Great vacation

We were there for Easter. Always a place open for snacks which is good when you are travelling with kids. The food is good at the buffet and at the restaurant. Very clean hotel. Alot of chairs around the pools and on the beach. My children had a blast in the kids pool with the slides. If you don't like to party, make sure your room is far from the disco.

Great quality resort!

This is a wonderful resort. The food is delicious, fresh, and lots of variety. The rooms are clean, comfortable, and beautiful. Loved the liquor dispenser in our room! The pool areas are awesome with lots of shady seats. Beach not so great but the pools more than make up for it! Staff are friendly and speedy. We had a great time!!

Awesome resort

The resort was beautiful, clean and just the right size. The staff were so nice espically Edurado in the sports bar his customer service is amazing. Pools were great , rooms very clean, checking was very fast, no beach too much under tow very disappointing in that not the fault of the resort.

Wonderful experience

Fantastic time for the family. We enjoyed everything from the delicious food selections, to the staff, to the entertainment etc. The staff was especially great, always so quick to be sure that everyone's needs were attended to right away. The weather was nice and hot. The beach was also great. We spent lots of time swimming in both the ocean and the resort pools. Wonderful experience all around.

Riu Playa Blanca

Great people, extremely hot weather. Lack of washrooms around the resort. Knives are not sharp enough !! the food was great at all restaurants. Very clean on the resort. Not enough places to shop for souvenirs. Vendors on the beach are great to deal with. Not enough shade, with the palm trees being so young. Not enough umbrellas. Great drinks thru out.(alcohol mixed). Very safe. Airport is 5 minutes from new airport. Pools get very warm very quickly. Pacific ocean was warm too !!

Great resort

Beautiful resort kept very clean by friendly staff. Food was excellent. Room was nice and spacious with clear view of grounds and beach. Couldn't have ordered better weather with not a drop of rain. Hot, hot, hot!

Wonderful experience

This was the first all inclusive we have experienced, however it was more than we expected. The staff at the Riu was absolutely wonderful!!! The food was delicious with so many options to choose from. The entertainment was excellent. The nightly shows became a must on our "to do list" for each day. The scenery was great. The temperature was perfect. The excursions were also wonderful and we had 2 wonderful tour guides on our trips. We had the best time with the family and are extremely pleased w [... read more]ith the whole vacation.

Fanama of Panama

Beautiful resort & very clean. Rooms were very nice & well stocked. Nice pools & loved the sparkling sand, even though it was extremely hot to walk on. If I had to make a suggestion, it would be to add a washroom near the pool bar.

Nice Resort

The hotel and grounds were amazing. It was very clean and the staff were nice. The weather is hot and sunny every day and I mean hot!! The beach was nice looking, but of course you have the darker sand but there was a red flag up every day so you couldn't go in the ocean. There were alot of jelly fish, friends went on a banana boat and when they fell into the water, they were stung by jelly fish, they were all around them. The food was very good and the specialty restaurants were good too, espec [... read more]ially the steak house. There definitely could be more entertainment during the day. We were a little bored as we like to keep busy. All in all, it was a good resort.

Great resort as are all of the Rui

Starting off with the weather ...wow...exactly what we wanted...very hot but not muggy...the rooms were very well maintained, up to date, the fridge regularly stocked, what more can you ask for. The staff was very helpful and there were very few language problems...the meals were great, wide variety and if you are a picky eater like me there was always enough to satisfy your taste buds. We only went to the steak house which was very good but you had to line up the morning of that specific day to [... read more] book , so maybe some changes could come on dealing with that....but we got in. The beach was quite long and pleasurable for a long walk...but I enjoyed the pool...well maintained and of course very warm.

Great Resort!

Overall, the hotel was great! The food, rooms, beach and pool areas were very good, clean and well kept. The only problem we had was that there weren't any washrooms close to beach. This year the temperature was very hot and there wasn't much shade. We are aware that it is a new hotel and the trees have not yet matured but beach huts would have been beneficial.

