lived up to its high standards. Now, there was a few occasions where we were left waiting a long time for a drink or course during our meal. But, overall, they really went above and beyond. Adrian at the Snack Bar seemed to remember us from the first day and took care of us every time. Also, one day (the one lunch we DIDN’T eat at the snack bar), I wanted some of that addictive calamari. I called room service to see if they’d deliver some. They said no, they didn’t have it, so I just walked on down to the Snack Bar/Bar area (one building over). When I got there, I asked if I could get an order to-go and they told me I could call room service for that. I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, but mentioned that they’d already told me it wasn't available. The manager happened to be standing there—he was so kind and actually sent a waiter from the SB over to our room within about 10 minutes (he also called to let us know when it was on the way). We tipped both generously. Now that’s customer service. And that kind of service will keep people coming back.

Yes, we are ready to go back and planning a shorter trip with friends for next year. This resort is an excellent value for your dollar. After spending our honeymoon at Cap Juluca in Anguilla, BWI, we would pick Royal Hideaway over the two. The service at the RH was second-to-none and one of the Playa beaches we visited on the snorkeling tour was a dead-wringer for Maundy’s Bay in Anguilla. It wouldn't be worth the long flights/layovers/expense for us to choose Anguilla over Mexico. As cliché as it sounds, I would give this place a 10 out of 10. Perfect! If you are on the fence, book it. You won’t be disappointed.

I read every review I could find, and I appreciated all of them. This website in particular was helpful with our planning and as previously mentioned, both of the items we booked through playadelcarmeninfo.com were GREAT! Hope this was able to help you out in your planning. Have a wonderful trip!
Stace99

[btodd]

Great review, very detailed and objective. I really enjoy reading reviews and you left a very good impression of the two resorts...............Thanks!!!

[Big Kahuna]

Thanks for the report! I am leaving as you can see by my timer in 2 days for the EDSS. I have to say that I am disappointed to read about the food. I have four very food oriented young adults coming with me. I am hoping that there have been some changes. I wonder how they determine who gets the remodeled rooms vs. the older rooms. I know that there will be hell to pay if they even look like they are putting my entourage in the older rooms.

Again, thanks for a very good report. I have gained comfort and concern but it's good to see a recent perspective.

[Blythe]

So glad to hear this review has been helpful to others!! I know I scoured this site for info before our trip!! Best of luck to everyone headed out that way...I am jealous. Dallas is supposed to have record lows and snow flurries before christmas!


Stace99/Blythe