The Papaya Playa Project has become an integral part of Tulum’s nightlife and beach scene. The beach club is affiliated with the resort in the same location, which offers access to some of its facilities to folks with a day pass.
If you like parties and Mayan-themed dining experiences, then the odds are pretty good that you’re going to be considering spending some time at Papaya Playa Project.
Our team thought they’d head out before you and find out exactly what it’s like at Papaya Playa Project in Tulum, and this is what they found.
Introduction – Getting To Papaya Playa Project
Where Is Papaya Playa Project? Carr. Tulum-Boca Paila Km 4.5, Tulum Beach, Zona Costera, 77780 Tulum, Q.R., Mexico
Online: Papaya Playa Project
Opening Hours: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. with evening parties from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m.
What’s Available At Papaya Playa Project?
This beach club offers a private oceanview pool, full sea views, an outdoor dining area, lounge, bathroom and bar.
Our Detailed Review Of Papaya Playa Project
We use a consistent process to review all beach clubs. This approach guarantees a fair assessment of the owners, management, and staff, and presents every review in the same style to help people compare venues easily.
The steps are as follows:
- We assign a team to check out the venue.
- Team members visit the beach club separately, often on different days.
- Each reviewer completes a scorecard during their visit, rating categories from 1 to 5 and recording their observations.
- After all scorecards are submitted, the team gathers to discuss their experiences and settle on final scores.
- A chosen member writes the review based on these discussions and scores before it goes live on our website.
Reservation and Booking Process
There is a certain monotonous certainty that if a hotel beach club in Tulum allows outside guests to come inside, that booking will be a complete pain.
Sadly, Papaya Playa Project does not break this pattern. Want to book on the website? Good luck; they only take hotel bookings. Want to book via Google? Only restaurant bookings.
This is a pretty pathetic state of affairs and one that ought to be very easy to remedy. In the end, we did manage to get some reservations via their email address, but we can’t stress enough what a terrible first impression this makes.
We also weren’t overly impressed with the variable entrance fees, which can be zero or a decent chunk of the day pass cost (the rest is converted into food and beverage credits), as they aren’t advertised anywhere in advance.
For party nights, if you want to transition from day to night, you need to pay again (either buying a general admission ticket or a VIP table).
Ambience and Atmosphere
They put out chill beats (such as jazzy house and electronic music) to serve as a backdrop for conversation all day long, then when the parties start (and we should stress, these aren’t on every night), things get more energetic.
We felt that the transition between these two, pleasant states was really quite jarring; there’s no subtle build-up, but rather a sort of car crash of styles as one stops and the other starts.
Overall, the two vibes are good in their own right, but they don’t blend seamlessly at all.
Location And Accessibility
Tulum, as always, is fairly easy to get to from the Americas (long flights and potentially multiple flight changes notwithstanding), but it’s a bigger challenge from the rest of the world.
This beach club sits on the hotel strip outside of the town proper and you will need transportation to get there and back.
Aesthetic And Design
We find that, after you’ve seen a few, all the Tulum beach clubs tend to blend into one another like an amorphous mass. We love that they try and blend in with the beach and surrounding jungle, but did it all have to be so samey?
If it’s your only beach club, you will find it very pleasing to the eye and rush around grabbing awesome selfies.
But if this is not your first rodeo, you’re likely to be much less wowed by Papaya Playa Project.
Staff Friendliness and Professionalism (Service Standard)
The service at this beach club is so hit and miss, you wonder if they see it as an optional extra. Some of the wait staff are amazing, but you might as well roll a die and hope for the best as to what you get on the day.
You’ll find forgotten orders, incorrect orders, terrible response times for beach towels, etc. and don’t try to escalate your issues to the management; once you’ve paid for service, they don’t seem to care very much about your overall experience.
Service Speed and Efficiency
Mostly, we’d describe your experience of service speed and efficiency as “lacksadaisical”. Sometimes, things come fast and accurately.
