Review of The Royalton Riviera and The Hideaway Resort

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As a travel agency, we have the task of becoming knowledgeable with a wide variety of travel components.  On a recent trip to Cancun, Mexico we had the opportunity to tour and stay at several All-Inclusive resorts.  One resort that we had the pleasure of experiencing was The Royalton Riviera Cancun.  This beautiful resort is actually 2 resorts in one.  Royalton Riviera Cancun and the Hideaway share this location and form a resort within a resort.  Located in the beautiful Riviera just south of Cancun along a beautiful stretch of beach with no other resorts nearby the Royalton gives the best Mexico has to offer.  The drive from the airport is actually quite short.  I think the driveway to the Royalton is longer.  I am kidding, but the driveway leading to The Royalton passed through a long stretch of mangroves that seemed almost endless.

The resort is set up in four large u-shaped areas that face the ocean and have their own personality.  The first U-shaped section is the Royalton family area.  This section caters to families and is where the kid's water park is located.  The second U is the main resort area featuring the main pool where most of the entertainment is held and most of the restaurants.  This is the area where most of the services and amenities are located as well.  The third U is where the “Diamond Club” is located.  The Diamond Club is an upgraded section of the Royalton resort.  This area also has its own pool and another restaurant that is for Diamond Club guests for lunch but is open to everyone for dinner.  The final U is the “Hideaway”, an adults-only resort. The restaurant in the Hideaway also serves breakfast if you want to avoid the buffet. I had the good fortune of being in the Diamond Club area and a swim-up suite.  I did find that if you want to use the swim up pool of your suite, location is important.  Some of the swim up pools are in the shade and you will want to be on the sunny side of the building.  The Diamond Club had access to all restaurants throughout the resort and I believe that is true of all the rooms regardless of room category.  It is wise to make reservations at the more popular restaurants by 3:00 p.m. of the day you want to eat there.  Pictured here is the family area.

Water is an important component of this resort.  Besides having numerous pools, the resort is ocean front and has its own beach area.  Be warned that the ocean is swimmable; however, there is a lot of seaweed in the water and you may not want to swim there because of the seaweed.  I happened to be there shortly after Tropical Depression Nate went through.  There was some lively debate about whether the storm caused more seaweed (and other debris) to be in the water.  We took a catamaran out, with the help of a guide, and once we got away from shore the water became clear and less seaweed was present.  We did swim in the ocean; however, I will admit that it was a little unnerving not being able to see what was in the water around me because it was cloudy.  The water temperature was amazing!  If you want crystal clear water, this is not the place.

There are some water activities that you can do here.  For an additional $3.00 USD per person, you can purchase a water activities wristband.  The wristband is good for your entire stay and if it becomes damaged, just take the pieces back to them and they will replace it and you don’t need to purchase a new one.  So what comes with this wristband?  You can take a sail in a catamaran with a guide (actually you can take as many as you want), sea kayaks (both doubles and singles), and paddle boards.  Instructions on how to use each of these are available as well as life jackets.  The entire staff at the water sports area is extremely helpful and kind. 

While I was at this resort, the resort was close to maximum capacity and I could not tell. It didn’t matter what time of day I went to the pool, I could always find an empty lounge chair.  The same was true of the beach.  I could always find a lounge chair.  As always, the beaches are considered public so people are allowed to walk up and down the beach and offer you items for sale.  They are not allowed to come to you in your chair, but if you are walking the beach they are allowed to approach you.

Food is always an important part of an all-inclusive resort.  I don’t normally care for a buffet for many reasons; however, this resort had the best buffet I have ever seen.  The selection was almost mind-boggling.  For breakfast, some of the most popular stations like pancake, waffles, and omelets have multiple stations so the lines were very short.  They even have a section just for the kids.  The counter is low for the children to help themselves.  They had milk dispensers had different types of milk (chocolate, 2% milk, and whole milk) and it was fun to watch the kids pour a variety of milk on their cereal for breakfast.  The restaurants were all good and served a variety of styles of food.  There was some overlap because, we were in Mexico, after all.  But I enjoyed the food greatly.

Overall, I recommend this resort.  I had the opportunity to talk to some of the other clients at this resort and asked about their experience.  The best piece of advice that I walked away with was that the “Diamond Club” upgrade was not worth it at this particular resort.  There was not enough distinction between the Diamond Club and the regular service to make up for the increase in the cost.  One other downside was the maid service.  I found that I had to put out the “Please Service Room” card out in order for my room to be serviced earlier in the day.  If I didn’t do that it was late in the afternoon before my room was serviced.  If it is important to you to have your room serviced early in the day, remember to put out your card.