Hotel Riu Lupita — Attraction in Playa del Carmen

First time visiting a RIU. Here is my perspective.||Room: Really liked my room, spacious and good layout. The bed was very firm, so I did not get any great sleep, but I understand why there is no pillowtop in a humid environment. A place to hang a face cloth in the shower would have been helpful. I liked the provided soap/shampoo combo but had to go out and buy a conditioner. I had one of the single level units and am very happy with how quiet it was. It was an end unit, so only had one neighbor.||Service: I found all of the staff to be friendly and helpful except for the cash exchange. Everyone was approachable, and the bus driver was very friendly.||Location: This location was perfect for my trip to my dentist, but there was no direct beach access. When I did go to the beach, the small designated area was crowded, and the sand was full of debris. The view at the beach was stunning, and the breeze was perfect.||Food: The buffet surprised me on my first night by having duck - yum! Only saw it once, however. Some of the food labels were either incorrect or poorly translated. Ex: The 'traditional mashed potatoes' were a farce; one night, it was soupy, the next like paste. Overall, the buffet was consistent and clean. I was very happy to see fresh salads and fruit. I appreciated the use of the breakfast and lunch leftovers in the poolside snack area. I hate food waste, so this is great. The wine at the buffet is also a very passable table wine, which is a first for me at sn all-inclusive location. I had a regular server most days who saw me come in and had my beverages set for me at lunch and dinner. This gesture was appreciated.||The Mexican restaurant: appy/salad bar was small but nice. The steak was VERY salty, and the fish was slightly undercooked and swimming in so much sauce that it was overwhelming. I would not return unless there was an overhaul of the menu. So many classic traditional dishes could be added and really make a difference.|The Italian: fantastic! The calamari was cooked perfectly. The only thing missing was some dipping sauce. The pasta main was also very good! Just enough sauce to coat the pasta - garlic toast would have been nice with it. Went a second time and had the steak with the gorgonzola sauce. Very tender meat - mildest gorgonzola I have ever had; almost tasteless. I highly recommend the pasta.||Steakhouse: This is located at the beach, so the view is almost like a movie set at sun down. Salad to start was good, fresh with a good balance of cheese and croutons. Thankfully, it was not swimming in dressing. The deep-fried cheese sticks were meh. The dipping sauce was boring. Our table had the chicken, a burger and the strip loin ( It was hard to tell as there was not an actual steak on my plate but spread out series of pieces of meat, loosely interconnected with fat or connective tissue. The Angus burger looked amazing! A nice bun, side of mayo and ketchup, lettuce, tomato, and cheese as requested. Looks were deceiving as the outside of the patty was rock hard. The inside was tender, but the illusion was shattered. The chef was having serious issues with the grill as my steak was covered in burnt oil, and although it was a tender bit of meat, the flavour of the oil was it's killer. I also requested the chimichurri sauce but got a small pot of oil with some carrot and onion scraps chopped up in it- not chimichurri. The wine was good but the server was cheap and only poured a third of a glass at a time. I found that annoying. Otherwise, kudos to the servers - they were organized and worked well as a team. Plates were cleared in a timely manner for each course and you could see they were making an effort.||In general, it is so disappointing to see so much potential in all inclusive food choices; only to be let down with how bland or salty everything is. I understand they are trying to please everyone as much as possible, but it is back-firing. Adding a bit of flavor other than salt would significantly...

First time visiting a RIU. Here is my perspective.

Room: Really liked my room, spacious and good layout. The bed was very firm, so I did not get any great sleep, but I understand why there is no pillowtop in a humid environment. A place to hang a face cloth in the shower would have been helpful. I liked the provided soap/shampoo combo but had to go out and buy a conditioner. I had one of the single level units and am very happy with how quiet it was. It was an end unit, so only had one neighbor.

Service: I found all of the staff to be friendly and helpful except for the cash exchange. Everyone was approachable, and the bus driver was very friendly.

Location: This location was perfect for my trip to my dentist, but there was no direct beach access. When I did go to the beach, the small designated area was crowded, and the sand was full of debris. The view at the beach was stunning, and the breeze was perfect.

Food: The buffet surprised me on my first night by having duck - yum! Only saw it once, however. Some of the food labels were either incorrect or poorly translated. Ex: The 'traditional mashed potatoes' were a farce; one night, it was soupy, the next like paste. Overall, the buffet was consistent and clean. I was very happy to see fresh salads and fruit. I appreciated the use of the breakfast and lunch leftovers in the poolside snack area. I hate food waste, so this is great. The wine at the buffet is also a very passable table wine, which is a first for me at sn all-inclusive location. I had a regular server most days who saw me come in and had my beverages set for me at lunch and dinner. This gesture was appreciated.

