Riu Caribe is a good choice for vacation in Cancun.The price is reasonable, the service and staff do an excellent job. Rooms are modern and the ocean views are worth the upgrade. The place is always clean and plenty of activities to do during the day. Would return for another week. The only area that needs improvement is the reservations for supper. If you want to eat at one of the restaurants, you must make reservations early in the morning. This can take up to a hour to get through the line. Some days they claim the restaurants are full and you will need to eat the buffet that evening. This needs improvement, since most of the restaurants are not even half full when you walk by in the evening.

My husband and I decided to take a quick vacation to Cancun in November 2012 for 4 days. With this being a quick, last minute trip, we were just interested in relaxing on the beach with a book & a cold drink. The reviews on Riu Caribe were mixed, but having stayed at a Riu in Cabo earlier in the year, I figured we couldn't go wrong.

The location was great, a short ride from the airport (we bought transfers ahead of time), and just down the street from all the shopping and night life you could want. We've never taken the bus in Mexico before, but we will from now on. The bus stop is right outside the property, and for around $2 us dollars per person, they will drop you off anywhere you want to go on the strip. We easily caught the bus at any given time during the day and night.

Checkin was very easy, we were greeted with a tropical drink, and given the map of the property. Our room wasn't ready, but they take your luggage, give you your wrist bands, and you're free to explore the property. We were upgraded to a nice room on one of the top floors right in the middle of the property, with an beautiful view. The room was modernly decorated with a huge balcony and a full mini bar. Our fridge was refilled daily with beer, water and sodas.

The beaches were clean, and we often saw the men out raking anything that had washed up. We were able to get chairs and umbrellas without much of a problem. The only downside is bar service down on the beach isn't that great. Order two at a time or be prepared to go get your own drinks. There are vendors daily on the beach, but leave you alone if you say no. It's a nice walk and easy access along the beach to the other Riu hotels. There were two or three pools with lounge chairs and swim up bars as well.

The food was typical of an all inclusive, the most positive thing being we didn't get sick! We ate at the buffet inside for breakfast, which offers cereal, fruits, cheese, bagels, eggs, pancakes, waffles, bacon etc. For lunch we ate at the buffet outside, which offers hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, salad bar, pasta, nachos & desserts. The hotel offers reservations for dinner. We got reservations at the steak house and the Mexican restaurant. I noticed neither had great reviews, but we were pleasantly surprised. The steak house was great, we were greeted with sangria & I had the kabobs, they were very tender. The Mexican was good, they offer a buffet that you can eat from while waiting for your main meal from the menu. Endless margaritas don't hurt either. All in all the food wasn't fantastic, but we were pleasantly surprised based on all the negative feedback.

We took advantage of the daily spa specials, and had a great hour and a half couples massage. The ladies were very hard working & easy to talk to. We were able to book our appointments the day of our arrival. There were several excursion operators offering tours in the lobby that are more than willing to help you out. I know they have nightly entertainment as well, but we went into town at night so we missed the shows.

We hadn't been to Cancun in over 10 years, instead visiting other Mexican locations. But after this visit, we would definitely go back. It's not the best hotel we've stayed at but well worth the money, a great value, and a good vacation. We'd stay here again!

Sorry this is abit late! Wrote a while ago,but it wouldn't load on Trip Advisor :(

Just returned after spending New Year in Cancun. Once again Riu did not disappoint. Even though this didn’t have the ‘RIU Palace’ status it had been recently refurnished so felt fresh and trendy. We stayed 10 nights and I couldn't fault the service or knock the cleanliness of the hotel or its pools. Thomson rep Carlos was excellent. We were delayed on or return 19hrs and he kept us quickly informed and made it so we had no inconvenience whatsoever, just an extra day in the sun. The Entertainments team were one of the best I’ve experience at the Riu's.

So not to bore you just a few snippets below,

Room - Great rooms, very spacious considering it was only a double, our teenage girls were in the next interconnecting room. We had great views as on the highest floor (9). I was a little worried at first about the glass panel between the bathroom and bedroom, but I assure you, you can not see through it. Beds were so comfy - We asked for a topper and it was like a memory foam bed. AC worked perfect, plenty of storage, safe was good. My only tiny criticism was that on a few nights my shower was freezing (avoid a shower around 6pm)

Pool/Beach- Never have I seen a pool cleaned so much. There were plenty of beds, but unless you get up early (7-8am) you might not get the same one’s each day. We weren't bothered as I like a different outlook each day. The beach was lovely. The sea can range from very choppy to a mill pond. Beds and shade are a plenty. OMG can’t believe that some reviewers have complained that there is seaweed.... It’s the sea what do you expect! And truly it isn’t a lot!

Entertainment - Far too much to comment on, all was very entertaining, the teenagers loved it. If it’s not your thing then bars and clubs a 10min bus/taxi away or 30min brisk walk.

