Hotel Review: RIU Lupita**** – Playacar, Mexico

Looking for a cheap, but quite luxurious place to stay in Playa del Carmen, Mexico? Maybe the RIU Lupita is something for you! Part of the RIU hotel chain, you can assume that the hotel has a great service. My stay at the RIU Lupita proved it. It’s one of the small-scale hotels of the RIU chain with its 300 rooms, spread over several buildings.

RIU is a Spanish hotel Chain and exists out of 107 hotels, spread over 16 countries. The hotel chain specializes on the beach- and sun holidays. The RIU hotels are well-known for its great service and that’s why many people chose for these hotels.

The RIU Lupita is a hotel which consists out of several buildings. Those buildings look all like little houses, which consists out of approximately 20 rooms and 3 floors. The reception at the entrance of the ‘park’ is located in a separate building. The rooms are all very easy to reach by foot, the park isn’t that big, so walking from one to another side of the park is like 10 minutes walking.

Next to the rooms and the reception, the accommodation also have a nice buffet restaurant. Because of the fact that the hotel offers an All Inclusive concept, you can eat here in the morning for breakfast, in the afternoon for lunch and in the evening for dinner. Although we also booked the All Inclusive concept, we didn’t eat much lunch in the accommodation, because most of the time we were on an excursion. However, we had breakfast each morning and most of the time we ate dinner in the evening. The food was really good and various, with lot of choices: Italian, fries, salads, Mexican and much more: for everyone there was something. Same for the mornings: you could eat bread, pancakes, warm dishes, fruit and more. In my opinion, the buffet restaurant was very good.

The hotel also have two à la carte restaurants, which is included in the All Inclusive concept but where you have to make a reservation for in advance. The accommodation also has two swimming pools (where they organise many activities) and a mini club. However, I think families with little children can better go to another accommodation, because the RIU Lupita doesn’t have many facilities for the children and the mini club is very small. RIU Lupita also has a bar where you can have a drink through the whole day. Even in the night, the bar is open. Through the day, you can sit around the bar and in the evening, the hotel organizes some entertainment shows.

RIU Lupita also offers a shuttle service. The accommodation is located in Playacar, a district of Playa del Carmen where you can find many resorts, but where you cannot find many restaurants and shops. RIU Lupita offers a shuttle service through the day, which brings you to the private beach (which is also located approximately 2 kilometres from the hotel) and the city centre of Playa del Carmen. The bus goes each half hour between early in the morning until approximately 7 p.m. If you are planning on going to the city centre in the evening, you can easily go by taxi. The taxi drivers will count a price of € 5,- from Playa del Carmen to Playacar.

Private Beach

Private Beach

Like I said above, the hotel has a private beach area, where only the guests of RIU Lupita can go to. The private beach is located between two other hotels and the area also offers a separated, little swimming pool and a little buffet restaurant (named beach restaurant Cozumel). At the private beach, the All Inclusive concept counts as well. Here you can have a drink for free or you can have lunch.

The rooms has been renovated a few years ago, so they look very modern. Our room was very spacious and we had two double beds, which was great! We also had a balcony which looked out on one of the swimming pools. The balcony is big enough to sit down in the evening and to have a drink. The room also offers a liquor dispenser and a mini bar where you can drink several type of drinks from. The bathroom also is very spacious and still looks very new. I was very happy with the room! For families there are also rooms with a double bed and a bunk bed.

Another point about the great service: we were personally welcomed when we arrived at the hotel. The staff brought our suitcases to the room and after 30 minutes, someone from the reception called to our room to ask if everything was ok. I was very (positively) surprised of the call.

Like I said, the hotel is located in the district Playacar, which is close to the city center of Playa del Carmen and easily to reach by the shuttle bus or the taxi. From the airport, it’s approximately one hour driving to get to RIU Lupita and if you’re planning on visiting some places outside the hotel, like Tulum or Sian Ka’an, it’s also only 1 / 1,5 hour driving.

We chose this hotel, because it had a great price. Looking at the price-quality ratio I think the hotel is very attractive. Looking at hotels in the city of Playa del Carmen, which offer a stay with just bed and breakfast, they have the same price as RIU Lupita offers with All Inclusive. Although the hotel isn’t located directly in the city center or the beach, you can easily reach the two places.

Shortly, I had a great stay at the RIU Lupita. If you don’t find it a problem to stay a little from the beach and don’t want to spend a lot of money for an accommodation (with All Inclusive), in my opinion the RIU Lupita is a great choice. The staff is very friendly, the food is good and the rooms are very modern and always clean.

Address: Avda. Xaman-Ha, Manzana 20, Lote 1, Condominio Playacar

Author: Tamara

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