Riu Palace Costa Rica - All Inclusive

Fantastic holiday at a beautiful resort.

Pros: The property is very good, but is due for renovations, which I was told will start later this year. All of the staff were very polite and helpful. The gardens are beautiful and we had an excellent view of the gardens beach and ocean.

A nice first visit to Costa Rica - Guanacaste

Pros: The staff: invariably prompt, courteous and smiling. The food at the three a la carte restaurants was tasty and abundant (again, the staff was great). My room, junior suite with a sea view, was spacious, comfortable and pleasant. Yet the cheap plastic furniture at the varanda was not very inspiring

Cons: The sister Riu resort was closed so there were lots of people at the hotel, with lots of noise. As the lifts are too slow and there were many users, I often had to wait a while for my turn (I was on the 5th floor). The resort could have a concierge to offer advice on the choice of tours available.

We enjoyed our stay immensely and will be sure to recommend this resort to our friends.

Pros: The food was perfect! There was a wonderful selection including an abundance of both cold and hot options. The fruit was very fresh and the ready made options were delicious. A carafe of hot coffee was brought to the table each morning at breakfast so we didn’t have to ask for more coffee. The dining areas were clean, easy to access and there were no bugs! Lunch and dinner were equally delicious! Excellent food, cooked to perfection! The rooms were clean and while they were a bit dated. They were pleasant enough for our needs. The air conditioning worked very well! This resort felt very safe.

Cons: Dinner seating at the a la carte restaurants isn’t ideal. If you showed up for first seating at 5:30 you were not guaranteed to get a seat and might have to try back for the second seating at 7:00. The red wine was not great but there were lots of other dinner beverage options.

Over all fantastic Restaurant food was amazing beach was amazing and pool servers were amazing

Pros: Breakfast was great lots of choices and everything was fresh

Cons: I battled with the front desk 5 days in a row over the TV not working and it never got resolved. I even went down to the desk after getting no where with talking to them on the phone and still no one came to the room to fix the problem. Never got resolved disappointing.

Amazing time and we would love to return one day, great service, great people and great experience.

Pros: We loved every part of our stay here! The views were incredible, staff was amazing and friendly, very attentive, particularly would love to mention the service from Jordan at the inside bar. The food was so good, so much variety to choose from. We loved that there was a gym and the choice to join some activities. The beach was beautiful and easy to walk to. We never had an issue getting drinks or food when we wanted. I would love to return here one day, it was a great place to visit for our first all inclusive experience.

Cons: The aircon wasn't very cold, only issue we found as it was quite hot at night.

Pros: The staff was attentive and kind, the food was really good and there were a lot of options. You can see monkeys near the beach.

Cons: At night it can be noisy

Pros: Amazing location with great surroundings and nature, great buffet food, good facilities, nice pools, great beach, nice gardens, helpfully and friendly stuff, lots of entertainment.

Cons: General interior design is lacking in comparison with many other 5* hotels. Lobby feels like train station, corridors have the feel of a hospital or mental institution, but rooms are the worst. Cheap amd realy badly painted DIY plywood furniture. It was the saddest lookin room we ever stayed in (and we stayed in probably 40-50 5* hotels around the world over last few years). Real shame as the area, staff etc. is all great. Also restaurants (apart from Japanese) are quite average and not worth the eait, which is weird as the buffets are amazing with huge variety of tasty food. Lastly they have smart TVs but with app casting unavailable for some reason which is pretty much standard now in most hotels.

Overall for the price and location was good.

Pros: I liked the layout of the pool. There was plenty of pool space. The gym was equipped nicely. The white party was nice.

Cons: Overall the staff was not as friendly as other RIU resorts I have been to. I would walk by numerous staff daily and they would not speak. It's important for a guest to be greeted with a smile and hello (hola) regardless of customers race/ethnicity. The food was not as good as other RIU resorts. Food Options felt limited for lunch. Should have more restaurants open for lunch.

Enjoying life

Pros: The resort is. Marvelous. Personnel is super attentive and food options are great especially restaurants. Night life and entertainment program is wonderful.

Excellent . I would come back

Pros: Breakfast was excellent , local like Gallo pinto , plátano maduro

Cons: Beach