Riu Palace Aruba

Riu Palace Aruba — Stay Review (August 23–29, 2026) We stayed in a Jr. Suite, Room 703 (ocean view) from August 23–29, 2026. I want to give direct, honest feedback because there's real potential here, but several things need attention. What worked well: The property itself, post-renovation, was genuinely impressive — clean, spacious, and well maintained. Our room matched that standard. The pool area was also spacious and well kept. On the physical property alone, you're doing a good job. Check-in and orientation: Check-in was quick, but that was the extent of the positive. Staff couldn't confirm whether the king bed I'd requested was actually available in my room. More concerning, we received zero orientation on how the resort operates — no information on restaurant hours, reservation policies, bar locations, or pool service. We had to figure everything out ourselves using the RIU app after arriving at our room. A basic verbal or printed orientation at check-in would fix this immediately and shouldn't be optional. Food quality — this was the biggest problem: I've stayed at numerous all-inclusive resorts (Iberostar properties in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica), and this was by far the worst food I've experienced at this tier of resort. • The buffet was repetitive all week — the same breakfast, lunch, and dinner selections day after day. • Live cooking stations were understaffed, leading to crowding, long waits, and food that came out undercooked. • Buffet seating was chaotic and poorly managed. • The à la carte restaurants were worse, not better. None of them had air conditioning, which made an already underwhelming dining experience genuinely uncomfortable. At the Italian restaurant, my girlfriend and I ordered the chicken parmigiana, took one bite each, and sent it back — it was inedible. We watched other couples do the same thing that night. • We gave the resort a second chance at the Asian restaurant the next night. The food was subpar, and our server poured wine so sparingly it was barely a taste per pour. • After two restaurant disappointments, we gave up and started eating off-property for the rest of the trip — not something a guest should have to do on an all-inclusive stay. Drink pours: This wasn't limited to wine. Alcohol pours at the restaurants, pool bars, and main bars were consistently weak and small across the board. I'm not a heavy drinker, but I'd like to actually taste the drink I ordered. Beach palapas and pool chairs — a real problem: There aren't enough beach palapas, and the ones available were being claimed as early as 5 a.m. — both by guests camping out before sunrise and by staff reserving them on guests' behalf. As a direct result, we never once got a day to actually sit and relax on the beach under a palapa during our entire stay. For a week-long trip, that's a significant failure. The same issue existed at the pool. Lounge chairs were in short supply, and we personally watched one group hold the same six chairs for the entire week — clearly unused for large stretches of each day but never freed up. With no available seating, we had nowhere to put our belongings and ended up stashing them on the floor next to the bar. This needs a real policy: enforced time limits, staff actively clearing unattended chairs and palapas, or some system that doesn't let a handful of guests lock down shared space for a full week while others go without. Summary: The property and rooms are excellent and clearly a real investment. But food quality, beverage pours, guest orientation, and beach/pool seating management all need serious attention. Right now the operational side is significantly behind the physical renovation, and it undercut what should have been a great week — to the point that we never got a single relaxed day at the beach, which is a basic expectation of an oceanfront resort stay. Moving forward, I believe I would not recommend Riu Palace to anyone for the above reasons and if I ever consider returning to Aruba, I will most likely take my stay to another property on the island. I hope this review is helpful in improving future guest’s experiences. Also I am open to fully discussing any of this information in more depth if need be. Cheers

This has, by far, been one of the best resort stays I’ve ever had! 🌴✨ The staff were incredibly cordial, friendly, and attentive. The food was exceptionally good quality—not one thing I ate was disappointing! I was honestly surprised by the food because, in my experience, resorts often lack variety and quality. This place absolutely nailed it every single time! 👏🏽 The pool, beach, and bars were all perfect. The pool was spacious, although I will say that some guests claim pool chairs by placing towels on them, which can make it difficult to find an available chair. The entertainment was also on point, and the location couldn’t be better—right next to the strip with plenty of bars, restaurants, and shops within walking distance. Overall, I had an amazing stay and would absolutely recommend this resort! I will definitely be coming back ASAP! 🌴🍹☀️