The Mexican restaurant: appy/salad bar was small but nice. The steak was VERY salty, and the fish was slightly undercooked and swimming in so much sauce that it was overwhelming. I would not return unless there was an overhaul of the menu. So many classic traditional dishes could be added and really make a difference. The Italian: fantastic! The calamari was cooked perfectly. The only thing missing was some dipping sauce. The pasta main was also very good! Just enough sauce to coat the pasta - garlic toast would have been nice with it. Went a second time and had the steak with the gorgonzola sauce. Very tender meat - mildest gorgonzola I have ever had; almost tasteless. I highly recommend the pasta.

Steakhouse: This is located at the beach, so the view is almost like a movie set at sun down. Salad to start was good, fresh with a good balance of cheese and croutons. Thankfully, it was not swimming in dressing. The deep-fried cheese sticks were meh. The dipping sauce was boring. Our table had the chicken, a burger and the strip loin ( It was hard to tell as there was not an actual steak on my plate but spread out series of pieces of meat, loosely interconnected with fat or connective tissue. The Angus burger looked amazing! A nice bun, side of mayo and ketchup, lettuce, tomato, and cheese as requested. Looks were deceiving as the outside of the patty was rock hard. The inside was tender, but the illusion was shattered. The chef was having serious issues with the grill as my steak was covered in burnt oil, and although it was a tender bit of meat, the flavour of the oil was it's killer. I also requested the chimichurri sauce but got a small pot of oil with some carrot and onion scraps chopped up in it- not chimichurri. The wine was good but the server was cheap and only poured a third of a glass at a time. I found that annoying. Otherwise, kudos to the servers - they were organized and worked well as a team. Plates were cleared in a timely manner for each course and you could see they were making an effort.

In general, it is so disappointing to see so much potential in all inclusive food choices; only to be let down with how bland or salty everything is. I understand they are trying to please everyone as much as possible, but it is back-firing. Adding a bit of flavor other than salt would significantly...

This is absolutely NOT a 5 star hotel. I've stayed in roadside motels nicer than this “5 star” resort. No hot water, horrible rooms with no sound cancelation or power outlets, wifi doesn't work, no beach access, nothing is walking distance, everything closes very early, and food is bad. If you do decide to book this hotel, all the “need to know” information is in this review. Included are corrected schedules, hours of all the restaurants/bars/pools (very limited), that took us days to figure out. They give you a flyer on arrival with some of this information, but it’s actually incorrect, incomplete, and confusing to read, which makes it much more frustrating to get your vacation going. We are not very high maintenance travelers. All we want is a drink in our hand, sand on our feet, and to relax, and we were so uncomfortable at every turn at this resort because of all the problems we ran into.

Unfortunately, my review is too large to fit in the text. See attached picture for my full review, but I'll try to shorten it.

Check-in process disorganized and confusing. They gave us a flyer with hours for the amenities which was difficult to read, and the information on it is actually WRONG (see attached pictures). The restaurants are closed certain days, but it doesn't say anywhere which days.

The rooms are BAD. We had NO HOT WATER in the shower our whole trip, there's no desk, no fan or lock in bathroom, no toilet trees provided no trash bags in the trash bins. 2 outlets in the whole room (only one by the bed), making it difficult to charge your devices. Walls are thin. We heard babies crying and people talking very clearly. Bed is very hard and doesn't have a real bedframe. Also, we would get phone calls to our room phone every day, and it would ring once, and then stop. You only get wifi on one device per guest so don't bother bringing your tablet or laptop. The wifi is spotty all over the resort and doesn't work in a lot of places. The wifi doesn't work at all at the beach.

There are only 3 restaurants in the resort and 1 at the beach club. The 3 restaurants all surround the main pool and bar. Only 2 bars, one at the pool and one at the beach. Beach bar closes at 6 pm. Main bar is 24 hours. But those two bars are your only options. This resort is very small. You could walk through the whole place in under 5 minutes end to end. Not many options. The main pool closes at 7:30 pm and the “relaxation” pool closes at 8, so swimming is cut off before the sun even goes down. There is only one towel hut, and they close at 6, so you’re stuck holding onto your wet towel until the next day if you don’t want to turn it in 2 hours before the pools close. We found dead bugs and bandaids floating around in the pool every day. I will give them credit that the pool was very warm and comfortable temperature. The relaxation pool is small and has no shallow, standing areas. No music, no floaties at the relax pool. I will review the beach club in a separate review on their page, but there's a lot to say about the beach club..

They have a ping pong table and a volleyball court, and a large chess board. We went to look at the spa once, and it was totally empty, no furniture, no desks, no computers. I don’t even know if the spa is ever open/functional. There is a LOT of wildlife. Coatis and birds that try to take people’s food. One coati actually almost attacked us so it could get our food. They even drink people’s drinks out of the cups! So watch your drinks! Entertainment is probably the saving grace for the resort. They have fun a fun entertainment show every night. They bring a lot of energy and singing/dancing. They do turn the music up too loud, though and the sounds cuts out sometimes. We went to the RIU party they have every Friday night at the nearby Riu Tequila and the Riu Party was very fun. The shuttles weren't big enough to fit everyone who wanted to go.

We were just running into many issues and it was very stressful and uncomfortable experience being at...