RIU Palace Mexico is situated in the gated community of Playacar in the Playa Del Carmen region of the Riviera Maya in Mexico. There are numerous hotels within Playacar but of important note are the RIU Palace Mexico, RIU Palace Riviera Maya, RIU Tequilla, RIU Yucatan and RIU Playacar. These are all accessed via the same road, and are within 500-600 yards of each other. Guests of the two Palace Resorts can use the facilities of all of the named hotels, whilst those in the non-palace resorts, can only use other non-palace resort facilities. NOTE: Breakfast and Evening meal must be in your booked hotel, but otherwise it's all fair game.
On entering the grounds of the RIU Palace Mexico, you'll notice a very grand facade, ramps allow taxi and bus transfers to reach the main lobby entrance, while a set of steps allows pedestrians a more direct route. There are footways on the ramps also, making the hotel easily accessible! Making your way through the double sliding doors and into the lobby, you're greeted by an amazing view. From the huge chandelier, sculpture based seating area, lobby bar, and a further view of the full length of the resort if you care to notice it.
Check-in/Welcome Desk is to your right as you enter and the RIU Front Desk staff are smartly dressed all wearing welcoming smiles. This hotel offers 4 different room types - The Junior Suite, which are facing outwards to the gardens and neighbouring hotels, The Superior Junior Suite, which are facing inwards towards the glorious fountains of the hotel. The Suite which offers a larger room space of the Junior Suite, and then the 2 Floor Jaccuzi Suite. As at time of writing, TUI only has the Junior Suite and Suite as options, anything else will require an upgrade request - which we did. Our Daughter is Neurodiverse and we felt that the outward view would be somewhat claustrophobic for her. Upgrade was simple and we were very quickly shipped off to our rooms, 2135 and 2136 on the 2nd (top) floor to the left of the hotel, in the end part of the building. My wife & I in 2136 and Daughter & Mum in 2135.
The Rooms are spacious and well laid out, with a wardrobe/closet with clothes rail and a couple of shelves for clothes, there is also a 4 drawer unit for clothes - we found 2 of us were able to easily store our clothes for a 12 day stay (with spares), and plenty of room to spare. There is an all inclusive minibar containing Beer (Larger), Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, 7Up Zero, Canada Dry Blue and Canada Dry Yellow - in addition there's plenty of 1.75l bottles of purified water (we had 3 to begin with, drank loads and never ran out). There's also 4 spirits Optics in the room, which are included and contained Baccadi (White Rum), Beefeater (London Dry Gin), Jose Cuevo (Tequila), Smirnoff (Vodka), so you've always got a drink available for your balcony. If you want a coffee in the morning, there's a well stocked selection and a coffee maker there too. Sadly, no Tea - but then they would need to stock 400 different types and brands of tea bags because none of us tea drinkers like the same tea! The bathroom area is open plan with a bath separating it from the room - there is no wall divide. 2 sinks are available, so you don't spit your toothpaste where she's plucking her top lip, and a large shower with enough space to shower and dry. The toilet is separate which is always welcome albeit it is very small - even with the door open conversation with your significant other sounds to you like you're sat in a brick box - which you kind of are. Moving back into the room, there's 2 options - a King Sized Bed, or 2 Doubles (Twins). They can offer the push the 2 doubles together, but we elected not to as it would render the single power outlet unusable, meaning no phone charges over night, and would lead to a single bed-side table which isn't ideal for us - to each his own though. There is a separate living space just 2 steps down from the bedroom, with it's own glass balcony. The living space contains a comfortable 2 seater couch and coffee table, and a small table with 2 chairs so you can enjoy a romantic Room Service Dinner together. The living area doesn't really have a great view of the TV, but then who needs the TV when you have that view! Opening the sliding doors you come out onto the balcony - this isn't a large space on these rooms (although there are larger), but it is enough space to sit and have a drink and enjoy the view before dinner, or in the morning. The rooms are well decorated and maintained, all painted white inside with purple soft furnishings, and pretty artwork on the walls, this really did become a home from home. The room has fully functioning air conditioning (switches off when doors are opened), which is complemented by a ceiling fan keeping the whole room generally cool - even in the heatwave we experienced.
EATING & DRINKING - We're here to eat, drink and chill our way to our next holiday booking right? We used all restaurants except for Pepe's Grill and Krystal - no reason other than we didn't fancy it. Pepe's felt a bit too basic (we like to sit and eat at a table), and Krystal felt too fancy for us. So i'm covering the restaurants and bars we used....
FOOD:
Don Julián - Buffet (Breakfast & Dinner) - Breakfast first - as far as breakfast buffet's go, this one is pretty extensive - whether you're into pastries, fruit, or more of a full english kind of person, there's something for everyone on this constant conveyor belt of food production. The only issue we ever had here was eggs - the fried eggs were a little under done, and the poached eggs were hit and miss between massively underdone and rock hard - we did discuss with the management and the situation did change, but it still wasn't right. Okay you're catering for hundreds of people, but the production line here just needs a little attention. Everything else though was perfect every day! Dinner (Evening meal), we were very well attended to by Eduard each night we ate here, an absolutel gem who greeted us with a smile and had our table ready for us. Again foodwise, there's something for everyone although there was a shortage in variation for the vegetarians among us. There was pizza, pasta, burgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, fajitas, tostitos, an extensive selection of meat and fish, cold cuts and cheeses. Then the desserts! Oh my word! The desserts were literally to die for, with the added extra of a chocolate fountain with marshmallows, which kept our 12 year old EXTREMELY happy!
Guacamole - Buffet (Lunch & Snacks) - Pretty much this was more of the same sort of thing you could find in the evening buffet - but a bit less heavy and a little less variety (it is a smaller restaurant afterall). Service in here we were greeted each day by Fabiola, who was fantastic, so personable and tended to our every need!
