8 girls traveled to Riu Paradise Island for a friend's Bachelorette party, to celebrate and have girls bonding time. We arrived at the Riu Paradise Island on Thursday and had a smooth and seamless check in. We were all located on the third floor, and our room ended up having a not-so-great view (although they told us it was ocean view, we were viewing the tops of buildings with boilers, a/c units and vents, with a sliver of ocean). At the front desk, they were quick and easy to migrate us to a room with a better view, which we ended up being quite content with, while the rest of the girls were quite pleased with their rooms from the get-go.

The location of the Riu is AWESOME to say the least! The water is gorgeous and crystal clear. We were located literally right next door to gorgeous Atlantis, where we ended up spending a bulk of our time. The bulk of activities on Paradise Island centers around Atlantis -the Casino, the swanky Nobu bar, amazing restaurants, incredible shopping -with shops such as Versace and other high end stores, the absolutely gorgeous Aquariums (worth seeing!), the marina with shopping district and bars, and Aura Nightclub which we visited twice during our 4 days there. The music was great and although it's more tourist-oriented (you will still find some locals there), we were primarily there for the music and to have fun. We loved it! All of Atlantis was very reminiscent of Las Vegas and we just loved the extravagant feel of the hotel.

We were also very close to the exclusive One and Only Ocean Club (where scenes of Casino Royale were filmed), and we were fortunate enough to be able to take a tour around the property and have a cocktail in the beautiful bar.

All in all, it was a very relaxing vacation with gorgeous beaches, and beautiful weather. Although June is traditionally rainy season, it would rain once a day, for about an hour or so. We did have overcast moments (with bursts of lasting sunshine throughout the day), we were still able to come home with amazing tans.

The Riu does have a very warm, welcoming and relaxing feel, without any pretension. The wait staff were all awesome, and always kept us smiling and entertained. The breakfast buffet was amazing and we found ourselves to never be disappointed with the food.

Words of advice: I've stayed at several Riu's now and I would recommend bringing your own shower gel and shampoo/conditioner. They do provide you with some, but they are not good quality and come in small packets that you need to tear open (I have medium-long hair and found myself needing to use at least 2 which still wasn't necessarily enough). They do not lather very well and they do not provide you with conditioner. I've always traveled with shampoo/conditioner and shower gel, but just thought I would throw this out there for those unsuspecting folk!

The resort does need updating as the lobby and rooms are a bit dated, however they are going through reno's and will be launching towards the end of the year. We had a sneak peak at the new rooms, and they are truly lovely, bringing this resort more up to current Riu standards. However, you simply cannot go wrong with the amazing location, making this resort great value for your money.

okay, hotel needs a major overhaul. Beds and pillows are hard as rocks, room is clean but needs upgrading, mini bar is non existant without money on top of it. Service at front desk is good but bar service is terrible. Only two bars and pool one closes at 5:00 pm, no beach bar. If you don't bring your one dollar bills expect to get overlooked and maybe if you are really lucky you will get completely ignored as punishment for not giving a tip! Drugs were sold right on the steps to the beach in front of my teenagers....NICE! Beach was beautiful but bring your own chair and sun shade unless you want to be suckered into paying for free chairs by the locals. Restaurants were very good, no bottled water as you can drink the tap water. Line up to book specialty restaurants is insane and a complete waste of vacation time. Why not book at front desk anytime???? Paradise Island is beautiful and if you expect to have to tip you won't be disappointed. I am sure when they renovate the RIU it will cost more to stay there. Tours are expensive and going into town is much more interesting. If the hotel chain puts a little effort into cleaning up their service (without expecting tip) and a makeover to the rooms it will be a nice resort.

We went to the Riu from June 22-June 28th and just got back yesterday. We already wish we were back. If you go there and are looking for a limo transfer from the airport, I HIGHLY recommend Rich and Famous Limo. You can find their number by doing a search. The total cost of the limo was $240 round trip for 6 people. The limo was a stretch and had all the bells and whistles. OUr driver, Tony, could not have been nicer. He was ready for us with sign in hand when we arrived and took all of our bags right away. He even allowed us to stop for beer and liquor on the way. If you book with them, ask for Tony as your driver. WHen we pulled up to the hotel there was a bellman right away to take our bags. We checked in in less than 10 minutes and were on our way to change and get to the pool. As everyone says, the rooms are dated, but they were cleaned everyday. If you want a palace, stay at the Atlantis. I only needed the room to sleep and change. We were in room 1428 and it overlooked the beach and the AC ducts. But who cares, we had a view of the ocean and it was great. The pool was cleaned everyday and cholrinated at night and if were there by 10am, you'd have no problem finding a chair. We did every day for 14 people. The water in the pool was clear and pretty warm. We all stayed at the pool and would go to the ocean every hour or so. THe beach is fantastic. White sand and not a rock or shell to step on could be found. Even in the ocean you would have a hard time stepping on anything other than sand. It was also very warm. WIth stacks of them, you won;t be without a beach chair. They had plenty. Breakfast everyday is buffet and was decent and filling. Lunch was great. Plenty of variety everyday and if you didnt want to be bothered by the birds, you could eat inside. If you ate on the patio you have to watch your plate. The sea gulls will take your pizza. : ) We ate twice at Sir Alexanders and twice at the steakhouse. Both were good, but Sir ALexanders is by far the best. As far as snacks at night, there was plenty. Up until we left for bed, there was always pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, fired, etc. and it was always fresh. The bartenders aren;t the friendliest, but were always attentive and would make your drink as strong as you wanted. Here's a tip. Bring your own mug. They ll be glad to fill it. Our friend brought a 100 ounce monster of a mug and each day they would laugh at it and fill it with what ever she wanted. It usually took a full bottle of booze but they filled it. We visited the Atlantis and could not wait to get back to RIU. The crowds at Atlantis are unbearable. We arent picky when it comes to hotels but the RIU had what it needed to have: good filling food, plenty of drinks, and it was clean. THey were always cleaning. In fact friday night after a huge wind and rain storm, the roof started to leak in the lobby. On saturday, a section of the roof drywall fell in. WIthin, 1 minute the area was secured and after 20 minutes the crew was there and the roof was fixed. They really do a great job keeping the place up, even though it is going to be remodeled. We got married there friday on the beach and plan on going back..

