"Hotel looks tired, like you feel after transfer.."
First impression is the hotel looks tired, as tired as you feel after traveling from the UK, taking 2 hours to get through Sangster Airport, and 2 more hours of neck jerking bouncy road driving to reach your destination- the Riu tropical palace.
The staff are friendly, like amazingly friendly, all around the hotel, from cleaner to waiter, it’s great- except the ones that aren’t so friendly/customer oriented, really stick out like the bar man you told me I too slow deciding what I want for my drink after ordering the families drink, or the water sports women who offer no help even if opening time before opening time.
The rooms, when you reach your tired room with your weary first day been awake close to 24 hours head you’ll notice a room with barely enough pillows for the beds you have, you think the rooms are spacious, they appear spacious yet they are also so very cramped, when you cases arrive and there isn’t actually any space to store them or their contents,
The air conditioning seems not to be able to be controlled, it’s on and freezing or off and boiling, the air conditioning doesn’t apply to or work in the bathroom either, and our showers main head won’t stay on without you holding a button.
If like us you have a family room don’t expect any privacy or a chance of intimacy with your spouse as the room could not be designed to be more open, less private space than it is, also the resort is in no way designed for kids yet they allow you to bring them, it’s very bizarre, like Riu encourage them to be here, and make them welcome with a slide into splash pool or something or call it adults only. Other big players such as palladium group make kids of all ages feel welcome on their properties in a similar price and class range . Also were on the 3rd floor and our balcony has no cover so when it rains anything on there will get soaked, and being tropical it will rain.
Food and drink:
Buffets seem fine, yet when you get in to it, it’s actually dreary greasy boring food with the occasional bit of sparkle, breakfast again same as any all inclusive hotel 2 star up- but not a real 5 star resort like it pretends, no egg station to have your eggs cooked exactly how you want, or even just a simple to order menu for breakfast, like we have had in 4 star resorts in Europe.
Drinks- why have branded spirits if you’ve told your bar staff not to use or offer them, I don’t want to ask for a nice spirit when you want to serve rubbish once you ask for it appears to be a chore, for the bar staff, very odd. Had similar in higher Greek resorts.
There are enough Sun loungers for people, yet no umbrellas on the beach so expect an early fight if you want some near a palm tree for some shade.
The beach is very nice and clean, as are the pool areas, just feel a bit dated with plastic furniture which many resorts are moving away from.
More on the beach, the water is so warm, the sand so soft, the depth of water very safe, we think it might be warmer water than in the Maldives, but the snorkelling is a little disappointing. The beach sellers become a chore too, they are walking up and down all day long and they don’t seem to stop trying to sell- I get it, but also I want some peace on the beach, as I’m holiday to unwind.
Don’t know what else to say, some people seem to love it here and come back year after year, I suppose at one point it was class leading, now to us it just feels outdated and outclassed by many other brands in this “high end” space. Remember it’s big money to travel to places here so look at the reviews for many of its rivals carefully, and skip the ones that just say we’ve been coming here for 13 years it’s lovely- we say the worlds a big place, see more of it.
Anyway, we have few days left, and still no intimate moments with the missus on the horizon, as I still can’t believe a room is designed so open with no privacy yet so cramped.
The resort is pretty quiet actually which is nice but a road to back of the hotel has some random cars race down it at pretty much anytime, and the hotel room doors do not stop that car/motorbike waking you up. Also there is a little airstrip out the back but the flights are infrequent and in the day only so very little disturbance from that.
Hope you like my honest review, it’s not a bad place, it’s just not anything amazing either, especially for how much you have to pay for the privilege.
