Hotel Riu Karamboa 5*

The hotel is spotlessly clean and tidy and the staff are incredibly friendly and helpful. The drinks at the bars leave a little to be desired, local spirits are to be expected but could be much improved by proper cocktails like frozen daquaris/Pina coladas etc rather than drinks with crushed ice in them. Now to my main point for development.....the food....I will admit that my husband and I are 'foodies' and love ( and are happy to pay for) good quality food. I also understand that the majority of the food on the island has to be imported so the best quality ingredients may not always be available. Having said all that, the food could be greatly improved with some simple interventions, seasoning, for example, would help a lot of the dishes as well as a little more time spent on preparation of some of the dishes. A good tomato based pasta sauce is easy and cheap to make, as is an appitising salad dressing. The food at the hotel is very bland. There are some better dishes which are fresh cooked by the staff in the restaurant, however, the food in the 'speciality' restaurants is pretty unanimously awful (we tried them all) with most dishes clearly frozen and poor quality. There are opportunities to use fresh local produce that are clearly being missed in my opinion. I appreciate that, when cooking for over 1000 people, you need to produce food that is economically viable but I feel that a greater focus on simple ingredients, flavour and quality local produce would greatly improve the food offering at the hotel and be better for the local economy and the guests. All in all we have had a lovely time and really appreciate the welcoming atmosphere and wonderful staff at the hotel. I'm hopeful that this review is taken as an encouragement to improve in the one area that, for us, let's the hotel down as a 5 star.

We stayed at this hotel for 11 nights, and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. I would however say that this is not a five star hotel, but a good 4 star - in line with many other RIU hotels. No issues with sun bed wars, always plenty of choice for food at buffet and a la carte restaurants - however, we did need to book a la carte at midnight, as soon as they were available on the app. Room was a lovely size, and lovely and clean. Had some issues getting our fridge refilled, as the app requests were not listened to, but a visit to reception sorted the issue. Entertainment was not great, but didn't bother us as happy to sit in the bar / lobby and have a drink and play cards. However, we did enjoy the white party. Noise level not an issue. We did leave the hotel to visit a bar on the beach, turning left as you come out of the hotel - this was lovely. We also went on a day trip with Boa Vista Carefy, who I highly recommend. It was windy, but do not be deceived, you will still burn/tan! Saying that, the sea was not safe for swimming the whole time we stayed, but this did not bother us. Thoroughly enjoyed walking along the beach and watching the sunset. I wouldn't jump to return here, but that is not unusual as I don't often return to the same place, but do think it's good value for money.