Riu Merengue: never again!

Everything about this hotel is subpar...the hotel was very dirty and food and services of very poor quality, staff were unpleasant and at times insulting when basic ammenities such as room cleaning and towels were requested, pool very dirty. The a la carte dining was first come first served not by reservation as advertised, adjoining casino at sister hotel though advertised has been closed for several years. We booked based on it being a Riu hotel and I have had great experiences with Riu all ov [... read more]er the world...this particular hotel does not live up to the RIU standards.

Riu Playa Blanca: ok resort

Clean resort good food but not a 5 star basic service and basic property. Was ok for the price but not organized at all .did not give us a good impression of the riu hotels. There's no info about restaurant closures. Pool closures. Activities are not posted .rooms are made different avery day sometime its stock sometimes you're missing half the stuff . definitely not a 5 star resort as they claim .now about sunwing all they're trying to do is sell sell sell .been to many many trips never seen th [... read more]is they start as soon as you sit in the plane.and at the resort too.if its not one of there tours they are not interested. We like discovering the area we stay in .but not too helpful.so overall the decameron hotel next door was better for us bigger and easier too get around panama on your own.

Riu Playa Blanca: Clean resort with friendly staff

The resort was clean and the staff were friendly. Donny at the beach bar was exceptional in his service. It is a great resort for a one week stay. My wife and I stayed for two weeks and found that the lack of things to do around the resort was trying. There are three a la cartes, which is two few for a two week stay. The Italian and Steak House were good, but the Asian with its buffet only style left much to be desired. The buffet was quite good as well. It is a small resort with one walkway fro [... read more]m the main building to the beach. There was no where to walk except along the beach. However, you could walk for hours along the beach if you wanted. There is a lot of sand between the beach lounge area to the ocean, though it is a dark sand rather than the whiter sand of the Atlantic/Caribbean beaches. And it is hot--both the sand and the weather. This resort has no palapas but instead relies upon the palm trees and a beach style patio umbrella to keep the sun off the vacationers. It doesn't work well. The umbrella is a mesh that allows significant light. When it rains it also offers no protection, unlike the palapa. If someone is looking for a small resort with good food and good staff, doesn't mind the beach umbrella lounge area, and is going for a one week vacation, then this is a great resort.

Riu Republica: Beautiful resort!

Lovely resort, rooms were very modern, grounds were well kept. The two pools were a nice feature as one was a party pool and one was a quiet pool. Restaurants and service was quite good. Beach area had plenty of loungers and cover when needed.

Riu Palace Paradise Island: A Bit Disappointed

The staff at the resort were very friendly. The food was by far the best I have had on most Islands. The grounds and hotel were kept very clean, albeit the rooms and interior could use updating. The biggest disappointment was that the pool was freezing cold for the four days that we stayed at the resort with conflicting responses provided by our tour provider and the front desk indicating that they didn't have a heated pool as compared to management and the pool staff stating that the heater had [... read more] been damaged from the recent hurricane and the repairs had not yet been completed. What made things worse was that there were red flags on the beach each day with the ocean being unsafe to swim in.

Riu Ocho Rios: Amazing Staff

We stayed at Riu Ocho Rios for a week in November. Our family loved the staff and they were wonderful, sweet and kind. The resort is run down and needs a refresh. It is the staff (ie cleaners, cooks, wait staff and entertainment crew) that may the experience unforgettable.

Riu Tequila: Perfect

Second time in three months. Fantastic. Staff, entertainment, rooms, friendly, amazing food. Being an all inclusive 24hr bar should include pool free as I didn't want to carry cash. Entertainment was great but saw the same shows.

Riu Tequila: Excellent resort!

We had an amazing time. Spent 15 days in Riu Tequilla! Rooms are great, staff friendly, shuttle to the beach always working (does not run between 13:00-15:00), takes 5 min on foot to the beach from the lobby, beach is amazing! All in all, we are coming back!

Riu Yucatan: Amazing

The place is so clean!! I saw them scrubbing the outside.The staff is friendly all the time and the food was so good!!. There is a cauliflower ravioli that was... Awesome. I'd recommend this to anyone. So much to do.

