Riu Palace Macao Adults Only - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

6503 reviews

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  Lovely place, food great, Americans Loud!

  From the start you turn up to the hotel and it looks very Premium, about an hour from La Romana airport and greeted with fruit punch and bell boys waiting to take your suitcases. Check in was simple and easy to understand. Room: lovely and very spacious, we did want a pool view room but was told its random allocation (Dodged a bullet here as Pool is very loud almost 24 hours day.) Free mini bar in the room, soft drinks, beer and spirits. The mini bar says it gets filled up every 2 days but it was always fully stocked when I looked. The hotel seems to have a mould issue which you could see some evidence of in our room and the cleaners always turn the air con on to control this which gave my wife a week long cough so something to be aware of. Food: We were very impressed with the food selection, buffet wise lunch got a little samey by the end of the week stay but dinner had a different theme every night which helped mix things up. I am very picky and my wife is the opposite and neither of us ever had any trouble finding more than a plates full of food and everything tasted great! Pro tip for breakfast: Cinnamon Danish are ridiculous, get them on your plate and you won't be disappointed. We visited the steakhouse and the food was good but not to be raved about, I had the surf and turf, the Steak was perfect but the lobster not so much, my wife had the Salmon and said it was great, the same can be said about all the fish and prawns served in the buffet, they are all very well prepared and cooked. Pool: Honestly this is were the hotel is let down a little bit and honestly is the only reason I didn't give this place 5*. Start with the positives; there are lots of sun beds and the guys serving around the pool and at the bar are brilliant, you won't go thirsty and they are very polite. The entertainment team do there very best to get people involved and are not pushy at all, lovely guys who really put a lot of effort in. However, the negatives: There are "beds" around the pool, good luck getting near one of them as the same people everyday must get up the crack of dawn to not only reserve these but to also put 4+ sunbeds in front of them, you know the type. On top of that there is constant young American/Canadian noise around the pool, loud shouting and whooping, smoking in the pool and all sorts, to put it frank this is not a place you want to come to relax, as you won't be able to trust me, was like spring break for 30 year olds! The swim up bar pool might as well be part of the Greenland deal as no non American is getting in there from 9am-7pm, and they never seem to get out the pool if you know what I mean. They all carry large "Stanley" cups which they fill with booze and the volume just gets louder throughout the day. RIU Party: These are done 3 times a week, 2 day parties and 1 night party. This hotel is perfectly placed that you are not impacted by the parties if you don't want to go but its not too far if you do want to get involved. We are not huge clubbers but we went to a night party and it was a really good event, good music, all inclusive drinks, pool if you want to go in and lots of fun being had. The events are very well controlled and they have security everywhere to make sure everyone is behaving, the event is also FREE for all Riu guests so to get that sort of party with free booze and no danger of feeling unsafe I think is a definite plus. Beach: Windy and the sea was a little rough (nothing to be worried about) but this is just bad luck for the destination of hotel, loads of water sports included on the beach. Some sellers but they are not pushy at all. Lots of beds but some days need to get down quite early. Other points to note is that there is a casino which has live and machine games which was fun to use and literally a 10 second walk from the hotel. Gym and spa facilities are very very good! On site shop and 24 hour doctor. You are also able to use all of the other Riu resorts on site, just not for dinner so was nice to have a change of scenery and see what the other hotels offered. Final point is to say that the staff here are 10/10 they work so hard and can't do enough for you, would recommend this place to friends but with the warning that if you want to relax this isn't the place for you, unless banning loud Americans from a hotel becomes possible.

  Jan 28, 2025
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  We will be back. Riu Pacifico Puerto La Varta next

  We arrived at Riu Palace Macao Sunday Jan 12. We were given a welcome drink right away. Ck in was easy and fast. Great rm, large balcony and beautiful view of pool and palm trees. We mainly ate at buffet (different themes each night) but we tried all the specialty restaurants. All were good, we especially enjoyed the Steak House. Pool bar was lively. Short walk to beach from there. You could also enjoy the other Riu’s along there with Riu private sidewalk. Fantastic week. We stayed at Riu Palace Cabo in Sept., lovely resorts. Retirees from Indiana

  Jan 24, 2025
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  Mostly Very Good with a Few Items Needing Improvement

  Mixed Review: beautiful resort and beach area; Elite Club service very good and necessary due to poor quality of the food at the buffet and specialty restaurants (other RIU Palace's have much better quality food and a wider variety of items), nightly entertainment only fair; staff very polite and they try to be accommodating HOWEVER hardly any English is spoken or understood by staff and hotel should give basic course in basic English phrases before staff starts working there. There are enough English speaking guests at the hotel to warrant this. Lack of communication is a big problem unless you speak Spanish. Without the Elite Club, my stay wouldn't have been as enjoyable as it was. I did enjoy my stay at the hotel but I think that for such a nice resort, they should improve the items mentioned above to make it really excellent RIU Palace that it should be. It's a shame that the food isn't good at all - big improvement needed there.

  Jan 24, 2025
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  Excellent stay at RUI Palace Macao

  The best holiday we have had, Hotel amazing, super clean at all times. Staff on hand all hours always willing to help. Rooms were lovely towels changed twice a day, soft drinks and water replaced daily. Optics with branded drinks. Food was amazing so much choice. I had a fabulous birthday there, celebrated in the steak house, all the staff rung to me and a cake was supplied too, even had balloons in our room with a card and small gift. Water activities included, beach clean, water clear and warm. Nightly entertainment in the hotel or theme nights in the night club within walking distance. Going to try the Spa on this visit. We are returning again this year in May for 2 wonderful weeks. Great value for money. Weather idea.

  Jan 23, 2025
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  Riu Macao isn’t what they describe it to be

  We booked a 9-day vacation from Jan1-10, 2025 at the Sunwing all-inclusive Riu Macao Resort with high expectations, but unfortunately, our stay was incredibly disappointing. As a group of 8 people, 7 out of the 8 of us ended up getting sick during our trip. The food quality and service were far below what we had hoped for, especially considering we spent nearly $7,500 per couple for this vacation. First off, the room situation was frustrating. Despite requesting a room on a higher floor, we were told by the front desk that “you get what you paid for.” That wasn’t exactly what we were hoping to hear after investing so much money in our stay. To make matters worse, our room was infested with bugs – small, worm-like creatures were crawling all over the floor. We tried contacting the front desk multiple times, but no one ever answered. When it came to dining, the experience was equally disappointing. The à la carte restaurants were nothing like we imagined. The steakhouse served us tough, flavorless meat that was nearly inedible. At the Italian restaurant, we were served linguine instead of the advertised spaghetti, and the quality was so bad that we ended up leaving halfway through our meal. We also visited Krystal, another restaurant on the resort, where the bread was so hard it could literally bounced off the plate. When we complained, they said that’s just how ciabatta bread is served here. It was beyond inedible, and we could not believe what we were being offered. Also we wanted to purchase wines from their wine list but 3/4 of the wines on list were not available. When we asked how come most wines were not available their response was we just went through the holidays and we are out of stock on most products. Would they not restock to sell more wines!!! Overall, this trip was a major letdown. We felt that we were not getting the value we paid for, and the lack of response from the staff made the situation even worse. Based on our experience, we do not recommend this resort to others for the poor service, unsanitary room conditions, This vacation was not worth the investment.

  Jan 23, 2025