Riu Palace Bavaro - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

11091 reviews

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  Excellent stay. Fun and relaxing. Would go back!

  ( warning::This is a long review). Excellent stay! My family has teens and variable activity preferences so Riu had something for us all. ALL restaurants wait staff & Front desk staff were great or excellent. Great servers at coffee shop & ice cream shop. All food court staff were friendly and tables clean. Bar tenders mostly good/great & nice. (They seemed to be short staffed at Sports bar in general & the theater bar for dec 31 night life.) Bell hops and Housekeeping always friendly. FOOD. Dinners were great to excellent. We only had 1 average dinner at Mexican place. Hot sauce could have helped that as 3 of 4 in my party said meat entre was bland. Steak house our favorite and Asian Zen place was always too busy so we never tried there. The Main Buffet was excellent for breakfast or supper due to the huge variety and large space for lines and seating. Lines were nil to very short for obtaining food. Fruit choices amazing as well as breads & cheeses. PASSION FRUIT AND Mangoes so fresh. Always alot of protein and carb sources for any meal at buffet. Small kid and older kid food options plentiful. Outdoor or indoor seating options. With all the food served there, I never smelled any scent of garbage can. ROOM: very clean, tidy, had well working AC unit, had balcony. No elevator but is fine because Villa only 3 floors. Fridge was plenty stocked but we are a family who drink alot of water in mornings so we brought our own water bottles and filled them at lunch food court (self serve filtered water at bar and soda pop station). Hotel seems low on wash cloths, as I had to ask for them every 2 or 3 days. We like to conserve water so we did not have daily bedding washed. We used our towels for 2 or 3 days at a time as they hung to dry in large bathroom or on balcony chairs. 2 wall hooks in bathroom for 4 people, so 2 more wall hooks would be ideal. We brought our balcony small table into bathroom as there was really no where to hang my toiletry bag on a hook ( other than the mounted kleenex box holder on wall). There was a large shelf under sink to hold clean towels and a few family members toiletry bags. 2 sinks and 2 glasses in bathroom. So I brought 2 plastic cups from the Food Court, so we had enough for teeth brushing/ rinsing for us all . Nice the sink wall had sign stating not to drink tap water. Good reminder for my teen kids. BEDs/ Room space: Very comfortable beds! Pillows too. And sheets were cotton ,not polyester ( so not hot sheets). This matters to a 50 yr old Mom who doesnt like to be roasting at night. IYKYK! Also ploy blend sheets are cheap & not breathable material so not healthy for anyone. Back in the US most 4 -5 star hotels we stay at have poly blend sheets. Just saying it was a nice surprise @ Riu. 2 Body pillows in closet and extra blanket. Plenty of hangers for 4 of us. Safe worked well. Room had table and 2 chairs and love seat. Nice size for 2 adults and 2 teens. Puddle at 1 entrance of our Villa building when heavy rained but 2 other entrances exits to it. Umbrella in closet nice. Shower huge and plenty of dry shelf space. Separate toilet room with door and 1 shelf. SLEEP: the hall we were on had teens and pre teens & echoes at night. And day. But at night I wore ear plugs and that made a big difference for sleep. Bring a flash light or night light if you wake up at night and dont want to trip in dark dark or wake up your others sleeping. Both bathroom lights very bright at night. And the curtains were close to being black out style. Very nice. Often I was the last one up at night and I did not want to turn on bathroom light to brush teeth ( since it had a widow with tempered glass right next to a bed). So a flash light was kept in bathroom by sink and that was adequate. Same thing for the person waking up first in morning and others wanting to sleep in. I happened to have my book night reading light and a flash light. So it was nice to keep flashlight in bathroom. The ceiling fan was either on or off and I did not see a lower fan speed setting but at times it was not needed. The thermostat worked well and was 22* C ( 68 F) at coolest possible temperature setting. At night we sleep with house at 67 F in summer so the room at riu was plenty cool at night. BeACH and POOLs. Very nice. A bit busy of a beach on sand and water. Motor boats x 4 i counted at one point with para sailors and inflatable couch pulling kids. A bit weedy but that is hard up keep to rake daily. We have weeds at lakes back home so no big deal. A few Beach lounge chairs were broken still laid flat. Tables avail too. But always enough to choose from. Areas in sun and palm tree shade on beach. Water clear and clean and no crabs or sharp shells. I didn't see any shells but 4. Literally saw 4 random small shells in dry sand. Beach public but safe. Beach vendors of hats sunglasses and jewelry were not bothersome. There were alot of them but when I declined interest in their products they did not attempt to sell me. There was a massage lady on beach doing own massages. I only saw her 2 of our 10 days there. Soccer and beach volleyball ball was a popular activity for all ages...also bocce ball and pickle ball on beach. Very nice. Pools clean and big. Outdoor showers and bathrooms at pools nice and close. Towel hut never ran out. Pool Towels soft huge and thick. I prefer pool towels that are thin so dry faster but that's up to management. Its their electricity bill. Ha ha. All in all this was a great vacation site for my family. Very pleased.

  Jan 10, 2026
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  January stay 2026

  The hotel is very nice and recently renovated. Everything is well kept and beautiful. My family enjoyed the resort overall. We found it to be quite big, and a lot of walking. The food was good. The service was quite good. The highlight for us in terms of service was at the buffet. We always sat in the back elevated section and received service from Yoel, Santana, Wilkin, and a few more staff. They were excellent and really made our trip pleasant. We travelled with our two teenage sons (14 yrs, 16yrs). They were a bit bored. Since they were not over 18 yrs, they were not able to participate in any of the theme parties or use the swim up bars. They did not find a lot to do. The evening shows did not interest them at all.

  Jan 09, 2026
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  Fair place for the price we paid

  The hotel is in a good location and the people and staff there was great; Customer service there is 5 stars! The food was AWFUL! Some of it completely inedible

  Jan 07, 2026
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  family xmas present

  would have liked activites for two days of rain, maybe a dance class in a covered area or some kind of game

  Jan 07, 2026
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  very satisfied

  I'm so happy and satisfied to have been there. It was one of my best holidays ever. I was with a large group of family members and we would love to go back.

  Jan 06, 2026