My husband and I stayed at the beautiful Riu Yucatan October 26-November 2, 2012. This was our 6th stay at the resort. We last stayed there in 2008, having stayed regularly, next door, at the Riu Palace Mexico for the past four years. We enjoyed our stay at the Yucatan very much, and I want to take a few minutes to share some of our thoughts. First of all, the bar staff is beyond amazing. Without fail, EVERY bar staff member exceeded our expectations. They are knowledgeable, tolerant, friendly and efficient. We always felt well attended to, even as it compared to our Riu Palace Mexico stays. They are a true treasure for the resort. We found excellent service at the terrace dining area for the main buffet as well. The chefs were friendly and attentive along the buffet line. We did have some inconsistent service in the main buffet and at the Mexican specialty restaurant, but the food was of excellent quality.

The pools were the cleanest and clearest we can remember in recent years. In fact, pool cloudiness and a surface scum had put us off of the Riu Yucatan a bit in recent years. We were thrilled to see that has been corrected.

In addition, we found the relocation of the pool activities to the north side of the walk up bar at the pool an excellent idea! The activities held there were well done and we really enjoyed watching them. They had an excellent choice of music, and they did have quiet hours as well. The Animacion team is outstanding, and the resort is to be congratulated for their efforts. Each morning the team members said good morning to each guest who was poolside at 10 a.m. The effort was well received.

Our room was well cleaned and made up in a very timely manner each day, we were wanting for nothing. Our room was decorated nicely for my husband’s birthday, and we had some lovely towel art.

The grounds are beyond compare, they are lush and green. We saw monkeys in the trees, and the grounds keepers were constantly grooming the vegetation to make sure everything looked perfect.

The beach is beautiful and clean. There are a great number of palms on the beach and the pools have many palapas if you desire shade. But don’t worry, there is plenty of warm Mexican sun to be had as well, if you prefer not to be sheltered under a palm or palapa.

We found the food and drink selection, and entertainment to be great. The grounds and facilities look lovely and lush, much like I remember back before Wilma struck in 2005. My first visit to the Riu Yucatan was in 2001, and I will always sing its praises. The Riu Yucatan is to undergo extensive renovations in 2013, and I have high hopes for how the resort will look when we return! All in all, we had a most excellent time, and look forward to returning again after the renovations are completed!

Just got back from a weeks stay at this lovely hotel, had an amazing time! Food could not have been better, such a huge choice for every meal and everything cooked to perfection. Entertainment very good something for everyone all day and night. Travelled with thomson and had a 24 hour flight delay, but they arranged for us to keep our room for an extra day and night, so had an extra day at hotel laying in the sun cant complain!! Nice big room well stocked fridge and optics all included. Drinks were very good lovely cocktails try the boom booms and the mexican flag!! One word of warning, keep all valuables in the safe, we were on ground floor and our camera disapeared from patio table also someones ipod vanished from their room when they left it on charge. Safe is large enough to put everything in.
Wildlife at hotel is great loads of animals wandering around grounds and monkeys in the trees a very large iguana lives in a tree just down from the main restaurant.
Would definately go back to this hotel but for longer next time!!

5 visits in 10 years and still as good as ever.

All positive, no negative. Great quality, geat service.

Thankyou RIU Yucatan.

When you refurbish next year, please do not change too much and maintain the atmosphere that keeps us coming back.