Riu Ocho Rios: ok resort

Food was good, ocean dirty, hotel old needs updating, good size, loved that you didn't need reservations for dinners nothing horrible nothing great. Went to a wedding. It was beautiful, kids club was great! Beef patties awesome! Kids loved the turtle pond, pool was cold

Riu Ocho Rios: Rui on the decline

The Rui in Ocho Rios is not a five star hotel, shabby rooms very old beds and poor food. Have stayed in a few Riu's and this was definately a disappointment. Luckily we had a really nice bunch of people to hang with

Palace St. Martin: 4 Star advertised as a 5 star... needs improvement

A friend and I stayed at this resort from Oct 20-Oct 27 2016. While the resort was clean and beautiful, there were definite issues during our stay. We found the staff was dismissive of us as we spoke English and catered more to the French speaking visitors. It was evident that we were "visitors" and not so much "guests". I felt this was an obvious interaction during the entirety of our stay. On our first full day at the resort, we visited the spa to book massages for mid week. Upon arriving  [... read more]on our scheduled day for our appointments, the staff at the front desk of the spa advised that they did not have our appointments and no record of us ever being there to book massages. We were obviously upset and the male worker said there was nothing we could do but re-book for a later date. We re-booked for the end of our trip but due to their mixup, we could not even get our massages at the same time. We were very disappointed and after having a lengthy conversation with the staff, the worker finally advised he would give us 50% off if that would make us happy. We were treated like we had done something wrong and he was bending over backwards for us. It was very unprofessional and unfair. The saving grace was that the massage therapists (when we did get our massages) were very good at their jobs and very kind and attentive. After the fact, we also realized they charged me more for my massage than my friend without us knowing and we both received the same treatment. We were very unhappy about this but let it go. The pool area was well kept but the tiles in the pool were coming off and no one was doing any type of maintenance to fix or at least keep the pool clean. The pool area had lots of chairs and umbrellas which was nice but since there was no swim up bar, there was minimal opportunity to get drinks besides walking out of the gated area to go to the small side bar. Two days out of our seven day trip, for an hour or two, a female worker travelled the area around the pool offering drinks but there were minimal options on her cart. In her defence, she was lovely and very energetic and very good at entertaining the people around her. She did a great job when she was around. By the pool, were two small individual male/female washrooms. They were poorly lit and rarely stocked with toilet paper and paper towels. There was another bathroom attached to the lunch buffet restaurant that was better maintained. A few days into our trip, we went to the front desk to inquire about extended check out hours and the cost as our flight wasn't until late evening on the day of our departure. The staff advised us it would be $40 American to stay in our rooms for the day and to return to the front desk the day we were leaving, early in the morning, to request this extension. On our departure day, we arrived at the front desk at 8:30am and asked to pay for our extension at which time a female worker, advising she was the manager, said the cost was $90 Euro. We were both shocked and asked why it had changed. She said it was never $40 American. We advised her we were told that and she was not responsive. We had no choice but to pay the $90 Euro as we had planned our day accordingly. We were very upset and felt scammed out of our money. Further, we spoke to other visitors later who said they did not have to pay that much to extend their stay. The food was average and well made. The staff advised since it was their "off season" that some things would only be available certain days which we understood and planned for accordingly. The a la carte restaurants were first come first serve but were poorly managed. People would show up at 6pm waiting for a 6:30pm seating only to find out it was full. They said they didn't take reservations in the "off season" but somehow the a la carte's were always full. We managed to get in to the Krystal restaurant but the food was bland and not well prepared. We ended up going back to the buffet afterwards and every other night we were there. A bit more attention could have been paid to the availability of plates, forks, spoons etc as I found it hard some days to get my hands on a spoon for ice cream. It was obvious that all the restaurants were under staffed and I felt for the workers as they tried their best to make each experience worthwhile. Our rooms were clean and well kept but needed updates. Bar fridge did not work, we were missing blankets, tiles were falling off the tub surround and lights were burnt out. We did call to get more blankets which came after 3 calls to the front desk and about an hour and a half wait time. The cleaning staff did a great job of cleaning the room daily. It was always done by 3-4pm and towels, soaps and toilet paper were restocked regularly. The beach was nice but small. It was well kept and there were a good amount of chairs. Though we only spent one day our beach, there were no complaints in that area. Very nice and the water was warm. Overall, I would say this resort was a 4 star at best on its way to becoming a 5 star. I am a regular visitor of Riu hotels and it definitely was not up to par with the others I have visited in the past. (Jamaica, Costa Rica) I would not charge such a high cost for this resort as it still has a lot of upgrading that needs to be done. I would not recommend it to others wishing to visit this island until it gets the maintenance and love it so needs. St Martin is a beautiful island and I would definitely visit again but maybe next time, I would stay on the Dutch side and explore its options.

