Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya - Hacienda

Even with the great atmosphere and accomidations it is because of the people that I love coming here. Not only are they completely professional but their authentic friendliness makes one feel at home. The butlers Daniel and Gabriel (and the entire butler team) were always ready to help us enjoy the trip as was the concierge Carlos. Many of the restaurants have been renovated the past couple of years and are fantastic, especially the new Frida. The managers of the restaurants desrve special recognition for their attention to detail in the operations of the place as well as welcoming and making the diners feel comfortable. Marissa, Maria and Fabiola are prime examples of that. Faro is by far one the the best places to eat breakfast and lunch. The food is varied and is freshly made. The entire staff is to be commended for their service fro the hostesses Paola and Cinthia to the numerous servers - especially Manu, Mateo, Walter, Brenda, Apol, and Ruth. Read less

The Hard Rock in Riviera Maya is a magnificent resort. We took our six grandchildren and it was a dream vacation. The staff could not be more accommodating and Butler‘s Gabriel and David were beyond helpful. A resort to accommodate both adults and children, I would recommend anyone that wants to have a perfect getaway to attend the Hard Rock at River Maya Read less

A great all around resort experience for our 3 generation group. A Call out to our butlers Daniel and Gabriel who made our stay wonderful. There are plenty of activities for kids at the resort. The sandy beaches with palapas at the waters edge - with all kinds of fish coming in and out of the breakwater openings from the sea - were wonderful to see. Look around the piers where they congregate. If you can upgrade in the Legendary Vacation Club to Hall of Fame the benefit for a large party is wonderful. This is a large resort with lots of activities and navigating it the first time can be overwhelming (with different desires from the generations!!) Food was great. Very available. I loved my morning coffee at Cafe Inez in the Heaven lobby. Favorite restaurant was the French restaurant (great service). We use the onsite photographers for our visit and they went over and above to create and deliver our purchased product - including 2 photo books - in 36 hours. Amazing and Thank You. Read less

We had an amazing trip to HRRM which we call our second home. Our experience was wonderful, from booking to our arrival and be waited by our amazing butlers Fernando and Nacho. We have no words or way to appreciate all the things they did for us. Fer and Nacho went above and beyond all week. Dinner at Wai with Jackie, Jairo and Lenny was great. While waiting at the bar, Isai the bartender not only made us delicious drinks but had a great conversation. Ricardo at Toro was wonderful. Miguel at Zen let us try all the food and gave us a special dessert, so great. Roger at Ciao and Roberto and Vicky at the members pool were always very attentive. At the pool Alex took really good care of us. Rene at the beach, always for years goes above and beyond when we get there. He knows what we like and makes sure we are always good on drinks and all our likes. Breakfast at Faro is our favorite, Maria the Captain always waits for us and Elizabeth, our most favorite server knows what we like and has it ready at the table. Time to relax, while at the spa, Thalia the manager is the best, sweet and attentive. Karla and Alberto, our masseuses always are the best on the Spa! Thank you HRRM for all these beautiful people that make our trips more special. Read less

