Riu Playa Blanca: Lovely Resort

This beautiful resort exceeded our expectations The staff were helpful and kind, the food was excellent and the resort was really clean. There was an adult only area that we really enjoyed Panama is a beautiful country We will be back to explore further

Riu Playa Blanca: Lovely Resort

This beautiful resort exceeded our expectations The staff were helpful and kind, the food was excellent and the resort was really clean. There was an adult only area that we really enjoyed Panama is a beautiful country We will be back to explore further

Riu Playa Blanca: Great Resort Worth every penny

First thing about this hotel is the cleanliness. The staff worked constantly to clean floors, around the pools and rooms. Food was excellent, so much variety. Drinks were very good. Very friendly resort

Playa Blanca Resort: Honest Review from Canadian Family

Travelled March 2025 with my husband, two kids ages 8 & 10 (one has autism) and my parents. Overall we had a great vacation. The resort is literally 5 minutes away from the airport, which was really good for the kids!! The big two negatives: Friday to Sunday the resort is overcrowded with locals. Pool is packed, buffet is packed and the staff cater to the locals, not the tourists. The other big thing is the lack of English speaking staff at this resort. I know we are in their country, but genera [... read more]lly resorts know basic English. This resort had a handful of staff that understood us. Majority didn’t even understand basic stuff like requesting water. Kids evening show was only Spanish as well. My autistic child only eats fries, and they were only served here at breakfast. After finding someone who spoke English they were very helpful and made him fries at every meal. The beach and sand is beautiful! The water is dark, but very sandy when you walk out. We had ocean view in building 700. It is in a perfect location. Steps to the pool and beach. Finally a shout out to Jose at the sports bar - he is fantastic!

Riu Playa Blanca: Lovely Resort

Great stay at the RiU. The cleanliness of this resort was beyond fabulous. The staff went above and beyond to ensure the guests were well taken care of. The dining experience was also very good. The food was plentiful, flavourful and the variety was awesome. When speaking of the A la cartes, the Italian restaurant was my favorite restaurant followed by the steak house and lastly the Asian. I totally enjoyed the adult pool with the swim up bar, however the beach did not leave alot to be desi [... read more]red. The sand was very hot, the water appeared murky and unswimmable. The red flag was posted the majority of the entire week and very few people opted to swim in the ocean. With that said, the beach is walkable for distance in either direction. The activities offered during the day were fun to watch and staff gathered guests for participation in each activity. Shout out to Gabby who led the aquafit classes. She was fantastic. The evening entertainment was amateur at best but the staff's effort put forth was much appreciated. Great vacation overall and would recommend friends and family to visit Riu Playa Blanca.

Riu Playa Blanca: Rest & Relaxation guaranteed

This resort was a good place to get away from it all. The food, room, and service were all very good. The theme was definitely simplicity. Activity staff (especially Ruben and Gabby) worked tirelessly to make sure everyone had a great time. The bartenders, (especially Bobby), were friendly and attentive. Our room was very large and our view was lovely. The infinity pool was perfect for all. The downside to this resort is the location to Panama City. It’s a two hour bus ride if you want to [... read more] visit the Panama Canal, old Panama City or new Panama City. If you are a beach person, this may not be the resort for you. The sand was very coarse and extremely hot, the water was murky, and the waves and undertone were worrisome.

Playa Blanca Resort: Terrible experience

Grounds well kept, pools dirty, air conditioning not good, food very poor selection and cold, very dated resort, very hard working people, same music everyday buy the pool, entertainment bad, to many locals who are very rude, worst resort I have ever visited

Playa Blanca Resort: Terrible experience

Grounds well kept, pools dirty, air conditioning not good, food very poor selection and cold, very dated resort, very hard working people, same music everyday buy the pool, entertainment bad, to many locals who are very rude, worst resort I have ever visited

Grand Decameron Panama: Very nice resort

Just recently returned from this resort. We had a good time, the resort is huge, lots of uphills, stairs, lots of walking for sure. The landscape was beautiful! Ocean was very warm, beach is nice and very long. Great for walking! Food was good, cocktails, coffee are perfect. Lots of Spanish speaking guests, even the staff don’t speak much English so brush up on your Spanish skills. Room ( garden view) was okay, a bit outdated. No issues with towels, or finding lawn chairs at the beach and poolsi [... read more]de. Overall it was a great vacation!

