Palace St. Martin: Great staff, hotel is just okay - deadly pool!

This was our first time to St. Martin, we've previously travelled to Mexico, Jamaica, Cuba, St. John's, Bahamas staying in 4 or 5 star hotels. This hotel is smaller which was nice as we did not have a hard time finding a spot on the beautiful beach or by the pool. The pool needs work as many tiles on the steps and edges are broken/cracked with exposed sharp edges (picture the edge of a broken bottle). I cut my toe on the last day as did my daughter (6). My cut was about an inch and luckily n [... read more]ot very deep but it did end my time in the water as it did end the life of a very old rag looking towel. Rooms are average, they are not suites, basic room with two/one bed, bar fridge and in room bottles of alcohol RIU hotel style. Hotel room is clean and fresh looking but on the edge of needing some work. The grounds are tired looking, grass is brown, water fountains filled with gravel because they broke. Cabana cushions are terrible shape, its like that bed sheets you love and don't want to toss out but you should.... Service was great, just one lady at the front desk was a bit soup Nazi style, the rest of the staff were great! Margarita (kids club) was amazing with the kids, Mimi at the restaurant, pool side doctor sharing her "medicine" sorry I never caught her name but she was great. Food was fine, at times it was great, we did not take advantage of a la carte because the kids wanted more choice. I'd give this 4 stars maybe, not 4+ or 5. Not worth the money, especially during Spring break (March 12 to 19 for us). We also took a cab to Philipsburg, not worth it unless you want to go shopping. If she says I only want to go to buy one thing, Its a trap!

Riu Merengue: Great resort!

Food was great, buffet was always a hit so many options, beach was nice and the water was clear! Having access to all three hotels was great we spent most of our time on the beachs at the other resorts! Rooms were clean and nice equipped with a hair dryer. Great time great experience.

Riu Flamingos: Mediocre

Grounds were immaculate, place was clean. Great entertainment with bands and shows. Food was only average. Very large resort. Staff was very good. Drinks were ok. Rooms were ok but first stunk bad then second was cold. Temps were at 18.5 even though we had maintenance come. All in all I've got nothing really bad to say but nothing really good. But don't avoid it if the price is right because it is still a nice getaway!

Riu Guanacaste: riu excellence

overall a fine experience - our second visit in 2 years. staff are friendly and well trained. food was good, managed to visit all the restaurants even though you cannot make reservations ahead. the staff at The Toucan made sure a birthday celebration was fun and memorable. the birding and wildlife around the resort are plentiful -saw about 50 species of birds including our favourite, the turquoise browed mot mot. the Diamante nature park next door is worth the visit.

Riu Merengue: Rui Merengue

Hotel and grounds were well kept, rooms comfortable, air conditioning could use an upgrade. Food was great, variety and well presented. Service was great. People were accommodating. Sun Wing rep was questionable, his error cost someone in our party out of pocket money for their mistake.

Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas: SPECTACULAR!! LOVED IT!

A beautiful resort,extremely clean and well-cared for. The view, no matter which way you looked was amazing! Service and food was phenomenal... would go again and again! We travel often and have stayed at many locations, this is our new favorite!

Riu Montego Bay: Very nice

Nice resort, good food and drinks. Nice beach, good golfing, shopping. Close to airport and malls. Service very good resort not overally big, entertainment good. 24 hr sportsbar is nice and has small casino inside it.

Riu Emerald Bay: Nice and clean, staff very friendly,food very good, beach beautifull, water a bit rough!

The only things I can complain about this resort is it's very noisy, not only a in the hotel itself but around the pools. The music is far too loud, there should be a pool for kids only! They don't observe any dress codes at all in the dining areas for dinner! Then there is the "band on the beach"!?!?!?! Every day about 3.00pm till late in the evening you hear what sounds like a grade seven band practising for the first time! This is the second year we have been and they are still there....Why a [... read more]fter so many complaints from everyone?

Riu Palace Bavaro: Riu Palace Bavaro

We had a 1 week stay at the Riu Palace Bavaro, Punta Cana Dominican Republic. We found the resort very well appointed. Rooms were updated, clean, spacious and modern. The food was very good, with lots of selection on the daily buffet. The restaurants were okay, but we found we had a few picky eaters and they prefered the options the buffet provided. The resort pools and beach front were very nice and clean, and ample beach front with plenty of shade from the numerous palm trees. The bar co [... read more]uld of had more premium liquor options, but otherwise there was plenty of selection of beverages. The evening shows were entertaining and the day activities were just right if you wanted to participate.

