Riu Guanacaste: Good Resort...Bad Beach and other things

Been at about a dozen all inclusive vacations in the carribean, this is my 1st review about this resort. The GOOD: -about 45 min. on bus from airport -Beautiful grounds -Check-in quick, easy to carry your luggages to your room without help from Bellboy if you want. -Room very large and clean, modern. -Lighting adequate, beds very good/firm, -A/C is running good and quiet (but program to maximum cooling about 24C, with a sensor at balcony sliding door to auto-off when door is open). -Repair serv [... read more]ice is excellent, got couple of things done each time less than 1hr. after reported(broken toilet/ plugged sink) -Employees are mostly very nice and helpful. -Only Food in main buffet restaurant is very good (even compare to other resorts those we'd been before) with lots of varieties, lots of fruits, always some new varieties everyday, no or very little of line-ups. - Hardly find a nearly empty food tray, they always bring out more to refill even it's 10-15 min. before closing. - Pool is good, always can find chairs even when you come late. -Very little of mosquitoes, flies or birds. Almost nothing if compare to Punta Cana, Jamaica,... -Entertainment is above average but repeated after 6th night. The BAD: -Still using actual room keys with big key chain attach instead of Card reader system. -Bath towels in bathroom are thick and roughed like coarse sand paper, can hurt you if have sensitive skin. -TV channels have ONLY ONE ENGLISH Channel out of about 50 and the resort has about 90% of English spoken tourists, the rest is spanish. This channel is Fox news and keeps repeating the topics every hour. I always fall to sleep in minutes if relaxing in the room because there are nothing to watch. -Public washrooms don't have any touchless stuff installed and become bad when people these days are lazy or don't dare to touch to flush. There is no paper towels in washroom either, every time I go I have to grab some napkins from the bar instead to flush the urinal or turn on-off the faucet. -Internet is ok especially late at night but limited to 90min./day, if you disconnect your wifi connection after connected, you don't have a second chance again, so make sure u don't really need it before disconnecting. -All A La Carte Restaurants Food is "Terrible", we tried them all but if we knew, we could go to the main buffet instead and didn't have to waste time to book and wait in-line. The Italian one is the worst, we left in the middle of the course and tried to run into the Main Buffet restaurant before it closes. -Pool is good but nowhere is deeper than approx.1.4m, but the shallowest area is around the swim-up bar and its about 1M deep and it's the only area suits my 7 y/o daughter height (she's 49" tall). If you have smaller kids, it would be a problem for you. -There is actually no food to eat (i.e.: burgers, fries, hotdogs, pizza, etc..) between Breakfast - Lunch - Dinner, and also after dinner as well, unless you get some nachos or cold cut sandwiches in the sports bar in main lobby, so you have to make sure to fill yourself up before leaving the restaurant. -Beach has black sand and lots of small stones which hurt your feet, unless you go further out but most of the time we'd been there the ocean was roughed. -Lots and lots of vendors come around and snaking between tourist chairs, you need to keep an eye on your stuff all the times. -The closest bar to get a drink is the Swimup bar in the pool and it's about 400-500ft from the beach. I would rate resort as a 4* overall but the Food and Service as 4.5*, definitely it's not a 5*. I would recommend this resort if the person is not a beach type like me and with a more reasonable price than what I paid. I would not come back to this resort mainly because of the worse beach that I'd been experienced, even I have an excellent deal.

Sol Turquesa Beach: Great Stay

Attractive resort in an attractive setting. Staff is friendly, facilities are excellent. Only complaint was that the Resort failed to replace a light in the bathroom. Entertainment was enjoyable. Overall a good experience

Riu Palace Paradise Island: A good vacation

The good: small resort, everything like pool, beach and restaurant near by. Food is really really good for a four star. Not so good: customer service isn't so great. You can tell staff are busy so you don't get the individual care. Beach is public so it's noisy with jet skis and people constantly trying to sell you stuff. Rooms are clea but really damp. The carpet floor was damp!

Riu Emerald Bay: Great resort!

Food was great! Hotel was clean! Staff was awesome! Pools were good and my son really enjoyed the kids club riuland. The shows were good every night. We stayed during New Years eve and the meal was AMAZING! I was very impressed. The biggest disappointment was the Tabasco Mexican resturant. We did. It enjoy it. We were expecting a bit better menu but that's it.

Riu Guanacaste: Good - but not Great

Overall good stay at the RIU but it did not live up to RIU expectation nor did I feel it was reflective of the pricing considering I've had better stays in the DR for $400-$600 less during NYE celebrations.

Riu Palace Bavaro: Not worth the money!

Beach was nice,pools were dirty,the resort was small so easy to get around.Service was mediocre,entertainment staff is pleasant.Shows were good.Food is terrible,rooms are terrible.Wine and beverages were terrible.Too expensive for what is offered.Place needs a refacing.Difficulty getting internet access and phone access.Staff does not speak enough english.Definitely not a 5 star as rated.