Good Stay

The resort is beautiful, clean and very organized. The rooms are exactly like the pictures, new and modern. The pools are fun and organized ... ie .. the pool bar serves the purpose for drinking and a few kids do come around with their parents who want to drink but not very often, the quiet pool is mostly older people who just get their chill on, the slide pool is for the kids obviously, and the infinity pool "activity pool" is for anyone who wants to play sports adults and kids. Very organized! [... read more]! The food is delicious, something different every day. We didn't get a chance to do an a la cart but the buffet was more than good. The beach was just okay, the water is kind of murky and the tide is crazy. I like clear blue water and you wont get that here. The nightly entertainment is okay, they had a beach party one night and that was the best night. The disco is open every night which is also fun but to do it every single night gets a little boring. The resort employees are super friendly and nice. There is nothing to do off the resort that's close by. There are things being built right now so maybe in the future it will be better. Excursions through the resort are extremely expensive for what you actually get. Rent a cab yourself and go to the places without the resort, its a lot cheaper that way, ALOT! You can even take the bus to Panama City for 6 dollars and go see the Canal for 15 dollars entrance fee, or pay the 150 to go with the resort. There are ways around everything, don't be afraid to explore! All in All ... Great vacation but would I go again?? meeehhhhhh

Great Holiday!

Check in very easy and smooth. The food was excellent in the buffets - lots of fresh vegetables, salads, fruit and meat options. Great a-la-carte restaurants (went to Asian twice) however you had to line up to book at 7am on the days you wanted to go. The grounds were very nice and clean. Only problem were the pools. Lack of available washrooms close to pools made for a joke around resort of how nasty the pool was. Beach clean and very wide. Wonderful walking.

Super clean resort!

Nice clean and modern resort. Needs more restrooms closer to the pool and a la carte especially steak needs to be upgraded a bit. It would be great to book all the a la carte booked in one trip to booking. Staff are very friendly overall, great time and beautiful weather. And it is within 10 mins. from the airport!

Pools Needed Attention

The people were great! We had difficulties upgrading our room, even having tried when we booked originally. We were finally able to upgrade, and were very happy with our room. The food was what you would expect, overall there was usually always something for everyone. (Have one picky child.) The pools were not kept clean, and for a newer resort, it's already showing signs of poor repair. My unwillingness to reccomend this resort comes mostly from the condition of the pools, as let's face it...th [... read more]at's where you spend most of your time. There were tiles missing all over the place, and there was this scum floating around all week in the main pool as a result of the swim up bar. It just kept getting bigger and bigger! One is a kids pool, another a sport pool, then one adult loungeing pool... this was even foggy by the end of the week. Oh...and there are no servers poolside. If you're a smoker...you have to go down to the beach. It's a $500US fine anywhere else on the property.

Very nice resort,worth the money

We had no complains during our stay,except was no hot water in the shower for last 2 days,it took too long to fix it.Otherwise hotel is clean,food is good. Entertainment is very poor..overall we enjoyed our vacation.

Not What We Were Expecting From A RIU Resort

Lovely beach with lots of loungers available for guests ( we were there in November). Overall buffet restaurants had a good selection of food but the Asian a la carte was disappointing, since it was just another buffet. The room was fine, but the local area humidity was an issue causing a musty smell in our room, which we noticed upon our arrival. Pool maintenance needs to be addressed, such as water cloudiness of the poolside bar and missing pool tiles in the main pool area.

Great resort

The staff are all pleasant, helpful and accommodating. The grounds are well kept, clean pleasing to the eye. The pools and beach are clean and maintained. The food was good, there weren't breads or desserts for celiacs.

Good Family Resort!

This Hotel is fairly new. The staff keep it quite clean. There is however mold in the showers... Their are 4 choices for restaurants for dinner. All were really good! Japanese, Italian, Steak house, or Buffet. You have to book your choice every morning, kind of a pain, but it makes it more fair. The resort was decorated really nicely for the holidays, and they put on a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner! There is never a problem finding seats around the pools or at the beach. The trees on the beach a [... read more]re still pretty small, but they give off enough shade, and they'll only get better over time. The drinks at pool bars were good, but cups are small, so bring a travel mug of some kind! The gym was average. We would have liked more choice for nitely activities. We booked the pool tables for an hour, but it was difficult to get, and there was only one. The rooms were

3-1/2 to 4 star

I've stayed at several riu resorts over the years and they have been either 4-1/2 or 5 star resorts The Riu Playa Blanca didnt meet up to the 5 star rating it was given, not that it was a bad resort but didn't have the bells and whistles (coasters under your drinks on tables, no waiter service around the pool or beach, food was ok but nothing outstanding to tell my friends about, pools were all wading pools ... Nothing deeper than 4 feet For the most part it was good overall with pleasent staff [... read more] but 4 star rating at best Short drive 10 minutes from airport with minimum $15 PP fee to exit country