We arrived at HTR on Nov 10 and were met by Oswaldo who was exceptional. Our studio room was clean and the bar fridge stocked. Thank god after a 2 hour wait trying to get through immigration. Mauricio and his staff at the Alebrije Restaurant were outstanding. Graudacino made our stay special. Samuel, Gregorio and ismael at the Pool Grill were gracious and remembered us from our previous stays. All the restaurants were fabulous and you will enjoy them all. The only glitch we had our entire time was at the Italian Restaurant. Rene appeared that he was doing us a favour by serving us. However, Mathieu an intern made up for the short comings. Take the time see the cenotes on the property and visit Playa. The residents were inviting and marvelous hosts.
GO to HTR.

This was our third time back to Hacienda Tres Rios and the first time we took our five adult kids and their spouses / significant other. We were there from Nov 3 through Nov 10th, 2012. They knew us by name, were able to tell us whether our kids were at the restaurant when we showed up, and prepared a table to handle seating all of us. We loved all the activities that entertained our kids from cocktail making, tequila tasting, wine tastings, kayaking down a river to the gulf, and swimming. It was relaxing, entertaining and all the kids were in awe of the place. We are already planning next years trip to the resort.

This was our second trip back to HTR and we enjoyed it just as much! Very relaxed atmosphere where you are treated like royality in an elegant yet eco-friendly environment. We love the fact that this resort takes as good care of the environment as it does the guests! Since it is the Mayan calendar year, specially focused events were fantastic... especially great was the Mayan Cuisine event with Jerry Heuclides and tasting Mayan spiced shrimp and fish dishes, which were outstanding! We also went to the Tequila and wine tasting sessions, as well as the Mayan Liquiere drink making. Such a great time - wish we were still there!

We spent the week of Oct 27th-Nov3rd at HTR and loved every minute of it. It is low-key and elegant yet eco-friendly and charming - a rare combination. The rooms are beautiful and changing ours to more central location wasn't a problem at all. When we checked in, we were serenaded by mariachis, were offered hors d'ouevres and champagne and then a lovely, small buffet at the Asian Restaurant. When we arrived in our room there was a welcome bowl of fruit and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries. In fact, there was always a lovely plate of something each afternoon - sandwiches, cakes, sushi, etc. We felt very pampered throughout our stay.

We have never stayed at an all-inclusive before, but chose HTR because it was an optional a/i. The food was excellent at the breakfast buffet and all of the a la carte restaurants. Loved the grill and the pizza resto by the pools at lunchtime and really liked the little patisserie for light breakfasts and late afternoon snacks and cappucinos. We paid for our meals and as drinks were free anyway, it still worked out cheaper than taking the a/i option (we were on an RCI exchange). The special evenings were very enjoyable. The Mexican Welcome party was fun, the Mayan Evening was wonderful (we missed the Caribbean night), but enjoyed the buffet on our last night.

We really enjoyed the nature park, snorkelling, kayaking, going out on the catamaran. The beach was way better than we were led to believe by earlier reviews - no it wasn't huge, but it was clean and the water wasn't brown like others had remarked - we swam in it all the time. Really loved the cenotes and the area of beach, across the bridge by the cenote were the rivers came out to the sea.

The pools were lovely - music played softly, not booming, what a delight. I don't know why there seems to be a need for really loud music around pool areas! The resort wasn't busy, so there was never a problem getting chairs or one of the heavenly beach beds. The landscaping is also very charming and natural.

As others have mentioned, the staff is exceptional, very friendlly and helpful. Special mention to Gabriella - she's amazing. Aline was so much fun - what a personality. Wonderful concierges. Also kudos to the wonderful waiter in Portabello - sorry, I can't remember his name, but he could get a job in any 5 star restaurant anywhere. We only ate out in Playa del Carmen once - would have done so more, but the shuttle wasn't really user friendly (more about that later) and taxis were really expensive - $20 each way!! We had a problem with our key card + a couple of broken light bulbs - these were fixed in minutes - nothing was ever too much trouble.

There are a few things that could be improved to make it a total 5 star experience. As mentioned above, the shuttle service to the sister resort in Playacar could definitely be improved: 3 shuttles into town in the morning only and then 3 back in the afternoon. We have been to other resorts where the shuttles run between sister resorts on an hourly basis from 10am-10.30pm. As HTR is at least a 15 min drive from town or $20 cab ride, it makes it difficult if you want to go INTO town late afternoon or early evening, which is when we usually like to go - don't want to leave the beach in the daytime! I realize that if most people are using the a/i option, they may not want to go into town for dinner, but it's nice to have that option.

It would also be nice to have a choice of more than one beer - Corona or Corona Light was all that was available. At least have one dark beer too!!!

A tiny quibble. It was strange that there were no screens on the balcony doors! The temperature was very comfortable at night and we couldn't seem to regulate the strength of the air conditioning. If we opened the windows, then the room filled up with tiny flies, so we had no option but to keep the closed at night, which was a shame. Not a deal breaker.

I would highly recommend this resort.