Riu Palace Antillas

This is our second stay at Riu Palace Antillas. No issues with the check in or check out process. No issues with the bedroom which was clean. We requested extra towels and wash clothes and we were accommodated. I had no complaints with the food; we mainly ate at the buffet. Thank you Solanne for all of your help! There were enough of chairs around the pool. There is a quiet pool which we stayed at...and there is a swim up bar which was livelier. The entertainment at the pool was bare minimum. The spa was great; I had the stress relief. Thank you, Maira. The gym is 24 hours which was great. They have about five treadmills, one elliptical, weights, leg and arm machines. From the resort if you want to go to Baby Beach it is about 40 minutes away. We rented a car for the day. If you do go to Baby Beach, try O'Neill's it not far away. Great food.

Total agreement with Nancy Hutt review

This was my first trip to Aruba and I stayed at the RIU Palace Antilles. I was told by many friends that this place was great and was just remodeled. My room was nice however, I was supposed to have an ocean view but only had a view of the next hotel. We had asked for our rooms to be close by each other but we were all on different floors and there was no assistance in trying to fix that. The 2 couples checking in before me had the same issue and that’s just how it is. You are treated like cattle at the restaurants. You’re supposed to get there by 6 pm and a certain number of people are allowed in. If you don’t make the count you are given a beeper and have to wait about 2 hours otherwise you have to eat at the buffet. We spoke to the manager about this and she said people would make a reservation and not show up and they would eat in town. I would think at least they would give 10 min and no show bring someone else in. I don’t believe this problem should be put on the customer! Also, in the restaurants you can’t get a cocktail. Only beer wine or soda. (1 type of red 1 type of white) the drinks at the pool are in 4 inch glasses. The food was just soso I ordered sangria at the main bar and I could see the bartender smell it. He called his manager over and he took the bottle and the glass in the back and came back and handed me a glass of sangria. I tasted it and it was sour I think they gave me the same one. I just went to my room and dumped it. I would order room service for breakfast and it’s extremely limited. Toast, rolls, cereal or hard boiled egg. I wrote in bacon and couldn’t get it. I had sent clothes to laundry and 2 days later I called front desk to check on them since I didn’t have the laundry number. The gentleman was very nice and said to hold and he would check. He came back and said they were on the way. When I checked out they charged me for the in house phone call! She said I’m supposed to call front desk and they will call. I said that’s what I did as I don’t have the laundry number! She responded well that’s what in the system! The customer services was awful! It just seemed at every turn there was something less than appealing. I had spoken to other guests I had gotten to know and they said this hotel has changed to the negative over the years. Last year I stayed at secrets cap Cana in the DR. We were treated like Queens! My group was assigned to our own concierge who navigated everything for us. Dinner reservations etc. you were able to get anything you wanted whenever you wanted. I loved Aruba. We rented a jeep and toured the island on our own but I would not stay at this hotel again!

The best thing I can say about this hotel was that it was very clean. We had absolutely no housekeeping issues at all. Were given plenty of towels. We were out early and our room was cleaned early. As far as the buffet, there was plenty of variety to eat and we had no complaints about the food except that we found it to be a little too salty for our tastes. Our fingers were very swollen after eating. We ate at the Italian Restaurant once and it was not very good. We also ate at the steakhouse and Krystal Restaurant and they both were wonderful. Service at all was great. Smoking was allowed inside and outside of the pools. When I questioned why smoking in the pool was allowed a Manager advised me that Dutch Law allows it. Unacceptable and disgusting!! The people in the swim up bar were drunk, loud and obnoxious. The bartenders do not cut anybody off when they get too drunk. At the end of our vacation, we heard that someone vomited in the pool one day and the pool wasn’t even closed for 24 hours to deep clean it. After the 3rd day we ended up going next door to their sister hotel and we spent every day there thereafter until the end of our vacation. You can use all of their facilities except for the specialty restaurants so we would return back to our hotel in the evening for dinner. There were very few kids there since schools were in session and it was a much more beautiful hotel with classier people. It was like night and day at these 2 hotels and nobody was smoking in the pools. We wish we would have booked that hotel instead. The beach was beautiful and we spent time there as well but you have to get up at 6am or earlier to get good seats on the beach. Entertainment at night was poor. Not like the other 2 RIU’s we have been to. You have to go out for entertainment which we did as well as to a few very nice restaurants. This was our 3rd RIU this year and we have another one booked in December. If we are not happy at the next one, it will be our last RIU vacation.

Location was amazing. Took very little time to be dropped off from the airport, just steps from the palpas on the beach. The staff were so kind and welcoming. Room was a little outdated, but it was still nice, loved the view.