Those who have gone to the Royal Hideaway in Mexico

We are going there for our honeymoon and are SOOO excited. I was curious to know if anyone took any excursions while there. I know there are a lot of ruins (some close, some farther away) and other things to see. We will be there for a week and I am thinking will want to spend most of it just relaxing , but I wanted to hear from people before we go. I think the best ruins are really far away... I don't want to waste a whole day traveling, but I also don't want to waste part of a day going to something closer that isn't too great. Would love some opinions....

Also, would you recommend that I arrange for private transport from the airport to the resort? We have transfers included in our price, but I have heard that it takes so long, is really crowded and worth spending the money for a private cab.

Thanks!!

We are going...the 'far' ruins yu are referring to are Chichen Itza and yes, it's an all day trip.

We are doing Tulum, which is a lot closer and we are also planning on going to Cozumel (to rent a scooter and just be silly), Isla Mujeres and swimming with dolphins. You can do that at Xel-Ha (it's a nature park) or Xpu-Ha.

ETA: We are doing the private car transfer. We figure it's out HM and I don't want to spend more time than I have to with strangers in a van waiting to get to the hotel.

Good luck!

You should contact SeptemberBride03(she went there for her HM)-shes the one who helped convice me I should go here for my HM! She posted this review so Im going to copy n paste it here for u...

Also re: the transfer, I've read that its about a 45-60 min ride to the hotel, I think you might as well just take the transfer which is included rather than take a cab,which is what we're doing..JMO..

It was amazing!! The best honeymoon destination ever! We're already planning another trip there. The service and food are amazing! They give you a cool towel and champagne on arrival and thats just the beginning! They had a bubble bath with rose petals floating in it when we got to the room and champagne on ice. They clean the room twice a day, there are so many dinner options (7 restaurants), the service is soooo nice! We loved everyone! One bit of advice - do the theatre on Wednesday when they have the Mexican Fiesta - its great! Skip the International Night at the theatre - not so great and there are better options! All the dinner places are great - Spices, Azia, The Grill, Ventanas, Palazzo...I'm hungry thinking about it!! For breakfast you have two options - Ventanas and Spices - both great!! If your husband likes to eat, tell him mine ordered two entrees several times and they brought them with no problem! They even keep your fridge stocked with soda and water! I told our villa concierge that I was a big water drinker and she put 10 bottles a day in there for no charge!!! And you are not obligated to carry money or tip at all! We tipped at the end. Oh, and if you want to take an excursion here is what we did: afternoon in Playa del Carmen - 5 minute cab ride, shopping; then we did a combo trip: Tulum/Xel-Ha: Tulum are Mayan ruins we visited for 2 hrs - that was enough, and Xel-Ha is an all natural inlet where you can go snorkeling and jump off the rocks and swim in a small cave; we alsoo took a snorkeling trip that was all day - too long, we missed the resort...thats all I can think of right now!

The people there are amazing! Everyone knows your name and they are so friendly. I love the snack bar by the pool - they have the best guacomole and chips! They'll bring your drinks to the beach or pool. The spa is amazing - I got two massages. The gym is pretty good too. We worked out three times there.

Thank you!!!!

I can't wait to go! Only 2 more months....

FTS - I just replied to your fm. While the excursions are fun, the resort is sooo nice that we always wished we were back! Next time we go we won't leave!

I wouldn't bother going to cozumel - they sell all the same stuff as they do in Playa del Carmen only its an hour ferry ride there - there is nothing there that isn't right where you are.

I thought the hotel van for the transfer for the hotel was fine. The ride isn't too bad, and the vans are very clean. I would save your money for something else.

Definitely do a snorkeling trip. It was great. I also took a day trip to Cozumel. They will give you passes to visit their sister property there. It's definitelt not a must see! It's a port city, so it's all junky souvenir type stuff, and Royal Hideaway's sister property was no where near as nice as!

All of the restaurants are great, the people are great - I can't say enough about the place! And I have to agree with the above post. The chips and gaucamole are out of this world!!!

Definitely do excurisons. I've been twice and loved Xel-Ha and Tulum. First time with a friend and second time with FI. We stayed for 11 days the first time and 5 days the second time.

There are tour operators that visit the hotel and one offered an ATV tour through the 'jungle'. It was really fun. There is also horse back riding, Cozumel (not worth it) and shopping on there 5th Avenue. If you go shopping it's very similar to NY street vendors. Read as 'you talk them down.'