Riu Santa Fe: nice resort

The pools were great and lots of swim up bars. Not the greatest selection of alcohol though. Nightlife at the resort was also pretty lame. Food all tasted the same. Very nice resort otherwise and very clean. Friendly staff.

Riu Merengue: Holiday nightmare

I'd love to say that there are any positives, it's been nothing but a horrific experience: the shower head is broken, there was no hot water 3/7 days, power outages meant that there was no breakfast two days in a row; all the power outlets needed adapters, and none of the adapters at the riu store worked (we had to prop them up using furniture.) the AC barely worked, it was humid every night and the ceiling was covered in mold (I woke up stuffy and irritated every morning). The towel service kio [... read more]sk runs out of towels mid day, and the beach chairs are reserved by the other tourists which are nowhere in sight (nowhere to sit). The "a la carte" restaurants can only get booked between 7am and 8am in the morning, otherwise they are full. The staff are grouchy and overworked (some of the bartenders are very nice). Our housekeeping forgets to provide towels, and I had to call for them 50% of the time (no big deal). Shampoo is not provided. Local vendors are allowed to harass you to sell you garbage at the lobby (they are very pushy and very annoying). Everyone including nexus-tours tried anything to get money from you; their general attitude is that we are rich and ungrateful people that need to be scammed (even though we consider ourselves down to earth and friendly). We decided to leave the resort and go to a town called Susua, at a 3 star hotel to spend the remaining week and had a great time.

Riu Flamingos: Riu Rocks!

We just returned from the Riu Jalisco and we could not be happier with our time there. Having stayed at the Riu 12 years ago we constantly were comparing the newly renovated hotel to the old and we found nothing was lacking. The food was fantastic with lots of variety and very good quality - same goes for the drinks! The hotel has been recently renovated but the rooms are much the same as they were on our previous visit. The rooms are very clean, the beds are comfortable, and the maid staff are  [... read more]fantastic - often leaving us small gifts (flowers, towels animals, etc). The night shows were entertaining and the RIU-Fit and Animation teams were great fun to be around. We had a fantastic stay and will be returning with our kids next time. Word of caution - we booked a "Splash room" where we received passes for the local water park / water slides. Don't waste your money and just book the regular room. The water park can be described best as "sketchy" and we ended up not using our tickets. Save your money for much better experiences in Vallarta!

Sol Turquesa Beach: Great Value - all aspects above expectations

The setting with eclectic gardens along with natural vegetation, much of which was above the two story height limit of the accommodation made one feel as if staying in a tropical village. There was a wide variety of interesting entertainment, reasonable food in the main buffet, The salad bar and desert table were first rate. Coffee in the 24 hour bar/snack bar and in the lobby was great for those who like a robust dark roast. The staff was very pleasant and helpful with a sufficient command of E [... read more]nglish and French. They actually seemed to enjoy working with tourists. There is one downside that the management should be aware of. One day in the main restaurant the drinking water tasted and smelled like the water we had in our shower. My wife drank a bit before she realized the difference and this was the probable cause of a couple days not feeling well that commenced shortly afterward. This was clearly not resort policy but a slip up by staff.

Riu Santa Fe: Beautiful Resort

Our family (of 4) loved this resort. The staff were friendly, food was delicious, and the view from the pool was absolutely beautiful. We would definitely stay there again. The only thing we feel could have better was if there was more of a child pool/play ground. The mini club was lacking in that area.

Riu Vallarta: Great value for the price.

Beautiful setting and exceptional staff. The RIU Vallarta is a wonderful location for an all inclusive holiday. We signed up for two Nexustours.com (adventure tour and Mexican night) and enjoyed both a great deal! Our family would return to RIU Vallarta.

Riu Palace Paradise Island: Fun Time With Family

This was our second year in a row at the RIU over Christmas time. The best thing about the RIU is all inclusive & affordable for Nassau & Paradise Island. Rooms were clean & tidy.. excellent breakfast, so-so lunch, dinners were terrible.

Riu Flamingos: A bit disappointed. Not like it used to be!

Not the same as years ago. Wouldn't recommend Shows were very poor Hotel is clean tho! Took my 3 teenage grand daughters so we had a great time anyway! You can get a better value for what we paid. Won't be doing the Riu again

Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas: This is Far the of the best

