Riu Palace Punta Cana - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

3718 reviews

• 

  Wanted to Leave Before Check In Was Finished

  Check in was dominated by the front desk staff skimming cash for their own pockets. Our friends checked in before us and were told that an upgrade was available for $800 if they paid with a card, but they could get it for only $400 if they paid cash. When we checked in, the associate at the desk offered to falsify the birthday of my 16 year old to make her 18 years old in the system (so she could drink) if we "did something for him and his manager." Nothing like being asked to pay a bribe so my underage child could drink. We had numerous problems with our room - the A/C leaked and flooded the entry way, the fridge stopped working and flooded the entry way, the toilet backed up with sewage which stunk up our whole room and put the bathroom out of commission for several hours. Even worse, the maintenance staff marked that they had fixed the toilet when they had not. Once it was finally fixed, they didn't clean up the sewage water that had overflowed onto the floor. Housekeeping was spotty - they didn't service our room each day that we requested it. Washcloths are apparently very hard to come by - they rarely left clean wash cloths. Several outlets in the room did not work. Things I wish I would have known before making a decision and / or the resort staff should have told us: * Bring lots of cash for tipping. We've been to many resorts where tipping is expressly prohibited or the staff works to earn tips. Here tips felt expected. * To get beach towels, you need to have a towel card. Ask for the towel card at the front desk and then you exchange it for a towel at the pool. When you return the towel, you get the card back. So don't lose track of your pool towels because if you return less towels then you check out, you won't get the same number of towel cards returned. * The restaurants don't take reservations days in advance. If you get in line when the restaurant opens for dinner, then you can put your name on their list for a seating later in the evening. * You can't go to other RIU resorts for dinner without an invitation card. We were told by the front desk that we could not get an invitation card. * Due to where Punta Cana is oriented on the island, it is very windy and the ocean is pretty rough. If I go back to Dominican Republic, I will stay somewhere on the Caribbean side where the water is calmer. * The beach is almost entirely shaded because there are so many palm trees. This may be fine in the middle of summer, but with the breeze and ambient temps, it was too chilly at the beach so we spent all of our time at the pool. * Don't take a pic with the iguana or parrot on the beach. They will try to charge you $40. * They will charge $250 if you lose your wristband. This isn't an empty threat, they actually charge you for a new wristband. * There are switches you use to turn on the outlets. * Bring a surge protector or extra long charging cables. We only had two functioning outlets in our room which made charging things a pain. * We were in connecting junior suites which meant that each room had it's own down, plus there was a third door at the hallway. There was no way to prop the individual room doors open. It was fine for us because our kids are older, but I would not have been comfortable with this arrangement when my kids were younger. * Your whole party needs to be with you at check out because they remove the wristbands of everyone before you leave. All that being said, we had a great time because of the people that we were with. The weather was beautiful, ocean was gorgeous (but very windy with lots of seaweed), food was okay. We have stayed at many all inclusive resorts and this is at the bottom of the list. This was our first, and very likely last, stay at a RIU.

  Jan 10, 2026
• 

  Run away fast

  This was the worst hotel experience we have ever had. We checked in and went to find dinner. Wound up at the italian restaurant, where the apps had been sitting out for hours are were rubbery and lukewarm. The entrees were bland and tasted like what I would call hospital food. We agreed not to judge the resort as a whole based on one dinner experience and decided to have an after dinner drink. We went to the lobby bar and I had a drink that I can only describe as warm rubbing alcohol. It was gross. At this point we went upstairs to try to order room service. When I called down, I was greeted with "what do you want?" I asked for nachos, and rather than responding with a confirmation, I was hung up on. As I attempted to climb under the covers, I found hairs in the bed and questionable stains. At this point we also noticed mold throughout the room, including in the bathroom and dirt on most of the furniture. When room service finally arrived, it was cold canned cheese on orange tortilla chips like what you would get at an old school movie theater. Ok, no problem. We headed down to the sports bar and to attempt to notify the front desk of our issues. The sports bar was full of people who had been over served and who were downright sloppy. We watched a woman drop a glass that then shattered. She laughed it off and walked away. Nobody came to clean it up. We headed back to our room at that point and decided to regroup, as nobody was present at the front desk at 11pm. We decided we would check out the next morning, so I contacted a friend who is a travel agent to start making arrangements. Things continued to go downhill, as the fire alarm went off all.night.long. about every 45 minutes we were woken up by it. At 8am we went down to notify staff we were leaving and to request our remaining nights be refunded. We were advised by Robert that this would be done, and to contact our booking company to complete this. As we were en route to our new hotel I called priceline who then contacted the hotel to confirm our refund. Imagine my surprise when they came back on the line and advised that the associate wasn't authorized to allow a refund, and that they would have to escalate to corporate to recoup the funds for our remaining nights. This refund never came, and I am now having to dispute it with my credit card company. STAY AWAY FROM THIS DUMP. It is in no way worth the headache and hassle to have inedible food, lack of service, and disgusting facilities with glass all over the place. Note--I cannot speak to the quality of the pools and other amenities as we didnt last long enough to use them. We spent a total of maybe 14 hours on resort and that was way more than enough.

  Jan 08, 2026
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  A Total Dream!

  From top to bottom, we loved our stay at Riu Palace Punta Cana. Amazing food, beach, pools, water park, plenty of booze, sweet people - a great time had by our whole family. Yes, the rooms are not fancy, and the outlets and Wifi need a bit of updating, but in a place so beautiful, you are really only using your room to shower and sleep. So fun. So sad to be back in freezing New York! We will definitely return.

  Jan 07, 2026
• 

  Family vacation

  We took all of our adult children and their spouses for one of my children's 40th birthday. The service was great. The facility was very clean. Everything was very nice. The food is just ok.

  Jan 07, 2026
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  Family vacation

  Waiter named Kendy went over and beyond our entire trip to accommodate our family for whatever we needed. Very impressed with his kindness, he was fun and very helpful. I hope he gets this feed back and knows the Elvis singer from Minnesota and his family really enjoyed and appreciates him.

  Jan 06, 2026