Amazing Stay!

My only complaint was that we didn't get to stay longer! My first time staying at a Riu and I'm glad it was in Costa Rica. The food was amazing. The buffet and all a la cart restaurants were great. Our favourite was the steakhouse and Italian! (Tip: make sure you line up early, it's first come, first served). The rooms were good, exactly as pictured. The excursions that we booked through our airline (Sunwing) at the front of the hotel really made our trip. Each were well organized, well led and  [... read more]extremely fun. The resort itself was beautiful. The pool was fun and clean. The pool bar played great music for a great Costa RIcan/ South American/ Vacation vibe. The beach was great too! Had the chance to walk all along the beach and enjoy the monkies! ALso best part all the staff are so amazing! Bartenders, front desk, cleaning services, were extremely pleasant and made us feel so welcomed. Would stay here again.

It was a great stay!

The room was great and clean. The staff could have been more friendly. I find they only talk to Locals or people that are Spanish. The nightly entertainment could have been more better as well as the entertainment during the day. Not much was going on. The food was ok, I find they didn’t change the options much for lunch/dinner.

Amazing Resort

Myself three other couples just spent two weeks in Costa Rica at the Riu not the Palace what a wonderful resort Rooms were lovely very clean and spacious The food was very very good tons of selection something for everybody of all ages Although rainy season the grounds were beautiful well maintained Amazing excursions lots to see and do there The santuarary next door has all kinds of things including one of the largest zip lines You will see different families of monkeys hilarious to watch PLEA [... read more]SE DO NOT FEED THEM people do anyways!!! They have a NEON night there is nothing like it best entertainment ever experienced on a resort The staff is marvelous like no other speak great English will go out of there way to get you what ever you need My friend celebrated his 60th birthday there we took decoration they decorated his room well we were on a excursion All the workers come to sing at dinner Cant say enough about this place the beach is clean so is the water Highly recommend for a holiday you wont forget

Exellent resort lots to due

good resort pool could use some clean up and a beach bar. maids were very good rooms clean. food very tasty and servers were efficient. lots of bartenders and quick service. excursion a little pricy but excellent. you can get a better price on the beach for excursion (cash only) see Luis Solution and his dog Mikey near the Riu Palace he is a great guide .

Riu

The Riu was great the hotel was great the people there were also I'm the only thing the day trip the VIP service sucked it was bad whoever gave it to us told us to we're going to go shopping we didn't get to go shopping and yeah it was a waste of money for us it wasn't our trap and they sent us on the wrong one for sure okay thank you we missed our trip the next trip because we were so exhausted from this VIP service there was no air conditioning on the bus there was no time for shopping we got  [... read more]a whole 40 minutes and my heart has been got swollen ankles and my daughter's boyfriend almost passed out so that was not a good experience for us and I'm not very happy with that okay just letting you know

Great and a little bad!

The hotel was beautiful. The landscape and the rooms were exquisite! The entertainment staff catered to all the guests that we spoke with and from what we witnessed and experienced. We thought the food at the buffet was excellent but never got a chance to experience the a la carte restaurants because we never wanted to wait in a line. Now the bad....we arrived at the resort at approximately lunch time. I went to check in, we were told to come back in a bit. We came back an hour later, only to  [... read more]be told to come back later. We came back at 2pm, knowing that other guests from our plane already got their rooms, but were told to come back at 3pm...a little frustrating! Anyways, we waited there in the lobby from 2-2:55 because we never wanted to leave our luggage unattended, when we were waived over to get the key to our room. For some reason, some guests got their rooms at 2pm and we had to wait till 3pm. We never saw anyone bring keys to the front desk while we were waiting for the hour. The staff at the front desk decided to give some people their keys early and others not....So a big thumbs down to the welcoming staff and some of the front end male staff at the resort! This is the first Riu where we had anything negative to say. Overall I would give the resort a 8.5 out of 10. It would have been a 10....

Stuff stolen from our room

Our room was locked, we were at the pool for the day and had money among other things taken from our room.We felt violated the rest of stay and could not enjoy ourselves. Otherwise the food was good but the bars were mediocre at best. there isnt much ever going on at the resort

What a place!

Out of all the Riu's i have stayed at this one blew me away for their food! Pools was huge and clean! Beach was well maintained, and the staff was incredibly friendly and welcoming. The shows were fun and the disco was a great place to meet people! I really look forward to returning soon!

Beautiful Setting

Absolutely no issues from check-in to check out. The grounds are lush, green and well maintained. The beachfront was swept daily and afforded relaxing long lazy walks through varying terrain. The food was better than we experienced in the DR on three trips so no complaints there. The room neat, clean and well-stocked. I would recommend anyone going consider the excursion to Nicaragua. Peering down into the great Masaya active volcano was beyond words. One off my bucket list for sure. This was ou [... read more]r first stay at a Riu and I would not hesitate for a second booking with them again.

Fabulous Time

This hotel was more than we expected, the grounds were very well manicured, the room was more than expected we were upgraded to a ocean view suite for our 25th anniversary, this was very well appreciated, All the staff at the bars were great especially at the filadelfia bar and sports bar. We booked three excursions with Eric on the beach and were happy with all three, the excursion to Nicaragua was our favourite with a visit to a active volcano and a boat trip around lake Nicaragua islands incl [... read more]uding one that is occupied by three spider monkeys, we also did a excursion to Buenavista adventure park that was also unbelievable , this included canopy bridges, zip lining, water slide , horseback riding, hot springs , mud bath, and waterfall even saw spider monkeys jumping through the trees at the hot springs, all the food was very good on the resort , I did not agree with any of the bad reviews that I have read in this resort, everything is great , I cannot believe that the Palace would be any better than this resort.