My 2 girlfriends and I stayed at the Riu Yucatan last Feb 2012 for 9 nights. It has taken me this long to actually put my review up, but I really wanted to warn people about the Riu Yucatan and the Riu in general. We are all in our 40’s, happily married and vacation frequently with and without our spouses. They could not make this trip due to work. I have stayed in Playacar 10 times usually staying at the Iberostar chains. We decided to stay at the Riu Yucatan because after a lot of research we found they do not use latex in the kitchen or housekeeping, as my friend has a deadly latex allergy. We had a great time up until the last day. The hotel was clean and the food was good. The beach is perfect and the pool was also great and very big. The entertainment team was fun and not pushy at all. Daniel was fun and always had a smile on his face and friendly to everyone. We had a problem with one of the entertainment guys when we took the hotel excursion to Coco Bongos in Playa del Carmen. He showed up at Coco Bongos after his shift at the hotel. He was not with our group, but hung around and got very drunk and obnoxious. He proceeded to tell us how he resents the guests at the hotel and and hates always having to be nice to people. He made it clear to our group that he was on his night off and not being nice, so don’t try talking to him.
So, back to the last day/night. We were having a good time at the beach party and pool games. Around 4pm, I realized I needed to have a nap before dinner, as I had been having some extra cocktails and feeling the effects being in the sun all day. My girlfriends walked me back to our room, tucked me into bed and left the room to go back to the beach to get all our beach stuff and hand in the towels since we were leaving at 8am the next morning. The next thing I knew, I woke up and the male maid was over top of me, and I was being sexually assaulted. I screamed, he backed up and started speaking in Spanish and then ran out of the room. Our room was his last room to clean that day, and he must have been in the hall when my friends walked me back. Needless to say, I was in shock, alternating between crying and screaming. My friends came back into the room approx 15 minutes later and found me in that state. My one friend ran out and tried to get help. She came back with a security guard who spoke no English, so she left again and came back with the Riu director, Julian Joubert, and the head of security. My friends thought they were downplaying the whole incident and were not taking us seriously. Mr. Joubert spoke very good english, so its not like they couldn't understand us. They refused to call the police, saying we needed to take a taxi to the police station ourselves and file a report. I told them that it was our male maid who did this to me. We could not believe they would not call the police or offer any kind of assistance. Here I was, curled up into a ball on the bed crying, having just woke up to our maid sexually assaulting me and they were telling us we needed to take a cab to the police station. About 25 minutes later, we were in a cab to the police station in Playa del Carmen. No representative from the hotel came with us to act as an interpreter or offer any assistance at all. We were taken to the Tourista police station in downtown Playa. I filled out a form stating what happened and the woman behind the desk told us we needed to go to the Ministerio Publico, another police station we were told, but it was actually the prosecutor’s office. It is here where I would have to fill out a report to see if there was actually a ‘crime’ committed and have a ‘medical exam’.
Long story shortened, we were at the Ministerio Publico for over 3 hours and could not get an official report filed. They had an officer come in who was to act as an interpreter who unofficially wrote out in Spanish exactly what happened. By this time, and getting the run around we left without filling out an official police report. We were treated terrible by the staff there, IGNORED. The police officer was kind and could not help us with what we needed to do.He was not what we would consider an interpretor, he spoke broken english. At one time a man came in who was very shady looking and stated he was ‘the doctor’ and needed to do an exam on me. We really didn’t know what was going on as we had no guidance. In hindsight, we should have called the Canadian consulate who would have guided me through the entire legal process. (I found this out after I got home and contacted the foreign affairs department in Ottawa.)
The next morning at 8am, before we left the resort, we met with the director of the Riu Yucatan, Mr. Julian Joubert, in his office. We again went over what happened and and he asked us if we wanted to ID the maid, as they had him in the head of security’s office. I agreed. He was escorted to the office and absolutely, I identified him as the man who sexually assaulted me and he was our room maid. Mr. Joubert assured me he would be in contact with me over the next few days to let me know the process of the charges. He also told me the only person who would have had a key to our room was him, the maid and the housekeeping supervisor, which was a woman. The Riu still uses big keys instead of swipe cards.
After I went home, I tried multiple times to contact Mr. Joubert, but he would not answer any of my emails or calls. I did receive an email from the Riu head office in Spain, after many many emails, basically saying it was my word against his, and I had to prove the accusations and they could not believe one of their employees would do such a thing. I was also in regular contact with the foreign affairs dept. in Ottawa. Although, they were very nice, they could not legally do anything. They sent me a list of lawyers in Playa del Carmen and Cancun but I could not afford to hire a lawyer here, let alone in Mexico. He said I could press charges but would need a Mexican lawyer. The Canadian consulate in Playa del Carmen even got involved and went to the Ministerio Publico to get a copy of the translated facts of what happened. They had no record of me or what happened. The Riu would not tell me if he was still working there. They told me since I did not lay any charges against him that they could not do anything. So I believe he is still there.
I finally wrote this review because I think it’s important to be aware, even on vacation. Mexico, especially Playa, was my paradise, a place to and relax and recharge. I thought I would be safe in the comfort of my own room…how wrong was I. Before ANY vacation, you should have the phone number and address of your country’s consulate in the city you are visiting. Had I know that ahead of time, this person might be behind bars now. I really do hope that he is not working in any hotel. As for compensation,( after signing my life away,) giving me back my “land portion” of my vacation, in my opinion is a slap in the face. They did first offer me a 9 night stay in any Riu, (if I signed a release of liability), but NO WAY would I stay in another Riu.
I would NEVER return to the Riu Yucatan, or ANY other Riu. To this day, I am still trying to deal with what happened to me, and the Riu could care less. For the big company that Riu is, they're customer service is horrible.