"Not a 5-star and with an unusable sea..."
Service and staff: the staff was attentive and kind, especially all the guys and girls at the reception who were always smiling and helpful.
Cleanliness: the common areas are particularly dirty, as are the pools and the beach where there were glasses, cigarette butts, and plastic left a bit everywhere that is only removed at the end of the day.
Gastronomy: the food offering, although varied and abundant, is repetitive and not always of quality. The various themed restaurants (Asian, Italian, and steakhouse, which must be booked well in advance via the Riu app) offer more or less the same things that were found in the main restaurant. The drinks from the dispensers, especially the water, taste like chlorine.
Room: we were initially assigned a freshly repainted room (with a strong smell of paint) that was still dirty, which was promptly changed for us, with them telling us they would give us an upgrade. That was not the case, and in fact, instead of the third floor, they gave us a room on the second floor (therefore without a sea view). The rooms are large, spacious, and equipped with everything necessary, but they deserve maintenance, considering that in the bathroom there was mold on the walls and ceiling, the furniture is battered, the bedside table glass is broken, and almost no channels can be seen on the TV. Avoid the rooms located in the theater/disco area because there is loud music until late at night...
Common areas and sports facilities: they deserve more cleaning and supervision by the staff. The presence of so many families with children makes them noisy and dirty. In the pools (3 in total + water park with related slides for children and adults), the rules should be enforced more scrupulously, and above all, extraordinary maintenance should be carried out, since the floor tiles are now all coming off and the children compete to see who can find and remove the most...
It should be noted for sports enthusiasts that there is a small gym and a beach volleyball court. There are no tennis, soccer, or padel courts. However, there is the possibility of renting pedal boats, canoes, and jet skis.
There is a spa center, but in my opinion, the prices are very high...
Entertainment: certainly not intrusive. I only noticed their presence during the evening show.
Beach and sea: you don't feel like going for a swim. Calling it dirty is an understatement... seaweed and plastic rule the place. A real shame, but also a problem that I realize is difficult to solve, given that there is no education whatsoever regarding the protection of the landscape, even though there are staff members who try to keep the shoreline clean by constantly removing seaweed and plastic.
The beach is beautiful, wide, with sand, palm trees, umbrellas, and sun loungers that are not assigned, nor are they cleaned after use, so you will have to do everything yourselves...
The positive thing is that along the resort's beach you will not find beach boys wearing you out with their offers as happens in other places in Africa, because the entire area is off-limits to them...
Language: French is mostly spoken at the resort. Some people speak Italian, and many speak Spanish and Portuguese, since the resort is frequented mainly by them. On the weekend, the resort is literally invaded by "wealthy Senegalese"...
Excursions: there is the possibility of taking various excursions both with the various agencies present inside the Riu, and with the guys from the village located to the left of the beach (keep in mind, however, that the prices are more or less the same. There is a savings of about 5 euros, not more...)
Boutique: in the resort there is a nice shop that offers for sale things that you will be able to find anyway at the stalls of the two small local villages located to the right and left of the beach at significantly lower prices (remember that everything must be negotiated!!).
Ultimately, the Riu Baobab is a property that certainly has potential, but due to its size (there are over 500 rooms) it should be managed better; greater care is needed in everything, sports facilities should be upgraded, and the pools, food, common areas, and beach should be better maintained... Currently, it should not be considered a 5-star hotel and I do not recommend it to those looking for a comfortable and relaxing vacation; however, if you use the property as a base for visiting, in particular the southern part of Senegal, it is certainly a good compromise for quality-price.
