- Mexico Holidays
- Playa del Carmen
- The Reef Playacar Resort and Spa
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The Reef Playacar Resort and Spa
Mexico, North America
Playa del Carmen
The Reef Playacar located just a few steps from 5th Avenue and in one of the most exclusive fractions of Playa del Carmen, mixes the tranquility of a tropical jungle with the beauty of one of the most spectacular beaches in the world. The 196 rooms of this complex, distributed in 18 beautiful villas, have a Caribbean décor and all the modern amenities to make you feel at home. The facilities at The Reef Playacar include two swimming pools, fitness center, spa and for the fun of the whole family the hotel offers daily activities, a kids club, bicycles, water sports, aerobics, dance classes and evening entertainment. To delight guests, the hotel has three restaurants, a snack bar, an ice cream parlor, a place to enjoy tea and five different bars. In addition, the property offers its guests a fantastic selection of services with its different packages: Standard, Superior and Premium, the last one being the most complete in which you can enjoy even a delicious Japanese dinner and share your best moments through the free Wifi.
Facilities
- Tennis
- Billiards
- Volleyball
- Beauty salon*
- TV lounge
- Entertainment programme for children
- Entertainment programme for adults
- Children playground*
- Sun loungers
- Children’s swimming area
- Please note some facilities may incur an additional fee
The Local Area
Tripadvisor Reviews
4.0 Very Good8,567 reviews
Excellent
44%
Very Good
30%
Average
13%
Poor
7%
Terrible
5%
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Value
Mixed
Location great, short taxi ride to 5th avenue although you could walk 30 mins. Lovely beach but brown water, couldn’t see your hand in front of your face due to the seaweed. Not the hotel‘s fault and they desperately tried every day to get rid of it in the morning. I got stung by a jellyfish which I couldn’t see so it was a bit worried about going back in.
Atmosphere was great quite lively for the teenagers with basketball hoops and water volleyball on offer in the bottom pool area. My. 16 & 18 old boys loved it and there was another pool if that got a bit noisy for an hour for others.. Having said that, I went looking for a lost bracelet with my snorkel in that pool and I didn’t go in it again. It was quite dirty. I never saw anyone clean it. That’s not to say it wasn’t cleaned before I got out of bed, but it was quite grubby.. Hair, tissues floating around.
I found food to be very very nice for every meal at the buffet and the waiters and waitresses very attentive. They worked really hard.. The atmosphere was also lovely with the nice jungle type grounds and atmosphere.
Biggest letdown was the bars in the day, there was supposed to be two open from 10 am and I was even told this when we arrived but there was one bar located at the pool. It only opened at 11 and often there was only one person working. In the evening it was difficult to get served unless you tipped. This is disappointing and often very rude from the staff, but in my view there just wasn’t enough staff to cope with the number of people.. I raised the question of the bars not being open in the Day on the company WhatsApp channel and I never received a response.
Our room was nice and cleaned with fresh towels daily although we didn’t get the tea and coffee making facilities we paid for, when we raised this they bought a coffee machine straight away but when we asked for the coffee and tea , nothing ever materialised so it was never used.
We had two rooms due to the ages of our children 1 room stank of damp when we arrived so my husband and I swapped to the less smelly room which didn’t have as good a view and the kids weren’t fussed.by the smell. Our air-conditioning broke three times but every time you mentioned it they fixed it and twice they offered us a different room but we just couldn’t be bothered to move, A very small issue but irritating for me was a very bright light emanating from the air-conditioning unit that made the room bright so I had to wear a sleep mask which I was hoping to avoid on Holliday.
All in all the kids had an amazing time. I won’t go back to Mexico everybody you met was asking for tips; travel guides, taxi drivers, even the bar staff in the all-inclusive resort we’ve paid for. I found the general attitude towards us as British visitors fairly hostile, not sure if he’s got anything to do with the Football recently or whether it’s just cause the Brits are not a country that tips for every thing in general. Everything was upselling and extremely expensive in the first place for us so that was a big let down for us.
When I look at the breakdown of my cost for the Holliday, this hotel was extremely good value, but as I say, I wouldn’t go to Mexico again and I wouldn’t return to this hotel.
Review by Jayne P Worcestershire, United Kingdom
Avoid Mexico, especially the Reef at Playacar!!!
