Riu Playacar

Only here 24 hours so far. The pot smoking is overwhelming from the watersports staff.

RUI stuff advice not to buy tours on a beach, instead buy it from “authorized” providers they have in a hotel. We did purchase almost a $1000 trip from their “authorized” provider and did not receive a service or money back. RIU stuff did nothing to help us and said they are not responsible for those guys. They allow them to sell you scam tours, they advice you to deal with them but when they scam you RIU will tell you they can’t help. Attaching photos of scammers and advice to all guests: pay with your credit card ONLY as your bank is the only one who will try to help you. RIU will do nothing to help you!

Just home after two weeks at Rui Playacar. It was a super two weeks with so much going on you needn’t get bored, there really was something for everyone. Staff are lovely from reception to gardeners & cleaners, every one smiled and responded to a ‘good morning’ in my broken Spanish. Entertainment team were encouraging you to join in but were never ‘pushy’ and if you said no, left you alone. The food, I found, was really good for all inclusive, from the self service to the a la cartes all food was well presented & well cooked. The rooms were stylish, comfortable & clean, my only gripe and quite petty really, that as a tea drinker there was no kettle or milk in rooms just a coffee machine, that’s purely a personal gripe as the bar staff at the 24 hour bar were quite happy to make me a tea early mornings after my morning walk as well as the waiters in the breakfast restaurant. The bar staff do a brilliant job, you look at the queue at the pool bar and think you will have to wait ages but they work so well and quickly that you soon get served. The whole complex was kept very clean and the gardens well kept. Evening entertainment was varied and everyone seemed to really enjoy the silent disco, it was great fun to watch. All in all a great resort and a lovely holiday.

DO NOT STAY HERE. Our group of six had our entire vacation destroyed by severe food poisoning that led to a formal medical diagnosis of "Acute infectious gastroenteritis likely foodborne due to family cluster". The Medical Emergency Every single person in our party fell violently ill. Our experience included: Severe Symptoms: Projectile vomiting, diarrhea, and high fevers reaching 101.1°F. Medical Intervention: We were prescribed Azithromycin and Zofran to manage the infection. The Source: We identified the sources as shrimp from the main restaurant on 04/08 and chicken/fruit from the Asian restaurant on 04/13. Shocking Hygiene Lapses The reason for this outbreak became clear when we checked the resort's public notices. We discovered a complete lack of regulatory transparency: Expired Environmental License: The resort's Environmental Operating License displayed on the public board expired in March 2024. 9-Year-Old Health Certificate: The Sanitary Dictum on display was dated 2017. Management Response We spent the majority of our stay confined to our rooms (Rooms 2118 and 2119) in significant distress. Despite providing doctors' reports and pharmacy receipts, management has been slow to take responsibility. Bottom line: This resort is a major health hazard. They are operating with outdated sanitary certifications, and our group of six is the proof of the consequences. Save your money and your health—stay elsewhere.

We had a fantastic two week holiday at RiuPlayCar. We are a family of four including two teenagers. This is a lovely hotel, with everything we needed for a very enjoyable holiday. The rooms were big and quiet, with the beds (and pillows) being huge and very comfortable. There was a huge choice of food, all really good with live cooking stations as part of the massive buffet, also 3 restaurants - the streak and Italian restaurants were excellent with no surcharge and you didn’t have to book. All the restaurants were very clean, we saw staff gelling their hands, and any dropped food was cleared immediately. Although the main restaurant is a buffet service for food they provide a drinks service, decent enough wines etc. All the staff on the resort were lovely - really helpful and polite, from the restaurant staff and the bar staff to the entertainment team, cleaners and reception team. We liked the fact the reception team called a few times to check we were satisfied with everything. The pool areas were very clean (again staff cleaning spillages immediately). All areas were very well staffed which meant we were served quickly. Bar staff brought round trays of drinks both poolside and to the sun beds on the beach, and would take your drinks order if you wanted something else (which was more than we expected when we booked). We were really impressed by the service. The daytime activities were good - daily bingo, weekly Mayan culture dance, also daily dance / various exercise sessions and volleyball on the beach so plenty to keep our teenagers (and me) happy. Also free body boards and kayaks. We read about the seaweed problem and although you could see lots came in overnight it was cleared early in the morning so it was fine to swim in the sea which we did every day . I did 4 dives and a reactivate dive session with two of the dives being in Cozamel (picked up from the hotel and speedboat over). I organised these through ScubaCaribe at the resort whilst I was there and again the ScubaCaribe staff were very professional and helpful, all well organised and they made me feel very comfortable as I was nervous about doing the dives after a long break from diving and also because I was doing them on my own. We have stayed at a Riu hotel once before which is why we decided to go with Riu again and it was definitely the right decision as the whole hotel experience was fabulous.