Riu Palace Macao: Great location but avoid Sunwing at all costs!!

The food was hot, excellent favors and the selection was fantastic. We had both red and black caviar, lobster, crab, smoked salmon, a selection of fish dishes, beef dishes, lamb, duck, chicken, pasta, roast turkey, roast beef, roast pork, roast chicken, multiple salads, pizzas, multiple vegetable dishes, exotic fruit, multiple deserts including a chocolate fountain. The list of food types and variations goes on and on... Cleanliness was clearly evident as staff members continually run around mak [... read more]ing everything look perfect. The rooms were clean, bright, cool, and no musty smell whatsoever. Every staff member was very pleasant and eager to accommodate all our wants. There is even a pool waiter bringing you drinks as you lounge in the sun around the "clean" pool. The ocean and beach was both warm and clean with plenty of loungers, umbrellas, palm trees, and space whether you wanted full sun, shade or anything in-between. The white sand on the beach which stretched from the pool to the ocean (over 200 feet) was free of buts and finer than sugar. No, there is no slide at the pool, no mini golf, and no giant chess board, as this is an "adults only" resort. On the other end of the scale, this is also not the Ritz where you "must have" designer clothing. Those who are looking for those types of atmospheres may not appreciate this place and should go elsewhere. To end, both my wife and I had a great time at the Macao and look forward to our return if, "and only if", we can get there without flying Sunwing as there inability to maintain a schedule resulted in a total delay time of 30 hours, 16hr on the way there and 12 on the way back....I can say that I now know both airports like the back of my hand...

Riu Vallarta: the grounds

the grounds were really nice the only thing was the elevator close to our room was not working and it made for a bit of a walk every time you needed to go to your room I think at night they should have dancing for our age group and the bar open till 100 p.m. for our age the disco is for the young crowd they should think of having a singing bar for people at night something more than the sports bar

Riu Cancun: Beautiful resort

Riu Cancun is an excellent resort I highly recommend it. The staff are very friendly and helpful the grounds are very well kept and and extremely clean, The food was amazing a lot to choose from for all tastes and great wine...can't forget the wine and drinks lol.. I totally would go back without hesitation. Loved it

Riu Playacar: Great Time

Nice resort. Smaller than most, but great service and access to Rio Tequila and others if want more action. Great beach access. Can walk easily into Playa Del Carmen. Buffet food was excellent. Lots of variety and high quality.

Riu Emerald Bay: not bad not bad

entertainment is average; hotel is nice and clean; staff is very friendly and really trying, however lack command of English considering a big number of English speaking guests; food is excellent; some bar tenders are a bit judgmental but very fast; property is relatively small; vendors are on the way to the ocean....always in front of your eyes...; no hot water in peek time; toilet bowls need more water to flash properly; no festivities on the beach, programs plus self serve dinner;

Riu Caribe Cancun: Most incredible New Years!

Been to the Cancun area three times and this was the absolute best, perfect resort for 20-30 year olds (I went with my boyfriend, early 20s) who want to party in a more sophisticated than spring break kind of way. The a la cartes were really great (especially the steakhouse), the decor was amazing and really well kept and by far the best service I've received anywhere (including Canada). Trip of a lifetime, will be returning.

Riu Vallarta: Good solid family resort

The Hotel is a great choice for families, there are lots of activities for kids, a nightly show 8-9pm, which caters to the young ones, our grandson enjoyed it every night we were there. The food was really good, the buffet extensive. Not enough beach chairs, though we were there during high season so hard to judgel

Riu Guanacaste: Going back again

This was the most beautiful resort I have been to. The hotel is surrounded by untouched beauty and wildness. The food was amazing and healthy. The only downfall was minor but if you speak English don't expect to wind down with a program on tv. It is entirely Spanish. Overall a must see.

Riu Bambu: Felt like family!

From a younger woman's perspective, the resort is amazing! The resort staff treated us like family and always made sure that we were well taken care of. My favorite part would have to be the organized entertainment from 8am to 11pm with a three-hour break in the afternoon. Best resort I've stayed at so far. Staying at Riu, you get to visit the other Rius as well and I must say Riu Bambu beats them all. We spent a few hours at one Riu and 30 minutes at the other because we knew we were missing t [... read more]he best entertainment at our resort! Apart from the entertainment, the food was delicious - although I am a picky eater.. I should probably say the food that I like is delicious! There are many choices because you also get to eat at the other Rius as well. Drinks were great! You can ask for anything and they will be sure to make it for you. One bartender I would like to acknowledge is Ivan - he took care of us when we said we were sick. Gave us a drink called LA BOMBA and we felt better within hours! Thanks Ivan! The resort is huge with 700+ rooms so I would definitely recommend, when checking-in, to ask for a closer room. One thing that I disliked was how much seaweed was at the beach - not a fan of seaweed so I stayed at the pool a lot, and also dislike people asking me if I want to purchase something. A lot of sellers walking down the beach but they got to know me first couple days and didn't bother me for the rest of the week! Anyway, hope this helps out a bit! If you're like me and love entertainment, dancing, partying and those kind of things then I recommend this place %100.

Riu Emerald Bay: get what you pay for!