Be sure to check out the resort activities too. They have a show on Wednesday & Sunday (I guess it's still on those dates). It's a cute dinner theater type show. Also, if you have time at least on the day before you leave, paint something. There is a young woman (about 19 years old) that sells ceramics that you can paint on your own. She touches them up and glazes them to bring back to you the next day. My ceramic frog came out so nice that I painted a vase too.

Also, you can tip but be sure not to doit publicly. I think they get in trouble. We tipped all the waiters and of course the housekeeping staff and villa conceirge.

The food is FABULOUS!!!!!! You must try Azia.

FYI - you can make reservations for the restaurants in advance although some people tell you that you cannot. But they do try to reserve some 6 - 7 p.m. dinner times for arriving guests. I made all our dinner plans in advance the second time around since FI has to eat by a certain time or he's grumpy.

ETA - we took the hotel transfer the first time and I arranged a private pick up the second time. The hotel van is fine but since I was with FI the second time we wanted a private transfer. The second time we stopped off at local stores and of course FI wanted to stop and get Mexican beer.

we went to RH for our HM too. It was wonderful! When we went we really just wanted to spend a lot of time relaxing so we didn't do too many excursions. the resort is so nice you'll never want to leave anyway. we did go to tulum one day. i don't think it's worth it to go to chichen-itza since you'll spend most of your day in a van traveling back and forth. tulum was sooooo hot! there are just about no trees there so you're just baking in the sun the whole time. i forget how much time we had there, but they gave us extra time at the end after the tour to walk around by ourselves for a while. i think our whole group was ready to go by that time because it was so hot! one other day we went into playa del carmen. i think it's a $4 cab ride, but you could walk there or ride a bike if you wanted. i wouldn't bother going to cozumel either unless you wanted to go snorkeling or something because there's plenty of shopping in playa del carmen. septbride's review is pretty thorough so i don't have much to add. we enjoyed the mexican fiesta night. our favortie restaurant was palazzo. we should have eaten there every night. but all of the restaurants were good. the only one i didn't care for was the grill at night, but they did have good food during the day. especially the guac & chips. and try the mango margaritas. they are so yummy! we got a couples massage at the spa one day, which i definitely recommend too! we didn't do that until our last day. if we had gone the first day i think we would have spent a ton of money at the spa going back every day! My DH just finally put our HM pics online the other day, but i don't know what the link is. I'll try to find out and post the link. there's a ton of pics of RH and a bunch from tulum too.
eta: we did the hotel transfers from the airport and it worked out great. but anytime you need to leave the resort if you go to the front entrance they will have a cab for you right away

Thank you all so much for your helpful advice. It was exactly what I was looking for! I think we will stick with the regular hotel transfer and now I know to skip Cozumel as well. Thanks!

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!!!!

What's the dress code for the royal hideaway?
Casual ? Also for men..

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Posted by kia74

What's the dress code for the royal hideaway?
Casual ? Also for men..

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Casual...except for dinner. Men must wear long pants and shoes. No bathing suits, pool or beach wear.

dinner? who has time for that??? I plan on being naked the whole time!

Okay, that was gross..I'm sorry

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Posted by ChristineAE

dinner? who has time for that??? I plan on being naked the whole time!

Okay, that was gross..I'm sorry

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What's the problem? I'm pretty sure you can still have dinner if you're naked! You need some food for energy you know!

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Posted by nicknmb

I haven't been to the royal hideaway, but i did go to tulum and HATED it! it was also august and beastly hot, but I don't think it's worht it. We did go to Xel-Ha (shel-ha) Not sure exactly where it is, but it was AMAZING! you swim with all exotic fish and sea turtles - do that if you can - so worth it! It was the 2nd part of a full day package- we did tulum first, then xel-ha.

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I never updated but I agree...SKIP Tulum...not worth it. We're not the tourist sight kind of people and it was 119 degrees! And Xel-Ha was ehhh, OK.

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Posted by Suzannebride

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Posted by ChristineAE

dinner? who has time for that??? I plan on being naked the whole time!

Okay, that was gross..I'm sorry

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What's the problem? I'm pretty sure you can still have dinner if you're naked! You need some food for energy you know!

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That's what room service's for! The beauty of this resort is that you can have a gourmet 4 course dinner delivered to your room...no clothing necessary!