Riu Guanacaste: Nice place but not 5star

My husband and I came here on our honeymoon. We had heard a lot of good things and recommendations on coming here, but my honest opinion is we wouldn't come back. The good things: we had a honeymoon suite room which was very clean and nice. Had a beautiful ocean view. The resort is clean. The weather was hot. The excursions are worth it. ( we did the Vandara one and our tour guide Marteen was amazing) through nexus tours. The staff is very nice. The negative things: hard bed and rough pil [... read more]lows (we did not have a good sleep any of our nights). You do not get room service and the 24hr food is leftover burgers, hotdogs, soggy wraps and nachos. When I was in Cancun at the Hard Rock resort they had great room service and great food options 24hrs. Our last dinner we ate at the Italian restaurant which we waited 45mins for and we had asked for medium rare beef and got it blue with uncooked carrots in the center. And the wine is watered down. Only one restaurant offers bottled cabernet sauvignon. There is no bar at the beach and it is very rocky. You can't walk bare foot in the ocean. All chairs by the pool side are all always taken. We spent most of our time on the beach but without our water shoes it would be painful to walk on the hot sand and in the rocky ocean. Looking overall at our stay, we still had a nice time but not very happy with the food and no good 24hr service. Costa Rica is a beautiful place to visit, but would not stay at the Riu. We talked to some travellers from Montreal who have been to 4 different Riu's and this was the worst resort they've been to so far. I'm sad to have to said mostly negative points but would like to be honest to those spending a lot of money like we did. To me this is a 3.5 star resort.

Riu Emerald Bay: Love this resort

This was our third stay at this resort. It is tall and compact as opposed to spread out. Everything that you want or need is near. It is also wheelchair accessible. The food is good with lots of selection and the rooms are comfortable and clean. The elevators are slow but it is a 20 plus floor building so they are very busy. This was the first time that we have had to wait for our room to be ready. We arrived at the resort at 1 pm and did not get access to our room until shortly after 3 pm. [... read more] We went for lunch then sat in the lobby for a while. We were disappointed with this as the other 2 times our rooms were ready when we arrived. There was one day out of the 7 that we felt that our room was not cleaned to the excellent standard of the other 6 days. The staff works very hard to make your stay enjoyable. Everyone smiles and are very pleasant to you. One word of caution, if you wear progressive lens eyeglasses, when going down the stairs between the lobby and the lower lobby watch the last step. It blends right in with the floor so it is very difficult to see that there is another step. Overall, this is a great resort that we will likely return to.

Riu Guanacaste: Beautiful Resort

The Riu Guanacaste was a beautiful resort with lots of amenities. The rooms were spacious and the cleaning staff was excellent. The grounds were nicely manicured. The pool was fabulous with lots of chairs in both sun and shade. The beach also had lots of chairs and you could seek sun or shade there as well. The beach was nice, but there were lots of rocks in the water. If you walked down the beach 5 minutes, it was much easier to get into the water as there were much less rocks there. The [... read more] food was quite good, and there was a lot of variety each day. One thing I would like to see improvement on is the way the restaurants handled reservations. We saw monkeys on the grounds and just 10 minutes down the beach, we were able to feed the white-faced monkeys. Lots of excursions to choose from. A fabulous and memorable family vacation!

Senator Puerto Plata Hotel: very nice reort

We are coming regularly, this was our fifth stay. We are always satisfied. We like the place and the very friendly service. I like that there is a shadow on the beach. Entertainment in the evenings could be better but there are many competitions during the day.

Riu Bambu: Bambu-zled

Rooms: We chose the standard room as they are close to the lobby. Upon arrival (March 2/17) we were told that the room had been upgraded to deluxe room only to find out that the room was the last building at the back of the resort. The patio backed onto a construction site for the RIU next door. We had a black construction screened fence about 3 feet from the patio with a muddy clay against it to keep it standing. We insisted on having the room we paid for and were placed in 2306 right besi [... read more]de the lobby by 2:00 the next day. What can go wrong right? This room had no hot water which took three days to fix, a toilet that barely flushed and we did not get bottled water until the next evening. We resorted to taking cold showers, using the public washrooms for shaving and toilets and getting glasses of drinking water from the bar until we had some. We were also told that the sports bar (no coffee or ice buckets in rooms) would provide ice and coffee for the room if needed and when we asked for ice, they tied off a green garbage bag, filled it half way, tied it off again and sent us on our way. The one time we asked for coffee, we were told the machine was broken. We arrived Thursday evening and were finally settled into our room with everything working by Monday evening. We had a wonderful maid and she made sure we had everything we needed from Monday onward. Our room was spotless everyday. Her service level was impeccable and we looked forward to coming back to our room every day. Grounds: The grounds were well-maintained and there was a boardwalk on the beach that connected you to all of the surrounding RIUs. Great place for walking and running as the breeze from the ocean kept you cool. Pools: Pools were adequate UNTIL...the springbreakers arrival on Sunday (two bus loads) and trust me they were rested. We realized by supper that evening that our little heaven would never be the same until our departure March 16/17. BTW RIU policy website states that they do not accept SPRINGBREAKERS. Here are what all of us endured: 1. lineups in the washrooms due to toilets no longer flushing or girls locked in the stall because they were sick. 2. inaccessible poolbar from 10:00 to closing everyday. The springbreakers used this area as their public washroom and spent the day drinking shots, spilling drinks in the pool and vomiting poolside. 3. we witnessed five of them go out in wheelchairs the first day. They would come out of the pool and just fall over into their lounger and vomiting off to the side of their chair. Not once did we see any staff come and clean up afterwards. We actually watched some of them walking into it and they jumping back into the pool. 4. our nights were filled with screaming, slamming doors, stumbling people on the walkways, parties in the rooms and balconies and staff talking loudly to try and settle them down for the other guest. We slept with two hour intervals at best. 5. the final straw for us (our last full day) was the poolside fight. We watched two young men arguing in and out of the pool with girls and guys trying to keep them apart. The foul language back and forth was not acceptable. I went to the poolside entertainment staff and asked if security was called and they told me "it is not our problem". I then went to the front desk and told them security was needed poolside and again nothing. Finally the springbreakers managed to get the fight under control and diffuse the situation and things returned to normal chaos. All this to say, this is a family resort and there were plenty of children witnessing the events. I also felt terrible for those families as I heard them pleading with the spring breakers that they had children trying to sleep in the adjacent rooms.