Other times, they’re completely wrong, or they don’t come at all. Getting set up by the pool, in particular, can take an absolute age, and when they charge as much for service as Papaya Playa Project does, this ought to be inexcusable.
Food Quality and Variety
We liked the variety of food on the menu; we were less impressed to learn how much of it is only on the menu rather than available in the kitchens at this beach club.
The food we did get was decent, but it doesn’t stand out and given how they boast of their Mayan inspiration, we expected more.
We would also note that the price tag may mislead you into assuming you’re going to get rather more on your plate than you actually do.
Beverage Selection and Creativity
There is a good selection of beverages available on the menu, and we found them to be very creative (check out the fresh-fruit-infused tequila cocktails to wow your mates on the Gram).
However, they are on the verge of being extortionately priced, and when you take into account the cost of everything else at this beach club, you may be a bit irked by that.
Cleanliness and Hygiene
The beach club is relatively clean inside, and while it won’t win any awards for hygiene (particularly with some of the stains on the daybeds and beanbags), it’s not awful.
However, if you come here during seaweed season, the club doesn’t appear to give two shakes of a lamb’s tail for clearing the beach.
That means seaweed piles up, and it starts to absolutely stink. We prefer our beach clubs not to reek like a trash dump.
Comfort of Seating and Lounging Areas
The seating is actually very comfortable, particularly the stuff around the small central pool feature. However, those stains that we found on our seating?
That reduced our comfort level quite a lot. We get that this place is both popular and busy, but when you charge this much, there’s no excuse for allowing things to get gross.
Music and Entertainment
The daytime music is “relaxed”, in that it really has no identity of its own and is just a bland backdrop for conversation and hanging out. We’re OK with that. Though it can be a bit on the loud side.
The parties at night tend to lean heavily on heavy techno and commercial EDM and can be excessively loud in areas near the DJ stands.
Seasonality
While Tulum is in the tropics, the issue in this town is less wet vs dry season but more with two other seasons.
The first is the minor hurricane season; sure, everything stays open as much as possible, but if a hurricane does land, then it can be very unpleasant.
The bigger problem is that two-thirds of the year is seaweed season, and as we’ve already mentioned, this club stinks to high heaven at that time of year because they don’t work to clear out the beach.
Pricing and Value for Money
Our team and a lot of the guests they spoke to didn’t feel that the Papaya Playa Project was very good value for money.
Even in a beach club scene which is frequently expensive, this place is just overboard, and there are better places in this town for less money.
We still enjoyed our time at this club, but we certainly wouldn’t be rushing back even if we had unlimited funds (and sadly, none of us does).
Beach Access and Quality
You do get access to the beach here, and that saves you money because beach access requires a $22 fee from foreigners per day in Tulum!
However, though the beach is lovely, for much of the year it’s buried under seaweed, and as we’ve noted twice now, this beach club is content to leave it like that.
Sustainability Practices
Every beach club in Tulum is in on the sustainability game as their guests demand it, and while we wouldn’t say that they were among the best, there’s plenty to be proud of at Papaya Playa Project.
They’ve retained much more jungle than they are legally required to do, use solar power for energy, use eco-friendly construction materials and get involved in turtle conservation exercises too.
Exclusive Perks for Guests
You get a seat, a towel, a locker and use of the changing rooms if you want to pay for a daybed, but not much more than that.
This is very much the industry standard in Tulum, but we would note that they’re all missing a trick when it comes to creating (and charging for) more elevated experiences.
Safety and Security
This is Tulum, and there are incidents everywhere of petty theft, etc., but we have to give credit where it’s due; Papaya Playa Project’s security is among the very best in the town.
As long as you follow the reasonable instructions of the on-site security team, we can’t see you having any issues here, and we think it’s telling that there are no complaints online relating to security issues at this beach club.
Event Hosting Capabilities
They do allow beach club buyouts and reservations of specific areas for private events, but it doesn’t appear to be a major focus of the business here.
