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Hotel overview
Location
Aruba - BeachProperty information
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Hotel details
Hotel advisories
General policies & fine print
Check-in Policy - Hotel requires a credit/debit card authorization or cash deposit upon check-in for incidentals; this will place a hold on your funds.
Convention Policy - Individuals attending a convention cannot book this property for their stay. If found attending a convention, guests may be subject to higher room rates upon arrival.
Transfer Policy - A price may display when children stay free, if your vacation includes transfer to your hotel.
General Information - Room taxes and service fees are included in vacation price.
Minimum night stay restrictions may apply.
Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
Ratings & reviews
TripAdvisor traveler rating
8183 reviews
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Aug 11, 2022Great Property, Mediocre Food
Staying at all-inclusive resorts is about managing the right types of expectations. You'll rarely get the best of food and drink, but you'll often get decent and even very good. That level of quality, along with atmosphere and service can make the difference. Overall, our stay at the Riu was marked by staying on a fantastic property with a world class beach, an excellent room, a kind and engaging staff and perfect weather every single day. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. There is one annoyance to note and just one disappointment. The annoyance is simply that the current culture of reserving beach palapas as early at 5am is pretty ridiculous. Especially since many of those palapas remained empty until mid-afternoon. This would be easy for Riu to fix by not allowing people to put out their items until 7:30 or after. I hope that they make some kind of chance soon. The disappointment was found in the food. The Breakfast Buffet was excellent every day. There are two buffets available for lunch and they were fine. A sit down option with a light menu would be nice. The dinner options left much to be desired. The Japanese restaurant was adequate. The Steakhouse was quite poor. The dinner buffet changes nightly based on the theme, but the quality of the food isn't very good. For a 7 day trip, I would plan on eating dinner in town at least 3-4 nights, if not all 7. Thankfully, it's only a 5 minute walk down the road. We had a great time but next time we go to Aruba we will most likely explore other options for accommodation and food.
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Aug 10, 20225* Hotel with the best staff
I see some not give it 5* as it’s in need of a refit in rooms and there are some missing tiles in the pool. Now the good bits. The staff work 12hour shifts and 6x days a week and always walking past the beds to bring your drinks and never hover for a tip. They are so efficient. The pool cleaners were hard all day long 12+ hours and always working hard. The Beach is why people come and it’s a world beater with a safety zone and shallow so you can take your children in. There are no lifeguards so it’s on you to be safe but plenty of people in there so I can’t see it being a problem. The Animation team are superb but Hector, Germane, Vanof and the team leader Jessica are just amazing, the energy they bring to get the whole pool motivated day in day out is awesome. They get you up and smiling and to join in games from swimming or walking in water races to bingo to crazy dance-offs etc is much needed as their energy transforms the place. The pool bar is efficient and Rainy & is non-stop bringing your drinks so no need to get up. But if you do look out for Clemence the boss he is so good, keeps it flowing behind there with his smile and laugh and we loved chatting to him many times, a gentleman. The food is 5* and always fresh fruit, fish, salad, different means etc and chicken nuggets, chips,’pasta and fries for kids so no need to leave for food elsewhere. The entertainment in the evening is varied and great fun and the casino is good too, better if you win which I sadly didn’t. The wifi is very good and included in the all-inclusive. The rooms could do with an update but they are clean and fine and very true to the Caribbean. There’s 5+ English channels on tv, one playing movies all day and night which is handy at times. We will be back shortly 100%
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Aug 06, 2022
Beware if food allergy
Beware if food allergy. Only buffet breakfast and lunch so high risk cross contamination. My daughter barely ate anything til evening restaurant dinner. Then had allergic reaction one evening at their restaurant. Waitress doesn’t want to write on ticket even about allergy not understanding cross contamination issue but we insisted and still got sick. Pastry shop again had nuts in it using same tongs too so nothing for my daughter there either. Pool and beach great. But chairs r saved with towel all day. Enjoyed fun vibe and activities at pool.
