"Long but very detailed!!! Dont skip this one!"
Riu americas
Stayed aug 2026, 1 week+ (9 days??) Monday -Wednesday
LONG DETAILED REVIEW ANSWERING ALL YOUR QUESTIONS!!! Enjoy! I hope this helps!
Largest "cons":
Hardly any bathrooms! Never had this be the case anywhere... very odd. There's literally two- one by the elevators inside to the right of the lobby, and some down by the spa... that's literally it I think :/ crazy! Needless to say I'm sure there's a lot of pee in the pools!
Food bland :( overall got better as we went
SHUTTLES TO OTHER RIUS ALL HAD THE SAME FOOD MENUS!!! Just different restaurant names! Biggest disappointment of all :/
Food overall:
I believe there are 4 or 5 restaurants- mexican, Italian (inside not by the other restaurants), japanese, one buffet they consider two (outside/inside??? Counts for two? Odd), A little area down by the pool that they cook (call it "food truck"???) serves lunch 11-2p every day guy cooking down there- burgers, tacos, nachos, , etc, a 24 hour lounge area that serves food/has breakfast selection also drinks/ice/outdoor smoking area, and a coffee bar that has pastries, small sandwiches/fruit, fresh juices and a cute sitting area, and coffee/espresso. Room service menu 24/7 and included in expedia all inclusive.
Food is lacking..it's not "bad" but just very bland, and literally hardly any choices to choose from. Got better as weekend approached. Not picky eater by any means... but everything bland. Even buffet I felt was kinda on the smaller side compared to several other all inclusives we have been to. Only one buffet. Breakfast,lunch, dinner open 7 days a week. Breakfast is the best. Different themes for supper each night i think. Sushi at times- very clearly prepared way ahead of time.. never fresh, disappointed at that. Didn't think this would be a big issue because you have access to all the other Rius around (with a free shuttle), but turned out the restaurants had the very same menus they just had different names... very big disappointment. The number one downer for us :( even the negative reviews on here still talked about how great the food/selection was and we completely disagree. You wouldn't go hungry necessarily but literally nothing was "outstanding"... usually you can find a couple things once you try everything that you really love but I can't say we really loved much of anything... minus i guess I would say the best of every place here was the Mexican restaurant.. that one actually was very good for the most part ..
Breakfast buffet was the second. Had a lot of fresh fruits that were always pretty ripe and a lot of juices! Loved that. The coffee bar with pastries was one of the better things too. Not everything, but a few good Things! Coffee was great! Potatoes everywhere very underdone/mushy... beef stringy, tough, plain literally at every restaurant several times we tried it all. All the meat like that. Same with the seafood as well.. small, bland, no flavor... wondering what people eat at home if there is this many good reviews on the food here because I don't believe them at all and we tried every restaurant multiple times :( perhaps we just came at a bad time? Again got better as the weekend approached.
The food down by the pool that they did every afternoon was fairly decent... wings were good.
Pico and guac everywhere was appreciated!
Hard to come by limes a lot?? Odd.
They did canned sodas pretty much everywhere, every restaurant served you from a fresh can, which we appreciated! It was never hard to get the fridges in the rooms stocked!! Or water bottles! Appreciated that! There's literally a big drink cart that comes by I think every day and they are more than happy to provide you with anything you need if you don't want them in the room just find the cart and you can either ask or take whatever you want :) fridge in room medium sized, worked great! Had a small freezer part that froze great! Wonderful fridge.
Air conditioning lacking. Hallway and lobby were the only somewhat "cold" areas. Restaurants all hot, rooms not very good... large ceiling fan but still not cold by any means
Some restaurants are closed on some days, but I think that's expected when you go offseason august, sept oct nov? No reservations needed anywhere. Get there early. They do a buzzer system at most of them
already talked about that every menu in the restaurants is tiny... even the coffee bar literally has like three coffees to choose from :/ it would be fine if they rotated them every couple days but it's the same always... so we were thinking about coming for a month next year but that's going to definitely change our mind because they don't seem to switch anything up with the food... and the fact that you don't get different menus at the different rius changed everything for us also :( sad
The food did get better as the weekend approached. Maybe because more people = more food being needed = fresher maybe? Im not sure but it definitely got more flavorful and better quality as the weekend approached. If you're someone that likes a lot of flavor I would seriously bring a bunch of dry seasonings because you're gonna need it! Luckily I brought my garlic powder and I kept it in my purse at every restaurant and that literally saved me! Cajun would have been a good spice option to bring !
