Rui fantastic!

the food was excellent! the pool was sweet swim up bar amazing going to try rui palace next time. staff were amazing. casino was good if u are into that sort of thing. renting a car can be challenging no street signs making it very difficult at first but being a small island no problem getting around

Awesome Resort

The resort was clean and beautiful. The staff was over the top fun, friendly and courteous. The food was amazing and the entertainment was great. Loved that you could have all kinds of fun watersports right there at the beach. Top notch vacation.

Wonderful resort. Aruba is a beautiful island

Allsion Briesen, the assistant director went out of her way to ensure our stay was exceptional. Grounds, beach, pool, dining facilities were fantastic . The paddle boards and kayaks were included with the resort, great fun

Fabulous vacation

Hotel and rooms were very clean. Beach was great. Spent more time in front of the RIU Palace as it was not as windy as in front of the Antillas. Service from hotel staff, bar staff was fantastic. Food was awesome and huge buffets. A la Carte was very good. Smiles from everyone everyday and everyone calls you Sweetie. They will go out of their way to serve you. Quick bar service. Entertainment was above average resort entertainment. No extras, such as tennis courts, hot tubs-too hot. But it would [... read more] be nice if their were some gaming tables, such as pool /ping pong tables. Adult only resort, kept to it. More adult like entertainment. More entertainment would be nice. Would definitely go back if returning to Aruba. Great for singles, couples, honeymooners of all ages..

A wonderful vacation in every way.

Exceptionally well renovated resort, both inside and outside. It has the atmosphere of a new hotel. The food was excellent in all of the restaurants. The pool and beach area were all that you could ask for.

Great resort

Great resort and accommodations (with their new renovations). View and beach was amazing. Staff were super friendly and very efficient (great room service with the little extras like turn down service).

Trip was good....hotel needs work.

Sunwing had great service....flights on time. A little disappointed with the hotel....several floors under construction....would have thought it was further along or that they would have given us notice.

Very nice resort!

The resort was clean and the grounds well maintained. The food was very good as was the selection and choices. Service was excellent and staff friendly. There were plenty of chairs by the pool and on the beach.

Fabulous First Time!

The hotel was not too far from the airport and close to a few bar/resto/shops. It was a beautiful hotel everything was really close by and very clean! We loved all the dinner restos and the buffets were great too! As a picky eater I always worry a little but there was no need. From check in to check out the staff were extremely friendly and very helpful. Their English was phenomenal for an island which was so nice! The drinks were great too :) love the bartenders! The activity staff were a lot o [... read more]f fun. It's the first time we have done adult only and it was nice having no kids around...but sometimes the adults can be worse than kids, we were on our honeymoon so we steered clear of the heavy partying and rowdiness. Also, the beaches are public on the island so there were lots of kids around there (local and tourist) so if you really want kid free you'd need to stay at the pools. The pools and beach were gorgeous - very windy so the sand we blowing everywhere but in August id rather have some heavy wind than just straight heat. Overall we had an amazing time and would definitely recommend it to others looking to travel to Aruba. (Just don't venture to the Divi resort which is just down the beach as they will try to sell you on time shares)

Good Resort

Overall The RIU Antillas is a good resort, this resort is currently being refreshed to meet RIU Standards. I have stayed in many RIU resorts over the last few years, this has always been my choice of hotels. I would have liked a bit more sinage on arrival, as I had to ask where the buffets and nightly entertainment was. The grounds was ok, as construction is underway to the adjacent hotel, public areas is clean, my room was ok, on arrival the entry floor/carpet was wet from cleaning ... I had to [... read more] change rooms the next day due to bathroom and door issue - a recommendation would be for room inspection before guests arrive - as changing room becomes a hassle once you have unpacked. The second room was clean and tidy. Dining was ok for the most part, however making reservation for a-la-carte ... lining up was not much fun. The staff were all very friendly and accomodating. In comparasion to other RIU - this one is ok for now, once renovations are completed this will be an Excellent Choice in Aruba. I often make recommendations of RIU Properities to friends and family and would do so for this one as well... !! I loved Aruba and would be interested to know when renovations on the second RIU would be completed.