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Aug 02, 2022
July/Aug 2022 review
An excellent resort in beautiful Aruba! The staff worked really hard to ensure we were taken care of; when there was anything we needed or wasn't right, they fixed it immediately. We have stayed at previous Riu hotels, but this was the first time we were at Riu Palace in Aruba; we had a wonderful family vacation (13 of us) and would highly recommend it. If you have young kids ask for a quiet room as the nighttime entertainment was audible in our room on the 1st floor even with the patio door closed and they usually had something going on until 11:00 pm most nights. All the staff we interacted with were pleasant, cheerful and helpful which is probably the first time I've ever said that about a resort (we have stayed in 6 the Caribbean and have realized that no place is perfect so you just go with the flow where you are at and will you have an amazing time in most situations) Here are a few constructive critiques for the hotel management/tour provider: 1) info for guests - we booked with Sunwing and communication between sunwing and the hotel could have been clearer for guests - ex. we weren't told about an orientation on the bus to the hotel and information on daily activities wasn't posted anywhere that we noticed - there is a Riu app but it did not list daily activities and evening shows. We could have just called the front desk but never bothered to do so; check in was easy and we were given key cards and a wifi code but needed to figure out how to get beach towels; having the clearer instructions would be more helpful for guests 2) a la carte restaurants - this is more a covid issue but there were no hard menus in any of the restaurants and everything needed to be downloaded on an app - having at least 1 hard copy for guests would help when ordering 3) returning to the airport - this is really was on sunwing as our flight was delayed and there was some misinformation regarding this on the bus ride back; having accurate info for guests who are returning home will help with any travel-related anxiety overall we would rate our vacation, hotel and service from staff a 5 out of 5
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Jul 31, 2022
Booked with TUI - Garden View Room
Firstly if you are from the UK and are wondering what a “garden view room” is please see the attached. They are located in the right hand building facing the Hilton. Now if you are on a high floor you will be able to see the sea. But emailed multiple times and still received a low level floor (but luckily I ended up preferring it) If not you will just see the cactus garden. We were located on the second floor and there were 2 bonuses. 1 we had a huge sit out balcony (bigger than any other buildings) and the room was larger than the others. We had an issue within the room and we were offered a junior suite in the left hand building (sea view and balcony) but the room and balcony were smaller which surprised me. The rooms most definitely need an upgrade and TUI list the hotel as 5 star, which is misleading. It is certainly not UK 5 star standard - I would say 3-3.5 star. The hotel staff were lovely and did not have any issues at all with staff. At dinner we met the hotel manager and the PR manager - who regularly checked in with us making sure we did not have any issues which was impressive. Sunloungers - yes you do have to get up at 5am to get a spot. The beach men are paid by hotel guests to reserve chairs. I witnessed this on a daily basis. The loungers are locked up at night and the beach towel room does not open until 9am and yet the first 2 rows all had loungers and towels and yet all of the other chairs were locked (at 5am). I actually asked one of them how much it would cost to reserve one out of curiosity and was told $20 a day. I decided to just get up early. Food - If you are a meat eater there are plenty of options. Loads of meat, fish and shellfish. Since we are both vegetarian and my daughter also does not eat cheese our options were super limited. Breakfast however was incredible but lunch and dinner options for us were really disappointing. Outside of the hotel we were shocked by how expensive food is. A bag of generic crisps were $7 - so going all inclusive is a must. One day we wondered down to Edwardos and got an açai bowl and fresh coconut which was amazing $23 Drinks - I personally do not drink - but we really enjoyed the mocktail slushies and fridge in our room was restocked with coke, sprite water etc on a daily basis. The beach - was simply stunning. Even better than expected. This was the main reason for travelling to Aruba. Overall a good experience. Would I go back? No, but that is more to do with Aruba - It’s a small island so once you have seen it that’s enough (especially for the long trip from the UK). I would try a more tropical island next time.