We just returned from a 7 day all inclusive trip from Hard Rock Riviera Maya. When we booked Hard Rock, we had other resorts in mind too, but since one of our family members was already a “Member” and we would get to use these “Resort credits”, we decided we will give Hard Rock a try. But once we got there and after knowing what these “Resort credits” can get us, frankly speaking the “Resort credits” is a bogus way of luring people into the resort. They say you can use it on spa/massage or at the shops, but 1 couples massage with the “Resort credit” costed us US$ 178, (I have gone to so many other all Inclusives and a couple’s massage is any ways $200 or so), then what good are these “Resort Credits”!!! Also while we were there, there was heavy emphasis on us all to go attend their Breakfast session where they would talk about their upcoming new Hotel / Resorts and again lure you to become a member!!! (This scheme of becoming a member is from the early 2000’s and after visiting so many other resorts, I think we are better off NOT becoming a member and paying upfront for our vacation without any block dates and any other restrictions!!!) Grounds The grounds of the Hard Rock Riviera Maya are nice and huge. We stayed at the Family section (hacienda). I believe there are 9 buildings and they are separated in 2 sections - Blue (Azul) and the Red (Roja) lobby. We were in building #6 close to the Red lobby. The pool at the Red side is bigger than the blue side. Also on the Red side there is a splash pad for kids along with a kids pool which was nice. There is no natural beach at this resort like there is at other resorts, which you must have figured out by looking at the photos. It is more of a lagoon. In a way this was a good change for us this time as we had toddlers with us. The advantage of the lagoon was that no waves would come in the enclosed area, this way the water was nice to swim in for the little ones. We also did snorkelling and saw small fishes which was nice. But it would be nice to have a section where we could experience the actual Beach too. The resort also has Vibe City which is a play zone area for the kids where they have trampoline / Bowling Alley, etc but again if you wanted to use your resort credits, you were not able to and you had to pay extra to get a package where you do not get a time slot. The water park adjoining the Vibe City was nice as they had slides for kids and other water parks for kids to pay with. This resort is 30 min. away from Playa Del Carmem - 5th Ave. This was our 3rd time coming to the Riviera Maya area so we were familiar with the area. Last 2 times we stayed in the Playacar area next to 5th Ave which was actually very nice in an enclosed private gated community next to the town. The Room The room was ok like any other room, for a family of 4 was a bit small. The beds were not queen size, just double beds, so it was a bit uncomfortable. Usually at resorts they have a separate sitting area with sofas and tables, but here it did not have any such separate area so we felt it was a bit cramped for a family of 4. Our main door access/handle had issues I guess due to the age of the resort, but was fixed the next day. This resort had 24 hrs room service which was good, and we found out later in our days that the food from room service was better and tastier than the buffet/restaurants. Entertainment The entertainment at this resort was not the greatest. The nightly entertainment starts at 8pm and for the majority of all of us it's prime dinner time!!! Usually from our experience at other resorts, the entertainment usually is after the dinner starts at 10pm onwards, but here it was at 8pm which always used to clash with our dinner time. We managed to see a few shows and some of them were nice too. The Queen show was great. The Fire show on one of the nights by the pool was a bummer because if you are not a “Hall of Fame member” then there are no chairs for you to sit and watch the show. All the chairs are reserved for “Hall of Fame members”, and they say that after 5-10 min. of no show of them, you can use them, which was stupid because we did not have any space to sit. I did also complain to the front desk about this while check-out about this, that how can you not have chairs for other members!!! (We had small children and a few 70+ folks in our group who had to stand and watch the whole show) So that was surely a bummer!!! Food & Restaurants We have been to so many all inclusive resorts, but knowing that we were going to go to Hard Rock, we had high standards, but it was the same as all other resorts. The week when we were there (2-Dec - 7-Dec), the buffet at the Red lobby (The Market) was under renovations. Also the Mexican Restaurant (Frida) at the Red lobby was under renovations. We went to Mexico, but did not get a chance to eat good proper Mexican food, which was a bummer. If they had to do renovations, they should have done one restaurant at a time. The buffet food was ok, the same thing every day. The other Restaurants were ok, they did not take reservations so that sucked as we had to go and line up every night for the restaurants. We, being a big group of 10+ folks, had to wait almost every night for 1 hr or so. to get a table, so if there are reservations then I think that would be nice. Being Hard Rock which is an American brand, I was expecting the Burgers and Pizzas and fast food to be over the par, but this was just borderline. Once the buffet and the restaurants are closed, there is no place open for food, other than just room service, which is 24 hr. But if you were hanging out with friends outside your room by the lobby and wanted to grab a bite, I wonder what to do? Ending thoughts This Resort is huge with good grounds, seems to have been built in the late 1990’s and was later acquired by Hard Rock sometime around 2013 or so… We felt that the resort was more than half empty and lacked nightly entertainment and also day entertainment. It lacked that liveliness that we were looking for and found to be a bit boring in the night times. Over all looking at Hard Rock and its name, we felt it to be a bit below par. Read less