RIU Palace Riviera Maya All Inclusive

I laid, happily, by the pool. I sipped cocktails, and relaxed. Mission accomplished. I would have liked a few more vegetarian options, considering even the salads had bacon in them. My only gripe was the bedding. For someone who rarely gets sun on their skin, scratchy blankets don't feel good on burnt skin. Softer bedding, and softer mattresses would be a hugh benefit.

The hotel is close to a few tourist attractions and ruins, but you can have a very relaxing time just staying at the hotel. There are multiple water sports available and endless food and drink. My 4 year-old loved the protected beach and daily kids activities. Despite the brochures stating that gratuities are included, the staff definitely expected tips! Maybe that was because we are Americans?

Great service by restaurant/bar staff. Poor service by front-desk staff. Very bad security; any body has complete access to your name and room number at any time. We had a suite with nice furniture and lay-out, but no hot water because the suites are furthest from the water-heaters and often don't get enough hot water. Maintenance mentioned to us that it has been a problem since opening day for the hotel. The floors of the hotel are extremely slick. We were all having trouble staying on our feet. Can be a real hazard. It was an issue every day. Food and food related services are superb.

Great location and very friendly staff. Pool area is nice with music and free-flowing drinks! Beach area is nice too with sun and also shaded areas to lay in. Food was good, but watch your attire. They will ask you to leave and change if you are not suitably attired. Dinner seems to be the time they are most picky about how you are dressed! Be sure to book theme restaurants right at 12 Noon each day. Each seating (2) only takes about 40-50 people so space is limited. If you go to the Lobby bar about 11:45AM you will be one of the first in line. You can only book 2 nights at a time! Rooms are nice, but hallways being all tile do make them noisy if you are trying to sleep. Also, a room facing the courtyard could be noisy as they have music and other entertainment each night in the main courtyard. The beds were a bit too firm for us...AC and ceiling fan in room was just fine to keep us cool enough. Staff was very friendly, but brush up on your Spanish to make sure you can ask questions, etc. Front desk was fluent in English. TV in room has mostly spanish speaking channels, but you do get Miami TV and the others like CNN. We also got TNT which had movies back to back. Remember there is a nice gift shop/sundries shop located underneath the main entrance. You have to go out the front doors and down the driveway (either direction) to get to this shop. It is directly underneath the front doors. They have much more than the small Lobby shop. Starbucks is nearby for those of you who can't survive without it. Travel from airport to resort is slow and painful on Gray Line. We paid $40 US to get a lift from Cancun back to the resort. The Gray Line shuttle is a little cheaper RT, but you will have to stop 3-4 times along the way to pick up and drop off others. That's a pain, as none of the resorts are near the road. Double check to make sure your "departure tax" has been included in your airline ticket. If not - $55 per person at the airport to get out of Mexico. This is a great palce to stay. Clean and well maintained. We will go back!

The hotel is beautifully designed and offers some of the best beach setting which I have seen in my travels. The outdoor bar by tht pool offered gorgeous view of the ocean. However, the staff were too influenced by tips and did not provide the service I had hoped for. The staff at the restauraunts, however, were excellent. Service was incredible when it came to the formal dining. My major complaint was with the room. The air conditioner functioned poorly, plumbing did not always work properly, and lights would shut off periodically. Overall, I would come back again if the price is right. It is not a five star hotel but come pretty close.

Wonderful getaway for our anniversary! We stayed 6 nights and I cannot say anything negative about the hotel. We made reservations at 4 of the restaurants and Krystal was my favorite! Definitely worth making the reservation! We also took the Mayan adventure snorkeling tour and swam around sea turtles and through a cenote. Can't wait to go back!

I met my family at Riu Palace Riviera Maya to investigate as a possible location for my destination wedding. We ended up there during a tropical storm, but didn't let that stop us! I have never stayed at a Riu, but found it similar to other all-inclusives. The restaurants did require reservations, which were all booked by the time we arrived, so we ate at the buffet restaurant for all our meals. Personally I prefer the no-reservation format, but if you know you need to make the reservations 4 days before, starting at noon, it might work. The food in the buffet was excellent and changed each night, but it would have been fun to try some of the other restaurants. The rooms were clean, but our first night we noticed a pretty powerful chlorine or cleanser smell (not a good one) in the corridors on our first floor. We ended up requesting to move to a different floor and were upgraded to a room on the second floor that did not have an odor. We actually walked the hallways to decide where it was coming from and noticed it was pretty much limited to the first floor- maybe because it was above the restaurant? Anyway, after the move we had no other issues. We enjoyed drinks in the bar each night before dinner, with live music that was a nice touch. The restaurant waiters were also supurb with service that became more personal each day. We met with the wedding planners, who is actually at the Riu Palace Mexico and covers several Riu properties. They were quite helpful and it wasn't far between the properties. They said they don't schedule more than one wedding at a given time, so that was reassuring. We were able to tour the Riu Mexico as well, which had a less European feel, was much more Mexican feel. A little smaller property, but actually quite nice and otherwise comparable. The ceremony locations were different: Riu Mexico has a small chapel, beach, or gazebo. Riu Riviera Maya had no chapel, but a nicer beach and a very nice garden gazebo that Riu Mexico didn't have anything similar to. The only drawback for both was that in case of rain the ceremonies are held in the theater, which is not bad, but not great. I also felt there was a little less ability to personalize things then at other places. We didn't get to swim because of the rain, but the pool was amazing! We did rent a car and drive to Tulum, the location of Riu Riviera Maya was halfway between Tulum and the Airport in Cancun, so convenient. We also were able to walk around Playa del Carmen, which was a five dollar taxi ride from the hotel. Overall a great trip! I will likely have my wedding at an adults-only resort (which Riu is not), but would be quite happy to get married in the garden gazebo or on the beach at the Riu Riviera Maya, though the character of the Riu Mexico was more personal. We managed to have a fun and relaxing time despite the weather. Proximity to Playa del Carmen was great!

Geat place.

grand hotel very nice very luxurious. Room was quite sexy and modern great condition, bed a bit uncomfortable, but great beach, service was attentive, food was pretty good and at times incredible.

This was our first all-inclusive resort experience, and it was fantastic. Our normal vacation is spent traipsing through some foreign city, figuring out bus schedules, medium-to-low-end accommodations, and DIY catering. Those trips are very interesting, but not relaxing.. so at Riviera Maya, we were looking just to relax and get enough warmth to last the rest of the winter.We found the staff to be gracious, the beach warm and welcoming, and the food varied and delicious. At first I thought it would be important to reserve the 'special' restaurants each night, but the normal buffet and service at Don Manolo were great. Try Krystal for artful cuisine and presentation (and better wine than usual) but the others could be missed.We took one day to see Chichen Itza [...]and it was a fine trip.