We stayed at the Royal Hideaway from Feb 21-28, 2004. We have travelled extensively in Europe, North America, Caribbean, Middle East, South Pacific. This is by far the best all inclusive resort we have stayed at.

Great points

The hotel is beautiful. The grounds superbly manicured. The rooms clean, comfortably elegant, located in small 16-24 room villas. The food is excellent for an all-inclusive. You book your restaurants ahead of time, so that there is no lining up to get a spot at a popular restaurant. The variety is excellent and beautifully presented. The service is incredible probably the feature that distinguishes this place form many others. Friendly, eager to please, and very available.
(Reminds me of the service on a Windstar Cruise.) Each villa has its own concierge, so you never have go to the front desk for anything except check-in or check-out. At the beach or poolside, there is a constant stream of waiters offering to bring you any food or drinks from the snack bar or bringing a fresh towel because yours is wet! The food and service are noticably better than any Paradisus or Secrets we have stayed at.

Negatives

I preface these negatives by saying that for many this will not be an issue, but for others it will be the difference between a very good and great vacation.

The two main pools are relatively small in size for this caliber of resort. The lounge chairs are gone by 8:00 and they are closely spaced.
Likewise the beach at Playacar has lovely sand and nice but not incredible water. Immediately next door are two very busy resorts.
There is lots of activity on the beach (parasailing, sea-doos,etc..) which make for a busy and somewhat noisy experience. This is NOT a quiet beach, like one will find at the better resorts on Antigua or Barbados. Next door it is wall to wall humanity. You can find virgin beach about a 15 minute walk south, but I prefer to find that right in front of the resort. No snorkelling right off the beach as you can swim only in small marked off areas, otherwise you risk being run overr by watercraft.

The guests tend to cluster in 2 groups, honeymooners and a significantly older (60+) group. Not much in between. Activities while available are sparcely attended. Except the daily bingo game at 14:30.
Yup I said bingo!!! Some days it was hard to get a beach volleyball game going. If you are looking to dance all night, look elsewhere, but for a quiet, romantic getaway this is fantastic.

Overall

An excellent relaxing time. Great food. Amazing service. Worth every penny spent. Yes, maybe you could do better... but you will not be dissappointed.

My wife and I stayed at RH from Feb. 2-5 and were there the same time a good sized group of Doctors were there on a seminar. In fact we ran across one we know by sheer luck.Airport: All I can say is WOW compared to the old Cancun Airport. White marble everywhere, efficient use of space, lots of assistance. Help yourself by filling out in full the Customs forms they hand out on the plane an hour or so before you land.RH is the finest property we've stayed at in Mexico. This was our fourth trip. We were waited on continuously from the time we arrived until departure. Even though tips are included I can't think of a more deserving staff. I'm glad I brought about a $100 worth of 1's and 5's.
We missed dinner the first night at Palazzo's. Just call it good Martini's why we missed dinner. Dinners the next two nights at Spices and the Dinner theatre were awsome. The night life here is on the quiet side which for this trip was exactly what we were looking for. The RIU Palace sits on one side of the resort and the Alegro, the other. There were some late night noises coming from here but hardly worth mentioning. Wait staff by the beach grill and pool were great. The beach was clean. You will encounter people wanting to sell you cheap jewelry, Time Shares, etc. but that's just the way it is in Mexico where the beach is public. Write if you have questions.

if you are accustomed to the best....this is not it Rooms large but details worn...linens etc not the best, service around pool and beach a little slow great....drinks plentiful but a little weak...best service at meals in main restaraunts-a decent 4 star....suprised that it is a property of "luxury hotels of the world"-not quite all that.Overall ok, just don't overexpect.

What a great place. Service beyond belief, great food, cold cervesas,etc. The best place I have found to just relax and do nothing.

Class all the way and can't imagine a better honeymoon spot.