Riu Palace Aruba - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

9291 reviews

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  Chillin’ in Arubs

  The resort was clean and the food was above average. However waiting in line just to get dinner reservations at the ‘a la carte’ restaurants is not acceptable when you’re paying that kind of money. Beautiful place and the beach was very nice. My mistake for going to a high rise resort, won’t do that again as an elevator bank went down during the trip. If you’re ok with waiting for an elevator on your vacation then don’t let this detour you, it is a nice place.

  Apr 27, 2025
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  Food poor, no bathrooms near beach, no snacks near beach, really bad nightly entertainment and only for 30 mins . Quiet.

  Room temperature very hard to regulate, was either too cold or too stuffy and I’m not usually picky about that. The room did not come with a comforter, only a sheet so had to order proper blanket )ended up being fleece which i can’t tough) The pool and beach are lovely. The service there is good. Drinks are great. Problem is there are no snacks down by the beach, normally when drinking all day it’s nice to have fries or a few options by the water as the restaurants are all far up by the entrance. Sports bar lets kids in until midnight so playing pool is basically impossible as the same kids hogged it all week. The nicest steakhouse restaurant was bad , they serviced the dishes in a bizarre fashion and they were cold. and the food in general was overall not impressive and not Riu or even 4 star. I honestly couldn’t find anything good to eat except the sandwiches in the sports bar. I never made breakfast buffet because it closed super early and was so far from my room. That’s the only meal I feel you can safely eat at a buffet so that really ruined it for me. The layout is difficult and I could not find bathrooms anywhere near the beach as there normally are. You have to walk up into one of the towers lobby to find it. I have been to a few Riu,s before and there is normally pretty good nightly entertainment. This place was very disappointing and the evenings were very boring. Would not go to another Riu again now after this one. Aruba should have been much nicer and more things to do. This was my honeymoon by the way so I got a little detail oriented lol. But ya, not happy. ****Oh and for ALL TO KNOW - I went Jan 6-13 and the building directly next door is under CONSTRUCTION**** they never mentioned that to us and that made it worse too. I believe that should always be told to booking clients. Did not feel 5 star, went hungry , bad food, nothing to do at night.

  Apr 26, 2025
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  Nice place.

  Spent a week at RIU Palace. Really enjoyed the excursions on UTV & Private boat rental (w/captain) to see the island. Try the trolley (free) in downtown Oranjstad to see shopping areas. The hotel was clean, and the staff was pleasant, Plenty of variety with food, especially buffet. Food was good for the most part. Best restaurant was the Italian one. Tried all restaurants but Japanese. No problems getting seated. The pool was nice, and the beach was great. IMO The Palace was the place to take your children on vacation as the resort really seemed to cater to the families. Antilles next door had adult only, so we switched between the two pools and bufffets. Only drawbacks (which were minor) were: No/litttle air conditioning in hallways/elevators. Toilets are tricky to flush. Mattresses were at a touch too hard. Nightly entertainment is hit or miss in quality. Overall though a pleasant resort.

  Apr 26, 2025
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  Very impressed but

  Overall, service in request for maintenance was excellent. The Italian and Japanese restaurants I would definitely take a pass on service was terrible. The buffet was impressive.

  Apr 26, 2025
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  Rooms smelled of mold

  We stayed at many Rius and Riu Antillas last year and it was great. This year we brought our three kids to the Riu Palace Aruba and are extremely disappointed. We spent $6K on two rooms. Both rooms smell horribly of mildew and mold. The view is of construction and while I don’t mind the construction noise, the state of our rooms are not worth $6K. My son sliced his finger open on a glass railing that has a ridge in it. The grounds are beautiful, pool is beautiful, but no floats are allowed for kids and we got yelled at by a security guard for throwing a pool ball back and forth. When we told the front desk of the mold smell, they said it was because the other building is under construction and the entire building smells of mold and they were working on it (which doesn’t make sense). And they made us a reservation at dinner as compensation, specially telling me I wasn’t going to get compensated with money (which I wasn’t looking for, just clean rooms). I feel for the amount we spent, the rooms should have been in a much nicer state. Pretty disappointed in Riu this time.

  Apr 24, 2025