We had the chance to visit Cancun for a wedding; Husband and I's first time in Mexico! We stayed on the Hideaway side of the Royalton Riviera Cancun resort, which is adults only. This resort is all-inclusive, so our room, food, and beverages (alcoholic as well) were included.
Do note, the Hideaway is connected to the Royalton Riviera Cancun resort as a whole, so children will be around as the rest of the resort is family friendly.
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| Hideaway pool |
Hideaway at Royalton Riviera amenities
As mentioned earlier, the Royalton Riviera is an all-inclusive resort. By staying on the Hideaway side, we had exclusive access to pools, space on the beach, and a dedicated restaurant. At the same time, we had access to all of the other parts of the resort as well (but people who booked on the normal Royalton side couldn't come over to the Hideaway). We LOVED this since we could visit our group of friends to party, but head back to the quieter and less crowded Hideaway side when we wanted to chill.
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| Cancun sign in the lobby |
Since the Hideaway had fewer people, we had no problems getting a cabana bed and I had plenty of room in the pool to use my floatie. There was also a swim-up bar with few people, so no long waits to get drinks!
Other notable amenities:
- Bottle of wine and liquor of choice in our room
- Bathrobes
- Rain showers
- Non-motorized watersport activities
- Access to 11 on-site restaurants
- Butler service (we inquired with ours about dining reservations)
- Fitness center
- Resort-wide wifi
- Daily-stocked minbar
We highly recommend booking with the Diamond Club upgrade, as you'll have access to ANOTHER pool (it was still more crowded than the Hideaway side), and be able to make dinner reservations through the Royalton phone app.
Getting to the Royalton Riviera Resort
Everyone recommends booking transfer service from the Cancun airport ahead of time for good reason. As soon as you exit the airport, there's a gauntlet of people trying to get your attention. At best, it's annoying and at worst, you'll get scammed. We traveled in a larger group, and booked a ride in advance for 5 passengers through Nexus Tours. Our driver was waiting outside near a "Nexus" sign and was easy to find.
We were in a luxury SUV, and our driver let us start our vacation early by offering us cold drinks for the ride; a very nice touch. It was about a 20 minute drive from CUN airport to the resort. There were at least 2 security checkpoints to get to the resort, where guest names were verified.
Check-in process
Check-in as a Diamond Club Hideaway guest was by far the weakest part of our experience. We were led to the normal Hideaway Check-in area in the main lobby, which was a bit backed up since there was only 1 employee checking people in (there were about 3 rooms ahead of us). A different employee collected our passports to add us to the check-in queue.
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| Hideaway Diamond Club check-in |
After waiting 20 minutes, an employee approached us and apologized for not realizing we were Diamond Club; which meant we had a DIFFERENT check-in area. He kindly escorted us to the office pictured above, where there was no wait to check in. That would have been nice to know ahead of arriving, but we were on vacation and didn't have anywhere else to be.
An up-side is that there is an open bar and small buffet area in each check-in area for guests to partake in while they wait.
I paid for my room in advance, so they just needed a credit card for incidentals and to collect a $13 tourist fee for our 3 night stay. We were provided with bracelets that acted as our room key (and were white, to show that we were Diamond Club Hideaway guests - I noticed guest bracelets in other areas were black).
The Royalton Riviera family of resorts are part of Marriott's Autograph collection. I did not book through Marriott (or directly through Royalton), so I didn't earn any points. However, I did earn nightly progress towards my next status tier.
The room
I booked a Diamond Club Junior Suite, but noticed when we got to the room that we were upgraded to a room with a terrace jacuzzi. This meant we had two jetted tubs - one inside the room and one on the balcony (I only used the inside one for pool floatie storage).
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| Diamond Club Junior Suite |
As you can see from the photo, there is plenty of room for two people. The minibar was stocked with sodas, beer, and water. It was always restocked daily (and we asked our Butler to ensure there was plenty of water). Above the mini fridge, we had local snacks and candy available, which was all included in our nightly rate.
Our room faced the pools, but we didn't have any sound issues from the music. That said, pack earplugs. We were unfortunately by the elevator, and for some reason at 8-9AM, staff would drag something heavy and metal through the hallway. We were woken up by this 2/3 mornings which was not pleasant.
The suite was cleaned daily. Doors are propped open during cleanings, which means mosquitoes are let in. I killed at least 2 in our room, but my friends apparently were able to get their room sprayed with insect repellent to combat the issue.
Food & drink
The food was nothing to write home about, but we didn't go hungry nor did we get sick. I stayed away from fresh fruit and stuck with fully-cooked vegetables to be safe, but husband was more adventurous and was fine. Dorado was our favorite restaurant despite not having air conditioning.
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| Food from Dorado |
Drinks were good - we never encountered a bartender who didn't know how to make a cocktail. Service was always quick, and someone always came by the pools/cabanas periodically check on if we needed anything. Speaking of service, everyone at the resort was SO nice and hardworking. Please remember to tip them, since a majority of their pay comes from tips! We exchanged dollars for pesos in the US, before leaving on our trip for the best rate.
Atmosphere
If we ever come back to the Royalton Riviera Cancun, we're definitely booking the Hideaway side again since it was much more calm with fewer people. I loved actually having space to enjoy the pool, and being the only people sitting on the beach. There was a bit of seaweed on the beach (to be expected this time of year), but it wasn't bad as the resort cleans it up every morning.
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| We had our pick of beach chairs! |
We didn't attend any of the resort-sponsored activities since we were busy with wedding events. We did visit friends/a majority of the wedding party at the Diamond Club pool, which had a party vibe.
I'm sure people "reserving" beach/poolside chairs in the morning is an issue during busy vacation seasons, but we never had a problem finding a chair (or even cabana) in a shady spot; at the pool or beach.
How we got to Cancun
Since we were traveling for a wedding, we did not standby for this trip. Originally, we were booked confirmed on JetBlue to fly SLC-BOS-CUN and CUN-SLC on Delta (to not have to worry about making a connection AND go through customs), but the JetBlue plans got thrown to the wayside thanks to weather in the Northeast. We ended up taking Delta's direct SLC-CUN flight with the wedding party.
Closing thoughts
The Royalton Riviera Cancun resort is a great place to stay for large, varied groups. I'm surprised it caters so well to the adults-only crowd AND families (with the new Royalton Splash side of the resort). I'm glad we outright upgraded to Diamond Club to avoid the upsell throughout our vacation, and it gave us access to the entire resort as Hideaway guests. We paid a little under $1,000 for double occupancy, which I thought was more than fair for 3 nights at an all-inclusive.
It was SO HOT and humid, but to be expected in August. Don't forget to pack sunscreen and bug spray, because the sun and mosquitoes are relentless.
The app was a pain to use to get dining reservations, but it beat having to wait in line or try to make a reservation same day. Overall, it was a very relaxing vacation and great value the price. I hope in the future to stay at a true adults-only resort in Mexico.
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Royalton Riviera Cancun review, Hideaway Royalton review, Cancun review, Cancun adults only, cancun resort review.
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