Worth the money

overall experience was good. The beach and ocean were beautiful. The hotel itself was clean, nice pool and the food was great. the rooms are a bit outdated but wasn't an issue for us. had a beautiful view from our balcony overlooking the beach/ocean/atlantis. nice short walk to atlantis which was fun to see and experience. for the price we paid it was worth it.

Nice resort

This is our third trip to the Riu on Paradise Island. The last time was before the renovations were done and to be honest it didn't look that much different. Some paint, a new restaurant, and a gym. The bar area was still much the same. I like the resort and the location but to call it a "Palace" is an overstatement. Since my husband had a mini stroke recently we purposely chose this location because it has very limited ground which meant very little walking needed so it fitted out need. The roo [... read more]ms are nice in all the Riu resorts as is the food and service. The pool is very small compared to other locations we've been to (e.g. Punta Cana) where there are several Rius close together. We enjoyed our vacation and would go back to this one but if we did not have the physical restrictions we'd rather go to the Carribbean since they're half the price and twice the size.

Truly relaxing

The employees make this resort. They are conscientious and happy! We loved the food especially in the buffet. The beach is beautiful but the water can be rough! The rooms were good. Loved the view from the balcony!

Good

Food, especially steakhouse and Krystal's restaurant are great to din at. People are super amazing. Beach is fantastic minus the people who hold breach chairs for hours and thinks its their property. When it clearly belongs to the resort and everyone else borrows for sitting or resting. Not for your towels and sunscreen!

Okay Property

The resort was more like a hotel than a resort in that the grounds themselves are quite small. It also seemed like everything shut down quite early. The food was good, although we were unable to try a specialty restaurant which was disappointing. Front desk staff were rude.

Great resort!

Rooms very clean, beds are really comfortable. Food and staff very friendly. 1 pool, little difficult mixing party folks with kids especially with a pool bar connected. Beach is beautiful, be careful due to the quick dips in water height. Love the jet ski's!!â›±

Amazing Resort and Excellent Service

Although it's an older hotel, it's very clean, the rooms are nicely renovated, the food is amazing, the service is great, the beach is clean, it's literally steps to Atlantis. Most of the guests are with couples or older.

Amazing hotel and location!!

The Riu hotel was the perfect place for an amazing vacation. The hotel itself was beautiful and the rooms were exceptional. The staff was friendly and very helpful. The location was perfect we walked every morning on the beautiful beach or to the marina. We would definately recommend this resort and hope to go back!

Heartless next door to Atlantis

More of a couples / family / destination wedding resort than a single's hookup, RIU Palace Paradise Island has beautiful multi-blue ocean views, very friendly service, clean grounds, an active and engaging entertainment staff with planned events that aim to pump up the howlies during the day and bring lulz to couples during the night. Literally steps away from Atlantis, there's no sense of listless boredom as there are also tables set up in the lobby with dozens of events and activities to choos [... read more]e from. Upon arrival to the Bahamas, there was a bus directly to the hotel, then an informative session which explained the exit accommodations and guided tours and activities so there was no sense of confusion or fear that the returning flight might be missed. All drinks were free, smoking was allowed everywhere except the Calypso Room (where the nightly entertainment was held). The rooms were cleaned daily, comfortable, contained a safe for valuables, and had its own liquor dispensers (Gin, Vodka, Rum, Whiskey) as well as a mini fridge that was also daily stocked with beer, Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Club Soda, Tonic Water and of course 1L bottles of Water. The view of the ocean from the room's balcony was breathe taking - the ocean was also visible from the bed and chairs inside as well. The room keys were demagnetized by the rare-earth magnets in my pocket a couple of times, but they were quickly reflashed by the lobby. The rooms were quiet - no loud screaming drunks making a racket during the early hours of the morning - and had 50 channels of satellite TV, including HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax. Food-wise, all buffets and even the fancy restaurants were all free. The buffets were shifted everyday so it was different food all the time (excluding popular staples like French Fries, Pizza, Cheeseburgers, Eggs, Bacon, Salad Bar, Meat Sauce Pasta, Fried Chicken, etc). The Breakfast buffet had Champagne for Mimosas and fresh fruit smoothies. The Dinner buffet always had a specific theme (Italian, Mexican, Seafood). Even at the buffets, there was constantly service staff readily available to pour water and coffee and gets drinks. The fancy restaurants (Steakhouse, Japanese, Fusion) needed reservations, so it was encouraged to wait in line in the lobby at 7:30 to 8:00 AM to reserve tables up to 3 days in advance. Table for 1 was perfectly okay, though felt very obviously single and alone being surrounded by couples dressed to the 9s. The fitness centre in the resort was clean and machines that were broken were usually fixed the next day. There was a Sports-type bar with a pool table and several pub-type video games. The stores were pretty expensive, as to be really expected as the Bahamas is an island and the RIU is a resort, so expect to pay the same price for a bag of Doritos as for a package of Goody's headache powder. The beach was beautiful, though public (as opposed to the Atlantis having private beaches) so expect to be offered hard drugs within 30 seconds, very much like going through a back alley in Amsterdam...and getting attitude for refusing them. Other than that, the locals were fine on the Culture Tour, which included the Junkaroo heritage centre, the Graycliff Chocolate Factory, the art gallery, and the John Watling's (Rum) Distillery. Paradise Island itself is more private land and there's a $4 toll to cross the bridge over from Nassau, so that keeps out a lot of the more shady types that would try to rip someone off. In summary, a beautiful beach paradise that's all-you-care-to-eat and all-you-care-to-drink with great staff that's a little on the pricey side, but well worth it. PS. +$10 at the casino in Atlantis #winning

