Papaya Playa Project, Tulum, a Member of Design Hotels

Pros: - Beautiful location - Beautiful views - Friendly staff - Coffee shop - Spa is very nice with wonderful staff Negatives: - Restaurant serves the entire resort and it's small - Food is very bad and over priced - Drink price varies depending on the event - Poor WiFi strength in rooms (especially since required to communicate with front desk). - Communication issues (have to use Whatsapp to communicate with front desk and they can take hours to respond at times). - All lights (including landscape lights) turned off at night. This is a serious hazard when trying to leave the resort at 4:30AM. Recommendations: - Add luggage racks to rooms that do not have drawers to put their clothes. - Add more WiFi access points throughout the resort and have your techs verify signal strength in EVERY unit. - If you force guests to use Whatsapp to communicate then make sure someone is ALWAYS monitoring and responding to guest messages. - Replace current restaurant. The food is awful and the kitchen is ridiculously small. - Keep landscape lighting on at least until the sun is up! - Put at least 1 wash cloth per person staying in a room. We should not receive just 1 wash cloth for 2 people. - Make sure housekeeping stays out of room when a DO NOT DISURB sign is hanging on our door! My wife and I booked this place for a relaxing vacation from 1/12/2026 to 1/15/2026. We were not aware of the WIKKA event scheduled for the night we arrived until we checked in and were being shown to our room. As we were shown to our room (334) we were told that we would not hear any noise from the event (which was not true). Upon unpacking we found that the rooms has no where to put away clothes that you didn't hang, or at least provide luggage rack. So we had to leave our clothes in the suitcase on the floors (which took up a lot of space). We found the room to be nice, but lacking some basic items. We found that they only provided one wash cloth (plenty of hand towels and bath towels). When we requested more wash cloths they came and took the one we used and replaced it with just one wash cloth again (no extras were provided even though we asked). Providing some where to put cloths (besides hangers) or at least luggage racks would be very helpful. After unpacking we went to the restaurant to grab some food. The restaurant was very busy and noisy because there was a lot of staff setting up and using most of the restaurant to hang out. We found that their menu to be very misleading. They advertised gluten-free dishes, but when questioned it was found that the dishes listed as gluten-free did in fact contain gluten. My wife being a huge fan of authentic Mexican cuisine found her dish to be very disappointing. I ordered their New York Strip, but received a flank steak that wasn't even 5 ounces and over cooked. The food was very disappointing especially for the price. My wife and I drink only on special occasions (2-3 times a year) so it doesn't take much for us to feel the effects of alcohol. We usually order the same drinks and always start feeling the effects after the first drink. My wife and I both ordered our usual drinks (Tito's Martini & a Tito's Vodka and orange juice). After I finished my second drink (before the food arrived) I turned to my wife and said that I don't taste the alcohol and don't even feel any effects from the alcohol. My wife (just finishing her first martini) said she was thinking the exact same thing. When my third drink arrived we ordered a shot of Tito's. When I tasted the Tito's it didn't taste right. It tasted to me like it was either watered down or a different brand of vodka. After our drinks (twice what we ever drink) we decided to call it a night. Our first night was tough to sleep as the noise from the event went until sunrise. We could clearly hear the music in our unit (334). We were going to try and watch something, but the WiFi was to weak (1-2 bars most of our stay and less than 3 Mbps speed). We brought this up to the staff several times but were told it was just brief issue that would clear up soon. The WiFi was an issue in the room the entire stay. The next morning we went to the restaurant to have breakfast and there weren't a lot of guests. It was very noisy and we had staff taking decorations around us the entire time. I tried to order their scrabbled egg breakfast, but the waiter kept bringing the fried egg breakfast (that also had different sides). After the third time I told him to cancel that part of my order. My wife was not thrilled with her breakfast either. At this point a manager came by and we explained our disappointment with the food. He was very considerate and listened to our concerns. We walked around the grounds for a bit and found our way to the Beach club and spa areas. The staff at the Beach club said they would have the beds set back up by the restaurant the next morning as we mentioned our room was over that way. They said they were moved during the WIKKA event. The staff was very friendly. We then checked out the spa and scheduled a couple's massage for the next day (requires 24 hours notice to schedule a massage). We really loved the grounds and wanted try their holistic massage. That evening we decided to go and eat dinner in town. We had dinner at Casa Banana which was excellent. It was a wonderful experience. The second night we were able to sleep through the night without any interruptions. The third day we decided to walk to Potheads restaurant (about .5 mile) and have breakfast there. The food was great and cheaper than eating at the resort. We spent some time walking around town and checking out the shops. After returning from breakfast we were going to lounge on the beach, but found they hadn't brought the beds. They had a tractor cleaning all the seaweed on the beach so it was basically closed. We ended up using our rooftop pool area just to get some sun. Unfortunately the space is set up to just sit, not lay out. We went to our spa appointment (5:30PM) which was wonderful My wife and I loved the holistic massage and couldn't believe how fast the 80 minutes went by. We found this to be one of our top 3 massages. We both ended up with hives the next day (lasting for a week) on our chest areas. Other than the issue with the hives we absolutely loved the spa experience. We had a light dinner and packed up our bags since we had to leave the resort at 5AM for our flight home. We were awaken about 2:30-3AM by loud noises coming from the roof. I went to the roof and found that our pool water level was starting to drop below the skimmer. This meant the pool was sucking in water and air into the plumbing which made very loud noises in our room. So we got up early since we couldn't sleep from the noise. We went to leave the room at 4:40AM and found ALL outside lights (including landscaping lights) were off. So we had to drag out luggage to the reception area while using our phones to light the way. This was very dangerous and poor way to treat guests! We arrived at the reception desk and let the manager know about the issue with the pool waking us and the lights being off and dangerous. He apologized but didn't nothing to resolve the issue but was pushing for us to review the place on our ride back to the airport. We came to this resort to relax. Unfortunately this place was only for an all night partying and not for resort guests to relax. First two days were noisy (party setup and teardown, and the party itself). The last day was only relaxing part, but had to go into town to eat because food was so bad. We definitely plan to return to Tulum to time to really explore, but we will not return here.