So I am writing this to inform anyone who maybe looking for information that may have traveled like I have and want a comparison. I want to start by saying I have been to several Sandals, Couples Resorts and cruises. I am just a middle class American that usually eat out 1-2 x week at typical chain restaurants nothing fancy. I was very hopeful for this vacation to be a return location from reviews. So here is honest review Good: Renovation: The building renovation is very nice. Everything is clean and fresh. Modern and very pretty. Room: Our room was wonderful! We originally was placed in 1025 room but had a sewer smell (broke pipe or something) and were moved to 1029 when we brought it to there attention. It was the best room we have had at any vacation! Swim up room was beyond great with shade, 2 loungers, 2 chairs, 2 end tables and an umbrella. HUGE area to hang out. We recommend B building for shade. The other side does not shade after lunch to hide from the sun. Beautiful at night with the pool lights. Curtains in the room are black out and cross over so no light comes in to wake you up. Bed is firm but typical for resorts. Ocean: very clear and calm Weather: Beyond great!!! Breeze made it so I did not even sweat despite the warm temperatures. No rain. Never hurricanes. Same year around. Perfect Town: walk out of resort and just walk to the left and find so many little shops, bars and restaurants. Great prices on souvenirs. VERY SAFE unlike other islands we have been to. Staff: I want to say Luis at the buffet was beyond special. He works so hard and always has a smile on his face. He was just as nice with people who did not tip him as people that did. Please if you are there find him and sit in his section everyday. Please tip him because he is a hard worker and I appreciate good service for authentic people. Palapa: This is a good and bad. They have tons on palapa but they chairs are locked up by a guy and he has to unlock them so you can take the chair to your spot. We always get up early and never have any trouble finding spot. We got up at 6 am and were able to find first or second row from ocean everyday no issue but after 7 am you will likely be out of luck. We realized after a few days people pay the guy $40-50 for the week to set them up for the week. Find the guy day one and set that up if this is an issue for you. The palapas are full really early here despite having so many. Now the BAD. Please do not hate. I am only writing this for people who may have traveled similar to me and want my perspective. FOOD: It was horrible. I had Elite status so that means we got to make reservations to any restaurant anytime and had access to the private Elite restaurant. The steakhouse was just a cooked filet. No seasoning at all. Not even salt. The steak at the buffet was slightly better than the steak house. We also ate at the Italian and got chicken parm. It was so bad that we just politely left and went to the buffet. I have never done that before. We did not eat at the Elite restaurant due to how bad the other 2 turned out and everyone said it was worse. I never seen anyone eating in there . Completely empty every time I went by it. The buffet is where we ate most breakfast lunch and dinner and it pretty much the same everyday with a small section that had some different stuff. It is the worst food out of all our trips. We never complain about the food at other places like Sandals. Sure there are stuff we don’t like but it’s all inclusive so we just go around the corner and find something else. We did not find that here at the Riu. We were hungry and the last day we just ate at local places outside the resort and it was really good. My husband said the morning we left “ I can’t wait to get to the airport so we can eat in Dallas” . He was praying for airport food. We at Chili 🌶️ in Dallas and it was glorious after a week of bad food. Kids: it is the family section so we knew kids would be there. They did I not bother us but I did find it strange that they had a kids coloring section everyday at the reallly nice covered chair section adjacent to the bar. They have a kids zone with a water slide and everything so they should have a covered area there for activities such as this. It was just a strange place to have toddlers coloring in a section that appeared very adult. Towels: You get 2 cards when you arrive and have to go to a single towel hut near the pool. No access near the beach. You give the card for a towel and can bring back the towel for another towel or get your card back anytime til 6. That means you have one towel to lay on your lounge chair and when you get out of the ocean you must use it to dry off. So you lay on a wet towel. We eventually started taking our white bath towel to dry off with but I doubt they want you to do that. One towel felt gross with all the water sand and sunscreen and was really in an inconvenient location for people who spend time at the ocean. Housekeeping: Room was cleaned well but we had issues with getting wash clothes. We stayed 7 days and 3 of those we were not left wash clothes after cleaning. We called and had to send messages to get them brought to our room. Sand: The sand is not powder white. As you walk out of the pool they have brought in a different color type of sand but as you get to the Palapas it is very rocky and hard on my feet. To the right it was softer but still not the same as Turks and Caicos or St Thomas. It was softer near the ocean but rough near the outdoor shower where everyone walks all day. I would return to Aruba for the weather, people and food off resort. If I return I will not book Riu due to the food poor quality. The swim out room was amazing and I wish the food was not so bad because I will miss that room!