Great Resort

The resort was beautiful and well maintained and the food was excellent. As a smoker, I would suggest they maybe provide covered smoking areas for rainy days but other than that, I have absolutely no complaints.

The washrooms needs to be more safe. The bath tubs are very old.

Rooms are clean. There is room for improvement . I wish our wish to keep our group together was taken seriously. I will not recommend this resort to anyone. The reception was not very helpful. The bath tubs are very dangerous.

Lovely, but not 5 star

We stayed at this resort the last week of September. It was lovely and reminiscent of other Riu hotels we’ve stayed at. Everything was very good but I would not have rated this hotel a 5 star, rather it was comparable to the 4 star Rius we’ve stayed at. One morning we forgot to tip our housekeeper (after having left $10 the day before) and we were left with 2 bath towels and nothing else (no hand towels or wash cloths). The next day we tipped $2 and were left with ample towels and extra soa [... read more]p. The restaurants were not all opened each day. Further, they don’t allow you to make early reservations, so when we ate at those restaurants we had lined up for 30-45 minutes at 5:45 to make the reservations that night - a little inconvenient compared to the Occidental where we could make reservations at the hotel lobby desk each day. The beach was interesting as well because there were no huts/umbrellas or bars on the beach and no service available there either, I think because the beach is public and available to non-hotel guests. It was safe enough, even with the vendors who offered their wares. The waters were quite strong, and the area known for rip currents, though could have been just the weather that week. There was no seaweed or rocks on the bottom, so quite nice to walk out into the Pacific. People spoke of monkeys down the beach further who walked up to passersby, but we weren’t lucky enough to have seen any this time. Definitely recommend taking a tour off-resort - we did an ATV tour of the surrounding areas through the jungles, towns and beaches and got to see some cool things we wouldn’t have otherwise seen if we’d stayed on the resort because there isn’t much close that you can walk to. Be sure to pack enough sunscreen and necessities because the shops at the resort were charging insane prices ($USD45 for sunscreen).

Great Vacation

Rui Guancaste is Beautiful and Clean. The workers are very helpful and friendly. The food was amazing at the Buffet, always something to eat. I find that it gets really busy on the weekends due to locals. A few changes need to be made with booking Ala Carte, long line ups, they should do reservation in advance so people don't have to line up from 5 pm.

Amazing Resort

Everything about this resort was great. One of the nicest, cleanest resorts I have ever stayed in. The staff was helpful, friendly and very accommodating. The FOOD was fantastic. There was so many wonderful food options. We ate like Royalty! Everything about our stay was great. I highly recommend this resort.

Riu Guanacaste

we just got back from a 1 week stay at the Riu Guanacaste. Overall it was a very nice trip. The hotel is 5 star, it is likely more a 4 or 4.5 star but were happy with the grounds and accomodation. THe food also was very good we found. IT was hard to get the dinner reservations, you had to line up and it was first come first serve. If you didn't want to line up then it wasn't so great but we were lucky to be able to get into the Italian and Steak restaurant on 2 nights by going a bit later. We [... read more] did have an issue with dinner one night when a waiter in the buffet complained about my daughter's tank top with spaghetti straps which was frustrating since I had told her she looks fine and we see many men eating in the buffet with ball caps and tank tops where you see hairy arm pits (Not appetizing). I think it's strange to for that to be acceptable and for my daughter's nice tank top to not be. Anyhow that was a bit frustrating but I complained to front desk just to make a point about the men. The pool was big and warm but got very crowded especially around the bar but you can always find a chair a bit further back from the pool. We got day trips booking through sunwing that were nice. We went to a plantation and rain forest one day, and a nice sunset snorkel trip on another day. We also booked a driver and went around to several different beaches one day. That was a highlight since the beach at the hotel is nice but there are nicer beaches - Flamingo and Conchal about an hour away. We visited Tamarindo and if we go back would like to stay there. On this resort you have everything you need but not really close to anything. You can take a taxi to El Coco but it's expensive getting taxis. Overall a great trip and would recommend. thanks,

Great resort

great place, only 2 down falls. no smoking anywhere, you should be able to smoke outside. and 2nd to many locals on the beach asking to buy stuff, 20 times a day have to say no thank you. still had a great time

Beautiful views!

The hotel grounds were absolutely stunning with views of the mountains and tropical rain forest. We saw spider monkeys on a trail near the resort and enjoyed the calm waters by the beach. The food was amazing and there was a lot of variety of fruits and veggies. The kids loved the pastries, hot dogs and pizza. What was really nice was the flexibility to go to the more formal dinner restaurants as often as we wanted! No a la carte limits! Our only complaint would be that you could not control [... read more] the lighting by your room door. The entrance to your room, usually two rooms across from each other was down a small hallway but there was no window or lighting during the day. It was very dark and we could hardly see to put our door key in. It made me a bit uncomfortable. Honestly, that was the only thing I could criticize about the trip! Amazing sights, beautiful surroundings and great food. Staff were so helpful and Sunwing staff were so great. Other than that, a great trip!

Great resort!

This resort was very clean, friendly, helpful and safe! I would definitely recommend it! It was very family oriented with lots to do! Delicious food and amazing people! We definitely enjoyed our stay.

Beautiful resort!

We recently visited the Riu Guanacaste and had an amazing time! No complaints at all! The grounds were beautiful, food was great and the room was perfect! One of our favorite things were the monkeys that were just a short walk off the beach. They were usually there around 7 am and 5 pm every day. These little guys were so sweet and playful! We would definitely return.