We have just booked Riu Palace on the advice of a friend, its a excellent choice. We are going 18th Sept for 2 weeks. 5 adults travelling with Thomas Cook total cost £5600. Dont forget hurrican season generally around july/aug/sept, but we have travelled before and always been fortunate. I think im right in saying that Hurrican dean was July last time in Mexico.

Don't forget there is more than one Riu Palace, just in case you're talking about different ones. I'm presuming that Kat225club is talking about the one in Cancun. Is that the one you've booked Clarets4ever?

Riu Palace in Playacar is the one we have booked.

Is it the Riu Palace Mexico, or the Riu Palace Riviera Maya in playacar ?
We stayed in the Riu Palace Mexico, both are really good hotels. You can use all the Riu hotels in the area, and we even went to Cancun and checked out all the Riu hotels there. If you stay in a Palace hotel then you can use them all, if you stay in one of the others then they cannot use your hotel. The service was fantastic, the beach was really good, even tho there were large sandbags in the sea it didnt put us off. You will enjoy your holiday in any of the Riu hotels, but the Palace ones are really nice.

All depends what you want from your holiday, friends advised us that Cancun was very commercialised, lots of americans and a bit like blackpool, so we chose the Riu Palace Mexico in Playacar. You cannot go wrong with the Riu Palace Mexico (slightly cheaper than the Riu Palace Riviera Maya). Food fantastic, all branded drinks, even in the Riu Palace a whisky based drink that should be about £40 a shot was free on the AI menu.

The Riu Palace is approximately a 30 minute walk into Playa del Carmen but it's worth it when you get there, a small shopping arcade is in playacar itself but depending on how long you are going for and what you want out of your holiday you may need to venture a little further.

We have just returned from Playacar. We stayed at the Riu Tequila but, as we were visiting Cancun for the day, called in at the Riu Cancun and were all very disappointed. The hotel itself is superb but the beach was a complete disaster. Very small and crowded with large rocks next to the sea. Loads of young 20 somethings on the beach getting wasted on the free drinks, loud and even a used condom in the sand. One thing to watch out for as well is the time of year that you go. We went in late January and because of the height of the hotel, the pool and beach were in the shade most of the time in the afternoon (you should be ok in July though).
If you fancy a very lively noisy hotel then the Riu Cancun will certainly deliver that. But if you fancy somewhere a bit quieter but with all the lively stuff not far away, I would definitely recommend Playacar. they have a couple of the Riu Palace hotels and 4 'normal' Riu hotels (of which the Tequila is best by far in my opinion)

Cheers

Keith