Grand Decameron Panama: Amazing resort!

We loved our stay at the grand Decameron resort! Food was excellent great service amazing pools and beach! Free wifi in lobby and most restaurant's. the villas are cute and big with a couch which is more of a bed! Great place for family with kids! Also the night shows are fun and entertaining!

Bijao Beach Resort: Needs a lot of work

This hotel is dated and in need of upgrading. The grounds are nice but not stellar like some resorts. We arrived a bit late but the check-in process went smoothly. The staff at the desk struggle with English but we made it through. On the whole, there is VERY little English spoken or even attempted. A few staff would try to speak English but they were few and far between. The rooms are dated and in need of upgrading. We had a full balcony with 2 chairs. It would have been nice to have a  [... read more]table; however some balconies had tables and no chairs, one chair or nothing at all, so I guess we were better off than some! The closet had 5 hangers - not quite enough for 2 people for 10 days!! Housekeeping was inconsistent - some days you got 3 facecloths and 2 bath towels, some days 4 bath towels and 1 facecloth. There are no towel bars in the bathroom so you are left with your towels on the counter, over the shower or on the back of the door. There is no hair dryer - luckily I bring mine everywhere or else I would have had many bad hair days - apparently, from another review I read, you could ask for one - not sure how that would go for you! There is a mini-fridge in the room - day of arrival we had 4 cans of pop, 2 cans of beer and 4 bottles of water. Once the pop and beer were consumed, they were never replaced. Number of bottles of water left was never consistent. You can't drink the water in the bathroom so we went through alot of water and never knew if we would have enough. There is also a Keurig in the room - some people's didn't work but it wouldn't matter anyway because they never replaced the coffee pods. We used 2 the first morning and never got more until 3 days before we left and then we got 1. Anywhere else we have stayed that had a balcony, it was swept daily - ours was not swept once - the same pile of dirt from the beginning of the stay was still there when we left. Even the hallways on our floor were seldom, if ever, swept. One bonus was the water and water pressure was great - didn't matter when you had a shower you had hot water. The hotel has 2 elevators which was a nice feature and there was never any issue with them not running. Food is fairly good - lots of choice at the buffet. There is alot of pork on the menu. There is beef as well but it was very tough. Sometimes the food was not hot enough. The one big thing, and this applies to the whole resort, is the majority of signage is in Spanish. Extremely frustrating at the buffet was the Spanish signs for what the chefs were cooking on the grills - unless you could visually see what the food was, you wouldn't know, unless you spoke Spanish. Other signs on the buffet did have English on them. The dining room has the tendency to be quite loud, especially on weekends - I'll get to that later! There are 3 ala carte restaurants but we did not go to them - we did not hear anything good about any of them. Reservations for them are made on a daily basis and I understand the lines to do so are quite long. There is a snack bar by the pool that opens at 10am - serves burgers, hot dogs, fries, nachos, fresh fruit. It would appear that there has been little in the way of customer service training for the staff in the diningroom. Some days you waited for your coffee in the morning, other days they were right there with it. You may or may not get a second cup. There is little to no attention to detail. There are plenty of staff milling around (some on their phones, some in groups chatting amongst themselves, some making themselves look busy) but they don't know how to read the room and know to offer another coffee, or drink at dinner etc. But they are quick to take away your empty plates - sometimes it seemed like the goal was to get you in and out as fast as possible. Of course, there are some staff who genuinely try to do their best job. There are a number of pools, with the main one having the bar. The other pools are shallower but there is not much shade at them. There are adequate chairs by the pool and on the beach. The pool bar is good - the bartenders are good and the drinks are not watered down. We had several days where we couldn't swim in the ocean because of rough water. The lifeguards are plentiful and seem quite competent. There were many issues with jellyfish stings when the water was rough - we wouldn't have known this except the Sunwing rep told us. The beach is a public beach but local traffic seems minimal. And the sand is brutally hot - on some days it could burn your feet - after about 10am you have to wear your shoes when walking on it, or run! Probably one of the biggest issues I had with the resort was the fact that they don't seem to cater to their tourists, but to the locals who can buy day/weekend passes. When they are there, it is extremely loud in the diningroom, the pool is overcrowded, you can't get near the bar....it is intimidating and overwhelming. We dreaded the second weekend of our stay for this reason. Unfortunately during our stay, we heard of many people who became sick, with some requiring hospital treatment. I, myself, became ill and didn't know if it was food poisoning or a result of the minor jellyfish sting I received. Either way, I lost a day of my trip having to stay in my room but others fared out much worse. Speaking to a fellow passenger on our flight who needed hospital treatment, it seemed the hospital had had many people from this resort there for treatment over the last couple of weeks. Since this is second hand information to me, I cannot confirm the validity, however I did speak to a number of people who had become sick during their stay so I'll just leave that there. While the resort did have some pros, the cons far outweigh. To give it a 3 star rating is what I feel is fair but it certainly deserves no more. Thankfully the food was quite good, and the beach was good, or else it might be a different rating.