Riu Merengue: Older resort with some hiccups

Food was great and lots of shady spots by the ocean. Al la carte restaurants good except that you cannot reserve ahead of time Towels and lawn chairs always available Clean resort Older resort so many things tend to break down such as water taps fridges. Toilets and a/c Didn't look at our requests for same building for all 5 female travellers and 2nd floor rooms.

Riu Ocho Rios: Riu Ocho Rios

All amenities were great and consistent with prior visits to the same hotel; we would definitely return; we stayed longer this time so our next trip would probably only be a week; throughout the stay the service and reception were fine other than the Sunwing rep was a little short with us on occasion

Riu Palace Mexico: You will never go wrong with the RIU Hotels

This is my husband and my 17th time to the RIU resorts in the Mayan Riveria. We decided to stay at the RIU Palace Mexico for the first time and we found ourselves constantly comparing the RIU Palace Mayan Riveria to the RIU Palace. The air flight and transfers to the Hotel went without any problems and the smaller vans that are now being used allows you to arrive at your Hotel quicker which is a huge improvement and very much appreciated. This also was a first for us travelling in March as we h [... read more]ave always visited in October. To compare weather you can have rain either season.The sea was very rough. It is warmer in October. The food, the service, the cleanliness was excellent. The RIU Palace is a larger and more modern resort but my husband and I feel more at home at the RIU Mayan Riveria. The entertainment team during the day was disappointing at the RIU Palace as we were use to the team interacting more with you and trying to learn about you and entertain you. The shows at night at the RIU Palace were very entertaining. I only wish that a 10 day stay could be arranged., 2 days are lost travelling leaving only 5 days to relax and enjoy everything that there is to offer. However our much needed get away was everything we expected and I am already looking at booking in October. You can never go wrong with the RIU Hotels.

Riu Merengue: Great stay!

Stayed March 7 to 14 as a couple The resort met my expectations of a 4 star hotel and really I had no complaints. We got there at 10 pm and check in was just picking up our keys, it was perfect. We bought the 'super saver room' and yet both our room requests were met. In the AM I noticed our fridge wasn't working, we went down to let them know, had some food and checked things out and it was fixed by the time we went back in a few hours. Very clean resort and friendly staff is why I give this p [... read more]lace 4.5 stars. There are three sections to the Rui and they all offer the same amenities besides the disco being at the merengue and the Casino at bachata. It's all close enough together if you are an able walker, check it all out and enjoy the scenery! It was very busy so if you want quiet this place isn't for you. Lots of fun entertainment and very family friendly!

Senator Puerto Plata Hotel: Great!!