Disappointed with Riu

I was an avid fan of the Riu chain. Until this past year where I stayed at the Riu antillas and riu bahamas...the resort was under construction non stop jack hammer all day and night ...ask to speak to hotel manger and was no where to be found all week. I would not recommend riu chains after this stay even tho I was in love with the chain prior. Davin Jaisaree

All inclusive resort at its best

Great location on palm beach. Pristine lawns and white powdery sand beach. Nothing else but sand; no sea shells nor seaweeds. It's unbelievable. You can run barefooted without worrying about hurting your feet. Best buffet I have ever encounter. Succulent duck, filet mignon, beef wellington among hundreds of other delectable offerings. Close to shopping and entertainment district. You can feel the energy and excitement. No rain; just gorgeous weather

Great resort!!!

Excellent food. Lots of seafood. The buffet have better food and choices than the a la cart. The Mexican restaurant were not good at all. Staffs are very friendly. The beach was clean and the ocean was beautiful. The bar pool was dirty, seems like someone spill their drinks in it.

Not Happy

The palace closed the day we arrived and we where suppose to be able to use it we were never told of this. Food fair at best, but a staff member on beach named "Lord" was only willing to do his job for a tip. I spoke to the manager about not liking this, he spoke to his employee and then the guy confronted us and was threatening. We spoke to asst manager of resort again and brought witnesses to this, he assured us he would be dealt with and nothing changed. I was nervous to be at pool alone. Thi [... read more]s is my sixth Riu and our last!!

Excellent Service!

We found the Riu Antillas to be a well run, welcoming resort. The staff are friendly and accommodating. Our room was clean and well stocked. The pool grounds and beach are well maintained and clean. As with most resorts the process for A La Carte dinning reservations is annoying and the A La Carte restaurant's food quality was disappointing, not elevated above the buffet quality,(the food over cooked and coming a long distance from the central kitchens arriving cold (except the Steak House where [... read more] the grill is in the same location as the dinning area). The buffet and bar services were good quality with variety & daily changes. I did not personally like the high rise aspect of the hotel and does not have a tropical feel. Aruba in general is very generic but easy to get around. I would recommend renting a UTV to off road to see the sights, can be done in a 4hr rental. The beaches are lovely but the wind is very strong and blows all day long. This hotel's building location does not afford any relief from the wind like some of the other properties on Palm Beach.

What a perfect place for vacation

Everything was fantastic from the beautiful white sand to the great food at the buffets and restaurants. The people at the resort and in town couldnt be more friendly and helpful and what a breath of fresh air to be able to go anywhere at anytime and feel completly safe

Fantastic resort

My wife and I have travelled all over the Caribbean and found that Aruba was by far our favorite place to go. The Riu Palace Antillas was so amazing. You want for nothing and if you need it they will do there best to get it for you. The food was great and I liked that you could drink the tap water. It felt good to be able to walk down the street without feeling uneasy. People there will stop to let you cross the street. Tourism is there biggest source of income so they really appreciate you here [... read more]. The beaches were spectacular and virtually weedless. We are absolutely going back to Aruba again. Thank you to all the staff at the Riu Palace for making our vacation a very relaxing one.

Great Vacation

This is one of the cleanest resorts you could imagine, ALL hotel staff were very friendly and helpful. Food, drinks, staff were all so great. One of our better vacations. You will want for nothing at this great resort!!!

NOT A 5 STAR!