Desserts overall were probably the best thing- Coffee bar's were the best. Mexicana had good ones too. Vanilla macaroons and Dubai choco cake at coffee bar were the best! Actually quite tasty. Probably some of the best food items here (coffee bar). Angie will not disappoint!
They are kinda difficult about ordering multiple main dishes, especially at Black n White. This bothers us greatly but I guess we understand. However, we are people that barely waste so it is annoying. Because like I said portions are tiny everywhere... would be nice to not have to sit and wait forever for a second entrée because they wouldn't just bring us two right away. Maybe thats typical? Not sure. Either way, irritating because when you find something you like you wanna take advantage and order a lot of it so you don't have to eat the stuff that you don't, but I think they catch onto this and they try to limit the good food items... obviously it's more money for them if people eat the higher quality good tasting stuff/meat etc.
Mystery meat pretty much everywhere... burgers at dinner buffer are good. Steaks are beef but def not the cuts they say... clearly glued together, tiny width, "filet"?? I doubt it... when you find good meat cherish it! Lol! Wings at the pool food truck are great!
Didnt order much alcohol at all so cant comment on that. Not hard to get drinks, they are great about walking around especially in the lobby. But the farther down the beach you go away from the resort, the harder to see staff /get drinks.
Loved the bar inside the lobby. Always glass glasses and they are consistently good! Abu is great. Low key live music evenings! Older crowd, loved that! Also the young ladies at the coffee bar and the waiter at Krystal with the silver front teeth, sorry didnt catch his name- those are the best staff members here!
Pico and guac almost everywhere! Appreciated that immensely!
Other things to note-
Service is great if they know you tip, pretty typical at all inclusives. You always have your handful of rude ones of course. The younger ones at the coffee bar and walking around in the resort/esp the lobby asking if you want drinks are the best ones!! So friendly! Come around quite often!
We booked expedia- we included the Speedy shuttle in our booking but I think the resort has a free shuttle service to and from the airport?? we didn't know if we could trust this so we just threw on the cheap round-trip shuttle for everyone when we booked... to us it was worth the small extra charge just to make sure we weren't gonna miss our flights. It was kind of hard to find them when you walk outside of the airport but eventually we did... we had to wait quite a while for the next van to come and it was full so just note that you're not gonna get to the resort right when you land... takes about an hour-1.5 start to finish to get there between waiting for the van and all the stops. I think it's like a 29 minute ride from the airport to the specific resort if it was a straight shot?
Housekeeping is great. It's not hard to get whatever you need, most of the workers don't mind if you walk up to the cart and just take what you need. At times different towelS/sheets harder to get than others but just stock up on what you need when they have it and you should be fine :) we don't like having housekeeping or other people coming into the room when we're not there so I can't comment on that . App is great because you can request supplies, maintenance, room service, right on it! Loved that. Download the riu app asap!
If you need to switch rooms it might take a couple days so the sooner you ask the front desk the better! It seems like they are happy to give upgrades... especially during the week. Ask for the rooms ending 09 and 16! These are the corners and have larger balconies! I believe theres 8 floors total? Some have jacuzzies on the balconies but these may be suites? We booked the junior suite on expedia, ocean view. Be cautious I think Oceanview and oceanfront are different? We booked the lower of the two options and it was just about 80% view of the ocean but once we asked for a room ending and 09 it was literally completely oceanfront. Absolute beauty and worth every penny! Again if you go in the off-season they will probably upgrade you to this for free :) at least they did for both of our parties of people!
