Riu Palace Antillas Vacations

They have some wonderful staff and they have some terrible staff. My wife experienced racism all while in the private pool area at the villas which were not so private; all of the caucasians were served and asked if they wanted drinks she was overlooked 3 times. The room above our room was being worked on yet the staff lied and said they were moving furniture, no resolution just deception. The roof of the room started leaking from the work being done we could hear the drills and banging all hours called for maintenance twice between within the hour of 12 noon and sent a request in the app and yet no one came until 4:57pm; with a lie about the AC leaking yet the crack in the ceiling was obvious and the AC had been on with no issues or leaks. The leak was not near the AC, it was obvious it was from the work from the room above. The sad part is I knew maintenance would appear after they were done for the day in the room above, which they did. The constant deception and no resolutions was annoying especially when Hospitality is the business. Contacted Riu complaints just for them to say there was nothing they could do contact who made the trip arrangements yet they were compensated but once again offered no resolutions. Oh they hope to have my business in the future why would I ever do something foolish like that. Day 2 of an 8 day stay constant issues with the room yet no room change no refund yet the service provided from them as a business was horrific. The lack of accountability from this company truly disgusting. Be mindful if you stay here you may be treated as if you are not a paying customer who expects quality and service for your money.

Absolutely LOVE the Riu Antillas!!
We have been twice now in 11 months. The staff are Absolutely wonderful (especially Poala, Astrid, and Allen).
The food was really good. The resort is very clean. We did notice a few differences the second time. This time, we had to go to the pool early to get a spot. Last time, you could go anytime of the day to the pool and you would get a spot. We couldn't get into the steak house this time as the lineups started a lot earlier than last time, and we unfortunately weren't able to eat there.
We will definitely be going back!!

Beautiful week at the RIU Palace in Aruba. It was all around perfect!

My favourite place!

Housekeeping didn’t clean coffee pot ever! Bathroom floor still had my greasy sun spray on it 2 days later. Staff doesn’t speak or under stand English good in the buffets. then at the end they charged us $35 for phone calls we didn’t make! 1show no real activities like pool table, ping pong or honor cats . Will never stay in a RIU again!

Wasn't too terrible but wasn't the best. The room was beautiful and very up to date. My shower still had hair in it from the previous guest (easy fix). The view was beautiful but there is tons of construction that takes away from the view. To the right, you can see the beach, straight ahead construction which I didn't realize I would be paying to see construction. The staff was great and very helpful. There weren't a lot of food choices. Maybe 5 total places. The steakhouse was very good but the spots fill up by 6pm. Room service is 24 hours but they only have COLD foods such as sandwiches, nothing hot. They had great entertainment which was a plus. I did pay to take professional pictures with the company that is inside of the resort for memories, but the guy who took the pictures was very rude. I'm not used to taking pictures or being in front of the camera so I had to ask him to please be a little more patient with me. He also told me that the prices for the photos would be one price, $8 per copy, in the beginning. Another guy told me a different price afterwards, $10 per copy. He basically said I lied and claimed he never told me the original price. After trying to explain, he told me that if I don't like it, I can go somewhere else, which was very rude. The overall experience was very terrible with this photo company after spending $220 with them.

It was a fantastic place, and room service was great and always responsive to any request.
It's an all inclusive hotel with lots of different resteraunts, bars and places to be entertained. We loved it and hated to leave.

My stay has been wonderful. My room is very comfortable and the food has been great. The staff is very helpful and friendly.