La Bodega - Mexican A-La-Carte (Dinner) - It wouldn't be a trip to Mexico without visiting a Mexican restaurant. Starters are a buffet style with plenty of mexican classics to choose from, chilli con carne, fajita etc. Main courses we just had to go for the tacos. These were amazing and so filling! We also tried the octopus between the table, and whilst this was perfectly cooked, it was smoothered in a sauce that was a little too spicy for me (and I like spicy food!). We loved La Bodega, and were only disappointed that we didn't have enough holiday for a second visit!
Miyagi - Japanese A-La-Carte (Dinner) - Japanese restaurants are a staple of the All-Inclusive world, honestly I dont know why, it just is! Miyagi was a nice experience, though we felt a little rushed. One of our party had different starters to the rest and so finished first, staff cleared their plate and brought out their main course, which just didnt seem right (we're used to all finishing a course and then clearing away with a break between courses). We did raise this and it was acknolwedged that this isnt normal, so we must've caught them on a bad day. The food was nice, Ramen Duck Soup to start which was extremely tasty, and loads of it! Beef Terriyaki as the main, which was okay, but not a great cut of beef and not fully sliced - the intent was there but not fully executed. Don't get me wrong, the experience was nice and we would've gone back.
Dolce Vita - Italian A-La-Carte (Dinner) - Honestly I wasn't massively impressed by the Italian. For an italian restaurant there wasn't a great deal of pasta, or even pizza on the menu. It was very middle of the road. Whilst the food was nice, there was nothing here we couldn't have had in the buffet.
Steak House - A-La-Carte (Dinner) - This is located in the same restaurant as Guacamole, with a beachfront view. Subsequently it's the only a-la-carte without air conditioning. I skipped out on starters here as nothing took my fancy, and went for the Rib Eye for mains - asked for Medium, but came medium well, but that's fine. It came with a florette of brocoli, carrot and a minicob of sweetcorn, which for some unknown reason was cooked in a cinnamon sugar, very weird, but something they should stop doing.
Lounge 24 - Snacks (24hrs) - this little room of joy was fantastic. Self service drinks and food, generally sandwiches, some cakes and pastries, hot dogs, burgers, chicken nuggets and wedges, all that fun stuff. Ideal for a quick snack before bed, or if your flight gets in late and you're not a fan of room service.
Room Service (24hrs) - obviously this is for convenience, it's a very basic menu of sandwiches, nachos, cakes and fruit, though you can get breakfast delivered, we chose not to. Whilst nice, I would've liked to have seen more exican options here, like fajitas or a burrito perhaps?
DRINKS:
Cubano - Lobby Bar - this is a fanstastic place to meet family and friends for a pre and/or post dinner drink. The Piano is played each evening by a visiting pianist, playing all kinds of well known and lesser known classics. Be warned some folks may sing along and unfortunately one night, someone did very badly completely ruining I Dont Wanna Miss A Thing for everyone there. So if you do want to sing at the top of your voice, please make sure you have the voice for it. Drinks were plentiful and I didn't hear of anyone not being able to get something they liked, be that beer, spirits, cocktails, or something a little more exotic.
Los Mariachis - Lounge & Bar - Here you will find the evening's entertainment and another bar for chilling out. We only visited once for the Michael Jackson Show, and just found it a little too dark.
Capuchino - Coffee Bar & Cakes - We visited here almost every day, you can get coffee, hot chocolate, tea, milkshakes, ice cream, and cakes of all different types. If you get the chance, try the Chocolate Cake and Cocolate Milkshake, they're to DIE for! My wife had the little Mango Mousse Pyramid every day, and she absolutely loved them! Well recommended!
El Palmeral - Pool Bar - ignoring the swim up bar, which is adults only, and is questionable about the water content (people sit and drink all day and never get out), there is a walk-up part to this bar on the rear side, with seating area. We came down here on our first evening for a quick drink by the beach. It was very relaxing, and the service was impecable!
ENTERTAINMENT:
No trip to an all-inclusive resort would be complete without an amazing entertainment programme. The evening entertainment is the typical sort of corny stuff you'd expect from a resort such as this, MJ, Grease, ABBA, this is in addition to visiting live bands and soloists. It's easy to avoid though if it's not your kind of thing, and is never in your face. The daytime entertainment though provided by the team is amazing, they work so hard its untrue, throughout the day there is always something going on, obviously with the exception of when they break for their well deserved lunch time.
I will make a special mention to RIU Fit King Gustavo, who ran the AquaGym on most days, his charm and charisma had everyone involved. Me being a larger fella was a bit nervous about getting stuck in, but he gave me a suitable amount of attention that spurred me on and made me feel AMAZING about myself. I even joined him on the pool side on our last day before leaving, and saw just how HOT it gets up there - not only did he keep me active, but he also helped me to gain only 6lbs throughout the whole holiday! Thank you Gustavo you made my holiday what it was (and turned me into a minor celebrity - for those reading who were there, yes i am THAT Andy).
GROUNDS
Some reviews on varying platforms say that this hotel is old and dated and in need of refurbishment - whilst they are getting a refurb in 2026, we didn't see it as a neccessity - what we saw in the grounds of the hotel in its entirity is a well loved and well maintained hotel - not a single day went by that staff weren't cleaning, mowing, tidying, pruning, and lopping the various parts of the hotel. These guys deserve a raise as it's a thankless task - they really are the hidden gems of the RIU Palace Mexico.
Overall I would recommend this hotel to anyone, even before refurb its a jewel in the crown of the RIU Fleet, and we cannot wait to return after the refurb!
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