Great. Resort

The beach is very nice and long perfect for walking. The staff we're really helpful. Food is excellent. The Resort is very close to the Rio Hato airport but they need more vending machine or kiosk while waiting for plane. The weather was the best I would go back very satisfied

Amazing beach

We were there Jan 26 for 2 weeks, 9 people. This was our first Riu and from other guests not up to Riu standards. Elevator only held 4 people. Washrooms far from the beach and pool areas. Children over powdered the swim up bar. Loungers being held from 6 am. Food was okay always plenty. Steakhouse only good restaurant. Beach was lovely and long. You are on the Pacific black lava sand. Bar staff and front desk great. All spoke English. If you are expecting Sandals don't go. Good for the money you [... read more] paid. Great landing at the new airport 10 minute drive. Rooms clean. No shampoos or lotions in rooms so bring it. Too big of a resort for our liking. Lines every where. Have bath tubs and showers only so request what you want as we did. Also requested lower floors so we could use the stairs. They met our requests. Did requests by email. Not for singles! Evening entertainment was okay. Disco fun.

Panama - Rio Hato - RIU - new hotel

Hotel was new, really nice, very modern and very clean. Food was very good. 4 pools. Only disappointment was the beach, the water was no clear and very dark in color, couldnt see through the water and the sand is a greyish colour otherwise resort was great.

Riu Playa Blanca

It was very organized, service was excellent, the resort was kept extremely clean at all times Evening entertainment was great Food was excellent The only thing I would complain about was that the Internet should be a minimal charge with a certain time limit, instead of USD5.00/half hour also computers were in a sports bar, where it is noisy. We had a great time and I would recommend the resort to others.

Great place

excellent, good food, great weather, very hot, clean resort, friendly people, love the short distance with the new airport, nice rooms, the only down fall when my wife and I were there , the swim up pool was under construction and not open. Besides that had a wonderful vacation and we will go back. We are beach people but like going into the pool to cool off only.

Nice resort

The hotel itself is modern and simplistic. It needs some boutiques as it only has two small stores with minimal items. Only a few restaurants that you have to line up in the morning to reserve....and since the hotel was not full, some of the restaurants were not open every night. Food and service was great though. Rooms modern, clean and comfortable. Pools were nice, yet one had to close for a major re-tiling job. The beach was covered in driftwood and some glass, etc as well as poop from the ho [... read more]rses that give rides. Someone needs to be responsible for cleaning up the beach by the hotel. Further down the beach was lovely.

Great Time

I took my mom to this hotel for here 60th birthday. They were very accommodating. They made me a dinner reservation, brought her out a cake and the entertainment staff sang to her. They also upgraded our room to ocean front. The food was great. The only downside was that because the hotel wasn't full the closed 2 of the Al Le cart restaurants 2 nights in a row. The pools were nice. Loved how the looked right over the beach. kiddy pool was great for the kids. The staff was friendly and helpful. N [... read more]egative was that sunwig changed our flight the night before we flew down to a later flight so we had to pay for a delayed checkout. I would recommend this hotel :)

Nice Resort

Brand new resort. Sunwing rep very helpful and available. Food was very good, lots of variety. The new airport is open so it is only a 15 minute drive to this hotel! The beach is gorgeous to look at and great for taking walks. But the beach water is hit and miss as there is a river (one property away) that flows from the rain forest into the ocean which bring debris (leaves & branches) and murky water. The night shows were just average. Staff was well trained and prepared to handle large volumes [... read more] of people. The resort including eating areas was kept very clean.

Great Resort

Over all this was a relaxing and enjoyable stay. The rooms were clean and comfortable. The salt water pools were wonderful but was disappointed in the swim up bar pool. The washrooms were far from the pool areas and not convenient.The entertainment was good and the disco was one of the best I have seen in a while. The bartenders were very talented and friendly with some great choices of cocktails and premium mixes without extra charge. It was not a good time of year to enjoy the ocean due to the [... read more] weather but it was beautiful with its volcanic black sand. The food was fantastic! There were so many choices and with the sports bar open 24hrs you always had food to eat. I really enjoyed the coffee and hot doughnuts at the breakfast buffet. Reception was friendly and helpful and Omar the hospitality Director was one of the best I have seen. The stay was fun and relaxing and I would go back again.

Trip was good

I enjoy the resort but a bit disappointed because the stuff does not speak English and also they cater more for the Spanish speaking guests I find the food very salty Room very spacious and clean but kind musty

Meh

We travelled with a fairly large group and a baby under the age of 1. Seeing that it's a brand new resort, the pools are loosing quite a few tiles. My room smelled like mold. Most of the employees do not speak English but we soon realized that Westerners are not their main target market. They cater to the Spanish speaking travellers coming in from surrounding areas, Columbia, Vanuzuela, Costa Rica etc. it made the trip feel authentic. Overall we enjoyed ourselves and made our trip fun regardless [... read more] of some of the discomforts of our surroundings (hotel).

