Riu Palace Aruba - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

9434 reviews

• 

  Food is Gross. Poop in halls. Pool is run down

  Food is absolutely disgusting. There are four restaurants. Every single one of them is disgusting and they make you wait and there is less than 25 capacity seated. The pool is so outdated all the tiles on the steps are missing. The wait service never comes around. The food is like prison food for lunch. Room service forget it. It’s still nachos some dry turkey sandwich and fruit. That’s all you got. There was literally poop in the hall and in the elevator, the elevators are so tiny and crammed You are better off paying for a non-all-inclusive hotel and going out to dinner because you can’t possibly eat here. God forbid you lose your wrist band they want to charge you 250 for a new one Thank you. I will never return to Aruba. Worst vacation of my life

  Nov 04, 2025
• 

  Do not recommend staying here

  The service was absolutely terrible! I never would’ve expected this from an all-inclusive resort. They wouldn’t give us bottled water at the pool, but staff walked around with a bottle of water for them to drink. Certain restaurants wouldn’t serve food only at certain tables so out of 50 tables only five tables you were able to order food at so you had to wait when we checked in. We went upstairs to our room and someone else was already in the room, they had taken a shower got in the bed had clothes hanging up. We went downstairs to explain to the front desk, someone was already in that room the supervisor told the front desk clerk that was our room. I said well somebody go and clean it and get their stuff out of it and unprogrammed their keys because I don’t feel comfortable going in a room. Somebody else has been in and it hasn’t been cleaned. Long story short after waiting for about two hours I wind up, cleaning the room myself and taking the sheets off the bed and getting sheets from room service and putting the dirty linens and towels outside the door. I understand trying to save money, but we asked for washcloths five times water bottles in the room five times extra towels, five times. Restocking of the room several times. Housekeeping would come up to the room with one thing and then close out all of our request in their system and I would get an email saying that it was done. Go to the room and see one bottle of water no washcloths no towels and so on and so forth. This also happened when ordering drinks just simple water or soda at the buffet or coffee. One person would ask for a soda and they quickly walk off instead of asking everyone at the table. What would you like to drink? The attention to detail and the service is absolutely terrible. I will never ever stay here again. I would never recommend this place to anybody. I have been traveling for a long time and I’ve never experienced anything like this from a all-inclusive resort.

  Nov 02, 2025
• 

  A 3 Star smelly resort

  Where to begin...first and foremost this is by far a 5 star resort. It is a 3 star resort at best. Best thing they can do is demolish this entire property and build a new one. Everything about this place is falling apart along with the food quality and service. The entire resort shows its age and horrible up keeping. Gone are the days when the customer is always right. Our first room was disgusting. Mold and mildew smell all over the entire suite..a person with Respiratory issues cannot last 20 minutes in there. It was totally gross. There was a bucket of water outside the door as if it was collecting dripping water. We called the front desk to have out room changed and they said they would send someone to access the issue and "see" if they had a different room for us. Forgot to mention upon arrival we noticed there was "renovation" taking place and they had the main building closed off and put everyone to stay at the old smelly wing of the property. They finally moved us to a different floor and the smell was less powerful than the first room so we decided to stay there....Toilet clogged every single day we were there. There was a huge hole directly on top of the toilet bowl. The lights were not working there I guess so people wouldn't notice the huge hole right above them. The furniture was old and dirty, curtains looked like they were never changed let alone washed since they went up. Bed skirt on bed were stained and the linen along with all the towels smelled moldy. The towel lady by the pool was always miserable and just nasty to people. The pool itself looked cracked all over missing tiles, bathrooms in the entire property did not flush correctly. Buffet was ok, although certain days it smelled like wet dog upon entering the room. The one lady at the buffet- Madalyn was a sweet heart, very helpful and did provide exception customer service. We made the best of our stay there however we would not be returning to this property. definitely not worth the money we paid, we felt it was a total rip-off.

  Oct 31, 2025
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  Wasn't terrible but could've been better

  Return visitors to Aruba. First time Riu guests so please don't come at me if you have a love for Riu. Just sharing our opinions. Our room was in the older tower. Absolutely awful. Bed sconces falling off wall, the couch was stained and gross looking, barely warm water in the shower, fridge was unplugged to defrost and leaking on the floor. Went to the front desk and asked for a new room. Jamie(sp?) was fantastic. She moved us to the newly remodeled tower the next morning. Look of room was 1000% better. Unfortunately, AC isn't very cold, our shower had an odor coming from the drain and we didn’t get new towels after housekeeping. Had to call or catch them in the hall. One elevator was out of service for 2 days so getting to and from your room took lots of time and there's no ventilation in the one that worked. That said, the staff was super friendly, food was OK but ala carte restaurants ran out of meals very fast each night, pool/grounds were very clean. Chairs at pool and chairs/palapas at beach were easy to get but only because one entire tower is empty as they remodel. We did not find the construction noise to be a factor at all. If you're doing AI for the drinks you’ll be disappointed. The amount of alcohol in the drinks was minimal at best and they don't have servers at pool or beach, you need to go to the bar yourself. Probably so they don't go thru alcohol as fast? Our previous visit at a different resort had constant servers bringing food or drinks. Resort location is great and downtown night life was fun as always. Was it the worst resort, No. Would we return to this resort, most likely No. We love Aruba and this was a great trip meeting up with family but we'll try a different resort next time.

  Oct 29, 2025
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  Another Great Vacation at The RIU Palace Aruba

  My wife and our friend just spent an amazing week at the RIU Palace Aruba. This is the second stay for us at this resort this year and 3rd in Aruba in the past 12 months. Everything in our stay was perfect, no issues whatsoever. The food was perfect, the staff were kind and freindly, and the rooms were perfect as well. Yes there is construction in the main building however it had zero impact on our stay and the noise from the work was to a minimum. Obviously everyone has different standards and expectations but from our perspective we found zero issues to be concerned about. Just my opinion, ignore the negativity in some of the recent posts and dont let it scare you from experiencing and amazing resort and amazing island! Great job RIU Palace Aruba :)

  Oct 24, 2025