If you want to have a birthday party with a pool, it’s probably ideal, but we’re not sure we’d opt to host anything much more important here.
Consistency of Experience
We felt that they provide a very consistent experience at this beach club, for good and ill. Overall, we’d like to see more effort to improve on feedback, but we doubt it’s going to happen any time soon.
Additional Amenities and Facilities
Access to the hotel amenities is a nice touch for those on day passes, but overall, it’s a very standard Tulum beach club, and if you need anything they don’t have, you’ll probably need to drive for it.
Score: 35
Summary
The crowds at this place suggest that our review won’t make much of an impact on the way things are done at Papaya Playa Project, but we wish it would.
This is a fun place to party and a nice place to spend a day in the sun, marred by lots of little issues overall. We wouldn’t rush back even though we did enjoy our time here; there are a lot of beach clubs in Tulum, and Papaya Playa Project is just on the lowest rungs of what we’d consider the “best”.
FAQs
Can You Go Swimming At Papaya Playa Project?
Yes, there is a pleasant central pool that brings in the crowds, but it’s worth noting that it gets busy and mostly people use it for cooling off in the heat of the day.
If you must swim in the pool, arrive early to be sure of the space.
You can also swim on the beach itself, but we warn you that there are often dangerous natural currents and waves at this point on the beach.
We’re also not 100% confident in the local lifeguard services and would advise you to only swim in the sea if you are a strong and experienced swimmer.
It’s also important to note that you must have agreed to a minimum spend to enjoy free beach access at Papaya Playa Project.
What Is There To Do At Papaya Playa Project?
During the day, you can enjoy wellness and yoga facilities, dine and drink, lounge around on comfortable furniture and even join their coworking cabana!
However, as the day draws on, there is no doubt that this place becomes a party venue, particularly around the Full Moon and on weekends.
You will need to purchase a ticket for the events here in addition to the cost of a daybed and its minimum spend.
Is Papaya Playa Project A Child-Friendly Venue?
Early in the day, this venue is quite chilled out, and children are welcome. However, this beach club is very much a party venue later on, and we wouldn’t allow kids anywhere near this place once the party kicks off.
We would also note that some of the architectural features in the resort attached to this venue are downright dangerous for younger children.
Overall, we wouldn’t take kids to this place at all. There are many better options for kids in Tulum than this beach club.
Who Is The Owner Of Papaya Playa Project?
This club is owned by Emilio Heredia, a local electrical engineer who switched paths in life and is not a hospitality and spiritual entrepreneur.
The design was formed from a collaboration between Heredia and Calua Sendlinger (of the Design Hotels Group in Berlin).
There is a very conscious effort here to promote sustainability, barefoot luxury and preservation of the Mayan environment.
Is Papaya Playa Project Worth It?
We always feel that this idea is subjective, but we must note that a lot of guests feel that the Papaya Playa Project is beautiful but too expensive for what it is.
However, if you want a party by the sea in Tulum, you’re going to pay through the nose for it, and while this place is expensive, it’s not so much more expensive than other venues that you’re going to end up feeling aggrieved.
What Is The Dress Code For Papaya Playa Project?
There is no official dress code at this venue. But the expectation is beach chic during the day, e.g. sundresses, shorts, swimsuits, and sandals with cover-ups.
And at night, partywear is the order of the day. Think upmarket boho but practical because dancing on the beach isn’t easy in high heels.
Is The Papaya Playa Project A Party Resort?
The resort is not specifically party-oriented, but with loud parties on the beach at its onsite beach club, it tends to attract party people.
Final Thoughts On Papaya Playa Project
This is a chic, stylish resort with good music, but where it’s noticeably expensive for nearly everything that you might want to eat or drink.
We think it’s fine as a one-off venue for a good night out, but we wouldn’t rush back until they bring the pricing more into line with the rest of the beach clubs here; there are plenty of places to party in Tulum on par with Papaya Playa Project.
