First time to Aruba and very impressed with this "Happy Island". The Rui Palace Aruba was fantastic. The staff at all levels are simply amazing people and work very hard to give you a great experience-we saw some "guest" be real jerks, which was so out of line I was tempted to intervene. We had a wonderful room with a partial ocean view on the 10th floor, which was more than enough given the size of the balcony. The Rui Palace Aruba was superior to the adult only Antilles, as recommended by our agent. There's also construction next door to the Antilles. Our room had a huge bathroom and a daily stocked in-room bar. The housekeeping staff were efficient and just delightful. Breakfast and lunch buffet were incredible. We went to the same next door at the Rui Palace Antilles (adult only) on a recommendation, and weren't that impressed. Best lunch is at the Nautilus restaurant. Had dinner at all specialty restaurants. Best Evening meals were at Fusion and Nautilus. Make sure you get in line at 6 pm for the 6:30 pm seating. Guys won't be let in if you're wearing shorts, a shirt without a collar, and flip flops. If you want a hut on the beach, get there by 6 am. People will take your spot if you're not around, and some with even go as far as to try and tip the beach staff to look the other way. Same with reserving a spot by the pool. Great swim up bar (they go thru 60-70 bottles of booze/ day). Highly recommend the Aruba Aribe, BBC, and Coco Loco. The sports bar is open 24/7. Great place for an espresso before 7 am and they also have nachos, popcorn, tuna, and ham/cheese sandwiches for the late night munchies. Ocean and pool are wonderful-take time to enjoy both. Make sure you play along with the water aerobics classes and morning stretch classes. If you're a runner, get out by 5 am and you'll have plenty of people to run with if you head south to the bike path.…
Not sure why people are reviewing Riu Antilles on the Riu Palace page? Just returned from an 8 day/7 nights stay. We had our 18 and 16 year olds along. We were checked in by the amazing Dwight. He was so efficient and got the vacation started with his great personality! We had two connecting Junior suites in the main building on floor 8. Our room was cleaned everyday by the wonderful Deanna, couldn’t have asked for better! The mini bar was stocked daily. I celebrated a birthday while there and received balloons, a bottle of champagne and a small cake when we returned from the beach. Customer service AMAZING. We enjoyed the buffet for breakfast and lunch, hopefully now that Covid restrictions are relaxing they can start some kind of poolside barbecue for some variety. We tried the Steakhouse and the lobster and steak with a grilled chicken Caesar salad was delicious. Most nights we walked off resort, across the street to the fun restaurant and shopping area for dinner. Not because we didn’t want to eat at Riu, but just because we enjoy the Islands vibe. Do not miss the flaming cheese wheel at Gianni’s! The main pool was so fun, the activities crew engaged everyone and tried so hard. The bar at the pool was great too. BUT we were there for the beach, and it did not disappoint. The water was calm and we spent hours in it. I brought a blow up tube from home and the guys at the water activity hit blew it up for me. They also had some rafts at that hut you could check out for the day if you didn’t have your own. We bought our own snorkel gear and went to the left of the Riu to the rock formation and saw beautiful fish every day. One day during our stay one of the elevators was out for several hours, which was a pain, but it was fixed by the time we returned that evening. All in all we loved our stay and the Happy Island and will hopefully return one day!…
Very nice no where better not that I know of absolutely extravaganusive it is very much high class and subli me etc................neco .. I will be there soon to enjoy all the best of which is the riu palace hotel so long for now nicco............
