Hotel Riu Playa Blanca is located on the shore of the Cocle beach in Panama. Its exclusive service and complete facilities offer a variety of activities, sports and entertainment to all clients, making each stay a wonderful vacation with family and friends.
In the hotel you will find different buffet and thematic restaurants to taste delicious Panamanian gastronomy, a refreshing swimming-pool and one gym in order to maintain the rhythm during your vacation. Throughout the day you will be able to join different
activities with our team. You will be able to dance, to sing, do some aqua gym, volleyball… and the children will find Riuland. At night you will enjoy the shows, live music, and the discotheque; or perhaps just enjoying a cocktail under the moonlight. Come
to Coclé Beach and enjoy relaxing days in Hotel Riu Playa Blanca.
Location
Coclé-BeachProperty Information
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Resort Details
Hotel Advisories
General Policies & Fine Print
- Early Departure Penalty: 1 Night Applies: Sunday - Saturday 04Jul24 - 23Dec26
- Early Departure Penalty: 2 Nights Applies: Sunday - Saturday 24Dec25 - 30Apr26
Customer Ratings & Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
5055 reviews
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Jan 19, 2025Fantastic Vlaue for Money
I'm not sure of the full facilities of this hotel, but notwithstanding the hotel rates five star. I do have one complaint and I'll get to that, but first let me tell you why I think this is a five star hotel. The hotel management is first class and this shows everywhere. The hotel is super clean. Public spaces, gardens and beach are immaculate. Everything works. We did have a problem with our room safe but maintenance was in the room and the problem fixed within minutes of the issue being reported to the hotel switchboard. Without exception staff were well turned out, polite, friendly and helpful. Our room was large, bright and airy, with no sign of mildew, so common in the tropics. The air-conditioning worked well and was quiet, as was the ceiling fan. The hotel is located only about 7 minutes from the airport, and travel between the airport and hotel was well organized, as was our reception at the hotel. There is no portering service but this isn't an issue as there are four small elevators in the main building and room signage and directions are good. During our visit the elevators were in service all the time, to the best of my knowledge. We did not use any of the pools, so I'm not going to comment on them. We swam in the blue sea which was very warm and completely safe, but not really suitable for snorkeling as the ocean is murky. The hotel is located on a beach about 4 kms long. The beach is deep and shallow, and while we were at the hotel there was no surf and only wavelet. The sand is very hard below high water and great for walking, but grey in colour and not particularly attractive. We had all but three meals in the main dining area. This large space is divided into a core air-conditioned area, where the food is self service, and an outer area which is covered but open to the gardens. We preferred to eat in this latter area, but there a couple of cats around, and various mynah birds, intent on stealing food, particularly fruit and packets of sugar. The quality and variety of the food was excellent at all times, and there were several different items each day. My only regret was that it wasn't mango season, but the pineapple was the best I have ever had. Salads, mains, veggies were all great. Desserts were sometimes quite gaudy [some had gold leaf] but all were very tasty. The four house wines were all very pleasant. Bar drinks were very nice, and the staff were very smart in keeping the amount of alcohol in the drinks low, unless you wished for more, in which case it was freely given. My only complaint relates to the three specialty restaurants, my partner didn’t really have any issues with her food but I did. At the Italian Restaurant the minestrone soup was so salty it was inedible. There was a major problem with noise on the evening we attended the Italian Restaurant, two large groups of a certain ethnicity were shouting and screaming at one another across the room – we got up and left it was so bad. At the Asian Restaurant the soggy heavy “tempura” bore no resemblance to light super crispy tempura batter. At the steak house, the Caesar salad was very poor and so were the pork ribs, which was surprising as the pork was excellent in the main dining room. I suggest that Hotel management take a close look at these restaurants as, in my opinion, the food is not up to the standards of the main dining room, and the staff in the Italian restaurant made no attempt to control the rowdy diners . We traveled on a Sunwing holiday, and the local staff were very friendly and helpful. We only had one 5 hour excursion to the local town of Penonome, which at USD $ 20 per person was great value for money and led by a very informative helpful guide. This was an excellent vacation, good flights, transportation and a five star hotel, what more could you ask for.
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Jan 18, 2025Meh
The resort is a a solid 3.5 star not great but not terrible. Grounds are lovely .The rooms could use a update , especially the bathroom with a shower and tub in one. Rooms have a slight musky smell. Buffet food was good but lacking in options some days. The Italian restaurant was very good. Entertainment was average. I did have a issue with a employee by the name of Manuel at the front desk. On our last day we had put our towels out at 6:15 am to save loungers that were removed. We played the game everyone else seemed to be playing after going down on our first day at 8:15 am and not finding any available. After speaking to the manager Christopher I was told that towels cannot be saved before 6:30 ( first he said 6am) fair enough BUT there were two employees who were standing next to me as I put my towels down and didnt say a word about this. I also saw the same two put down 2 towels and a side table on two loungers for another vacationer who stays for 8 weeks ( he probably paid them because everyday he had the same chairs) . The manager said to go to the front desk to get new towel cards and to ask about our personal items that were left on the loungers. When I approached Manuel and told him his Manager advised me to go to the front desk to get new cards because our towels were removed he asked who took our towels. I told him about saving the loungers early and he told me no one would remove our towels. When I assured him someone did remove them he just looked at me like I was lying and said again no one would take your towels. He was very reluctant to give me two new cards. When I pointed out the manager who was standing about 10 feet away and said you can ask him he proceeded to hand me the cards and said I don’t need to speak to him as you said your towels were removed. I then asked about my personal items and he said I dont know where they are. I said is there a lost and found he replied I don’t know as you said your towels were removed so maybe they are with them. I then approached the manager again who came back to the desk with me and spoke to Manuel who then looked in their system where they keep a log of found items. I was told nothing I described was found. The manager said said let me check in the back room behind the desk and in about 15 seconds he came back with my personal items. Manuel was very insolent and disrespectful. Not helpful in the least.
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Jan 17, 2025
Just as Advertised
Everything was just as advertised. Bar and food service was great. The only critique would be the quality of the rooms. They were definitely outdated and could use some minor updates such as repainting and finishes. Besides that, everything seemed clean and the responsiveness of the staff for room requests through the app worked well! The price matches the experience. Overall, would stay here again.
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Jan 17, 2025
Nice place to stay, relax and enjoy life
First time in Panama and the Riu experience was up to our expectations. Food is good, pool and beach are perfect and the place is clean, well maintened and the staff is helpfull and dedicated. The land is green, there is a lot of birds and there were not much wind.
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Jan 13, 2025Disappointing
Room was nice but so musty smelling, pillows were like cottage cheese and not enough blankets, house keeping didn't come twice, and upon check out there was an unfortunate incident. We brought our bags down on time for check out. There was a line to check out so we took the kids for lunch and came back to hand in the key cards. We were then informed we owed $120 usd for a late check out. We indicated that this was an honest mistake and asked for some leniency. After speaking with a few different customer service reps they said they could only reduce it by half. That was best and final. Sunwing Rep asked them to check cameras to prove that we were there on time. They refused. They indicated that if I refused to pay they would call the police. There were 19 of us on this trip, the 60$ was more important to them then providing good customer service and having 19 of us leaving happy. The cost for all of us to go was around 30k. This 60$ "late" fee was made into a way bigger deal than necessary. Afterwards I posted a google review and in their response they lied and said that what I wrote was inaccurate and that security intervened for unwanted behaviour. NOT TRUE!! I do not recommend this resort.