Review: Hilton Tulum Riviera-Maya All-Inclusive Resort

My stay at the Hilton Tulum Riviera-Maya All-Inclusive Resort was a celebration of my in-laws’ 30th wedding anniversary and an opportunity for some extended family to join us at the end of the summer. We found an excellent deal for three rooms and used some Aeroplan priority rewards to cover my in-laws’ flights to Mexico. All in all, we had a wonderful stay!

Booking

I booked these rooms at a very favorable industry rate; however, you’ll need to break out the calculator to ensure you’re getting a good deal when booking for yourself, especially if you plan on using Hilton Honors points. 

Hilton prices this property at 100,000 points per night almost all the time, but can reduce prices at the last minute. Compare cash rates with the points price to determine the value per Hilton Honors point. However, you should always aim for approximately 0.5 cents per point USD, as you can often buy Hilton Honors points for that amount.

The best way to earn Hilton Honors points quickly is from the American Express US series of Hilton Honors cards. Our favorite is the American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Card (US) as it offers a welcome bonus of up to 150,000 Hilton Honors points, plus instant Hilton Honors Diamond status, an annual Hilton free night certificate, and several valuable statement credits.

Check-in

The check-in process started at the airport with a pre-arranged airport shuttle from Tulum airport (TQO) to the resort. The hotel has a third-party company that handles these transfers and charges $240 USD for a round trip. This price applies to up to six passengers. As we were a party of six, this made the most sense.

Other options for arriving at the resort include rental cars or taxis. We didn’t intend to do too much except for relaxing and chatting with family, so the small benefit of having a rental car for a similar price wasn’t appealing to us.

Arriving at the resort, you pass through some security gates, then a short drive up to the check-in desk, where you’re greeted with a wonderful view. Taking a few steps outside this grand hallway, you can see the beach and the inviting Caribbean Sea.

Check-in desks are located on the left and right of this grand entrance, with plenty of seating available if it’s busy.

There are dedicated lines for Hilton Elites, which seem to be well-respected by the staff and patrons. We had booked three rooms, two under my wife’s Hilton Diamond status and one under my Hilton Gold status. The main benefits for Elites are room upgrades and bonus points. However, the check-in staff provided us with detailed one-pagers about the benefits, along with a welcome drink.

As a Diamond member, both of my wife’s rooms were upgraded to suites, which was very generous considering we booked the basic nature view room. My Gold status landed an upgrade to an ocean view, which made a nice difference for a 5-night stay!

The final step in check-in is affixing your wristband, which also acts as a room key. There are many different colours the resort hands out; black is the most common, signifying a standard guest. However, Diamond members receive a silver wristband to recognize their status. Also near the check-in desks, you will find the concierge who can make dining reservations for you at one of the five different dinner restaurants.

Within about 2 hours of getting settled, I received a text from the concierge asking how our room is. I was impressed with the service!

Location

The Hilton Tulum Riviera-Maya All-Inclusive Resort is a bit isolated, as most all-inclusive resorts are. We opted to fly into the newer Tulum Airport (TQO) rather than the much busier and slightly further away Cancun (CUN).

Parking

Parking is complimentary valet and has in-and-out privileges.

Room – Partial Ocean View King Suite

As I mentioned earlier, we had two rooms upgraded to suites, one of which was located on the ground floor. We preferred this room to the other suite, despite the limited view. Each “Casa” or building, full of rooms at the resort, has its own pool, so being on the ground floor meant easy access to a bathroom and shade when you need a break from the sun.

All of our rooms were situated in Casa 3, which is right in the middle of the resort, making the walk to the breakfast buffet (Casa 6) or dinner restaurants (Casa 1) never too long. The hallways in Casa 3 are also entirely outdoors, making it a more enjoyable walk than some other buildings, which house the nature view rooms.

Each suite is double the size of a regular room, and there are only three suites per floor. We felt fortunate to receive upgrades for a five-night stay.

Stepping into the room, you’ve got a view of the living area, and to your right is the second bathroom, complete with a shower.

This hotel was recently built in 2021, meaning the design and architecture are beautiful and extremely aesthetically pleasing. One thing missing from all the bathrooms was a handheld shower head. I often refer to the ‘Marriott Standard’ shower setup, and I missed that during our stay here.

Immediately across from the bathroom is the full-length mirror, which is an excellent size. In the standard rooms, it’s pretty pitiful, as you’ll see later.

The minibar/coffee setup is highly efficient in terms of space, making use of every surface and interior volume for storage.

