Riu Palace Aquarelle

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

798 reviews

• 

  Cut short due to Sunwing 28 hour delay

  Hotel was fine, brand new, good food great pools. The beach was ok not comparable to Negril but we were expecting that.

  Mar 01, 2025
• 

  Best hotel ❤️ can’t recommend it enough

  Best 10 days at Riu palace aquarelle! Came here to celebrate my 30th birthday and I did exactly that! From the reception staff being so accommodating to the food 😍! And a massive thank you to the entertainment team. Raheem, Lily, Tiana, Rooster, loyd, Shavoy, Miguel and the rest! You all deserve a pay rise from the pool parties, games, fitness classes and evening entertainment. God bless you all. Such a beautiful experience from start to finish thank you!

  Mar 01, 2025
• 

  Nice hotel

  About a 35 mins ride from airport…first stop on the bus. Nice lobby, staff were nice…a few were outstanding! The process to check in was long…but fine. We were 2 families of 4, we had 3 rooms. All had a decent view of the ocean. Beachfront was a great view, sun only early morning on the balcony. Buffet good was good. Restaurants were great! All staff were very friendly! We were celebrating a 7th birthday, and the restaurant decorated the table…nice touch. All bar staff were so fun!! Ronikca (spelt wrong) was so fun at the bar near Pepe’s. Small-ish resort….didn't take long to walk one end to the other. Water slides were fun. Closed every Tuesday for maintenance. Beach has some random rocks in the water, but not terrible. Night shows were good! Rooms were clean and taken care of daily. We were there for the night snowfall in Toronto, and the plane crash at the airport…so we were delayed a couple nights. Sunwing was not good to deal with. The entire experience ruined some of the vacation. I completely understand that it was chaos for Sunwing with all that was going on ….but there should be systems in place for this. The day we were supposed to leave, we found out our flight was delayed by several hours. We begged for a late checkout for 1 room as we had a 6 month old baby. We got one after giving them $100USD cash. At 5pm we were in the lobby waiting to find out where we were going that night….we knew our flight had moved to the next day. Still waiting with our suitcases at 9:30pm…not knowing where we were going. Front desk said we might need to sleep in the lobby. BRUTAL!!!! Got rooms just after 10pm. The next day was the same…without the late checkout. Bags down in the morning, waiting to find out where we were staying that night since flight was delayed to the next day again. The Sunwing rep was nowhere to be found after 4pm the first day. We were all calling Sunwing to get answers….not once was the phone answered. Hotel was trying too. The next day he started until after 7pm. The hotel let us know they needed Sunwing to approve us staying another night….but it was frustrating when they told us they had NO ROOMS AVAILABLE, but then suddenly at 10pm they had room for everyone (approx 25 people from our flights alone). I haven’t flown Sunwing for years….thought I’d give them another try. I have learned my lesson…no more Sunwing.

  Feb 28, 2025
• 

  Amazing Staff ***** Stay Here !!

  I was impressed by the staff at this hotel, everyone from the front desk, the housekeeping staff to the entertainment staff was friendly, attentive, caring, fun, hard working! The hotel itself is great with a beach, several pools, waterslides, scheduled activities all day and night, but it was the staff that was over the top awesome and made our stay incredible. Five Stars!

  Feb 28, 2025
• 

  It's busy here!!

  The building is nice, it's new and they are maintaining it - decorators and gardeners are hard at work. Gardens are pretty and the beach is picturesque but It's very very busy here! the size of the space can accommodate it but if you are looking for any kind of tranquility this hotel is not for you (it follows the Jamaican way and is a bit of a party place). There is a lack of lifts in the building, there are 11 floors in the hotel and the queues were often long / lifts were over crowded at peak times. There are three pools and a kids splash park......all pools get busy and loud, there are lots of sunbeds but it felt very packed in. In the morning the place is clean and tidy but by lunch time it's pretty chaotic and they can't really keep on top of it from a cleanliness perspective. There aren't enough toilets to serve all pools, there were often queues and a not so pleasant smell surrounding the toilet block. The floors around the pool get really dirty by midday and the tables are not cleared away, it feels quite unhygienic by the end of the day but it is down to the sheer volume of people here (hundreds!). Doesn't help that the gardeners walk mud around the pool edge when emptying their wheel barrows (which I found odd) and use the pool showers to clean off their gardening equipment. There is a pool snack bar but it doesn't open until lunch time and is very limited. There is a lack of ice cream or chips etc near the pool (there is a shop that charges $12 for a tub of pringles, best avoided!). You can't take any drinks into the kids splash park, not even soft drinks which I found odd as there were sunbeds and tables surrounding the splash pool. Main pools were supposed to open at 8am but this could have been 8.15, 8.30 or closer to 9am some days in typical laid back Jamaican fashion, not a concern because if you were desperate for a dip the beach is available. The entertainment team here are fun & friendly and there is always a lot going on. Evening entertainment is brilliant too. Reggae bands and shows etc. Food overall is just ok. The buffet restaurant has a lot of choice but the food is just ok (it's not five star Dubai but it's alright). The themed restaurants definitely aren't a la carte quality but you can at least sit down and order from a menu, drinks and menu are limited to just a few options and there are no kids menus but the food is better than the buffet. Sports bar, wouldn't bother eating there the food is pre prepared and is not good. There is a coffee and cake stand in the lobby which is basic but handy. Room service is terrible, limited menu and poor quality food (stale left overs). Service is ok, generally most workers are polite and helpful but some were rude and unaccommodating. Tipping goes a long way here to get good service (which is frustrating because it goes against the rationale for tipping but I get it, poor salaries, long hours etc). You don't tend to queue for drinks as there are loads of bar staff. The kids club is where the hotel excels. The three ladies that run the kids club (Star, Renne and Smiley) are outstanding. Loads going on, very enthusiastic. My kids usually won't entertain a kids club but they loved it here. All three ladies knew all five of the kids names on the first day and proactively approached them to join in throughout our stay. The kids mini disco in the evening is equally as great. The rooms are new and are kept clean and tidy. We requested a deep clean because my son was sick in the night and they came and did this immediately. No qualms with house keeping. Water and mini fridge restocked regularly. The turn down service is a nice touch, my make up remover was laid out in the bathroom and the kids teddy's were placed ready on the bed which was appreciated. The shower was pretty rubbish but nothing you cant live with for a few days. Hallways can be loud at night and could do with a better clean, tall concrete ceilings create an echo so if you have kids bear that in mind but it didn't seem to particularly disturb mine. Our hotel balcony was on the side of the building, look right and there is a stunning sea view, look left and there is a compound with two very run down buildings where you see the staff come and go (assume this is the staff accomodation which is not ideal, I hoped a RIU hotel might do better at looking after their workforce). Overall a good hotel, the building is nice but all things considered probably more a four star that could do with a bit more focus on maintenance cleaning throughout the day (especially around the pools) but I get the impression that this is Jamaica and you kind of need to embrace the vibe of laid back, non perfect fun. I expect all five stars in Jamaica are of a similar quality to this hotel but it was extremely busy here all of the time, hard to find a quiet place to read or just think lol....people everywhere (many drinking excessively and partying hard) 🤣 Probably wouldn't go back to the hotel but it was ok.

  Feb 27, 2025