Riu Palace Punta Cana

This is the third year we have come to Punta Cana and stayed at a Riu. The beach is beautiful! The cleaning staff is great! Everything is neat and clean. We love the service at Riu Palace Punta Cana! We especially love Sandy at the buffet (La Isabela)! He has a very welcoming smile! We have come back to find him each year!!! Sandy is friendly and kind...we really enjoy talking with him! My son, Titus, wanted to come see Sandy for his birthday! He wants to put him in his suitcase and take him back home. 😀

I paid an extra $100 to get a "hotel credit" under a limited promotion. The credit ended up being a bunch of 10% off coupons. The check-desk and their manager wouldn't do anything including refund of the $100 or trading it in for a massage. I booked through Expedia and they verified "hotel credit" was not defined anywhere as coupons and Expedia called the hotel for me. They still refused to do anything! This is clearly false advertisement and a scam. Customer service in the hotel overall was lacking, which isn't common in the DR. I was yelled at several times by the staff for issues that was their fault. There was a hand pump for the ketchup that I was pumping a lot since it was almost out. I was yelled to stop because it was out. So I asked if he was getting more and he said no. I was also yelled at using my fingers to grab leaf lettuce for my burger because there was no tongs. When I told the guy why I did it, he came over and literally through the tongs in the lettuce and walked away. The food at the hotel is just ok. There are some good restaurants in Punta Cana and they don't cost too much. I am not a big drinker, so overall I would have rather stayed at a non-inclusive hotel for cheaper. Location was on the beach with some decent amenities. There is a water park you can spend a couple hours at with things for adults and kids. There is a pool party area, which probably helps the loud drunks stay out of the regular pools. Rooms were decent size and clean.

First time in Dominican Republic, 10th time with Riu! Classic Riu reception area, but you could tell that the soul had been torn out of it during the re-firb! Massive open plan aluminium and smoked glass interior with a compact desk stuck right in the middle of it! Half drunk welcome drinks on the reception counter but no offer of drinks for incoming parties of 4 or under, although these would have been welcome! Efficient check in and room allocation. Given a nice room, with view over the courtyard (complete with well manicured gardens & fountains) looking right to the pools & the ocean beyond. Make sure that you take dollars US rather than pesos. If you take pesos your agent will give you notes with 200 as a minimum. The nice bell-hop brought our cases to the room, and whilst turning down a tip of £1 sterling, was more than happy with the only note I had on me....200pesos or £3.60 to me or you! He was a happy boy! This scenario repeats in the few shops available in resort. All quote prices in US Dollars and if you ask for payment in Pesos they will take you to the nearest 200 pesos (plus or minus £3.60!) As the hotel is all inclusive, the majority of cash you take will be for tips. If, as we do, you choose to tip on a regular basis, a one dollar tip seems to be the norm. We used reception to change our higher value pesos for 50s which have a exchange rate of around 90 pence or 1 US dollar. Sorted! The layout of the hotel was based around two huge wings that ran at 90degrees to the reception block, bar & restaurants . The two wings were separated by a 'courtyard' are with three 'ponds' complete with fountains and surrounded by well kept gardens. The wings themselves contain the bedrooms accessed from balconies either side of a 'light well' with tropical plants and full height coconut palms (bit like Strangeways on a good day!) The layout of the hotel (as with most Riu hotels) means that your holiday will incorporate a modicum of daily exercise by way of longish walks from your room to base camp in the reception block which contains all the restaurants, "entertainment" areas and the like. There are two lifts adjacent to reception, one lift half way down & one at the end of each wing. The rooms are all decent sized junior suites with separate lounge area giving access from the bedroom area to a balcony with glazed balustrading. One word of warning! There is a step down from the bedroom into the lounge area and the brown wood effect flooring is carried over the step from the main floor. Until you get used to this, it is easy to forget that it is there especially late in the evening when you make your way (glass in hand) for one last brandy on the Balcony! You may want to consider a contrast strip at the step edge, Riu, before the "compo" claims start flooding in? Similarly, how many guests have walked through the mesh on your sliding fly screen doors? Early days yet, after your re-firb? Plenty of wardrobe & drawer space and nice to see that Riu have at least retained the original hardwood doors and furniture. Good sized bathroom with large walk-in shower, twin basins & plenty shelf space. The shower has two heads, the main one being the 'rainfall' type. The was cleaned thoroughly every day and we were left with an abundance of clean towels. The mini-bar man arrived every evening (just as you were getting out of the shower) to re-plennish the stock in the fridge and in the four optics. Terrific service, it must be said! All the restaurants are on the ground floor (pool level) of the main block with reception one floor up. The outside area between the restaurants and into the courtyard is laid out (permanently) with masses of four seat tables giving a viewpoint to two separate stages. We ate at the buffet restaurant for breakfast and dinner as we found the variety and quality of food couldn't be faulted. One big mistake I think Riu have made in their re-firb, is the severe lack of bar-areas adjacent to the restaurants, entertainment area and up in reception. We have stayed at Riu's in Jamaica & Mexico and recall that hotels there had large bar areas in just such locations. Looking at this hotel, I would guess that (where the secondary stage now is) there once stood a magnificent hardwood bar (ala Playacar & Ocho Rios) where you could sit on stools, have a pre-dinner drink and generally meet people! In this current layout there is no bar what so ever on this level but rather you take a seat at one of the tables and give your order to a waiter. The amusing thing is that he or she then scuttles off to what we affectionately came to know as 'the drinks cupboard'. This was a staff only room under the stairs where drinks are prepared. By the time they reached your table, the drinks were often tepid. If you wanted a change from this, you had the option of climbing stairs to the reception area bar. Given the size of the reception area itself, the bar is minute being circular with a separating screen. One half is given over to the sale of coffee and cake with the other half operating as a cocktail bar. Again fight for one of the six bar stools or find yourself a table and wait to be served. I suspect that (prior to re-firb) another bar area existed in the area behind what is now the reception desk? I suspect that the soul has been ripped out of this hotel when it was re-modelled around the main block. There is no atmosphere at all around the restaurant/entertainment area at any time of the day or night The one remaining observation on the subject of facilities in the 'main block' would be the severe lack of public toilet facilities. Serving the whole of the Restaurant/Entertainment level is one male & female toilet area just past the 'drinks cupboard' Serving the whole of Reception level is a male/female toilet area some distance behind the reception counter which means one hell of a walk from the Sports Bar and even the Cocktail Bar. Apart from an early morning dip in the smallest of the three pools, our preference was to use the beach which is accessed directly from the back of the hotel. This is truly a piece of paradise, a beautiful sandy beach with an abundance of loungers and palm trees that allowed you to 'chase the shade' as the temperature rose towards the middle of the day! One big advantage over life by the pool was the constant cooling breeze coming in off the sea. At last the option, down here at least, to choose your drinking preference! By the time you have applied the sun-tan lotion and settled on your lounger, a waiter will appear and take your drinks order! Exercising your right to choose, the Pool Bar is a perfect alternative. A very short walk from your lounger, you can sit at a long bar, on a stool and in the shade and drink a cooling beer whilst chatting to the bar staff and anyone else who chose to share the experience. The back section of this bar gave directly onto the pool and the atmosphere was always lively. This was a super holiday made all the better by attentive, helpful and cheerful staff. The whole hotel exuded quality but, in line with Riu re-furbs around the world, it's lost it's soul! Riu had something special in it's original format but now you could be stopping at anyone of a number of chains with the same rating! Shame Riu, but you have lost the plot!