A fantastic feature of this resort is that all minibar contents are included and replenished every day. The coffee and tea are also topped up daily. 

One rather strange thing is that the coffee cups provided are too tall for the Nespresso machines, so you have to either hold the cup in position or remove the drip tray. Not a big deal, but at some higher-end properties, details like this are always paid more attention to.

The main living area is just past the entrance hallway and is really lovely to be in. There’s a full closet if you opt to use the sofa bed, and a separate patio.

Moving into the master bedroom, there’s a king-size bed, another large TV, a second patio, a luggage rack and bench, and a complimentary beach bag.

The entrance to the bathroom is grand, featuring double sliding doors that open to reveal a standalone tub and additional closet space.

The rest of the bathroom consists of a toilet chamber, a spacious walk-in shower, and dual vanity sinks. Persea provides the amenities.

Room – Ocean View Room King Bed

We originally booked a nature view room, as that was the only option available for our industry rate deal. We were extremely pleased to be in an ocean-view room, and I should mention that this room was booked with Hilton Gold status, whereas the other rooms we booked under a Diamond status account were upgraded to suites. The nature view rooms still have nice views, but the ocean view is where it’s at!

These rooms are plenty spacious, but only half as wide as the suites that we gave to my wife’s parents and their friends.

Much of the decoration remains the same, but everything is scaled down in size. For example, the closet and minibar are combined into the same structure. We had a lovely surprise welcome amenity of chocolate waiting for us in the room as well!

Speaking of smaller, the “full-length” mirror here was pitiful! At least the minibar was stocked with the same amenities.

For what it’s worth, the mirror in the bathroom was better and not that far away. The rest of the bathroom is wonderfully designed with frosted glass and textured tiles.

A highlight of the housekeeping was the arrangement we found our toiletries in after the first night. Usually, you’ll only find service like this at high-end Ritz-Carlton or St Regis properties!

The main part of the room is beautifully designed with excellent accent lighting and a functional luggage rack with drawers. Next to the large, nearly floor-to-ceiling windows are multiple seating areas. In fact, I recorded episode 7 of the Miles Ahead podcast at this table!

Next to the bed, away from the windows, you’ll find the safe amongst some shelving.

The bedside tables are simple but feature USB-A connectivity and universal plugs, lacking master light switches.

The balcony view is absolutely stunning and only got better when waking up early to witness the sunrise over the Caribbean Sea. You also have a good view of the Casa pool, so you can plan whether it’s worth heading for a swim or if it’s too busy.

Restaurants

As an all-inclusive resort, we were a bit wary about the food, as you never know what you’re gonna get. That being said, we were perfectly happy with all the food, but I will recommend a few standout restaurants.

Maxal Mexican Chop House

Maxal is gorgeous inside and prides itself on contemporary Mexican food. The tacos, ceviche, and dessert were excellent, but the cheese dip was not to our taste. While it’s worth a try (because it’s free), I would avoid it. The margaritas here were spectacular as well!

Vela Sur – Breakfast

Vela Sur is located at the far end of the resort and is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s the only breakfast restaurant, so it can get busy in the morning. There are tons of breakfast options here; we usually end up with some fresh eggs and make a makeshift huevos rancheros. A nice touch was a completely gluten-free section. 

Mimosas or espresso beverages are also included in the breakfast service!

The options for custom omelets were excellent and included lots of toppings. We loved the option to order freshly cooked corn tortillas. There were also multiple dairy and dairy alternatives, as well as alternating warm, sweet breakfast desserts.

The seating here is excellent and close to the water, and it’s what we preferred. However, there can be some extra insect activity at the edges of the restaurant.

We only ate lunch here a handful of times as we preferred to order on the beach or pop into one of the smaller pool bars. The selection was vast, but the quality lacked a bit since it was a buffet.

We only ate dinner here once, as it was advertised as a Mediterranean theme. It was a perfectly fine dinner, and everything was good, but other restaurants are of better quality.

Chiringuito Seasalt

Being in Casa 3, we were very close to Seasalt, which was great, as it allowed us to pop out of a beach chair and over to the shade of this lunch spot. We enjoyed all the food here, and it’s also where you’ll get food delivered from the beach. They also have some lovely signature drinks.

Auma

Auma is the steakhouse at this resort, it’s located in the main building with the check-in area. Your journey up to Auma will be beautiful with these iconic lit stairs.

I wanted to enjoy this meal more, but it felt like an opportunity to upsell with lots of premium options, and the included wine was very acidic. But the food wasn’t bad, it just didn’t strike a chord.