Great Value New Latin resort

The grounds are new and well maintained. For swimming - 4+ large pools (which includes a fun kids pool + another enclosed play area/splash pool) and the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean. The beach is a mix of light and dark sand - which makes for an interesting walk along the water and easy to find seashells. The Resort is a 10 minute ride from the new airport in RioHato with efficient staff processing so you can start enjoying the resort shortly after landing. SunWing travelers were greeting wi [... read more]th refreshing drinks and an expedited check-in service upon arrival - another plus. The rooms are modern and spacious, with double sink, generous tub/shower and separate toilet area. Most rooms have a good view from the balcony area. Our room had a bit of a new wet concrete smell which will disappear soon once the resort experiences the dry season to fully remove the moisture. The room was clean. The area is still relatively undeveloped, so it has a quieter relaxed feel. Don't count on walking off the resort to mega shopping centers at this time. The resort has two shops - both stocked with essentials at decent prices. The food is varied and excellent (albeit some dishes a bit salty). Staff are attentive. This resort caters to a large percentage of Spanish speaking guests so be prepared that English is the minority and many staff have rudimentary english at this time. Overall I enjoyed this resort - I relaxed, enjoyed the sun, heat and water and came home

Not ready for 5 star rating yet

I won't say it is a bad resort, I would say it is not up to the RIU standard yet. The grounds are nice but the trees are small, therefore no shade. The beach area should have more unbrellas, huts or other sources of shade. The pools are not very good, the have a kids pool with slides (great for kids, bad for other quest without kids.) The activitie pool, very loud, the small pool next to the kiddy pool, which is loud for other reasons, and a small pool to the side which is not very good. The sta [... read more]ff, does not speak English, so they ignore you unless you speak Spanish. The room I was given after specifying a quiet location, was above the theatre, loud until 12:00 at night. Then the intertainment pool starting at 10:00 am. The excursions are all 2 hours away and only once a week. The excursion I wanted was only on Friday and that was the arrival/depart day so I could not take it. The airport was located close 15minutes, because I booked through Sunwinn, the only airline allowed to land there. BUT, it consists of one room, no shops, no food, NOTHING. So your stay of 3 hours is sitting and waiting. As stating this resort needs to get the customer service up to the standard you expect in the RIU resorts, and having something to do outside the resort that does not take money or time to just escape for awhile to shop or see things.

???

The hotel rooms, food and beach were excellent. Arriving and being assigned rooms was helter skelter with luggage seeming to be lost. Kids pool seemed to be good with one adult pool good while the other had no protection from the sun. The swim up bar left a lot a be desired, no washrooms near so people sat and drank all day without trips to the washroom, actually there was a lack of washrooms throughout the resort. Air conditioning was controlled by the patio door--closed it was on, open it was  [... read more]off. The resort was U-shaped and the entertainment area was located in one corner meaning if you were in your room you had to keep the patio door closed to shut out the loudness of the entertainment--not a problem for the rowdies but left the people in there rooms very cold. Tour options were numerous but required most of the day to participate because most were 2 hours from the resort. Staff was generally good, helpful and ready to fulfil all needs but not enough spoke English which I understand seeing as where the resort is located and the fact that most people visiting are from Spanish speaking countries. In spite of all the draw backs we enjoyed our vacation immensely. Of course you have to take into consideration we were 4 guys there to eat, drink and party.

Great new hotel.

Found the hotel to be new and up to date. Grounds good, only thing was that the palm trees were not very big ( to provide shade ) as they were so recently planted. We normally would lounge by the beach, but because of this we stayed by the pool, with the canopy. Meals were good. Christian ( at the lobby bar ) was amazing. Room was great.

Great time in Panama

I was part of a group of 6 people celebrating a 10 year wedding anniversary. We chose this 5 star hotel because it had only opened in April this year and we wanted impeccable service. Riu Playa Blanca was a great choice. The maid service was amazing. They always ensured our room was clean and organized. We stayed in room 521, ocean view, king bed. We couldn't complain. The room was quiet, comfortable and had great views. There are 3 a la carte restaurants (Japanese, Italian, Steakhouse) no compl [... read more]aints... Also, you can go to as many as you like, no limitations. There is a slight language barrier and if they have a hard time understanding english, they will try to find someone who can help. Even though the night time entertainment wasn't the greatest, it was a very relaxing stay with exceptional service that I could get used to, they can count me back again!

Open your pallets to quench your every desires...

This resort has it all. Great people, delicate rooms, with spectacular views of ocean or mountains. Delicious dining that will surely satisfy your every craving . Swim, surf, snorkel,scuba,paddle, pedal, or seadoo your way along the shoreline.Then relax in the hands of spa tech that will have you ready to do it all over again . Evening entertainment, will have you alive till the wee hours of the morning. AWESOME shows and a disco reminiscent to their originating days of the futures past!!

Amazing resort

This hotel is amazing. The rooms are very spacious and clean. The grounds are kept really clean and they have a lot of it. The beach is nice, however, because it is on the Pacific Ocean, the water/sand is dark which is quite a contrast to the blue turquoise of the Caribbean waters.The dining room (buffet) is very nice and the food is out of this world. The a la cart restaurants have great food. We don't drink all that much, but the beer and red wine, which is local, were good.The staff is attent [... read more]ive. The only thing that is against them is that most of them speak very little English. The other thing is that they are very friendly once we started speaking/smiling to them first, which perhaps should be the other way around:) They had great entertainment day and night. We also enjoyed a few daytrips. Overall I would recommend this hotel to my friends.

Slightly disappointed

Although I had a great time in beautiful Panama, the Riu Playa Blanca resort did not meet my expectations. I have been told that the Riu resorts are the best; however, the only good service came from the activity people in red and white. Otherwise the service was inattentive and unorganized. I strongly believe this resort has yet to find a leader to direct the team successfully. The main concern was the smell of the room/pillows - when walking into the room it smelt moldy (in such humid weather  [... read more]I understand this) but the pillows also smelt like mild - very badly. Also the entertainment at night could benefit from being a bit longer (as advertised). Overall I enjoyed this experience and country but not necessarily the resort. Oh and the pools were quite disgusting

Good for price

The hotel is not a 5 star hotel but it is a nice hotel. Very nice view, helpful people and good food at the buffet and the restaurants. Lots for young kids and adults to do not as much for teens, other than hanging on the beach. Hotel staff should become more versed on the activities to do outside of the hotel. New airport 10 min from hotel makes check out very easy.