We stayed at the Riu Palace in Cabo San Lucas between December 12-20-2014 Let me start by saying I have a lot experience staying in Hotels, due to my work and travel mostly Canada and the United States, I stay approx.. 300 days a year in hotels. Not to mention vacationing in at least 1/3 of the Caribbean Islands and Mexico. After reading half the reviews on Trip Advisory I knew this hotel was amazing, even though 12% of the reviews gave the hotel a very bad review, in fact these people had nothi [... read more]ng good to say. Well I am a very picky person. My review about this hotel was I found everything GREAT except the coffee was not good at all. Flew with Sunwing from Toronto and as usual Sunwing was late departing from both airports (Toronto and Cabo San Lucas) Once in Cabo airport, we walked out after picking up our luggage (4 people traveling) got into the bus and off to the hotel. Once there we had a welcoming with drinks and a very fast check in, took approx. 15 min. The people at the hotel were the nicest and politest hotel staff I have ever encountered. And I have encountered some very nice hotel staff in the past. Rooms very clean, comfortable, and spacious, anywhere you turned they had people cleaning non stop. From the front desk staff to the wait staff, bus boys management, housekeeping grounds people, bartenders, all the way to the entertainment staff, they were all great to deal with. The food was great, the AL cart restaurants we tried were the Crystal and the Mexican (which is the Italian during the day). During the day we went to the open kitchen buffet by the pool or the Italian rest. At night mostly the main buffet, No matter where you go to eat here, the presentation was an A+ and the taste was an A++. Be leave me you cannot go hungry here, they always have something to suite everyone appetite. They also have Japanese, did not go there but heard it too was good. I could go on and on, but to cut it short I would definitely highly recommend this Hotel, in fact I think they should train other hotel staff here to show them how a hotel should be run. Good Job Staff and keep it up.

Riu Negril: Don't be fooled by brand name RIU

When we booked this resort, we did not ask a lot of questions because we were picking a brand - RIU. We had stayed at RIU many times before and I would normally rate RIU as the best. This was our expectation and we got totally disappointed. The beach was practically unusable and dirty - even the sand in the water at times looked too soft and my foot would sink in like quick sand. The water filteration of the only pool with the bar was not able to keep the water clear. So I felt disgusted to use  [... read more]that pool. We had to walk for 20 minutes to RIU Palace to use their beach, and of course the down side was that we were not entitled to order alcohol or food, even when I offered to pay for it(on an all inclusive vacation) the bar tender refused. In terms of rooms, they were small. We got their best beach front room and they could not put two queen beds in it so that a family of 4 (with two young kids, 6 and 9) could sleep comfortably. In terms of food, they had also cut corners pretty badly and they would only book one specialty restaurant at a time, which also required us to get up at 7:30 am and line up each day we needed to make the booking! Overall, this particular RIU (RIU Negril) missed the target and the expectation that people have from RIU by a significant margin in many fronts. Overall, this RIU is more like a 2 - 3 stars at best. It is being shut down for renovations in 2015, so I would completely avoid it.

Riu Palace Antillas: Amazing

The resort was wonderful! Staff were friendly and helpful. Everything was very clean. Only complaint was it was impossible to get dinner reservations at the a la carts. We will be going back though!!!!

Riu Negril: Pretty good

This was one of the nicer hotels I am stayed at. Our room was much better than others. I liked the resorts lay out, made it easy to get around and everything was in walking distance. The variety and quality of food was really the only downside. Our last two days there was a major improvement in seafood which my boyfriend loved. The two a la carts we attended we awful, the buffet was offering better food and the fact that you couldn't reserve all at once was ridiculous. Making me stand in a line  [... read more]for 30 min plus just to book one for two days in advance was not a pleasant experience. Other than that Jamaica was beautiful. We went on the rocks cafe snorkeling tour offered by the resort and it was so fun. I have never had such a great excursion. We got pick up and dropped off on our beach, staff were funny and friendly, snorkeling was beautiful, free alcohol lots of knowledge about local places along the way, a dance party. Honestly we couldn't have asked for a better day. Overall we had a really great time. We probably will not stay at a riu again unless the price is right. Also entertainment did a great job.

Riu Lupita: Very good resort

We enjoyed our stay, however at poolside there is no " NO SMOKING AREA" for non smokers. as we do not smoke and had hard time to get away from smokers. One thing I like to mention is that I requested special cereal and it was provided next morning, I greatly appreciated the staff for doing this for me. The rooms were clean however if they provided time clock in rooms it would been great. The Resort food was good, however there were so many guests who got sick ( diarrhea) ?? food poising, almost  [... read more]80% the people We met suffered. I would say the Resort has to find out where is the deficiency in the food processing system e.g. cleaning water, filtration or some one handling the food must be a carrier or find the source of contamination. We found the staff and the Manager were very friendly, they were providing excellent services . I found the" Check in " service was great, which I never seen before, it was so simple and very fast and very WELCOMING. I will definitely recommend this place.

Riu Tequila: Really beautiful resort

My husband and I went there for our honeymoon in November. There was a little mix up from our booking and they didn't know it was our honeymoon though. Our first room ended up being by the street and so we had headlights shining in our room. We asked to be moved and they accommodated us right away. The food was amazing but at ter 2 weeks it gets a little boring as it does everywhere.. but you can always find something no matter what. We didn't spend much time ON the resort as the beach was a 5 m [... read more]inute walk down a pathway away and we preferred beach to pool. It was nice because we could still eat and drink at the beach using Riu Yucatan. The only small complaint is that the staff really enjoy tipping and will cater to your every need IF you tip them. But when you're there for 2 weeks you can't tip the whole time. So by the end we were slightly ignored mostly in the restaurant Jalisco. Our maid also would only make you 2 towel animals before she would expect a tip. Still we loved the resort and the front desk people were absolutely amazing so we would definitely go back.