Date: DECEMBER 2008
TRAVEL AGENT REVIEW

We stayed at the RIU Palace Mexico in December 2008.
Our stay at the resort was great and we wish it would have lasted longer.

Since we travelled with a small infant, we decided to take a taxi from the airport to teh RIU.
We paid 90.00 USD from the airport to the hotel and 60.00 USD to go back to the airport.

Accross the hotel there is a small Caribbean Street (just like there is at all RIU resorts) and it runs for about 500m. It serves for a nice walk from the hotel and last minute souvenir shopping. You can also find some jewellery shops as well as a pharmacy here.
Other than that, you should do your shopping in Playa Del Carmen - which is about 5 minutes away.
In town, there are many restaurants, bars, shops and market places.
Taxi will cost you 5.00 USD from the hotel.

HOTEL

The lobby of the hotel is beautiful and very clean. The lobby is non smoking, however, for smokers - there a sitting areas outside. The bar in the lobby is great and functional. You can have your drink here and play on online.
Internet service is free as long as you have your own laptop. Otherwise, it will cost you $8.00 for 30 minutes of surfing the web.

Check in service is very fast and the staff is very friendly.
We had requested a room closer to the beach, a ground floor and a crib for the baby. We were pleased to receive all of the requests when we arrived.

We were very surprised at how friendly the staff was! Everyone was all smiles... the waiters, room service, animation crew, band members, cooks... It was great to be sorrounded by such positive people all the time.

The hotel landscape is very nice. It looks like a very large resort when you see the pictures, however, it has less than 500 rooms and most of the property is taken by the pool areas and beach.
Walking from the lobby (the furthest point from the beach) to the water will not take you more than 5 minutes. The fountains along the way are impressive, especially at night. It is a very nice place to take pictures at.

BEACH

I would have to say that the RIU Palace Mexico has the nicest beach in this whole area.
It is also a better beach when compared to the one at the newer RIU Palace Riviera Maya.
The beach runs about 200m long - but it is very wide! It runs about 150m inwards and takes almost a third of the resorts property.

There is plenty of shade and beach chairs to choose from at all times. The hotel was at full capacity when we stayed there and there was no trouble at all when it came to finding a place in the shade at any time. The sunny part of the beach is also very beautiful but it can be crowded since the resort shares the beach with the RIU Yucatan and the RIU Tequila.
It was best to reserve a place in the shade, closer to the music and the bar - and than just move over a bit into the sun when we felt like it.

After the last major hurricane, this area suffered a lot and most of the beach areas were left with rough sand as there was a huge undertow. To protect the beach and assure this does not happen again, the RIU resorts decided to place a few sand piles about 20m into the water. They look like big wales or rocks in the water.
It may not be appealing to the eye at first, but you will come to realize that they do not spoil the beach at all. If you have kids, this idea is actually a great one since it protects everyone from the waves.
We were able to go swimming every day even though there were a few days with high winds and rough waters.