Our third time coming here. It would be nice to be acknowledged for being a repeat traveler like other resorts. The airport process is pretty quick. Porters will take your bags from the airport to the bus. Tip them. You can do it yourself though. The large cold beer just outside the airport went up in price now is 6.00usd. They have guides standing there With signs to tell you which bus to get on. The bus ride from the airport is about 40 minutes. We were on a large newer coach this time and hav [... read more]e been on a smaller 20 person. The bus ride was good, it was one of the quietest we've been on. They usually will tell jokes, teach a little Spanish and joke around with everyone but I'm finding it's less and less. The check in was fast. A cocktail is waiting for you when you get there. There's a large table with envelopes you wait your turn to sign for your room and are given your room key, safe key, towel cards, and coupons. The outside of the envelope has your internet user and pass word on it. A porter will take your bags to your room. The next morning they have a meeting to tell you about the resort and things to do and not do. They'll give you your blue departure papers that will need to be filled out before you get to the airport to go home. It helps speed up that part. My room was given away so we had to wait a few hours for another one. They were really good about it though. The rooms, grounds, beach, dining areas are very clean. The staff are working constantly always smiling, singing and say Hola!! You can use their room outlets for typical 110V but for a dslr camera or GoPro charger or certain hair dryers you'll need to get a special plug from the front desk for a 3.00 USD deposit. You get it back in peso. Or in one of the lobby shops at Riu Merengue in a basket you can buy one to keep its black for 85 peso. We had no problem getting a chair at the beach or pool by 9:30am. You can stay at our resort and spend time at the other two. Either watching shows or getting drinks. The early evening show with the little kids and giving out certificates to the people who won games during the day. They should just give them out at the time. It's very repetitive. For the night shows they have a different one each night. Some were outside entertainers and some were people from the audience with the animation staff. I saw the Michael Jackson and Rock shows at the Meregnue and they were top notch. They start around 9:30 and run til 11:00 or later some nights. They have a casino that's open til 2:00am. The lobby internet worked great at the Bachata and the far Meregnue but not the middle resort. You can pay a fee and get it around the resort. Six of us got a cab from riu Meregnue to La Serina (sp) and paid 18.00 usd a couple including tip. It's like a Canadian small scale department store with food, household, clothing, shoes, fridges. We got coffee, black pepper, vanilla and a few other things. You can pay there with peso, usd or a credit card. The food was really good!!The best we've ever had. We had no problem getting a seat to eat. We had to wait to get clean cutlery but they were fast to get it to you. For lunch and supper the staff are continually filling your glass with ice water and cleaning off dirty dishes.They have staff standing outside the buffets to give you hand sanitizer. The chefs work so hard!! For breakfast you can get cereal, smoothies, multiple fruits, bacon, ham, fresh made omelettes, eggs, waffles, pancakes, French toast, scrambled and boiled eggs. Fresh coffee. You make your own toast. Plus much more!! At supper We always had some kind of meat, rice, potatoes, French fries, pizza. We had turkey, pulled pork, beef, liver. Yummy ice cream!! The animation team at all three resorts work really hard. We spent time at all three in the evening. They work from 10:00am-11:00pm!! There's volleyball, darks, horse shoes, bocce ball, bingo, table tennis all going on thru the day. You can relax and do nothing or perticipate in all of it. The beach is well shaded with plam trees or full sun the closer you get to the water. On the beach they do come around once in awhile asking if you want your hair braided, go on an excursion. You can get a massage on the beach in a hut. There's a beautiful gazebo on the point that's beautiful for pictures and a look off. Your fridge is restocked every two days with 2 lg water, Diet Pepsi, reg Pepsi and 2 beer, tonic water. If you tip you'll get more of what you want. The maid always left a beautiful towel decoration, bedsheet fan with flowers. We had no issues with theft. We kept things Locked up though. I brought room spray to help spray our room and belongings and we left sachets in our luggage to keep things smelling ok. i brought snacks, gum and candy to snack on because it's very costly there. I found the duty free prices at the air port were higher this year than last. year. A 1L of raspberry vodka was 38.00 USD. You can barter with the shops on Carabena Street and in the huts on the far side of the beach but not in the lobby shops. They don't take Canadian money. They post the exchange rate at the lobby for peso to other currencies. They post the weather as well. travel reps are in the lobby. They give you a survey to fill out about your stay towards the end of your stay during supper. We found the beds hard and we took throw blankets to sleep under us and over us as the sheets are very thin. To each his own with bed and sheet preference. They do have a thicker blanket in the closet. If you don't have own just ask at the front desk. There's a huge umbrella in your room as well. We needed it a lot during our week. Block 800 is really close to the main stage, bar, lobby, main buffet. Last time you did have to make reservations for the a la carte but this year was first come first serve. As a nonsmoker I did find the smoke bothersome. On the beach there were some cigarette butts, and when you're watching the shows it's very prominent. Check out was fast. We had to be out of our room 1 HR before the bus left. We left for the airport 4 hrs before our flight. The airport was fast. You can get your own water, pop juice at the buffets. It was a great relaxing vacation with family! That part you cant beat and is priceless!!

Riu Emerald Bay: Great vacation in Mazatlan Mexico with perfect weather to boot!

Hotel beds not too comfortable, but maids meticulous about cleaning and I am a clean freak! The pools and beach were all fabulous. Miles of beaches! Never a problem finding lounge chairs. Lots of activities and extremely friendly staff( not just looking for tips). Food good, but not 5 star quality. Overall a good value! Great vacation!