I don't remember if it was noted on Expedia or not but we did pay I think $40 for two people in tax when we checked in? Note that on expedia. My husband booked so im not sure if it said that, but likely? Our other group had three people in one room and I think they paid the same amount? Taxes???
We got a roll away twin mattress for the other group and the other room that came with us and I think it was free of charge. That was nice!
Comfy and convenient!
Our first room we had was a "king " bed but really was two mattresses pushed together to make a bigger bed. However the second room we got was just one big king mattress? Same room type. Both were pretty comfortable but the one with the two mattresses pushed together definitely had more miles on it lol you could feel the springs. The large king mattress was pretty comfortable-Firm but comfortable. No complaints there. You get four pillows, a fleece blanket and sheets as "blankets". And I think there's two more fleece blankets in each room in the closet. There's no comforters really... robes in the closet, no slippers, but our other group didn't have any robes, they had to ask. Can ask on the app. Love it. Safes in the closet. Tv in each room but down by the sitting area with a small couch (not pull out). No TV directly in front of the bed. I enjoyed that but my husband thought it was weird. Several English channels at all times. Cable i believe? Possibly was a smart TV that you could bring a streaming stick and use the Wi-Fi.
I didn't know when I chose this resort but they have a private beach... basically THE beach here is a private one, kinda like a lagoon type feel? Large rocks about 30% of the beach in the water. It's nice but also if you're looking for a straight beach like everywhere else, miami etc, where it's just a straight line of beach and the different hotel hotels have their own segments, and it's loud with music and activities everywhere and tons of people this is not the case at all. The only beach here at this resort is a private one that's kind of like a lagoon.. we liked it for the first couple days but then you sort of miss the large parallel beach feel. Can walk right next door to a regular beach! But theres a lot of large rocks all over this area in the water? Appreciate no kids here!!! And quiet overall! Partying stays next door... very nice. Came in august, not much seaweed. Heard the other rius had more? Water pretty teal/see thru most days, rough at times. No rain once our entire stay! Beautiful. Small shells, nothing large.
**absolutely loved this!!! Fish here! Small but always there at the private beach! Super cool! They hang out by the docks and it's really fun to grab a snorkel mask, they come right up to you! Neat! Never had that at a resort! Bring a mask!
This is a small resort! The smallest we have been to!!! One small/private beach... but if you walk down to the Rio next-door it's a more regular beach, larger, kids, loud music, more lively . all the food is in one area, lobby, events, etc, everything is basically in one area and very easy to find! Wasn't expecting a smaller resort and appreciated this a lot! They still have two big pools and one smaller pool !!! One swim up bar in the louder pool. Have a large theater area that has events.
Wifi spotty in areas... us cellular/tmobile towers were lacking also..'phone didnt work at times randomly, esp in elevators, far side of the beach/resort, would disconnect randomly but overall good
Loved that this was a "quieter" resort, we were at Americas and that seemed to be the known quiet one. Quiet all over resort by 10/11pm even on weekends. Which is great! Heard riu peninsula is nicer? Thats the most luxury one i believe? Not 100% sure though
Usual amount of vendors on the beach. Maybe less than other places? They leave you alone if you say "no". Happy about that. Wasnt excessive like other places
Walking distance to little shops across the street, if that isn't to your liking and you want to shop more it is easy to catch the bus to the flea market/big mall. $1 per ride wherever you want. Safe! Lots of people did it consistently. Casino in the mall nearby! Mcdonalds, etc Fun if u want time off the resort/something different
Snorkel masks free at the resort, $20 "deposit" that you get back when you return. They have kayaks, large flat boat things w sails, not sure how much these are to rent or if the kayaks are free to use? Didn't ask. They seemed kind of rude :/ sometimes I wonder if workers pretend to not speak English so you leave them alone when they know you're not gonna give them any money... likely
Would we stay again? Yes I think so. If the price was right.. off season it was still pricey on expedia! $1864 /person off season for a week! Thats a lot... would probably not go again for that price but not upset! Was a great experience, food got better, love the small beach/quieter overall feel of this one (older crowd), and overall small resort feel! Overall id rate it like a 6/10 maybe 6.5???