The Buenaventura Golf and Beach Resort: Amazing resort!

Great food, beautiful rooms, grounds very well kept. Pools are amazing. Golf course is absolutely stunning. Service is over the top. Beach is very nice but not always great for swimming. Highly recommend Buenaventura Golf and Beach Resort.

Grand Decameron Panama: Great Resort!

Beautiful resort. Highly recommended the "plus" option. Restaurants were awesome. Staff was friendly. Host "Alex" was informative. Went on 2 excursions. A day in Panama city and a day in Anton. Totally enjoyed our 10 day stay ?

Grand Decameron Panama: Panama paradise

The grounds to the Royal Decameron were well taken care of. The a la carte restaurants were fabulous. The buffet restaurants were bountiful and readily available. Our room would be a 3 star. It was clean and comfortable. It lacked in lighting..no lamps at all, not even bedside lamps. The patio door was very difficult to maneuver..it definitely needed repairs. The entertainment during the day at the activities pool needed to tone down their sound system..it was incredibly loud!!! We thorou [... read more]ghly enjoyed our stay there. The staff were great. The weather was perfect..and we would recommend.it is great value for the money! Close to the airport too!

Riu Playa Blanca: Beautiful resort

The hotel rooms could do with upgrades to fixtures and fittings, tv could do with more channels as there was only one in English, maybe an upgrade to satellite. The pools. Bar pool could do with a good scrub under the middle island, you can see black mold also the kiddie Pool could do with a coat of paint to make it look better as it is well worn . The restaurants, Italian, Asian, and Buffet were excellent but the Steak house was disappointing. Our waiter Rey was the best in the buffet, he wa [... read more]s very professional and remembered drinks, names etc, very attentive. On our last full day we had a bit disappointment, everyone was reserving seats at the bar pool and the security came a took our cups, towels and clips for the towels. When going to the reception in the lobby to retrieve them we were told they didn’t have them and then when asked to see Manager the cups appeared but nothing else. If they are going to do this it should be all guests things and not just a certain few, also they should leave a card in English saying where they can be picked up, personal items should not be taken. I don’t care about the towels they are the resort but personal items (stealing) should not be taken.

Riu Playa Blanca: First All Inclusive Vacation

The RIU Playa Blanca resort, although showing it's age a little still made up for it with it's amazing restaurants, great pools and a friendly atmosphere. But the true value at the resort is the staff who were amazing and willing to do anything for you. I only wish I could give them a higher rating than 5 star.

Riu Playa Blanca: Great Resort

The resort and room was very clean.Was impressed with the buffet an poolside offerings.Service was excellent at the lobby bar.Deep sea fishing trip booked at resort was awsome. I would definitely recommend this resort to a friend.

Riu Playa Blanca: Love this resort!

Second time at this resort. Four of us went last year. We were very impressed so took a group of 14 this year! Rooms are adequate, service is very good, food is amazing as there is something for everyone. Beach not the greatest so we stay and enjoy one of the 4 pools. Staff we found is very friendly. The grounds are very well kept! Looking to return again next year!

Riu Playa Blanca: Beautiful Resort

This resort is beautiful. The grounds are well maintained. Staff are constantly cutting grass and trimming trees and bushes. The dining room is beautiful. It’s very clean and staff are constantly setting up for new diners. The staff are very helpful and very friendly. Food is very good too with lots of selection. Great pools and sports bar. The shows are fine if you’ve seen them the first time, but they are the same shows for a number of years and if you’ve been there more than once, you wil [... read more]l have seen them before.

Riu Playa Blanca: Wonderful Resort

Great value for money with excellent staff, immaculate facility and beautiful setting. Beach access is easy and beach is clean. Food choices are far ranging and there is something for even the most picky eater. We will book again