Breeze 215 at La Residencia

We’re back for a second visit and will book again. The building is beautiful, and 38th is the prettiest calle in Playa. The beach and Chedraui are both close, and it’s easy to get around on foot. The place isn’t always clean, so ask your host to check the apartment before you arrive. Still, we love this place and Playa in general. Your vacation depends on what you make of it, and I do recommend staying here.

The main drawback was the room. We didn’t have a balcony, and the window faced a close, rather dreary wall, which made the space feel gloomy compared with the balcony rooms and their nice views. If you’ll spend much time in your room, try for one on the fourth floor or higher. The internet signal looked strong, but the connection itself was so spotty it could be a deal-breaker if you need to work or get online reliably. I even had trouble posting this review. Still, La Residencia has a lot going for it. The architecture is striking, with a delightful nautical, wooden-ship feel that makes the stay an experience of its own. The rooftop pool and lounge area are a little piece of paradise, with daybeds for relaxing or napping, plus space to sunbathe or have drinks with people. The location is hard to beat: within a ten-minute walk of just about anything in Playa Del Carmen, from convenience stores and shops to lots of restaurants. It’s a fantastic choice if reliable internet doesn’t matter to you.

The pool cleaner was extremely rude to me and my wife in front of our six-month-old baby. He was a short man with a cap and a tattoo on his neck, and verbally abused us for being in the rooftop pool during its opening hours, for no apparent reason. Management’s response was far from satisfactory. Absolutely disgusting behavior. We also had multiple room problems during our family’s stay. The toilet leaked and made the room stink. It wasn’t fixed until the second-to-last day of our two-week visit, and even then things were only partly resolved. The apartment host, David, was very unhelpful and eventually stopped replying. Building management reluctantly helped, but their first response was to tell us to contact David. We didn’t have enough towels, the hob was broken, the toaster was faulty, there was no kettle, and no cleaning supplies were provided. Would I recommend this place? Absolutely not. If you decide to stay and get room 106, good luck.

We stayed for a couple of weeks. It’s definitely a unique place, in a good location near lots of restaurants and the quieter end of 5th ave. There’s a beach down the street, but it’s small and gets crowded, so I’d walk to the other nearby beach.