The Reef Playacar

We had the most wonderful time & experience at The Reef Playacar. Our new favourite resort! The shade and jungle feel is amazing. We really enjoyed sitting on our balcony enjoying the lush greenery. Food was always delicious at the buffet. Staff was very friendly and accommodating. We have no...

We had the most wonderful time & experience at The Reef Playacar. Our new favourite resort! The shade and jungle feel is amazing. We really enjoyed sitting on our balcony enjoying the lush greenery. Food was always delicious at the buffet. Staff was very friendly and accommodating. We have no complaints and will likely return in the future 😊

The Reef is the best place to stay in Playacar and Playa Del Carmen. It is quaint and not too big and gaudy like many of the large hotels. The staff is very friendly and helpful and the grounds are beautiful and lush. This was my 13th stay at The...

The Reef is the best place to stay in Playacar and Playa Del Carmen. It is quaint and not too big and gaudy like many of the large hotels. The staff is very friendly and helpful and the grounds are beautiful and lush. This was my 13th stay at The Reef.

Massive waste of potential. Pros: Location is good for access to PDC, bartenders, waiters, cleaners, pool entertainment staff, general on the ground staff are really friendly & a massive asset. Jungle setting is really impressive & serene & different to all the white box mega resprrs around. Food overall tastes...

Massive waste of potential. Pros: Location is good for access to PDC, bartenders, waiters, cleaners, pool entertainment staff, general on the ground staff are really friendly & a massive asset. Jungle setting is really impressive & serene & different to all the white box mega resprrs around. Food overall tastes nice, the late night taco bar is really good. No fighting for a sun bed as there’s plenty of choice even at 11am. Cons: the running of the place is baffling. We moved rooms twice as in the first room the air con sounded like a semi automatic rifle constantly the second room hadn’t even been touched since the last guests left with towels on the floor & rubbish in the bins. Any entertainment is difficult to find as the only place it is advertised or even mentioned is the lobby which is quite a trek from a lot of the villas. There’s no reason to visit the lobby so finding out the entertainment is a bit of a chore. The “premium package” is a massive scam as the “premium luxury exclusive private bar” doesn’t exist. They only allow gullible timeshare owners into nicos bar now but haven’t changed their website so you think you’re getting somewhere nice & relaxing to drink in the evening but really the only place to drink after 6pm is the boring bar above the lobby which from experience is nearly always empty. The bar they now insist is the “premium bar” is just the regular beach bar used by everyone & closes at 5pm. The “premium lounge” areas are completely unmonitored & are full of non-premium guests. The loungers in there are vile & sweat stained anyway so it doesn’t feel like much of a lost benefit in that respect same with the jacuzzi. I’ve been here 5 days & the “minibar stocked daily” has remained empty since day 1. I tracked to the lobby to ask them to refill it them today on day 5 & “I have got someone to sort it now”…. It is still empty 5 hours on, went back & 2 hours later someone’s finally come to restock it. I can’t be arsed with this every day, feels more like. Chore than a benefit. “WiFi in the entire hotel” except the only places it works is in your room, the pool because we’re next to it & the lobby. All the bars, the beach, the second pool, all of the restaurants & the bits in between are signal free. We’ve got a coffee maker in our room but no sugar, spoons/stirers/milk available. Overall, the place has massive potential to be a boutique resort but instead had hallen short on key aspects reducing its appeal to repeat customers. If you want to sit around the pool/beach all day with 3 meals then go to bed at 10 pm this is the place for you.

When arriving to this hotel it looked beautiful from the outside. We arrived late afternoon. The check in was very long and the guest services were straight on you to get you to buy extra packages etc. The check in took about 40 minutes in total and after a long...

