RIU Palace Punta Cana All Inclusive

Overall my experience was positive. I love the hotel setup and the grounds were beautiful. Service was good and I never had to wait extensively for anything. The wifi in the lobby was fine but it would be great if there was internet access in the rooms. The food was pretty good. I felt it was better in the buffet restaurant than the other restaurants.

It was probably the worst vacation I have ever had. That wasn't entirely the hotel's fault. One hopes for nice weather on a tropical vacation, and we didn't have that. However, let me talk about the hotel. The building itself is beautiful and the beach was stunning! I would describe it as a one or two star hotel that happened to be located in a five star building. Right off the bat when we get to our room, our safe if broken and our lamps all had burnt out light bulbs. The bed was like sleeping on a rock. At one point I tried to order room service, and we found that our phone was broken too. I went down to the lobby, and instead of trying to fix anything they simply dialed room service, shoved the phone in my face, and walked away. On our second night there, the power went off around 4 am. It appeared to be only our room. The air conditioning and everything were off. We asked for a new room, but weren't even able to move all of our stuff until the next day because we couldn't see our stuff. The food was embarrassingly bad!!!! The worst part was, it actually looked and smelled fine. Please understand that I'm not just being picky. The 24 snack bad is merely a fridge full of the most pathetic sandwiches you have ever seen, disgusting hamburgers floating in grease, and a big container of nacho cheese that you had to scoop onto your chips with a fork and then heat in the microwave. Picture the nachos that you might see at a movie theater, nothing but processed cheese and chips. Those terrible nachos were literally one of the best things that I had to eat over a period of five days. The service overall was mediocre. I joked with some other customers that they are clearly not trying for repeat visits. I also spoke to a woman on my plane when leaving who told me she once had a similar bad experience at the Riu in Cabo. She was barely able to get her kids to eat anything. I will say, that had we had nice weather the trip would have been better. Our snorkeling trip was canceled, and it stormed the whole time. If we had been there for nicer weather, all of the bad things about the hotel wouldn't have been as big of an issue given the beauty of the beach. If you really want to go to this area because you are traveling on a budget, know this. All of the Riu resorts in Punta Cana face the same gorgeous beach. There is no need to pay for one of the nicer Rius. Given the food was so terrible at our resort, it would be hard to imagine that the food at any of the lesser resorts could be much worse. I won't be going again.

Riu is a good hotel, well maintained. Rooms are big enough, but beds are very hard, but wide. Staff cames to clean, or refil your drinks when they want, without knocking. One comes with towels, then the cleaner, then the maid who folds beds....people just come in. Restaurants are not so good. Pleanty of food, but not really good. The food is beautifully arranged, but not tastey. Entertainment is very cheese and amature. Every show has hints which aren't done tastfully, without any consideration that there are children around. One week is a bit too long for a such a resort.

Wonderful time spend in relaxed atmosphere! Staff unbelievable happy, helpful and trying their hardest to make your stay a pleasant one. Property is just drop dead gorgeous, very well maintained It REALLY is a palace, you feel like being home. Beach is amazing. Entertainment was creative and very sweet! Special dinner reservations were hard to book. Some of the restaurants had overcooked food but by the amount of people they covered, it is still amazing what they pulled off! Drinks were fantastic, not watered down! Overall incredible fantastic time! We left with the feeling, we love the Dominicans!

My sister and I stayed at the RIU Palace Punta Cana for a total of 4 days, 5 nights. In retrospect, I wish I would have stayed longer. The hotel was really beautiful. The hotel staff was incredibly friendly and helpful. The rooms were always cleaned by the time we went to get ready for dinner, as we would leave the do not disturb sign up while we got ready to go to the pool for the day, and the housekeeping staff would typically be cleaning nearby rooms at that time. When we left for the pool we would just switch the sign for one that said to please tidy the room and it was always cleaned by 4/5 (when we returned from the beach/pool). We realized that the best way to make reservations for the restaurants was to do it early in the morning and for a day in advance. Not ideal, but it worked just fine because we actually really enjoyed Don Manuel, where you did not need a reservation. We tried both the Japanese and gourmet restaurants. Both were great, however, we both agreed that the gourmet one was better. My suggestions for this trip would be: 1. Make reservations early in the morning because if you wait until 11, the restaurants will most likely be booked for that evening. 2. If you prefer to lay out by the pool (which we did), try to get there early for the good spots. We did not lay on the beach because it tended to be windy, and because the pool is right next to the beach it just seemed like a good central location to send the day. The pool staff is very good about taking drink orders and regular intervals as well. Finally, my only complaint, which my sister experienced, was when she went to go get a manicure and pedicure. The cost of both was $60, which is not terrible, but for what she got, it certainly was too much. The nail polish on both the manicure and pedicure way applied unevenly and her manicure chipped later that evening. The next day, it was essentially gone. All in all, this was an amazing trip to a wonderful place with wonderful people. I really enjoyed myself and found it very relaxing.

This was our second year that we came to the Riu Palace for our family vacation. The fact that we went for the second time speaks for itself. Once again, the service was excellent and everyone tried to make our vacation as smooth as possible. If you are looking for an absolutely relaxing, Carribean vacation in a place that is on the most picturesque beach in the Carribean at an outstanding value I could not think of a better place

We stayed here for our honeymoon and really liked it. The beach was amazing at the hotel. We walked down the beach to see all the other resorts beaches and were not impressed. All the other resorts had really small, shaded beaches. However, at the RIU Punta Cana the beach area was huge in comparison to all the others, and there was plenty of areas to lay in the sun without being shaded by a bunch of trees. The food overall was also very good and we had the best waiter (Wanny) every night we went down for dinner. At the check-in desk there was a variety of different people. Some of them were really helpful and nice others were rude. Overall, the hotel was amazing though and I would most definitely stay here again.

Excellent service from the staff. Room smelled musty but I guess that's part of the package when you are in a humid and hot country. Cappuccinos and Orange Caribe were the best.

I'll start by saying this place was pretty inexpensive. The staff was incredibly helpful. Everyone spoke enough English to get by, most were proficient, and all of the main employees like the people working the front desk, the bus drivers, etc... were fluent. The food was mediocre at the buffet. It was the same food every single day, and although a lot of it like the desserts looked amazing, they were tasteless. All the cereal was stale, the fish was tasty, but overall I was not impressed with the food. I am a 20 year old and even I got sick of the food by the end of the 5 days. Breakfast diner quality, lunch was just enough to keep me content, but dinner (Granted you wake up before 10 AM) and made a reservation was pretty tasty! Their premier restaurants require a reservation, but they fill up fast or you will be back at the buffet. The pools were good, the beach was awesome. The hot tub was warm not hot though. Also people try to sell you things left and right. The only thing I found that worked was to get on the defensive and get a bit of an attitude to get them to knock it off. They are very assertive! IMPORTANT TO NOTE! I chose this place because I wanted to snorkel so bad!!!! The water activities like snorkeling and scuba diving ARE NOT included. Scuba diving is about 200$ per person (Not too bad) but snorkeling is 85 bucks per person. That was upsetting because I chose this resort because I love to snorkel, and the water was great. All in all, the hotel was great, vendors, and water activity guys could have been better. For the money, you can't beat this place. I had a great time and would totally go again. P.S. throw the bartenders 1$ every time you get a drink, everyone works their butts off and your drinks will get better and stronger.

We had a wondeful time. I will definitely go again!