Hilton Tulum Riviera Maya All Inclusive: My Honest Review
In mid January my whole family (Im talking 3 generations!) went on a 6 day trip to Hilton Tulum Riviera Maya all inclusive resort. It is a newer property, I believe it is less than 3 years old. So I was excited to see it so early in the resorts lifespan! Just like any resort there were ups and downs. But I do want to note that I am not a resort or cruise person unless it is for a family trip. My husband and I greatly prefer to do more adventurous and “a la carte” style trips. However, resorts are the best option for spending time with family and enjoying a beautiful location in my opinion!
I do think that the stance of being a little more neutral towards resorts does help me have a less biased stance. So below you will find my honest thoughts of this resort with all the ups and downs.
Let’s get into it!
***we paid fully for this resort and my opinions below are completely my own!***
Hilton Tulum Riviera Maya All Inclusive: My Honest Review
Overall review: 6/10
All of the factors as well as the general experience added up to this overall review score from me.
The property was beautiful of course. All of Tulum is full of beautiful views, incredible history, and gorgeous scenery. However, this property didn’t embrace all of that quite as well as I would have liked. There wasn’t elements of local culture incorporated as well as other resorts in the Cancun/tulum area we have been to.
Below I discuss more elements of the property as well so if that is interesting to you then keep reading to there!
Our trip started with a rough check in experience (as someone who worked in hotels for 7 years I was disappointed by this as I found that the check in /front desk experience is the easiest to master!). It took an hour to get our 5 rooms checked in. And then we were given room keys in the form of wood bracelets that were attached at the desk. And were immediately informed it was a $150 fine if they were lost. We had all adults but I can’t imagine if you had a child with that requirement! It was nice to have the room key attached but it was annoying to keep it on and fear that it would fall off. For a “luxury” resort that is not the vibe.
By the time check in was done it was dark out which is fine other than the property lacked lighting on the walk ways. Such a silly hazard! And we had to eat at the buffet that first night because every restaurant was already filled with reservations. There should be a way to reserve on the Hilton app for the first night in advance!
More about the buffet and other food options below.
Food review: 7/10
For me personally I gave the resort a 6/10 on food and that is by resort standards not general foodie standards. But 7/10 was the average rating of the group of 9 I was with. And as a vegetarian I know that the food options can be limited at resorts and I go into it prepared for that.
On that note though I do want to say- they had a fair amount of vegetarian options. However, they had a lot of them labeled as vegan and they were not vegan! If you are vegan I would approach this resort with caution because the amount of brioche buns and cheese that were on “vegan” items was insane. Again, as a vegetarian that was fine with me and honestly made some of the food tastier but it was severely mislabeled.
We went to all of the restaurants including the buffet and here is my quick review of each:
- Steak house – over hyped! The vegetarian “steak” was a beyond burger smashed. And the actual meat entrees were average according to the group. And honestly this was the only restaurant where we had poor service. The staff was unhelpful and sadly not friendly. Strange considering how great the rest of the restaurants staff were!
- Italian – our second favorite. Great food, my husband swore the meat was better here than the steak house, and a fun atmosphere. Fantastic staff that were so fun and friendly.
- Mexican – Perfectly good but of course I would have hoped for better given the location. We had incredible food on an excursion and maybe the comparison was what pulled this down but it was equal to a standard Mexican chain restaurant in the US. Good but not amazing. Also, queso without chorizo in it would be amazing for not only vegetarians but for all the people who don’t eat pork or like chorizo (which was most of my group!).
- Asian – hands down my favorite! The sushi was great and the noodle entrees were perfectly good. Not my favorite asian food ever but a 9/10 and a great experience. Don’t skip this one! Even family members who aren’t the biggest fan of the items on the menu really enjoyed this one.
- Buffet – buffet dinner was just okay. But the breakfasts were pretty good for resort buffet breakfasts! Good variety, fantastic cheeses and bread selections, and very fresh options. Also, the staff at the buffet was always so helpful and great.
Service review: 8/10
I noted above about the steak house staff which was a mediocre experience. But the only truly bad staff experience was at the pool restaurant. The staff member that served our table made two of us put on additional clothing (we had cover ups on he just didn’t deem them covering enough) despite men at the restaurant with no shirts on and wet swim trunks. Do with that information as you will but I was so disappointed in that.
But the rest of the staff we encountered were great! The servers at the pools were amazing, friendly, efficient, and fun. Housekeeping was always helpful and smiling. Concierge was helpful and friendly. Again, overall service was great!
Property review: 4/10
The layout of this resort was strange. It was basically a .7 mile line along the ocean but without walking paths the whole way outside. Which meant if you didn’t take the shuttle (which was often full and not consistent) then you had to walk inside. The main issue with that is that the floors were always sooo slippery and wet in the inside property. I still have a giant bruise on my knee from falling and honestly as a 27 year old I was fine but we were so worried about my grandmother walking on the slippery halls!
The layout of the main building was also strange and involved confusing stairways that weren’t well labeled to get to the different restaurants.
The rooms are beautiful though! Spacious, large, and well laid out. However, there was only 2 pillows on the king beds so we ended up needing to get more pillows late the first night and so did all the other king rooms we were on the trip with too. Also, one room was missing all remotes and they reported that they couldn’t get housekeeping or guest services on the phone to ask for one and therefore had to walk .7 miles to the concierge late that night.
Entertainment review: 4/10
There was pretty much on entertainment for adults each day and it was in the evening/early night.
That alone would be totally fine with me and is pretty standard at resorts! The issue we encountered was that there was not entertainment for children at the same time. Which meant that the kids were all at the only entertainment that night. Totally understandable and they should have fun! But that meant that the vibe was very kid friendly or if the DJ/entertainment/show wasn’t kid friendly it felt uncomfortable that there was so many kids there and I felt bad for the parents in that lose-lose situation.
There really should be kid friendly and adult oriented entertainment in the evening. Especially since there is a whole fun area for kids!
Additional activités during the day would be awesome too and would definitely improve the experience of the resort.
Overall this is a pretty standard resort in Tulum. But not remarkable and honestly unless it was for a conference (which by the way there was a lot of conferences happening) I would not return to this property.
Korra The Explorer
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