Very nice, sometimes annoying that they always move much more for tip dollars. But the hotel is excellent, the food is impressive and the area is the most

The rooms were nice and kept very clean, just basic rooms but had a couch and the balconies were a nice touch. There is not much shade at this resort. It is a good place to go if you like to have music, some entertainment and audience participation at the pools during the day. They make it a lot of fun.
The chairs at the beach and the pool get "reserved" by people at 6am so there isn't a lot to choose from when you come down at a normal time. But, the attendants try to find you something. No shade so be prepared.
The only complaint we had was that the restaurants do not take reservations. They are small and fill up at 6 PM and then you are given a beeper for the second sitting at 7:30-8:00. The dinners take a long time once you do get in. But, the food was pretty good at all of them. The buffet is always an option too.
The elevators could use a little software upgrade as they tend to skip floors even though the button is pressed.
Overall, we were very pleased with the trip - great fun! The staff is fantastic from bartenders (Nelson was a favorite) to restaurant wait staff to cleaning crew and more. Never had a bad experience with any of the employees.

We just returned from 7 days at Riu Antilles in Aruba from March 10-17th, 2024. We travelled with my mom who is 75. We will save our thoughts for check in at the end as it was no fault to the staff at the Riu Antilles property. We had an incredible time and we were treated very well from the moment we arrived until we left. Staff are helpful, friendly, kind to all. We couldn’t be happier with our experience.
Food:
This property has 4 Specialty Restaurants. All were fantastic. We really enjoyed trying them all and trying new foods. Though we went to the Italian twice, we think are favourite was the Krystal Restaurant. We really loved the food, the Goat Cheese Balls - out of this world and the bar cart cocktail experience. It elevated our experience and the Bartender/all staff were extremely friendly. We are food and travel bloggers and have posted many of our experiences on the Riu Antilles Facebook group and on our Socials. If you want to see more of the pictures and comments for each restaurant, feel free to search that up (@the.venture.boys). First come first serve model - some days you get in and some days you don’t. We always knew that we could go to the buffet so it didn’t impact us much and still enjoyed all of our food experiences. You get a buzzer if they have room (then go get drinks and enjoy yourselves) or they do tell you if there isn’t any room and you move somewhere else or the buffet.

- Ask the staff what the theme of the dinner buffet is each morning or look outside the doorway for the menu. This helps when making dinner decisions!

Beach:
Manny and I are beach people, we prioritize beach as our NUMBER 1 thing on vacation. We loved the colour of the water, the ease of swimming in the ocean and the soft sand at the waters edge. We know there are lots of places to get palapa for shade but one of the downfalls is that if you want seats near the ocean, you need to get up quite early. We met a lot of other patrons that also enjoyed sitting up front so we were all up between 4:50-5:10 am to stand under the palapa that we could get. I sometimes enjoy getting up early but by the end of the trip, I didn’t want to anymore. We also felt that the wind made for a different beach experience. We were grateful for the wind as it kept the temp reasonable but the sandblasting we got was really intense. Lots of people switched to the pool instead but there you also had to worry about umbrellas and tables. All in all, take it with a grain of salt. We prefer other beaches but it doesn’t mean we wouldn’t come back. We just had no idea prior to coming how bad it was for sand flying around. The beach staff are also helpful. They wear bright red shirts and will provide help getting your beach chair and moving it where you might want it. They start working at 6am and will unlock the chairs at that time for you. Even if you come later, they will bring your chair where you need it to be and are extremely helpful. They do post that you cannot leave your beach palapa for more than 2 hours. We had plenty of time to go for meals and come back. But this is to avoid someone putting towels out and then leaving for an excursion which is not fair or kind. We saw a lot of people shifting throughout the day and make their own systems. We also offered shade to those that need it. We do not own the spots and can share. We saw a lot of people choose to do this as well and it was nice to see.

We loved our one day stay at the RIU Palace. Totally enjoyed the food and the drinks. The water was clear, and the sand was soft, the pools were clean, the guests were nice. We would go back there for a longer stay .

Very beautiful place we got an all inclusive day pass highly recommend if you can afford, very good food drinks are strong access to beach and pools!

Excellent place to vacation with the whole family

Riu Palace Antillas in Aruba is an adult-only haven! Everything's included - comfy rooms, yummy food, and fun stuff to do. The beach is beautiful, and the staff are super nice. It's a perfect spot for grown-ups to relax and have a blast in the Caribbean. Definitely check it out!