Fantastic place lovely hotel staying in the antillas Palace food outstanding rooms excellent staying in beach view suites staff are excellent and very friendly and helpful only downside pool very noisy to many pool party's excellent location right on the beach
We came here June 2022. Hotel location is great, walk out to the left and you can find so many restaurants and bars. Keep walking 10 more minutes and you find the outdoor mall and shops. Check in was great, Dwight was the nicest person ever! Greeted us and helped expedite our check in. Room was nice, bathroom mirror and shower door was cracked and there was mold in the shower ceiling. Several times we didn't get a floor mat/towel. Floors can get really slippery so be very careful walking around with wet feet. At other Rius you can make reservations at the Ala Carte, here you cannot. I found that annoying, we're Europeans and don't eat at 5pm when you have to get in line to get a table. That I found ridiculous, who wants to stand in line in the heat? The lobster at the Steak House tasted like rubber and if you're unlucky to sit at a table near the kitchen doors the lights are like reflectors in your eyes. Very annoying. Food at the Italian and Krystal was good. We could never get in the Asian one which was disappointing. The Buffet offered a variety. The fruit disappointed, no tropical fruit. Beach is the best! However, we found it infuriating to have to wake up at 6am to save beach chairs. The hotel allows people to save chairs for hours. Twice I asked pool/beach team members if they can please remove towels for chairs unoccupied for 5 hrs and both times they said they cannot even though there is a sign on each palapa warning people hotel reserves right to remove towels if chairs are not used. Once I sat in chairs unoccupied for 4 hours and lady came screaming at me that I sat in her chair at 2pm. I said you were at the pool and I saw you there, how did you get 4 towels and not fair what you do. She went off in a huff. Hotel should require it be first come first serve and if towels left more than 2 hrs then it can be reassigned. I complained to the assistant manager Tristin about this and waiting in line at the restaurants but he dismissed me in so many words. The bartenders at the pool are the nicest!! The names I remember are Maricelo, Caterine, Johanny, Randy, Jack, all of them hands down. Even the cup collector Bryan was the sweetest guys, so very, very nice. The pool/beach team Jensy, Ramon, Carlos and a couple of others I cannot remember the names were so very , very nice. Especially Ramon who found my husband's hat when he lost it. The sweetest man ever. So hard working on the beach and always smiles! The worst part of the hotel is the evening entertainment goes on till 11pm and is so EXTREMELY loud. So if you want to turn in before 11pm, GOOD LUCK going to sleep. They can turn down those speakers but don't. That was brutal on nights you want to turn in earlier. Make sure to lock up your valuables, especially medicine and make sure to put it in the safe. My husband swears someone took medicine out of his bottle but didn't report it. He says day it went missing, he found 3 dresser drawers open when he went to the room and bed was unmade so couldn't be housekeeping. Seems someone got in or possible he didn't pull door closed all the way when he left the room in the morning.…
This is my first time I think I have ever written a review about a hotel which goes to show how truly disappointed I was in this hotel that I wanted to warn others. We have stayed at all inclusive resorts in two other countries (not RIU hotels) and they were wonderful so we were very excited for this trip. This hotel was terrible. Our room smelt bad, all of the towels smelt awful, the floors were slippery and not cleaned and our AC broke for two out of the five nights we stayed. We had a "partial ocean view" but we were next to the elevator as far from the ocean as possible and directly next to an alleyway where trucks started emptying trash dumpsters and making deliveries promptly at 6am every morning that was so incredibly loud there was no possible way to sleep through it. When we told the front desk we had to sleep with no AC and would like it fixed they said ok thanks of letting us know. No one came to fix it and there was no apology given. I was not looking for any compensation or even a room change just AC and maybe an apology but we got neither. If you are a wine drinker like us they only provide two red options and after a google search they are $9 bottles and not very good. The food was mediocre at best and one night we had a 45 min wait for a table (no problem for us) but then once we were seated a very simple meal took two hours and the food itself was maybe a 3 out of a 10. I know you can't expect top notch quality with food and alcohol at al all inclusive but this was just ridiculous. All in all we are very disappointed and can't understand all the amazing reviews, honestly. We are not picky or needy people and we thought RIU was top notch but moving forward we will more than likely never choose a RIU again and had such a terrible experience we will probably never do an all inclusive again anywhere.…