My husband and I chickened out of our intended destination, Iberostar Riviera Maya, Mexico after the Swine Flu outbreak and were rerouted to the RIU Paradise Island by our travel agent who really did her best to get us anywhere but Mexico at the last minute. She strongly urged us to reconsider, but we have an 18-month old and felt we would be really bad parents to make her go to Mexico so Bahamas it was! (We shoulda went to Mexico but whutevah.)

I never stayed at a RIU before, but they seemed to get good reviews at their various locations. We arrived at the resort around 2pm. The check-in staff were not particularly friendly The lobby was decorated in lots of rich colored cherry wood and very pretty furniture with a small circular bar tucked in the back corner. This was THE only indoor bar and the service was very poor. There was usually one bartender there, sometimes two, and another person who seemed to be very involved with the equipment, but was not available to make drinks.
It didn't take very long to realize that we shouldn't have taken our toddler to a resort with us without any grandparents fawning over her, so I made frequent trips to the bar while my husband handled her fits in our room. (Don't think she fancied the place either.) Tipping didn't get me anywhere so I just quit tipping for drinks. I noticed nobody else was either.
During my many long waits at the bar that week I noticed a lot of people storming off in a huff because they were tired of waiting forever to get a little rinky dink plastic cup with a baby shot of booze in it. There was another bar at the tiny pool (just one!), staffed with at least 5 energetic, friendly bartenders and they were great. The problem is it rains every day in the Bahamas so sometimes you have no choice but to use the indoor bar. In this instance, I highly recommend ordering double or triple what you need so you don't have to come back and wait.
It took forever to hop on one of the three elevators available to get to the rooms. Once you get on the room floor is where the disappointment really sets in. This place was so outdated and shabby, I could not believe it. Our room was pathetic. There were stains in our bathtub similar in nature to stains you would find on the bottom of a toilet, but it was just OLD. The fixtures were worn out and the bathroom paint was peeling and cracking. Our bed was concave with wear, our sheets had a few stains on them and our carpeting was worn and faded. (They photograph really well in the pictures.) I was disgusted, but after talking with other guests, I learned that ALL the rooms are like that and that that was a major complaint so we were screwed. No room for negotiation. There were no upgrades. We tried to just suck it up, but it bothered me that we were paying a lot of money for a room that couldn't hold a candle to a Budget Inn on a bad day.
On to the food..... It was really good! You just need to get there when the buffet opens and the food is plenty and not picked over. We tried all the restaurants and they were great. We chose to leave the gourmet restaurant because our kid got bored after five minutes of being seated and threw a fit and we didn't want to disturb anyone. The staff was very sweet and packed up our five course meal so we could enjoy it in our room later.
Breakfast selections were awesome (DONUTS!) and every night the buffet has a new theme (Mexican night, Mediterranean night etc.) and we enjoyed that very much. If you eat lunch outside on the patio, watch out for the white birds. They work in twos to steal your food. If you get up to shoe one bird away, the other ones comes from behind and WILL snatch that food right off your plate in front of you before you even knew what happened. (They were a lot more aggressive than Mexican or Dominican birds.)

One major issue I had is that there is nowhere to go when it rains. I verified with the locals that it rains every day there, sometimes for ten minutes, sometimes for hours You are stuck in your room, and when it rains it's hard to get your satellite signal. This is fine if you are a honeymooner, but if you have kids they can get restless if you don't have something to keep them entertained. There is a little hallway off to the right of the check in desk with a tiny gym, a gift shop, liquor shop and "spa". I did get a pedicure and a massage. The pedicure stations were leaking all over the place and the techs were waiting for maintenance to fix them. These services were okay, but not worth the price.

The beach was beautiful, but I was annoyed by all the local vendors trying to braid my hair or sell jewelry. I got suckered into buying a cocktail in a coconut shell, but just know they are $10 a piece when you can mosey on back to the pool bar for the same thing for free!
I did notice this resort seemed to attract a lot of young spring breaker types that are excited about drinking their first cocktail. There were a lot of activities planned at night and it sounded like a lot of fun was had. Unfortunately, we were staying next to some lively frat boys who trashed our hallway by dumping ashtray pedestal stands over and our romantic walk on the beach at night turned into don't step on the plates and forks that were tossed about the sand.
The best part of this hotel is that it is literally next store to the Atlantis resort so for $35 a person you can get a grounds pass and check out what you're missing!
We were informed that RIU will be closed for two months for renovations in October '09 (they need two years) so if you can get a great deal and don't mind shabby rooms and poor bartending service, you might not mind staying here because the food is excellent. But if you're looking to spend your hard earned money on a nice place, I would not recommend it.