Restaurants/Food- Only tried the Asian, it was ok, but the food in the buffet restaurant I thought was better. The pizza place was fab in the day! Freshly made. If you can’t find anything to eat here then you are just too fussy!

Trips - We did Speedboat/snorkelling - Excellent, but not for the faint hearted. We also did the Thomson Bar Crawl which took you to Senor Frogs, Sweet Club. Mandala and finished off in the VIP part of Coco Bongos. Drinks were included, but you couldn’t really choose anything other than beer or Spirits and mixers. Coco's was amazing!

All in all a great experience, Save your money on going to the Very expensive Riu Peninsula next door, its very new, so the price reflects it, but I'm not sure you get your value for money. We paid £1600pp for 10nights at NY to Caribe, the Peninsula was £1000 pp more! We would defo go back!

Overall, there are better options out there to pick from IMO, however everyone has their own tastes and reasons for liking for disliking a particular resort. I, for one, did not like the RIU Caribe. If value is a main concern, you may find that its worth the $, but I would rather ante up for a better resort. If you like lots of people, and the bustle of being on the Cancun strip, you may find it more accommodating to your tastes. I would prefer something quieter with less people and far better meal options.

Good: Staff was excellent and always very helpful with what they could do.
Entertainment was good, with pool activities daily and evening shows and an occasional band in the lounge area.
Beach was nice, fairly clean as the crews raked up sea weed at morning light, but not very spacious. There was never a problem with finding lounge chairs, but I think that was due to the weather vs overall volume of them. It was windy (East blowing West), which made the breeze very cool early AM and after sunset, so plan for a light jacket or sweatshirt ... you may need it.
With the RIU Caribe being right on the strip, there are local buses running constantly into town and up and down the strip for $1. Beats a taxi anyday IMO, since it gives you a taste of the locals as well. We took the bus into Cancun to Walmart, which was an adventure all by itself. We also ate at a local restaurant in Old Cancun called the La Parrilla, which was very good.
We also walked freely without ever feeling threatened or unsafe. We even walked along the strip at night about 2 miles when we missed our bus stop and did so without any feeling of unease.

OK: Room was very small, bed was uncomfortable and only a full size when a Queen was promised. Mini fridge was nice to have, but stocked every other day, not daily, so we often ran out of our favorite beverage in the room. Bottled water however is provided in the fridge which was a big plus for me. Marble rains throughout the rooms, but they never seemed to appear very clean. Perhaps the age of the hotel is showing itself.
**We asked for a room with a view and got it not knowing what was coming. There are a few smaller rooms located above the elevator level of the 9th floor. We ended up in one of those. It required climbing 3 flights of steep narrow circular stairs (fire hazard) which I wouldn't recommend to most, not to mention the size of the room was barely able to accommodate the furniture nevertheless our bags.**
While the pool was nice, it never appeared to me to be clean with sand often seen on the bottom and debris, etc floating about. Also worth noting, it is NOT heated and on cooler or cloudy days, is often empty due to the temp being just too cold to enjoy. The only days we enjoyed the pool was when it was sunny with temps above 85. There is also a quieter pool to the south end of the resort, by the Pizzeria bar. What you won't find is the jacuzzi unless you search for it. It's by the outside stairs to the Spa.

Bad: Too big ... this hotel has 1000 rooms. This equates to a lot of people fighting for the same space at the same time. I'm used to staying at AI resorts in the 300-450 range and I found this RIU location too crowed for my tastes.
The food was just short of bad, with exception to the fresh fruits and breakfast was decent considering its hard to mess that up. For those that are accustomed to AI buffet type meals, I. E. Old Country Buffet, Golden Coral etc, you may find it serves your needs. For me however, after about the 3rd day, I was ready to go elsewhere because of the food alone. Is it disgusting? No, but you will likely find that each day resonates the same as before with minor twists in the selections. After a while, everything started to smell of sauteed peppers & onions, fish and mango, regardless of what you ate. The desserts were not worth the taste test and I tried everything hoping for the best. They all lack the sweetness we are accustomed to here in the states and I'm not a huge sugar fan at all. In the end, the ice cream was the only dessert that tasted "normal". We reserved a dinner at the Steak House one evening and found that to be superior to what we had at the buffet. Just be sure to book a day or two in advance or you will find them to fill up quickly.
When arriving at the hotel, if your room is not ready, you will be required to wait. We waited 4 hours for a room, which means leaving all our bags unattended by the front desk. Not something I felt overly comfortable about, but they sat there with around 20 others that were in the same boat. Most changed in the bathroom and headed outside to the pool while waiting.
Wi-Fi ... yeah, I know, this is vacation .. but, 90 minutes is not much and it all has to be used in a continuous session. You can buy Wi-Fi for the week for $50, but I never had a strong enough signal in my room to surf anyway, so it would have been wasted money. Best time to surf is early morning when there are few using Wi-Fi.

Finally .... would I return? No, absolutely not. While the staff was wonderful and did their best, I believe the resort comes up short and far better options are all over.