This is our 2nd time staying for 2 weeks at the Riu Palace Aruba. Overall a gd stay and thoroughly enjoyed our visit. Positives Daily room cleaning Daily change of towels Bedding changed when requested Large comfortable bed (hard bed to our taste) Mini bar and fridge well stocked Hair drier and iron in room. Beach towels provided Beach gorgeous Free kayaking, paddle boarding and snorkel gear for hotel clients Free thatched Beach canopy for hotel clients. Very Friendly staff Areas to improve Biggest draw back for us: Pool bar way too noisy, very repetitive music and very loud echos on microphone. No quiet times ideally, for us after lunch when ur fed and want to read or chill. Pool bar is catered for younger people with no regardless for others whi are there to chill out. Music and shouting through microphone could be heard from Beach too and 4 hotels away. Some easy listening carribean music would have bn nice, all boom boom which normally like ( done the ibiza holidays) but this was too much for us, there was no escaping it. Adult themed drinking games, not what a family friendly hotel should provide in my opinion, especislly with young kids in pool watching it all. Beach area we got up at 7.30 and got on beach area no problem for beach canopy, which are all free to the hotel. Very few children's activities from animation team. Other negative would be first come first served at a la variety restaurants. We did not get to any because u have to queue from 6pm to "book" in. I think a token system would be much better so everyone gets a try at these restaurants. Leaving the Beach at 5pm to get washed and dressed and then have to queue in sunshine is such a waste of time and our day. This definitely nds to be reviewed..... we missed out. Nightly buffet restaurant however was marvellous, food was amazing. Ive read reviews about musty smell in rooms - there is a smell in rooms but rooms are very clean. Aruba is a very humid island and thats why there can be a smell in rooms, of u don't keep ur air conditioning on ur room will get wet floors. If ur got curly hair there's no way u can straighten it here lol .... far too humid.…
Absolutely incredible! This was our 4th trip to Aruba & at the Riu Palace. I give this resort a 5star review. From service at the front desk, the cleaning staff, the gracious people at the restaurants…amazing! The food was so good in the baffet (where we ate most of our meals). Incredibly got at Krystal (we went twice) and have yet to try the Japanese restaurant tonight (I’m sure it will be awesome). Everything is so clean and everyone is so friendly. We are still here another day and having the time of our lives. I highly recommend staying here.
This is my second stay at Riu. The first was at Riu Palace Antillas in Aruba, which is adults only. Riu Palace Aruba is family friendly and my daughter and I loved it! The entertainment team is the best part of this hotel. Hector, Vahno, Jerwin, Shanaya, and Stephany were awesome! Their energy is great…they make you WANT to participate in all the activities! They are keepers! The food is as great as well. There are several “specialty” restaurants to choose from, and when all else fails, there’s the buffet which changes its theme for dinner nightly! The only downsides to the hotel: 1) There is no drink service on the beach. Compared to other hotels where you can lounge and relax and have someone serve you on the beach instead of having to walk all the way back to the pool bar, this was a noticeable negative. 2) It would be great if there were limitations on allowing people to “save” beach and pool chairs when they aren’t using them. I get it…the early bird gets the worm, but for days straight it seemed like people came out to the chairs with umbrellas, placed towels there, and didn’t return for HOURS! It wasn’t like they went to have breakfast and came right back. Chairs were empty literally for hours and you could see that the seats weren’t being held by those who were in the ocean or in the pool. It made things very frustrating for guests who actually were ready to enjoy the beach and pool. Not sure how to fix this…perhaps put a time limit, like if chairs left unattended for more than 1 or 2 hours, towels will be removed? Other than that’s Riu is awesome!…
The Hotel itself is very clean the rooms are big and the view from the balcony was amazing , The staff were very friendly and none more so then Jefferson who plied mysel and the mrs with mimosa every morning at breakfast (Jefferson we love you) we Generally ate at the main restaurant which had a wide selection of food even for the most fussy eater. all in all the hotel was good value for money and well worth the stay
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim Your Listing