Riu Palace Costa Mujeres - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

4514 reviews

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  Get-away vacay

  The swim-up in the adult section was the highlight of the room. Private pool to relax and enjoy music morning noon or late night!

  Jun 28, 2025
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  All-inclusive and mostly compete hotel experience.

  We just visited this hotel during the last week of June,2025 and it was HOT and humid. The sargassum/algae (not seaweed, which grows on the ocean floor) was very heavy. It was washing up on the beach and also floating in the water out to about 10 meters. The sand is soft but has lots of little tree twigs in it, but OK to walk barefoot in. The hotel pools were pretty clean but still had bugs and leaves in them, but not too full of chlorine. The pool lounge chairs tend to fill up early by 10am. Upon hotel arrival: You give your luggage to a bellhop staff member who lines it all up to be taken to your room later, or you can take it yourself if you don't want to wait. When you arrive in the air-conditioned lobby, there is a small, staffed bartending table where you can get a cold soda, wine, mojito or pretty good margarita with Centinela tequila like I did. There is also the "24 Lounge" inside and across from check-in which has juice bar and fresh cut fruit, sliced meats and cheeses, nachos, hotdogs and hamburgers. You should ask the reception desk for a schedule of the shows and activities; they have a digital touchscreen kiosk you can use also for this. The rooms we used (3118 and 3119) had an open, all-in-one/shared shower, sink, and large bathtub area. The shower is visible from the sink and the rest of the room, only using frosted glass walls and door as privacy. You will want to be VERY comfortable walking around in a towel if you are staying with children or friends. Here's the TIP: you can request a wall partition from the front desk; we found this out towards out last few days there, and didn't actually use the partition though. Also, the toilet is just a separate room, with what appears to be a small ceiling vent, but nothing else to cover "the noise" IYKWIM. Luna, the Experience Director, is so friendly and helpful! She answered all our questions and gave us the privacy partition tip. We love her! There are lots of friendly, hard-working staff around the property inside and out, keeping things clean, especially the restaurant and buffet servers. They are English/Spanish bi-lingual and easy to communicate with for basic needs. We ran into problems at the restaurants trying to customize our food orders though, like asking for just the fried fish instead of the entire fried fish taco and all it comes with. TIP: be sure to confirm allergy concerns with the staff as not all of them understand what that means. Let's talk about the food: The main buffet called "Spaces" has a lot of options for carnivores and vegetarians. The fruit juices tasted a bit bland and are possibly made from concentrate, but you can get fresh squeezed orange juice, or their "green" juice made with spinach, pineapple, apple and celery juices. Most of the themed restaurants have a small, self-serve buffet with quite a selection for everyone, then you have a smaller specialized menu from which you order your main entree. The Italian restaurant "Roma" ROCKS! It was so delicious and our favorite; you must get the steak and pasta dishes. The Mexican restaurant "Zarape" was also very good too. The Japanese restaurant was just average from the ramen and teppanyaki dishes we got, but I was told the miso salmon was great. The steakhouse "Tastes" was also just average, the meat selections were no better than we can get at Costco in the United States, plus it took a long time to get our food. Note: you must sit outside at the steakhouse, so it will be hot and humid. We did not try the fusion restaurant "Krystal". Pepe's bar next to the adult pool serves "bar" foods like you would find in America; french fries, burgers, nachos, etc, so quick and easy to stuff your face with. The bar next to Pepe's, and the other bars, are well stocked with local as well as name-brand liquors and the bartenders are quite good. The gift shop: They have a great variety of souvenirs to choose from, like Cancun and mexican-themed shot glasses, refrigerator magnets, sunglasses, T-shirts, shorts, swimwear, sunscreen, toiletries like asprin. The store had a few specials on souvenirs though. The sunglasses prices are no better than in the United States though, and the sunscreen and other items were pricey, so bring what you need instead. Entertainment: The "Capuchino" lounge is a piano bar with a liquor bar and pastry and coffee shop. We tried the carrot and chocolate cakes which were very good. The cafe mocha I got was prepared well and looked so pretty, but was just too sweet. Be sure to request a sweetness level for any similar drinks. We caught the first 40 minutes of the Michael Jackson tribute and that was entertaining. They also had free, non-gambling blackjack tables set up as well. They do have a family-friendly "White Party", where everyone wears white, which we did not attend, but did see a lot of people dressed in white, so it appeared popular. They do have a covered ping-pong table, gym, and daily fitness workout area facing the pools. The next door hotel has the outdoor water park, which is included in your stay, just a few minutes walk over and into the pool area. We did see a lifeguard on duty. Our teenagers seemed to have fun, but there wasn't a lot of options for them besides the water park and hotel pools. In all, we would recommend this place and stay there again, possibly when the sargassum is minimal. Hope this helped!

  Jun 27, 2025
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  FAMILY TRIP

  The resort was amazing from the food to the hospitality, so many options for food and drink and the nightlife was so much fun, I would recommend 100%.

  Jun 27, 2025
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  GREATEST hotel of all times :-)

  We were in Riu Palace Costas Mujeres from June 4 to 11, 2025. We had an amazing time. The hotel, the food, the drinks, the pools, the staff (everything was AMAZING). Especially, Jorge Martinez (barman at the pool) was very kind and friendly, always serving us drinks with a smile. Arnold and Angel, the waiters at the buffet were so funny, we were laughing all the time. For sure we’ll come back to this hotel.

  Jun 26, 2025
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  Very good hotel, food and service

  There were some seaweeds but they were usually not too bad and didn't bother us much. The king size mattress in our room was strange, I.e. kind of soft and forced you to stay away from the edges

  Jun 25, 2025