Riu Vallarta - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

9261 reviews

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  Best place to vacation

  RIU Vallarta is the best place to go and relax and forget everything! The service, the grounds, the location provide a relaxing place to sit back, drink and enjoy the sun!! The staff are always so friendly and helpful! They do their best in making everyone enjoy their time there. I go here every year, once if not twice a year!

  Aug 13, 2025
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  Some Great Staff, but Overall Stay Fell Short.

  ⸻ We recently stayed at Riu Vallarta. While there were a few highlights, unfortunately, several issues prevented us from fully enjoying our time. Room: We received a parking lot view instead of the garden/courtyard view we were hoping for. Beds were pushed together despite our request for two separate ones, and the sofa bed was worn and stained. Our sink was clogged upon arrival (promptly repaired after we reported it), furniture and towels showed significant wear, and the minibar was not restocked during our stay. One rainy night, water came into our room due to its location near an open hallway window (1st floor room 1086). Dining: Food was decent (about 7/10) but options were limited. The “no reservations” policy for restaurants meant long waits and uncertainty about getting a table. Pools: Smaller in size, so they filled quickly. Often no poolside service, and drinks were average. Kids’ Club: Short hours and limited activities.l Beach: Pleasant but nothing particularly memorable. Positives: The entertainment team—especially Chris, Frida, and Teresita—were absolutely wonderful and made our days more enjoyable. Overall, while we appreciated the efforts of some staff, the combination of maintenance issues, limited dining options, and underwhelming amenities means we would likely choose a different property next time.

  Aug 11, 2025
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  Friendly, helpful staff; food and pools were less than stellar

  Front desk and restaurant staff were friendly and helpful: Alé even accommodated our request to help surprise the rest of our party at check-in! Housekeeping and maintenance were quite responsive, helping with everything from getting rid of a pair of wayward cucarachas to resetting locked-out in-room safes. Beach was beautiful and clean - much better than anything you'll find on the Gulf Coast - and the ocean was as clear and warm as I've ever seen. The pools, on the other hand, were actually too warm to help with staying cool in the middle of July. Only other real complaint was with the food: Although the quality of ingredients, freshness and variety were all great, the level of cuisine was a little less than we've come to expect from a 5-star Riu resort. P. S. There's no on-site café or ice cream parlour.

  Aug 11, 2025
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  Excellent

  It’s was my birthday Aug 2, so I decide to vacation in Mexico at the beautiful RIU. Have a great time with my mother.

  Aug 11, 2025
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  Loved this resort and would happily stay again!

  Our family stayed here for 2 weeks, there were 4 adults and 2 children. To summarize, we would absolutely stay again! Pros: *Hotel rooms and grounds were clean and well maintained. Use the app to request your mini bar to be stocked, they never had an issue leaving us extra bottled water. *Pools: pools are standard, they were clean and a good temperature. The kids pool gets great shade most the day. *Food: the buffet had a good variety and we especially appreciated the 2 a la cartes (italian & asian) that had small little "buffets" for appetizers- there were always items in here kid friendly which allowed us to be able to enjoy the a la cartes that we are sometimes unable to while traveling with kids. A special shout out to the one waitress who we sat with every morning for breakfast (hyeneth -sorry about my spelling) but she was absolutely amazing, she went out of her way to interact with my two kids and was always so kind to us with great service. She deserves all the recognition from management!!! *Entertainment: day programming was standard for all inclusive but the kids club was fantastic, our kids really enjoyed it and it had lots of variety. The kids club did the last activity for the kids at 7pm and then went right into the adult programming. We thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of the entertainment here. As standard with most hotels, the entertainment ends about 11pm however the lobby bar remains open so we usually took the opportunity to enjoy the breeze, have a night cap and enjoy the solo musician who was often playing. *Noise: I have seen a lot of complaints about noise and that genuinely surprises me. We never considered noise an issue, not even sitting in the open air lobby bar. My 2 children who are light sleepers never once struggled to fall asleep. I would not consider the noise level here different than any other hotel we have stayed at! Cons: *Not enough bathrooms near the pools, very long line ups and noticeably a lot of ADULTS peeing in the pools- yuck! *The only elevator down to the pool level is at the far end of one of the towers. While this did not affect us, it would definitely be something to consider if you have mobility issues. *Riu does the standard pool side snacks of burgers, hot dogs and fries, I would love to see that change across the whole brand to offer more variety. Of course there are a few days where other options are available, but not often enough in my opinion. *Highchairs: I know this is a nit picky complaint....While they have wipeable plastic highchairs available, it would be nice if they either had a tray included or if the height was short enough to scoot under the table. The distance you have to place the highchair from the table is too far for little people to be able to reach without making a mess. Not a big deal, we just sat our son in our lap, it just would have been more convenient than us sometimes wearing our sons lunch/supper by the end of his meal lol

  Aug 06, 2025