The hotel was so so. Check in was seamless and fast however but the airport home was a mess and they took us 4 hours early and there was a food cart only passed security that charged 14 American for two bags of chips and a beer. That was the worst exit of a country ever terrible, terrible, terrible waiting 3 hours with no food or drinks but from a cart and with a pregnant friend traveling with you not a healthy situation. Please warn people to eat before security. The hotel was Good for families [... read more] not good for young people at all. Very quiet maybe ok for couples but alot of kids and locals. The hotel was so quiet everything was shut down and sooooo quiet by 10 pm! Services in restaurants and bars sucked and they certainly catered to the local patrons. Canadians were always last to be served even when standing in line with tip money in hand ! Food was horrible!!!! there was variety but not great quality... I ate pasta for dinner for a week. The al a carte restaurants were awful as well. The Italian one was only a buffet and a worse buffet than the normal one! And most nights they were closed, reservations were only taken in days they give you. Night shows were boring and the drinks were not great either. Coffee was disgusting!! I have stayed in many riu hotels and this was not what a riu standard I have seen. Late night snacks were meat and bread buns left in a fridge all day and molded fruit! there was also a sexual assault on the beach of a fellow Canadian that was sad and disrupting to say the least, hotel staff did what they could to help so at least that. But all and all the view and beaches were spectacular and a great little market and restaurant was near by was a great reprieve from hotel food but everything was actually super expensive to our suprise so it's good we paid so little for our trip! If it was more than 1000 I think I would have been severely disappointed for sure, however we got an amazing deal and we got away and had a nice relaxing vacation. So for 880 all in including everything I can't complain too much! :) lol definitely checked off the bucket list and won't be back to mazatlan. But a good experience and met alot of new friends that we are still talking to daily.

Sol Turquesa Beach: Decent and Family Oriented

The best comment of this hotel is the amazing staff. The dining staff, the entertainment staff, room service staff, lifeguards, gardeners, mini club staff, most bar staff, most bellboy/golf cart transport staff and most front desk staff were helpful and genuinely friendly and accommodating. The second best are the number of pools and easy access to pool and beach chairs. Easy access to bars however the buffet reastauarnt is a bit far from some rooms as it's located by the front lobby. Third best [... read more] was the selection of restaurants and buffet options, even though the food itself was mediocre, the selection was good for both veg and non-veg eaters. The not so good was the large grounds of the resort that made it a bit of walk to get around plus the many stairs all over the resort. Not a problem for most, but if you have mobility issues or have small children you may find yourself relying on the golf cart transport but they are not that frequent especially when a new group of travellers arrive. As a parent with a young child that was most frustrating in the evenings and after the entertainment shows. Best room area is the 400 and 500 series as they are closest to the main things you want (beach, pool, dining, bars). The main dining room seemed to run out of juice and coffee which was odd and no straws available on the entire resort...not a big deal, but it was odd. The rooms were spacious and clean, but the washrooms need an update as they are quite run down. The beach was fine and you could walk out into ocean pretty far as it was shallow. I have been to Cuba twice before and other resorts prep the sand and clear the seaweed a little more often; if the beach maintainance was improved it would much better. I think other parts of Holguin may have better beaches. Overall, for the cheap price we paid it was a decent resort. I would not necessarily return though until they undertake some renovations and improve resort transportation logistics. Shout out to our beach bar runner/server ... So amazing and always tried to get fresh fruit to eat by the beach! I recommend the hotel if you get a very low price.

Riu Ocho Rios: First Time in Jamaica

Our stay at the Riu Ocho Rios was good. In all our 20 years of travel, the food was great, good selection and quality. During our stay, it rained 4 out of 6 days. We still made the best of it, even swam in the rain, didn't want to waste time. As for the beach, not as nice as Punta Cana or Varadero. We would love to return to Jamaica overall but the airport experience was bad. Not enough airport staff to support the amount of tourists going in and out. Especially leaving Jamaica, worst experience [... read more] ever in all our travels, not enough security facilities to accommodate the volume of tourists. Travel from the airport to the hotel took 2 hours. Way too long after waiting in Toronto, then flying 3.5 hours and another 2 or more hours going through customs, etc at the Montego Bay airport, the whole day, 12 hours was travel time. Jamaica looked like a beautiful country and the people really friendly and respectful but for the reasons listed, we will not be returning.

Riu Palace Bavaro: Nice Place

Very nicely kept resort!Not very big so it is easy to get around;the staff is very friendly and do an excellent job at trying to accommodate their guests.The food is somewhat limited in choice though.

Riu Santa Fe: Very Poor

We visited Riu Santa Fe on 25/12/2014 and have the worst holiday. The service at check-in was terrible. The front desk staff is not friendly at all. The pictures on resort website do not show the real resort just block 7 which is the only breach front area. If you don't have a room in block 7 you are treated like a second rate citizen. The entire resort was very very crowded. The food menu at the buffets was the same every single day. The reservations for the restaurants need to be made 4 days i [... read more]n advance. There are 3 bars at the night entertainment area and on an average it took us 20 minutes to order a drink. The beds were terrible. The rooms and the towels had this weird stale smell. We almost had to wait for hours to get a spot at the pool side chairs as they were always occupied. The resort has over 900 rooms and not enough pool area or beach area or chairs. This resort is supposed to be a 5 star hotel but our experience was that of a cheap motel. All in all I would recommend to not stay at this hotel.

Riu Palace Antillas: Riu Palace Antililas

Grounds are kept quite clean, rooms were dated and very poorly cleaned, restaurants were always full and difficult to get a reservation, but when walking by they were half full. Buffet always had same food.

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.