My Unbiased Review of the Hilton Playa del Carmen Adult Resort

Trying to figure out your Mexico accommodations? Read on for my full Hilton Playa del Carmen Adults-Only Resort Review!

Ahhh, Playa del Carmen. One of the beautiful beaches on the coastal paradise of the Riviera Maya. With its powder-soft beaches, turquoise waters, and cultural scene, Playa del Carmen is an irresistible Mexican destination.

Plus, with nearby Fifth Avenue full of local boutiques and delicious cuisine, and incredible ancient Mayan ruins and enchanting cenotes not far away, this sun-kissed beach is truly a fantastic place to spend your Mexican holiday.

We spent our recent trip to Playa del Carmen at the Hilton Playa del Carmen All-Inclusive Adult-Only Resort, and just had the best time. I’d truly recommend it to anyone.

In the rest this Hilton Playa del Carmen review, we’ll share aaaaallll the details of why it’s the best resort on the beach!

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SHORT ON TIME? HERE’S THE TL;DR:

The Hilton Playa del Carmen is definitely worth staying at. The pools are gorgeous, the beach is lovely, the location is fantastic, the food is all-inclusive and delicious, and the rooms are luxurious!

Hilton Playa del Carmen All-Inclusive Adult Resort – The Review

In this review of the Hilton Playa del Carmen Adult Resort, we’re going to review 9 different categories: the rooms, the resort, pools, night entertainment, the beach, the food, the location, safety, and how to get here. Let’s get into it!

The Rooms

All the rooms at the Hilton Playa del Carmen are suites, and even the most “basic” option is very luxurious. All suites have an in-room jacuzzi, a sofa, and small table. The beds and pillows were extremely comfortable! The room itself was fairly spacious and wasn’t arranged like a traditional hotel room. It definitely felt different, upscale, and homey.

All rooms include a range of amenities, such as a private balcony, 24-hour room service, and turndown service.

When we went, we opted for an oceanview room – we just love a good view, and loved having the pool and ocean in our window! This room felt like a good value to us, as we got a pretty decent view of the ocean without the price bump of paying for an oceanfront room.

The balconies for the suites are one of the best features of the rooms! The balconies are spacious and include chairs and hammocks, and overlook the garden, pool, or ocean (depending on your room).

Overall, we were extremely happy with the comfort, size, views, and quality of our room!

There are many different room types you can book at the Hilton Playa del Carmen. You can choose a room with a garden view, pool view, swim up, ocean front, ocean front walk out, and swim up ocean front (the view from the swim-up ocean front suite is OMG)

👉Click here to explore all the room options at the Hilton Playa del Carmen!

The Resort Property

The property at the Hilton Playa del Carmen Adult Resort is really beautiful and feels like a luxurious tropical getaway everywhere you go.

You arrive at this beautiful entryway with a stained glass skylight above you. Greeters and employees are always there and ready to welcome you, call you a taxi, or check on your shuttle. They check everyone who enters the building to maintain security, so random people can’t just walk in.

There’s a nice sitting area where you can wait while they check you in. Everything is very full service.

As you walk through the resort, there are a lot of pretty overlooks and little courtyards and corridors that feature fresh greenery, fountains, and columns. Everything is open air (there are no enclosed, interior hallways), so the sea breeze is always blowing through.

The Pools at the Hilton Playa del Carmen Adult Resort

The pool area at the Hilton Playa del Carmen is a really well-designed, with the 3 large, meandering pools and 2 hot tubs in the middle of the building, overlooking the ocean.

The two hot tubs are next to the larger, skinnier main pool. This pool is a very comfortable and warm temperature, and there are a lot of chairs, loungers, and cabanas lining the sides.

Nearby is another pool, this one with a swim-up bar. There is a little walkway bridge over the pool area. The water in this pool is a little bit cooler, but it’s closer to the ocean and the bar is a great feature.

The pool with swim-up bar

The two hot tubs are warm, but not extremely hot, and you can still enjoy them even during the middle of the day. However, they feel really great at nighttime, when the air is a little cooler and the warm water is perfection.

The resort is quite large, and there is another area of the resort that has other pools. However, this was in a more interior area (no ocean views), and so we didn’t spend much time here. This is an option, though!

Note: The cabanas around the pool are for rent and are an additional cost. It’s $75 per day and includes all-day use of the cabanas, two chairs right by the cabana, and free poolside service (while the food at the resort is inclusive, poolside food service is not available unless you rent the cabanas).

The rest of the chairs and loungers are all free to use, but get down early to reserve your spot!

Night Entertainment at the Hilton Playa del Carmen Adult Resort

This large atrium is near the pool entrance and features an open bar, lots of seating, views over the pool, and an open area where there is nightly entertainment.

Each evening features a new type of entertainment, with different singers and dancers putting on a show. There’s a wide variety of acts, so every night will be something a little bit different!

There were a lot of excellent acts that we really enjoyed (although a couple of nights the entertainment got a little too “adult” for our taste).

The Beach

The beach on and near the Hilton Playa del Carmen Adult Resort is truly one of the best stretches of beach in Playa del Carmen. The sand is soft and fluffy and the views are gorgeous!

Sunrise over the beach near the Hilton Playa del Carmen

Along the beach in front of the resort are rows of chairs, loungers, and cabanas for resort guests to use. Anyone can use the chairs and loungers, but the cabanas are reserved for people who are part of the Hilton Honors program.

