An awesome all inclusive
2nd stay December 2009
We've stayed at the Riu Tequila twice and I wouldn't hesitate to come here again, it's slightly cheaper to stay off the beach but hardly inconvenient as it's just a short walk away. The Riu Tequila is one of 6 Riu resorts in Playacar and we had access to two of the Riu hotels that did have beach front property, the Riu Yucatan and the Riu Playacar, and also the Riu Lupita which is built overlooking a golf course. We did not have access to the two higher class Riu Palace resorts.
The Riu resorts are some of the resorts that are furthest from Playa del Carmen, it took us about 25-30 minutes to walk to the edge of town at a moderate pace. The clientele was mostly European, lots of German and British guests but also a wide variety of other nationalities. Many of the European women sunbathed and walked the beach topless. The resort appears to be family friendly, we saw plenty of kids but not so many that they were annoying. Of course over the Christmas holidays there are probably more.
Our room didn't have much of a view but it was very nice, two comfortable queen size beds pushed together. There's an in room safe, ironing board, a small refrigerator, mini bar with water and soda and 4 bottles of alcohol set up tap style, TV with several cable channels. There's air conditioning and an overhead fan.
The shower had great water pressure and always had hot water. Toiletries were minimal, shampoo and bath gel, both in little packets, and soap. The towels were big.
The hotel was renovated in summer 2008 so reviews prior to that may not reflect the actual condition of the property
Unique Quality: There are three reservation restaurants, a steakhouse, Asian and Mexican, we only ate at the steakhouse on the 1st visit which was good but a bit slow, we didn't bother with the reservation restaurants on the 2nd visit. The buffet restaurant was really good for all three meals, breakfast with made to order omelets and Mexican food if you can handle quesadillas and empanadas for breakfast. There was also French toast, pancakes, breakfast meat, fruit, cereal, pastries, juice, coffee. Lunch and dinner were also quite good, we never felt the need to head into town for supplementary food like most resorts. Lots of Mexican dishes which is mostly what I ate but always good quality meat and seafood. And I couldn't resist the yummy coconut ice cream for dessert or the guacamole at lunch. We found the food better here than at the Beach Club near the beach.
The hotel has two pools, one with a swim up bar. The jacuzzi was attached to the pool and hence cool water, the only disappointment of the resort. The beach club was a short 5 minute walk across the street or if you are extremely into vacation mode, there's a golf cart shuttle every few minutes. Plenty of lounge chairs, lots of sun and shade under palapas and palm trees, nice beach and access to breakfast, lunch and beverages at the other Rius plus you can use their pools.
Non motorized water sports are included and motorized sports and snorkel trips were extra.
Riu Tequila Hotel
Beach south of Riu Tequila (Dec 08)