Our experience at The Reef Playacar was short of awful. We were expecting amazing food but it all tasted terrible, especially the buffet (always) and the italian restaurant (Bottecelli). The only good thing about the buffet was the fresh omelettes. The toppings sucked though. The buffet food looked good but when you ate it, it really tasted like it was made with hate. The servers expecially were the worst, they did not want to serve you unless you were ready at hand with tips even though it was an all inclusive resort with gratuities included. Our room was made up every day but the floors were dirty. The pool was dirty, the water and surrounding area filled with empty cups and plates with food. One of the travel agents was especially nasty and attempted to patronize me in front of a couple. We had to go to the Reef at Cocobeach for a better pool and food experience. The list goes on and go, save yourself a dollar and avoid Mexico at all cost. Because its not even just this resort; its Playa, Cancun and Tulum. Its all because scam city with prices higher than the most cosmopolitan city in the world, they have truly lost their minds.
Great housekeeping
Nora, our room attendant was the best we have ever had at an inclusive resort. You made our stay at The Reef Playacar exceptional. Thank you so much Nora
Shelley and Kerry
It was not the greatest could of been a lot better
I just got back from the Reef playacar with my fiancee and a friend we stayed 4 nights 5 days. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone because there is no nightlife or really any entertainment during the day or night. there is only one poolside bar outside during the day or you have to go to the lobby to get a drink or you have to wait to the buffet is open. Coffee is not included in the front lobby unless you upgrade to a premium guess anytime of day. The bed in the room is very uncomfortable it’s like sleeping on the floor it’s super hard but it was very clean and well maintained by the staff. The variety of food was not good except breakfast was the best. Most of the buffet food was the same all the time and the air conditioning side of buffet is very small or you gotta sit and eat in the heat. The staff is very nice. The pool looked clean but it was very slimey and tons of hair floating around didn’t feel like it was cleaned at all properly. It’s a very small resort and when you’re in your room you can constantly hear everything. Gotta leave the hotel at night if you wanna have anytime of entertainment we went down to RIU tequila for the neon party and it was amazing had a blast this hotel needs to have fun entertainment at night for everyone. This hotels location is really close to shopping and restaurants in playa del carman and like i said staff is really good and nice and that’s why iam giving 3 stars.
Would Like to Stay Here...but... having trouble NEED HELP
My husband and I are planning a very important trip to Playa del Carmen and after researching many properties, The Reef Playacar quickly became one of our top choices. We absolutely love the beautiful tropical grounds, the relaxing atmosphere, and everything we've seen about the resort online.
Unfortunately, we've run into a problem before we've even been able to book.
Our trip is not a typical vacation. We are traveling to Playa del Carmen for extensive dental treatment/surgery, and because of that we have several questions about our stay that cannot be answered by the reservation center. We need information about things such as refrigerators, microwave availability, freezer access for medical ice packs, quiet room recommendations, access to soft food or accommodations, and a few other recovery-related questions.
We first called the reservations line and received a room quote, but the representative explained that he could not answer questions specific to the hotel itself. He suggested we contact the property directly.
Since then, we have attempted to call the hotel multiple times using the telephone numbers provided. On one occasion the call simply stopped ringing with no answer. On other occasions, after asking to speak in English or beginning to ask our questions, the calls were unexpectedly disconnected. We tried again on different days with the same result.
Even more surprising, the office manager at the dental office (which recommends The Reef Playacar to its patients) also attempted to contact the hotel on our behalf and experienced the same problem.
We are genuinely disappointed because we were very excited about staying at The Reef Playacar. The resort appears to offer the peaceful, beautiful environment we were hoping for while recovering from dental surgery.
My reason for writing this review is not to criticize the resort but to hopefully reach someone in management. If a Hospitality Manager or Guest Services Manager sees this, we would sincerely appreciate the opportunity to speak with someone who can answer a few questions before we finalize our reservation. We would much rather stay at The Reef Playacar than book elsewhere, but we're reaching the point where we need to make a decision.
We hope someone from the resort who can answer our questions will respond. We'd truly love the opportunity to become guests.
P.S. if you're reading this and have stayed in Playa del Carmen (here or somewhere else) after dental work, can you please share info., suggestions, reviews, etc. etc etc... we'd appreciate it.
