The Fives Downtown Hotel & Residences, Curio Collection by Hilton

I will start with what was good about the Five Downtown. The location is fabulous, the staff were friendly, the bed was very comfortable, housekeeping was very thorough and the room spacious. Now for what was not good. We were in Playa del Carmen for a week of diving in cenotes and the sea. This means that we have wet stuff. Our room did not have a balcony and there was nowhere to get anything dry. We asked to move rooms to one with a balcony, but were told there was nothing available. We asked if there was a drying space anywhere and were told to go to the launderette which is not helpful with daily swimming costumes and dive gear. By the end of our week the whole room was very damp and smelt terrible. Our room was equipped with a fridge, coffee machine, microwave, stove and a couple of mugs. Some cutlery, plates and pots would have made this a little more useful. Playa del Carmen is a riot of unashamed colour and vibrant Mexican life. The Fives is not. It seems to have gone out of its way to be as minimalistic, beige and un-Mexican as it is possible to be. Even the endlessly repeated breakfast musak was as vanilla as possible while ensuring that its capacity to ear-worm its victims was maximised. If you are looking for a city break in New York or London, but have to make do with Playa del Carmen, the Fives Downtown may well be perfect for you. If you are in Playa to experience the wild joy of Mexico and do anything that leaves you with a single wet bikini, find somewhere else.

Well, where do I start? A very interesting holiday. I’ll start with the Pros: Modern clean apartment A couple good movie channels on the TV. We had 3 decent (Samsung) TVs in our 2 bed apartment Daily room service (fresh towels, bottle water top up, etc). Good location for local shops also very close to 5th Ave which is like a mini NY time square in the evenings. Nice roof top pool/whirlpool and massage service at an additional cost. Some of the more fancier poolside beds have to be reserved for 3000MXN  = 126.53 GBP although they say you get it back in exchange for food and drinks. We didn’t oblige. Very nice friendly staff. Special thanks to Mariana, Jesus and Hector for your service at the rooftop pool/bar and Cristal for keeping the apartment so clean. Also Frank and Daniel on reception. Cons The main bedroom sliding door had a 2 inch gap which needs to fixed (room 106 -1 if the hotel owners see this review) I honestly forgot to mention it. We were three adults. As you opened the door off the hallway you were presented with 2 other doors which required the swipe cards. One door led to the lounge, kitchen and main bedroom with bathroom and the other door to bedroom with 2 beds and bathroom. So my children were next door basically. Would like to have known this before booking. Kitchen lacking accessories (kettle, cutlery, plates, pots/pans). You can however pay for some bits, which would cost you 500MXN  = 21.09 GBP for 4 plates, a pan and a jug. We researched before arriving and took some disposable cups, plates and bowls with us. Also took some real cutlery which worked perfectly. In the apartment you do get 4 glasses, 2 teacups/saucer with two teaspoons. Apparently the coffee machine doubles up as a kettle. Some walls are thin so a bit of noise every now and again Windows are not sound proof so if you have a city/road view room you’ll hear all the morning and night noise. Fees. Way too much. Federal tax (VISITAX) £14, Environmental fee £15, Resort fee 10USD  = 7.56 GBP per day. There is a holding fee when you check in which is 3000MXN = 126.53 GBP that has to be on a credit card and should only get charged if there is any damage. Important to note, All these charges are per person. If you decide to do a little shopping, do your homework and know your prices. A lot of the branded shops (adidas, H&M, etc.) are overpriced so check and see what the price is online in your home country before purchasing. We did a few Uber eats deliveries and fees are a lot cheaper - priority delivery is around 9MXN  = 0.38 GBP as apposed to £4.99 in the UK. Other than all of the above the weather was great between 28C and 30C during our stay which was in the month of March. We visited Xplor Park, the beach and 5th avenue, but on most days we just lounged by the pool, where the bar opens at 11am and kitchen at 12noon. Mexico is nice but due to the excessive fees we won’t be returning anytime soon.

Our server Nathan was awesome!

We had a wonderful breakfast, great variety of foods and excellent service by our waiter, Nathan!

Our group of 3 adult couples highly enjoyed our 1 week stay at The Fives. Everything in this hotel is high quality. The rooms are spacious, comfortable, and cleaned well every day. We only ate at the restaurant for breakfast but the selection, quality, and service was top notch. Jesus and Hector were both excellent servers and took very good care of us. The rooftop was a highlight. There are 2 separate pools and a hot tub. The pool by the bar is always busy and you have to pay to use the loungers in front of the bar. There was always loungers available at the pool on the other side of the roof. Although there were a few times where people would 'reserve' chairs and then not use them. Pools were a good temperature, not warm but not cold. The hot tub was large and very warm. We used the Spa. The hydrotherapy circuit and massage was very relaxing and reasonably priced. The only negative with our visit was the Air Transat $555 USD promotion was a complete sham. We were not able to use the coupons for anything. Overall experience was great and would recommend this hotel to anyone.