We had a bad experience with the punctuality in the delivery of the room. They just gave it to us when we checked in at 7:00 p.m. When leaving we asked for two additional hours to wait for transportation and they denied it. There are never lounge chairs available on the beach.

Beautiful beach, friendly staff, hot and sunny with a nice constant breeze. If you want a spot on the beach under an umbrella, get up at 6 am and tip the beach chair attendant. 4 out of 5 stars because the entertainment was pretty lame, not usual for a Riu. However the RiuParty on Friday was very good.

The property needs updated. The rooms need remodeling.

Stay away from this place. Resort is outdated and there is construction going out next door for the foreseeable future. Ocean view rooms all have construction and you hear it all day long in the room and on the beach/by the pool. This is not a 5 star hotel. I’m not sure it’s even a 3 star. Upon our arrival our room was filthy, we found black curly hair all over the couch and bed, as well as chicken crumbs on floor. We called to complain, no one came to clean. Then we stopped in at the front desk before dinner again, they said that house keeping had a miscommunication and apparently our room was never cleaned. They finally sent someone when we were at dinner, when we came back someone just sprayed perfume and placed a towel animal on the bed. Again, hair in all of the same places. Scuffs and marks all over walls. Tv picture quality is from the 2000s. Bar has cheap liquor, no option for top shelf, couldn’t have any drinks on resort. Food is decent for breakfast and lunch, lots of variety. For dinner, it’s first come first serve and it’s a joke. We came down at 7:30 and received a buzzer for one place and weren’t even given an estimated time. We ended up waiting for two hours. People line up at 6 to eat. It’s pathetic and not what vacation should be like. After our first night we ate off of the resort for every dinner. Bathrooms by the pool are GROSSSSS, I’ll spare the details just use your imagination. Towel system is annoying, you get two cards and one towel per card. If you ask for extra they give you a hard time. Location is walking distance to nice shops and restaurants. Beach is nice but hard to get chairs and umbrellas unless you’re up at the crack of dawn. We were misguided by other good reviews and tik tok videos showed some nicer rooms. Never again. STAY AWAY

We just finished our first stay ever at Riu Palace Antillas, Aruba. I can't give the property zero stars because its location near the beach is beautiful, and the pool/bar areas are very nice. Several of the bartending staff are incredibly nice, and many of the hostesses/servers are nice as well. But any compliments essentially end there.

While they promote four onsite restaurants for dining options you really shouldn't ever plan to eat at any because they offer essentially one seating, and only if you get in line starting between 4:30-5pm to get on the list to be seated at 6pm. And, remember that if you're visiting from the States that means you're sitting for dinner starting between 5pm EST, 4pm CST, etc. So you are basically relegated to the cafeteria style buffets every day.

Riu promotes they have 24 hour room service. I guess this is factually true if you consider only FOUR options of Nachos, a club sandwich, and a vegetarian sandwich, and a salad as room service. You can hang a placard on the door to have breakfast delivered to your room, but again, an option of a hard boiled egg, toast, juice and coffee as breakfast in bed at a "nice resort".

The staff is mostly friendly but, while its promoted as all-inclusive and the gratuities already covered in your price, be prepared to bring a stack of bills with you because everyone has their hand out from the time you arrive.

First appearance of the room and facilities is nice, as long as you don't look too closely. The dust and dirt in every corner of the room is tacky, and we noticed prior guests' hair stuck/hanging around differing places in the bathroom. It became our joke betting each day whether the cleaning staff would wipe down the spots holding the hairs (mirror, shower, wall near the toilet, etc). Those hairs were there even when we left.

One thing we were not prepared for is that the average age of the guests on the adult-only side of the resort is probably 68 years old. I would estimate that 70% of the guests are beyond 66 years old, 20% between 50-65, and 10% below 50. So adjust expectations accordingly.

Not once did anyone ask how our stay was - not even when checking out. We felt as though we were an imposition like one might feel staying at an acquaintance's home when passing through their city.

I just cannot recommend Riu based upon our experience.