Riu Santa Fe: Beautiful resort

This resort was amazing! Pools were awesome service was amazing! The food at the restaurants were beyond delicious! Only down fall was that we were on the fourth floor and there was no elevators.. We got our exercise thought! I would most defiantly stay here again.

Riu Flamingos: Great Trip

The Hotel was amazing, not as clean as previous years, the food and people were as always great, few things in the room were more annoying then anything got locked out once had to wait forever to get in, twice locked out of the safe, things that they tryed to hurry to do but not so fast mexican time. sunwing is not the plane to go, even with the elite seats they seperated us and row 1 was cramped stewardess were not the best if you dont want want to be one go to macdonalds

Riu Vallarta: Nice resort but overall bad cutomer service

Just returned on Sunday November 6/2016 Needs serious upgrades, changes were made 3 times to make the situation healthy and comfortable, the staff at sport bars excellent , food OK Not at all satisfied with the service nor will we ever return to this one. Such bad customer service. Disapointed with this well deserved vacation

Riu Yucatan: Our Riu Vacation

The Riu Yucatan was nice. The staff very friendly. They were always smiling and readily available to help you. The food was very good and it was nice to have a small market close to the hotel. A seven minute walk. Perfect. I would go back anytime.

Riu Tequila: Great Food, Beach way to crowded, Hotel nice, Mexican Raccons everywhere at the resort, go somewhere else !!

This resort was wonderful , we loved the décor, the dinning rooms , the steak house was awesome, I would have liked a seafood house instead of steak but they did have a skewer of shrimp and snapper which was delightful. Staff was wonderful .Buffet was excellent, our hotel room was at the very back but that was good because after drinking and eating it was a nice walk back to room. The only thing I didn't like was all the coati animals , for this reason we would not go back, they are an issue t [... read more]hey actually almost cornered us trying to get the food we had in containers...they are not afraid of humans, and the other stupid tourists that have feed them in years past has caused this problem. We were originally going to the Bahamas to snorkel ,but because of hurricane Matthew we had to pick another destination , so this was not our first choice, but everyone there just wants to make money of you, going Akumal , going to the ferry Cozumel ......etc. Excursions way to much money and they are in US dollars but the hotel doesn't even accept US currency...The beach shuttle works fine just be prepared that there are 1000's of people on the beach very nice sand and you can walk for miles only 2 days were Yellow flagged the rest Red Flagged......We will not be back , but we did enjoy are stay of 7 days of rain and monsoons. and raccoons everywhere..............

Riu Flamingos: Not what I expected

Pool is too crowded, most of the time. With the number of rooms they should atleast have one more pool. Some napkins, plates and glasses are not clean. You have to pay to play billiards. Our balcony door does not lock. People can smoke anywhere even when they are in the pool. There are bird poo on some of the chairs on the reataurants. Front Desk were very helpful and friendly especially Marco Pollo and Luz was good bartender, beach is good.

Riu Republica: had a wonderful time!

I really enjoyed the resort. I think it is a four star not five star. I would have preferred good alcohol. I did enjoy the staff and entertainment group The food was okay but I did not find any seafood. The beach was beautiful but you could not see it from the resort until you walked to it.

Riu Palace Jamaica: beautiful resort!

My husband and I stayed at the Rui palace for our honeymoon and we both loved it. Excellent service. Very clean. The beach was wonderful. One thing we didn't love was the constant music in the background.