These cabanas are really, really nice – they feature super soft and super comfortable beds that are made of vinyl (so they don’t get dirty). We loved lying down in the shade of the cabana, letting the breeze wash over us as we relaxed or even took a mid-afternoon siesta!

The Seaweed

One thing to know is that all along Playa del Carmen (not just at the Hilton Playa del Carmen Adult Resort), seaweed season is between May-October, when large amounts of the sargassum seaweed grows in the ocean near the beaches.

This seaweed is not slimy, and is more “robust,” like twigs. However, mounds of seaweed (and I mean MOUNDS) of it will collect on the beaches. Early every morning, workers go down to the beach and rake up the seaweed into piles, and then a tractor comes by and grinds it all up, clearing the beaches of seaweed for the day.

Clearing the beach in the early morning hours 🤯

While the seaweed wasn’t a huge deal and the ocean and beach was still lovely, if you visit between November and March you’ll avoid seaweed season.

The Food/Restaurants

Okay, one of the most important parts! If you’re going to an all-inclusive resort, you definitely care about the food, so let’s dive into reviewing the food at the Hilton Playa del Carmen Adult Resort.

At the Hilton Playa del Carmen Adult Resort, there are 7 restaurants and at least as many bars, all centered around a different theme. Of the restaurants, some are buffets, some are regular “order from the menu” restaurants, and there are several “snack shack” type places around the resort as well.

I won’t go into detail about all of the restaurants at the Hilton Playa del Carmen here, but here were some of our favorites. Note that all of the restaurants have a different dress code, but at the minimum, you do have to be dry and dressed (no walking up in just your swimsuit).

Rincon Mexicano

This was one of our favorite restaurants, and it functioned almost like a Brazilian barbecue. There was a buffet, and then waiters bringing meat choices around to the tables.

The buffet was really excellent – not a huge variety, but very high quality food. The guacamole and the fresh rolls they brought out at this restaurant were standouts!

Pelicanos Carribean Fusion

This restaurant was a more traditional “order from the menu” restaurant, and served really delicious dishes, with an emphasis on fish and seafood. The sea bass here was fantastic!

Spice Global Buffet

When I think of all-inclusive resorts, I definitely think of massive buffets full of delectable food choices, and the Spice Global Buffet was that spot at the Hilton Playa del Carmen Adult Resort.

There were seemingly endless options at this buffet, and yet the quality of the food was still really delicious!

The buffet spreads were absolutely amazing and had lots of delicious options – steak, fish, huge salad bars, amazing pastries, breads, fruits, desserts, ice cream, sushi, Mexican cuisine – the list goes on and on!

In addition to the restaurants, there were also little “stands” around the resort to grab food from, like a pastry stand, sandwich shop, and ice cream stand.

For an extra cost (about $250), you could get a private, romantic dinner on the beach. There are several setups to choose from, but in all of them you dine by candlelight as servers bring you your multi-course meal at the oceanfront

The Location

The location of the Hilton Playa del Carmen was very ideal and really centrally located. It was, of course, right on the ocean, but also right by the city action, too.

The resort is located one very short block away from Quinta Avenida (5th Avenue), the major shopping and tourist thoroughfare in Playa del Carmen. There is a lot going on on 5th Avenue! It’s a completely pedestrian street (so zero cars), and has vendors, restaurants, and shops all up and down the avenue. This is *the* place to go in Playa del Carmen, and you’re just a block away.

You’re also an easy 20 minute walk from the ferry to Cozumel (also located off of Quinta Avenida), which is very convenient.

Safety

We felt very, very safe in the resort and in the city of Playa del Carmen. There were a lot of military and police patrolling and guarding the area – this is for the safety of the tourists. The areas around the resort and around Quinta Avenida are definitely safe, day or night.

However, I would exercise more caution if you go outside those areas, and I would not advise going far off Quinta Avenida after dark.

How To Get Here

The two closest airports to Playa del Carmen are the Cozumel Airport and the Cancun Airport. Most people end up flying into Cancun because it’s a MUCH bigger airport, has many more flights departing and arriving, and generally has better deals.

It’s about a 45 minute – 1 hour drive from the Cancun airport to Playa del Carmen, depending on traffic and time of day.

There are 3 ways to get from the Cancun Airport to Playa del Carmen (and no, there is no uber here):

➡️Private Shuttle: Many people choose this option for getting to Playa del Carmen, as it’s by far the easiest and most convenient option. A private driver picks you up from the airport and takes you directly to your hotel, no taxi hailing or bus finding necessary. 👉Book your airport shuttle here!

➡️ Taxi: You can always get in line at the taxi stand for a ride to your hotel. This is also a pretty easy way to get around.

➡️ Bus: The bus is a really cost effective way to get to Playa del Carmen. Buses leave from the airport several times an hour, and usually cost $4-5.

The bus station in Playa del Carmen is right by the ferry, which is just a 20 minute walk to the resort via the pedestrian-only Quinta Avenida. Since there is no traffic and its a nice walking area, it’s not too bad to do this walk with your luggage and save some money.

Final Thoughts for this Hilton Playa del Carmen Resort Review

Playa Del Carmen Resort was such a relaxing, luxurious experience. Beautiful beaches, refreshing pools, comfortable rooms, great service, and free, delicious food. You won’t regret staying at this Hilton Resort!

👉Ready to book? Click here to book your suite at the Hilton Playa del Carmen!

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