Noriku

Noriku was one of my favorite meals and, in our opinion, the best restaurant. We wanted to sample every restaurant for the review, but I wish we had eaten here more than once! You can also book a teppanyaki experience for yourself.

La Luce

La Luce is an Italian-themed restaurant with a wonderful wood-fired pizza oven and a beautifully designed interior.

We ordered pizzas and pastas and found everything to be above average, but not in the excellent category. For what it’s worth, my martini was excellently made.

Azulinda Cafe

The Azulinda cafe is an all-day snack station that we frequented throughout our stay. Here, you can find a variety of desserts, coffee, sandwiches, ice cream, and everything in between!

Lobby Bar

We ate at the lobby bar for lunch one day to give it a try, but they’re also open for dinner. In the evening, it turns into quite the happening place, and with huge TVs, it’s an excellent place to watch sports. The outdoor seating was a highlight for me.

The food here was solid, but not great enough to leave a prime spot on the beach where you can get similar options and have unparalleled access to the warm Caribbean Sea.

La Churreria

Near the kids’ playground is a dessert and snack station named La Churreria, and of course, they specialize in churros! There’s also soda and some healthy snacks available here.

In Room Dining

We opted to order room service breakfast on our last day, and it was excellent. If you don’t feel like making the trek to Vela Sur at the far end of the resort, this is a great option.

We ordered lunch to the room once, and I wouldn’t recommend it. You can get equal food on the beach or at any of the restaurants, and you’re likely out of the room by that point anyway.

Pool Bars

There are several pool bars located around the property, and they all offer similar drink options. Everything at the resort is well-designed and aesthetically pleasing. The best Pool Bar is definitely Seasalt, though. Unfortunately for the pool bar near Vela Sur, there was a huge container that turned off the ocean vibes a bit.

Facilities

Fitness Center

The fitness center is large and well-equipped, even if we didn’t use it as we were focusing on chilling on the beach, I could tell it was one of the better ones I’ve encountered.

Pools

There are many, many pools at this resort. We mainly used the one that was attached to our Casa, which was a blessing. The older members of our party loved the ability to walk off their main floor patio and directly into the pool!

At most pools, you have the option to rent the Bali Beds, which come at a high price of over $100 USD per day, and you can book and pay for your reservation on the QR codes attached to the beds. Each pool also has a hydration station.

Our pool also had a hot tub, which was a great touch. The resort has an adults-only pool and a large pool down by the main building with beach access.

Beaches

The beaches here can be rocky, but right in front of our Casa, we had a small section of beach that looked like it had been recently opened. It was definitely a better beach than what was available at the main building, with fewer rocks to navigate around. However, there were only a few chairs, so you had to arrive early.

There was a fair amount of seaweed present, but the staff was doing a top job of keeping it clean. This beach also had some signs about sea turtle eggs, which were exciting!

The main beach had more activities around, but noticeably fewer people, as the pool nearby here was a better option for chilling out.

The worst ‘beach’ here is over by Vela Sur, where there are some lounge chairs in a sandy area that appears to be mainly dirt.

Spa

We didn’t opt for a spa visit, but I’m sure it’s lovely, as it’s located in the ultra-luxurious Conrad Tulum next door.

Gift Shops

Scattered around the resort are a few gift shops with trinkets and sun gear. It’s a good idea to bring water shoes here as the beaches can be a bit rocky, and if you forget, you can buy a pair for a whopping $70 USD!

Family Facilities

This resort is super family-friendly. On top of having a full-blown playground, there’s also a splash pad and pool complete with a water slide!

Event Space

Near the main building, there’s a large concrete pad that I’m sure can host a variety of events.

For example, I saw many white colored wristbands on the hotel keys, which signified they were a part of a wedding party. The beach here provides some fantastic views. One night, there was a fun casino setup!

Common Areas

I’ve said it before that this resort is one of the more aesthetically pleasing facilities I’ve visited. It’s no modern architecture marvel like the St Regis Kanai just up the road, but it’s still beautiful. 

There are also lots of water refill stations around, which is a great touch.

Conclusion

The Hilton Tulum Riviera-Maya All-Inclusive Resort was a great place to unwind after a busy summer of work. While the food was good, that was the one area that could use some improvement. After reading Reed’s account of the Almare All-Inclusive, the food appears to be better at that resort, but the price is a couple of hundred dollars higher per night during similar times of the year.

If all-inclusive resorts are your thing, I think the Hilton Tulum is an excellent option. I think for the money and points, I would rather go for a “pay as you go” hotel, but for a larger family vacation, it fits the bill perfectly.