Great way to spend a week!!!

there were some repairs taking place the week I was there, but it's hard for a hotel open 24 hours a day to schedule work to not inconvenience everyone. The food was good. People were nice. Very safe. Clean rooms and great staff.

Amazing!

The food, drinks, pool, beach (even though the water was too rough to go into), but especially the people were 5-Star! The hotel does need a little TLC, though, as water was consistently dripping from various spots in the ceiling of the lobby, and the phone in our room didn't work.

Nice resort

the hotel was OK not great and customer service was below average. However the food was great. the entertainment was fun the team did an amazing job. overall it was good. checking in and checking out went smoothly.

Nice but Small Resort

Very small Riu Resort. It for sure should not be named a palace. We have been to many Riu's because we love the Riu's. This hotel is the same as the rest of the riu's except on a very smaller scale. The food was awesome all the time. The steak house even had Lobster tail for an alacart which was a surprise. The beach is nice except its too bad they cant keep the locals away. We all go to the beach for rest and relaxation. The locals keep bugging you to buys what ever they are selling. This part  [... read more]was not good.

Nice resort

Amazing beach and pool was very warm. A la carte was hard to get into but buffet was good. Only complaint about room was the rug , always felt damp. Should be a laminate or tile. The view was spectacular and short walk to Atlantis

Overall a good resort

We went to Riu around Christmas time. First the rooms are smaller than other resorts we have been in, 2 double beds for two adults and two children one is teen is not comfortable. Second the elevators not working all the time, they had 3 and some times only one or two working longer waits. Entertainment is not great actually poor. Food is great in all the hotel. Beach is great and the pool is good. Overall we had a ood vacation but i will not come back.

Great resort

Went to this resort with my two children 9 and 5, the rooms were adequate, a bit dated, did not like the carpet in the rooms as opposed to tile or something else, balcony's were great for an ocean view, hotel needs a bit of work, but the staff was excellent, food was great, room service was great, pool was really good, gets a little crowded but can handle it, over all a great vacation, beach was a bit noisy with vendors as well but I expect that, just say no and they are fine with that! great va [... read more]cation and right beside Atlantis, nice to see and walk through

Good resort for price paid

Hotel was fairly decent for the amount paid. Hotel rooms were very clean and quite up to date. Food was fine and location of hotel was excellent. Only drawbacks were the elevators as they kept breaking down and at times they only had 1 going and you had to wait for anout 5-10 minutes to get on one that was jammed with about 15 people. Being located on the 11 th floor, it's pretty hard to go up and down stairs. Secondly was trying to get reservations at one of the 3 specialty restaurants. We wait [... read more]ed in lineup at 8 am the first day we were there for 40 minutes and managed the to get one for the last night we were there. Other than that, it was a great family vacation enjoyed by all.

Rui -- not up their standards

Sadly, I expect the Rui to be consistent everywhere. The people and the food were great, however, the rooms were not. The floors were carpeted and very dirty. I found I had to wear shoes all the time just to keep my feet clean. GROSS!! The rooms need an overhaul. The staff were nice but they cannot be blamed for the resort. The showers at pool side just spit out water. The beach is disappearing.

Old but great resort! Amazing staff!

We simply enjoyed our stay here and found the staff to be amazing. It is an older hotel, but that wasn't a problem at all. Our room was good with an Ocean view, spacious and clean with carpet floors and king bed which was very comfortable to sleep on. The beach was amazing but had nothing to do with the hotel, however the beach was literally a 2 minute walk down from the hotel which was very convenient. All food amenities were within the hotel itself and did not have to travel outside to other l [... read more]ocations for food. Food was good and we enjoyed the selection in the buffets. The Atlantis was only a few minutes walk from the hotel and could enjoy shopping, casino, and other benefits.

Great experience even in the rain

The food was amazing along with the staff. My only suggestion would be to NOT stay on the 15th floor as only one elevator goes up there and we found house keeping took a long time to clean that floor. I will say the view is amazing from the higher floors though. Also we did find that the gym equipment did need some updating as some of them had rust on them. It did rain for 2 days while we were there and the staff tried to have things for you to do which was much appreciated. Word of advice we go [... read more]t from a couple was to take the water taxi instead of normal taxi to go over to the downtown as it is cheaper. Overall I would go again.