Primo was a great help and made the property much more personable and enjoyable. There is a Private beach and bar. Village is the same property as papaya, but on far end. Our Bungalow was simple and tasteful, much like tulum used to be before the party scene moved in. Recommend an ocean view and you will be happy. There are late parties during the weekend which you will hear, but can also enjoy as a guest.

Papaya Playa is an amazing place. The property is beautiful and directly on the beach. They hold super fun events and parties with major headliners (Jan Blomqvist, Diplo, Hugel, Giegling, etc.) which are included for guests. The best part though is the staff. They treated us like family and made us feel right at home. In particular; Nicer, Javier, Primo, Roxana, Victoria, along with many others have been absolutely incredible. They go above and beyond to make the stay seamless and unforgettable. The hardest part was actually leaving the place. I will be back and I highly recommend staying at PPP.

Great experience, I been traveling to the PAPAYA PLAYA for years and every time I come back feels like the first time

Really, friendly staff. Good service. Primo our guest Host took really good care of us. Clean Nice rooms with all you need. Food was friendly for most with allergies. Really good Beach front even with a pool. Recomend this place to everyone.

Both hostess have really nice vibes and friendly. Great architecture in general. Attention by waiters and food can be better. Party vibes and backstage service was great.

Our stay at PPP was very welcoming from beginning to end. All the staff, reception to hospitality crew were amazing. Special thanks to Primo and Nancy for making us feel like part of the family here. The jungle atmosphere, art, housing, beach front is great. Also positive is that there’s parking for guests. You have a lot of options for food, mini markets and things to do around. What I loved the most is the acoustic in the rooms. Tips: place your Bluetooth speaker on top over the curtains facing the shower. Play some ambient music, walk around the room and especially under the showerhead and experience a wonderful sound experience. The place is quiet and chill. The attention to food should be uplifted for the price level they are charging.

I chaperoned my daughter and her 4 friends on a 19th birthday trip. The place was magical! The level of kindness and service are unmatched. I adored my room with rooftop pool. Primo from reception seemed to work 24 hours a day and anticipated our needs. It was a relaxing, beautiful stay.