Riu Palace Punta Cana

The good things Spacious room with settee, large bed, wardrobe with plenty of hangers, drawer space, balcony overlooking the main courtyard with 2 chairs and small table, adequate shower. Prompt services when requested through the hotel app [a really useful thing to install whilst you are there - recommended] Great double glazing kept outside noise to a minimum. Excellent food considering the volume of people, with plenty of choice. Only went to Steak restaurant as we found everything we needed in the buffet and could choose the food and quantity we wanted. Easy access to the beach with lots of sun loungers available at all times. Pool areas were kept acceptably clean (a few additional collections of used plates and glasses would be good}. again lots of sun loungers to be had at most times of day. Excellent drinks at the Daquiri Bar Animation Team did a pretty good job of getting people involved in activities but were never pushy. Beautiful grounds, well maintained and clean The not so good things Low water pressure so no flushing anything down toilet and shower mediocre Room Service was a touch haphazard at times, had to hunt out towels or floor mats a couple of times. That being said the cleaning staff were all lovely and helped if they could. Lifts - too few and unreliable Metal pool loungers got too hot in the sun, and I mean really, really hot, unable to touch hot! plastic ones similar to those on the beach would be so much better. General On the whole the staff were friendly and attentive, unfortunately there were a few that let the team down, particularly the towel booth staff, who were surly and miserable. They tried hard with the evening entertainment but it was very samey and unless you got there really early you had no chance of being close enough to the stage to see anything properly

We stayed at the Riu in March we were with 3 other families and we were very excited to spend a week in the sun after spending almost $10 000 for all of us to go we were expecting a great trip. It started out rocky I had already checked into my room that I requested being a king and pull out they put us in a two double bed room. I went to request a room change which they did but didn't offer to have my bags moved or even help. My husband was with my kids at the pool so I made 2 trips trying to get all my things into the new room on the other end of the resort. The trip was good on day 5 my husband noticed a cockroach in our room he killed it and we hopped that it was just the one maybe when the door opened and closed we made sure all out luggage was up in the closest as we did not want to take them home if there were more. 2 nights before we were suppose to leave we woke up to sounds in our room, we turned on the lights and found another 4 that we knew of and killed them at this point I was freaking out we hardly slept the next day was our final full day of being on the resort so I spent time with my family once we we going back up to clean up for dinner I stopped in and spoke to management. I explained what had happened showed pictures of the one we had found and asked for monetary compensation. She gave me an email to contact when I got back home and offered to change my room for the night. I was leaving the next morning I did not want to spend hours packing and moving to unpack and repack again. Everything else she offered did not work as it was out last night I could not use the spa and I asked if my kids could have some souvenirs from the store but she said she couldn't do that. They sent a maid up to the room with a raid can and called it "fumigation" she sprayed around where we pointed and left. The next morning after a sleepless night my daughter woke up to a huge dead one right by her bed. We packed up and left as fast as we could, I got home had to leave everything in my garage taking apart my luggage scared that I would be bringing them into my house, defiantly did not want all that extra work after being away for a relaxing week. When I got home and contacted RIU as the manager told me to they said that because I had booked through Sunwing I would need to get a hold of them, sunwing then went back to Riu who said they "dealt" with it and wasn't going to reimburse me anything. As a good will gesture sunwing offered me 2 $75 vouchers towards my next trip with them. after asking them for $1400 as a refund for all these nasty cockroaches.

This resort was great. Buffet Was Really Good for a RIU Resort. Great vibes and landscaping is beautiful. Just needs a remodel because it is a little outdated. But overall a great experience.

This resort has both good and bad. When I walked into the lobby I felt like I was entering a very updated, nice resort. However my room was not updated and left a lot to be desired. While it was clean, it had a musty smell to it. Nothing seemed updated in many years. I would rate the workers 10+. They were so kind and so helpful and they made my stay very enjoyable. Where this resort fell really short was in entertainment. It was definitely subpar. They had the same vocalist for multiple nights and they played Kahoo every night. There was really nothing that I enjoyed about the entertainment and when you are on a resort where you do not go outside the gates, this needs to be improved.

Just returned from the palace Punta Cana and overall we had a lovely holiday All the staff are very friendly although we did find they were more attentive to the Americans tourists who are much more accustomed to the whole tipping culture than us brits .. we did tip but not every 5 mins we always tipped the pool bar staff or went to the bar ourselves and tipped the bar staff every other drink Our room was clean and tidy and didn’t smell like others have reported it’s a very hot and humid country the cleaning staff came in every day and it was always fine Entertainment was sometimes ok and sometimes dire but you’re on your holidays go with it have another drink lol.. we didn’t attend the parties it’s a great idea to have them at a separate venue so family’s and us older couples can stay in hotel and still have a lovely night with a singer or entertainment…the parties looked great fun and we talked to lots of people who went it just wasn’t for us Food was all inclusive so good days and bad days it’s always a bit canteen noisy so the added restaurants are great … these should be bookable though as you found you had to be there at 7 to get in then they sent you away for 30 mins to come back it would have been great to go back to RIU booking in system so you could book at 8pm and enjoy you day without hurrying out to get a space in the restaurant you wanted ..food in all was fine steak house and Italian the best .. Japanese was ok but one night they had a big party in and I got served food that didn’t have the sauce on and noodles were raw while my partner had the same main and it was fine .. very odd Lots of sun loungers no need to reserve generally we wandered down and always got the same spot and had sun all day One thing that was a bit odd is there’s no bar in the night time entertainment so they have bar staff wandering round taking your order which works well most of the time but you are constantly trying to catch their eye or relying on staff remember you a couple of times we never got the drink we ordered … daisy was great after she spotting you she was there . A couple of nights they had a pop up bar but only 1 staff who looked harassed all the other RIU places we’ve been they’ve had a bar and you miss that interaction and the fact you can just go and get a drink without waiting You can use the Bambu during the day and we did go for lunch one day but food wasn’t as nice as palace and it was much busier Yes there’s days with seaweed but that’s not the hotel that’s environmental we had two days but they do try and clear it and work hard Overall it’s 25 years since we were last in the Dominican and we loved it