If you have never been to an adult only 5 star resort then you probably wouldn’t know any better.... however, after staying at Excellence Riviera Cancun & Punta Cana, Secrets Wild Orchid for the past number of years, this hotel was not the standard we have become accustomed to for a similar price point. It is really a hotel masquerading as a resort. The biggest positives have nothing to do with the Riu – consistent high temperatures, hot sunny days, great walkable beach, warm ocean water, bo [... read more]ardwalk(safe at night), beautiful sunsets. These positives helped to make up for the lack of 5 star qualities. Hotel positives: Strong Wifi that reaches the pool & beach area. Cappuccino Bar & 24 hr self serve food & drink area. The self serve coffee machine (coffee, cappuccino, decaf, hot chocolate) was better than the coffee in the restaurants. Wine, beer, alcohol also available here. Due to a delayed flight, we arrived at close to midnight and appreciated the drinks & sandwiches. Clean rooms & hotel premises. Comfortable beds. Refrigerator in room. Piano player in lobby. Rum punch upon arrival. Smiling, friendly staff. Strong a/c in rooms. Soundproof rooms - Never heard any noise from neighbours or from hallway. Breakfast buffet – lots of variety; fresh; cooking stations. Lunch - 2 buffet types of restaurants available – one indoors & one semi-outdoors. You can sit in either & get food from either. Good variety of food choices that varied from day to day. Great salads! Lots of seafood. Chaise lounges – never had a problem getting 6 lounges together at the pool under a retractable canopy. Lots of available shade in the pool area (which is needed because the sun is so intense). Pool towel service was never a problem. There was never a line up in the morning or late afternoon when towels were being returned. Pool temperature was perfect. One afternoon, jello shots were served. Another afternoon, kitchen staff brought around cups of ice cream. Pool bar service was good. Daytime activities: some activities were visibly available – darts, bocce ball, bean bag toss, water aerobics (also not the best I have experienced) Even numbered hotel rooms have the best view – pool and ocean. Odd numbered rooms look out at the Riu Palace but if you look to the left, you can also see the ocean. Reasonably priced store on lower level of hotel. Mexican & Italian restaurant: great appetizer buffet prior to ordering your entree. Entrees were okay. Fusion Restaurant – ok. Good desserts which included a liqueur. Steakhouse -men could wear shorts as it was semi-outdoors. Lobster was FANTASTIC. Steak was very tasty–the best we have had in the Carribbean. Good Caesar salad. Ate there twice as we felt it was the tastiest restaurant with the best semi-outdoor atmosphere. Good service. Relaxing meal. Never felt rushed. Hotel Negatives: Rooms – plain hotel room and furniture – nothing wrong with it – but not as nice and atmospheric as the other resorts we have stayed in. 6 of us travelled together– in 3 rooms-all rooms were fine–no smells, no mustiness. We were told that our room was a “partially renovated room”- that meant new granite in the bathroom, maybe a fresh coat of paint – hard to tell. Things missing in the room: no clock; no pen or paper; toiletries were NOT replaced once used up; no WINE in the room bar; no snacks in the room bar; no order form for room service. Lobby – Small Bar area, hard to find a seat & only open until midnight. Lobby chairs – some are incredibly uncomfortable (made for giants with long legs) A la carte Restaurants - a HORRIBLE method of reserving. Unless you had read about the process on trip advisor, you would have no idea of the procedure involved in making dinner reservations as nowhere did anyone inform you of this process at check in, nor in the information sheet given to you at check in. The longest lineups waiting to make reservations were at 8 a.m. We would go around 9 a.m. and were able to get into all the restaurants we wanted and twice to the steakhouse. You have to be flexible as to which restaurant is available. 6.30 was the more difficult time to get a reservation. They allow you to make 2 reservations within 3 days. If you have a group of people, you will need all the room numbers. Once the reservation lady writes your name and room numbers on her list, she gives you a small piece of paper confirming the date, which restaurant and for how many people. You have to give this paper to the greeter when you arrive at the restaurant. Dinner seatings are only 6.30 & 9 p.m. & at each meal there were empty tables. It is difficult to understand why they won’t let people walk in and eat to fill up the tables. Only wine and beer is served in the restaurants. Alcoholic drinks were not available. Also very odd – pinot grigio was only available in the Italian restaurant & nowhere else in the resort that we could find. Mexican, Italian & fusion food was ok. The waiters totally rushed us in the Mexican & Italian–we were in & out in less that 1 hr15 mins. Breakfast Buffet Restaurant – good food & lots of variety. An indoor cafeteria like atmosphere. Definately lacked atmosphere. Needed some music as all you could hear were dishes clanging. A small area available that was outdoors (surrounded by cement) Buffet for dinner - each night had a different theme – theme was posted outside the door on the day of. If you asked at the front desk, they could tell you the themes for the entire week. Perhaps this information should be shared & posted somewhere, so that you could organize yourself with which buffet theme you would like to attend. Poor Communication: Poor signage explaining where things are located. (One sign outside of the breakfast buffet listed the times the restaurants and bars were open until) No signage telling about the daily activites. (yet we noticed there was a board like this next door at the Riu Palace). Hotel information sheet given at check in did not address all things that would make your stay helpful. No daily activity sheet. Only one sheet was given upon check in which listed things for the entire week. We found a lot of it to be not correct. Trip advisor comments had said you could go and eat next door at the Riu Palace. We went there to find out that as of a month ago, we were no longer able to make reservations at their a la carte restaurants, but only could use their buffets. Theatre Bar - completely out of the way of foot traffic. It took us 2 days to find this theatre (which is just past the breakfast buffet room). This room also lacks the Carribbean atmosphere. The chairs are very uncomfortable. It feels like you are inside a steel structure despite the fact that a portion of the long rectangular room had no roof and one side of the room was also open. Night Entertainment – probably the absolute WORST night time theatre entertainment we have seen in the past 7 years of going to 5 star resorts. Musical bands were decent enough but were not completely live – used prerecorded music and even singers. They needed to be playing in a warmer atmosphere in a more central location of the hotel where people may walk by and maybe stay for a bit. Music at Pool area -2 totally different music systems playing 2 totally different types of music. If you were sitting in between, you couldn’t really tell what music was playing from which system – it all meshed together. The best music was one afternoon when a 3 piece band played out by the pool and in between their taped music was played. Unfortunately, this only occurred once during the entire week. No air mattresses allowed in the pool. No hooks on public women’s bathroom doors to hang purses, towels, beach bags. (Floors always wet in pool area). No waiter service at Beach (probably because it is a public beach). Very poor waiter service around pool. Not enough waiters for the number of people; but bar service was good. No drink of the day. Only 1 type of beer available – Balushi. If you wanted a hut on the beach you needed to be lined up by 5.45 a.m. waiting for the beach attendants to open up for service at 6 a.m.(It was still dark at this time!!) 5 Elevators - some waiting at prime time.(lots of new granite around the elevators). Casino - very smoky! Turn down night service meant “closing the curtains”. Sunday night beach party had live music and a bar. Lack of decorations to set the mood. Luckily we were walking by so we saw it happening. People from the Riu Palace taking up space around pool, bar in Riu Antillas. Communication of front desk staff - We were trying to arrange a late check out as we didn’t need to leave the hotel until 6.30 p.m. We had tried to call the hotel prior to arrival, but could only get through to a general Riu customer service line who told me to ask upon our arrival. I e-mailed the hotel 10 days before arrival, & received an e-mail back that said to request the late check out when we arrived. Upon arrival, the front desk person told us to come back 3-4 days prior to departure to make that arrangement. 3 days before departure, front person told us to come back the morning of departure between 7 and 9 a.m. At midnite,(the night before departure),front desk person took my name & room no. said they would write it into the orange book –no problem–1st hr free and then $20/hr for however long we wanted & to come back in the morning before 9 a.m. to reconfirm the arrangements. At 7.45 a.m. on the morning of departure, front person told me it was absolutely impossible – no rooms available and my name was NOT in the orange book. 2 different managers came out to deal with our request & with a lot of haggling, were given a later checkout. Inconsistent customer service replies

Great Stay

The Antillas was a great experience. Food and drinks were excellent with lots of variety. Grounds and hotel facilities were clean and well maintained. You also had access to the Riu Place facilities as well. The beach and water were great. As the hotel is located in a string of hotels the beach is somewhat crowded with vacationers and you needed to be out early in the morning to claim your beach chairs. They did however had a staff member help you find a spot if you could not find one. The Antil [... read more]las section of the Riu complex to my knowledge was recently acquired from an other hotel and the only concern we had were some maintenance issues with the room. The patio door did not latch and the dead bolt on the room entrance door did not function. The patio door was repaired however the dead bolt was not. Overall we had a wonderful stay and would return again to the Antillas.