When arriving to this hotel it looked beautiful from the outside. We arrived late afternoon. The check in was very long and the guest services were straight on you to get you to buy extra packages etc. The check in took about 40 minutes in total and after a long flight it wasn’t what we needed. The rooms was a decent size a strange drainage smell however I feel that’s quite common in Mexico. The balcony looked out to a jungle type area. Lots of trees and bushes. Good to sit and listen to the birds etc. Not so good if you want to sit in the sun on the balcony as at no point is sun able to reach them. We stay for 2 weeks . The activities available on site were good and the entertainment was good though very quiet every night. This might be to it being in December. The weather was on and off . We had no problems getting sun beds and the system for towels is very good. We were unable to do any of the water activities due to bad winds and weather. For the 2 week period we didn’t have one day they were in use. Bare this in mind if your travelling in December and excited to do them. We can recommend Xplor and The turtle experience. We wouldn’t recommend the fishing trips as expensive and for a 6 hour trip and one fish it was really disheartening. Plus you have to pay lots of extras. Xcaret we really enjoyed too . The pools were not very clean I will attach photos and I feel the pictures make them look a lot bigger than in person. The food in the buffet was average . Very similar deserts every night/day but a good variety of other food. If you want to book the restaurants the Mexican and Italian make sure you ring up 7am in the morning. We only managed to book for one day out of the 14 . This was because we could never get through to the reception then by the time we did the only times were 9.30pm and 10 pm which for us is too late to eat. We managed the Italian restaurant one night at 9.30pm for our last night as wanted to finally try it. Total let down the food was average . The service very good but the menu sounded fancy and the food arrived was not. I had to send 2 dishes back which I have never done ever. My pork was cold in the middle and then the ravioli tasted of nothing. Nice wines though. The drinks were good and the waiters always friendly . We found every day the guest services were praying us it was quite annoying by day 7 . We ended up telling them to please leave us alone. We already spent $800 on extras . I booked the Affair of the heart package and that again was a let down. The meal wasn’t very good and you were sat in the dark on the beach. We couldn’t see what we were eating and the couple next to us even had to put their torches on their phones to see too. They stated the same as us that the food was basic and the fact you’re in darkness is annoying all it would need is a table light or candles . I asked for candles and got told they didn’t have any available. Overall the experience wasn’t amazing. I wouldn’t suggest going here if you’re wanting a top class holiday . The location is the best part about it . It’s within walking distance of 5th avenue and close to all the theme parks. I personally would stay next door at the RUI instead .

This ritual session…the Temascal….is one of the most amazing experiences we’ve had. From incredible smells of natural herbs and oils to the deep heat from the fire charged stones and steam….then half way thru getting a gulp of cool air followed by covering your body from heat to toe in...

This ritual session…the Temascal….is one of the most amazing experiences we’ve had. From incredible smells of natural herbs and oils to the deep heat from the fire charged stones and steam….then half way thru getting a gulp of cool air followed by covering your body from heat to toe in honey and sugar…then sweating it all off…. It truly is an experience for the senses! Adela is a lovely soul and someone we looked forward to seeing again for nearly a year! Signed a VERY RELAXED Darin ☺️

We stayed at the Reef Playacar for 10 days in March. We have stayed at all-inclusive resorts in the area four times now. When choosing a resort value plays a major role. There are much nicer resorts in the area but you will pay more. So you have to find...

We stayed at the Reef Playacar for 10 days in March. We have stayed at all-inclusive resorts in the area four times now. When choosing a resort value plays a major role. There are much nicer resorts in the area but you will pay more. So you have to find the sweet spot. The stretch of the Playacar beach is one of the best beaches in Mexico, Pros: Hotel and restaurant workers were very nice. Everything was in good condition. Usually plenty of beach chairs if you got there early. The resort is smaller than the other resorts in the area which is nice. The central area where the units are located has a nice jungle feel. If you stay at the Reef Playacar you will have a good experience and will enjoy your stay. But it could be better, see below. Cons: The food is good/OK. They had a pasta bar but the white sauce and tomato sauces lacked flavor. They had fish but it was always a soggy white fish which was just ok. We tried the Italian restaurant and the food was horrible (we came from London and spend time in Italy). The pasta was thick and overdone. My wife would not eat it. The mozzarella cheese was hard and tasteless, the tomatoes were orange, hard, and tasteless. Skip this restaurant, the buffet has better food. The food quality is somewhat controlled by the budget, but if they had a trained chef they could easily improve the quality of the food at no extra cost. I recommend that the hotel find a chef to improve the menus and food taste. The beach was good but they cut costs here. Whereas the other resorts to the north use a tractor to clean the beach, they use people with pitch forks. It usually took them a day or two to clean the beach up, but in the end they did not rake the remaining sea weed up so there was always a fair amount left. They should finish the job with a rake like the other resorts do. The other resorts used shovels to cover up the roots of the palm trees that are hanging over the washed out sand areas. They could easily do this also but don’t. They have a parking area but the OCD attendants drive you crazy. They had my wife part the car 4 times before they allowed us to leave the car. They wanted it 6 inches more to the right, it wasn’t straight enough... The next time they made us repark the car twice and would have persisted but one of the other attendants told him to knock it off and we were allowed to exit the parking area. A bit too much. They miss the mark on customer service and making the client enjoy their stay. In summary we had a nice stay but they could make it much better with little more effort. We would consider returning but will look at the other resorts in the area first.