I’ll start with the good (pretty much the entire hotel)
My husband and I stayed at the Hotel Riu Palace for 5 nights the last week of May. We had been planning this trip since January or February, and took our time reading all the information we could find. There were very mixed reviews, but as we looked at them we felt that we would enjoy this hotel. We reserved this as a package in which included our airfare, transfer and room, so I’m not sure what exactly we paid per night. Looking online at the end of May for 5 nights in July lists that for two adults the price would be around $2,000. That being said, July is in low season, but when we went there was also the Swine Flu panic that is effecting hotel prices considerably.
Our vacation agency, vacationstogo.com, used De Palm Tours for the transfer from the airport. The bus took us to several hotels before ours dropping other people off. After stopping by other smaller hotels, the Riu is almost overwhelming to approach. The best description that I can come up is that it feels like an Arabian Palace was picked up, and placed right on the beach. It’s beautiful, but intimidating at first.
Check in was flawless, we waiting for maybe 5 minutes as 5 couples arrived at the same time. Because it is all-inclusive, it takes some time to check in, but the front desk clerk The front desk person handed us a map, our room keys, and our towel keys. The room keys were swipe cards -- a plus after Riu Sante Fe in Cabo only gave us one big old fashioned key. We also didn’t get the lecture or warning over paying $20 if we lost our towel card. So I’m not sure if there was a charge or not. After we got our things, we headed up to room 718, our home for the next 6 days.
After riding up a very small elevator (it made me a little uneasy at first, but after one night I was used to it,)
We walked into our room and were extremely pleased. There was a largely appointed bathroom to the left our the entrance, an entry area separating it from the bedroom -- an extremely large bed, and down two steps to a sitting area. The sitting area had a table with two chairs, a coffee table and a love seat. Beyond the sitting area was our balcony which looked directly out over the pool to the ocean. Our balcony had two plastic chairs and a plastic table. The outside was less fancy than the inside, but if someone would cite that as a complaint as the looked over the ocean, I personally would wonder if they were focusing on the wrong things.
The pool was very nice. The water was a little cold in the mornings, but once you stood in the water and in the sun for a bit, you forgot it was cold. In the afternoons, the sun had heated it to be a pleasant temperature. The pool bar area was the most popular area, and in the afternoon that area can get pretty crowded. The bar staff was very helpful and friendly at the pool bar, and the pool bar opened at 10 am.
Past the pool was the entryway to the beach. Riu does have security situated at this entrance, as all beaches in Aruba are public. The beach was beautiful. The water was pretty calm, and chilly. The only problem that I had with the beach was that during gusts of winds, mini sand storms that were pretty painful against your skin. (However this has nothing to do with the hotel itself.)
We were very happy with the food. We ate breakfast at Don Nicolas each morning because they served 7:-10:30. I‘m not sure what their lunch hours were. The staff who wrote the hours on my map didn‘t write this number in a form that I‘m familiar with. Nautilus served breakfast from 10:30-12, and lunch from 12-4. We ate here for lunch when we were at the hotel. For breakfast, I wore a swimsuit and cover up (ie a dress, not a see-thru piece of fabric) that seemed to be the norm. My husband mostly wore trunks and a tee shirt to breakfast. We ate at the specialty dinners on our second, third and fourth nights there. At each restaurant there are 2 seatings, 6:30 or 9:00. Each morning before breakfast, we went to the lobby, and had to sign up for dinner. A lot of people complain about this, and in Cabo I complained right with them. The reservation system here makes 100% sense. The specialty restaurants are small, and since there are only 2 seatings the reservation system works.
Our first night we ate at the Nautilus "Steak House" restaurant which was really good. For appetizers, I had a platter of seafood, and my husband got the Chicken Caesar Salad. It was all wonderful, but their Caesar dressing was the best dressing I’ve ever had. I ordered a steak, but by the time it got there, I was full on appetizers and bread, so I had about 2 delicious bites, but couldn’t finish. My husband had lamb for the first time, and was very impressed.
The Krystal Restaurant was very good, but it is very fancy and a little too cutting edge of cuisine for me. I could only eat about half of me meal. The waitress was very worried that I didn’t like it -- I lied and told her that I was full. Every one we met who ate here agreed that it is worth going here, even if only for the fusion chocolate desert.
The Italian Restaurant, Milano, was also wonderful, but we had been out that day, so I was too tired to make notes. Room service is available in a limited menu, which some people complained about. I am of the opinion that if you order room service regularly and pay for it, then you can complain. I am cheap, so just having room service included was awesome. There was lunch from 11 am-7am. There were 2 salads, 3 sandwiches, nachos, and 3 deserts to choose from. We ordered it around 1 pm, and it took about 40 minutes. To order breakfast, there was a cardboard order form. I never saw ours.
I enjoyed the casino, but didn’t seem to meet many people who won a lot. I was up over $150 one night playing Roulette, but gave it all back.
Now the (not so) bad
The bed. My husband woke up every 3 hours having to try to reposition himself back to sleep. One night he took the cushions off the love seat, but that didn’t help. Two couples that we met told us that they asked for mattress pads that helped a little bit, but not a lot, so we just stuck with it. I love a hard mattress and slept well, but woke up finding my hips to be a little sore.
And the Beautiful
I’d recommend this resort to anyone. We met a lot of fun people from all over. If I were going to generalize who seemed to come, I’d categorize the guests as mostly one of two groups. Honeymooners, or people 45+. We were there as a 29 and 33 year old who have been married almost 8 years. When we told people that, they seemed a little surprised. But we got along with every single person that we met, it was the friendliest group of people I‘ve ever vacationed with. My guess was that most people splurge for their honeymoon, and then have to wait until they have their finances are in order when they are older to get back
:-)
by jmariep on May 30, 2009
Hotel Riu Palace Aruba
J.E. Irausquin Boulevard 79 Palm Beach
+2975863900