First and foremost Aruba is beautiful. Palm Beach is beautiful. RIU palace is optically pleasing, clean and conveniently located to Noord nightlife and restaurants. We spent 6 nights. GET OFF THE RESORT! We were originally in room 303 in the main tower. The room was nice, view was of pool and ocean. After 2 nights our room flooded with grey water up through the shower drain and toilets. It started off in the middle of the night waking us up with crazy noises. The first time it happened they came and fixed it but then after returning from a day trip we were told it continued and they needed to move us. They moved us to an Elite suite, 2021. Very nice room. AMAZING views of city, ocean, and the whole resort. They would not upgrade our bands to elite though. Not a big deal at all to us anyhow. Food: we found the alacarte restaurants to be pretty basic with limited options. We were disappointed that there were no hibachi or sushi options at the Asian alacarte. They only served beer or wine as well, no cocktails unless you brought one in with you. If you were not in the first run of seating at 6, you likely will have to wait until 7:30 or 8. There is no seating outside the restaurant areas to comfortably wait and no bar in that area either. Favorite items, the dinner rolls and lobster mac n cheese at Steakhouse. Pad Thai at Asian. Pool/Ocean: If you do not get up and reserve a chair or shaded area by 7 am.. you will be in full sun for sure. Pool seems to really get crowded around 4pm making it less enjoyable. The beach is gorgeous and there is plenty of area to spread out and explore. Just to the left of the resort is some pretty decent snorkeling. We saw all sorts of fish, eels, even squid. The RIU pool bar staff are very cautious and measure shots, they will not take your insulated cups but rather make you two small drinks to pour into your cup yourself. A ‘double’ didn’t really seem to exist. Entertainment: considering they just reopened, it wasn’t bad. Several different dance themed nights, kareokee, live music and of course the RIU party on Friday’s on the adult side. There is also a casino. Staff: Very friendly, attentive, no complaints. The waiter in the country bar is very funny. Guests: There were a lot of not so great guests for some reason. People smoking whenever and wherever they felt like, including inside, outside, in the pool( which seems to be the only place that’s not allowed) . There were several large groups, which I’m all for, but there was a lot of yelling, treating staff poorly, and what appeared to be serious entitlement issues.. maybe I’m too passive, I don’t know.. but staff were so nice and at times it was hard to watch what they had to put up with. This is a FAMILY resort and there was a serious amount of children, especially the toddler range so you need to be prepared to see and hear a lot of crying, tantrums, and over stimulation. While there is a children pool area, seems like families ignored that in favor of the water lounge areas that were shallow to let their kids play rendering the loungers useless unless you want to be splashed. Overall, is this the best RIU I’ve been to, no. But it wasn’t terrible. I’d like to think they are still working out the kinks after reopening and we may have just had bad timing with inconsiderate groups that dampened the experience. I would come back to Aruba but would probably try a new resort.

Dear Management Team, I do not typically write reviews, but I felt it was necessary to share my feedback regarding our recent stay at Riu Palace. Unfortunately, our dining experience fell well short of expectations. The buffet lacked variety, with virtually the same items offered every day. Furthermore, the à la carte restaurant reservation system presented significant challenges. Because advance reservations are not permitted, we were advised to arrive early at 6:00 PM. Even upon arriving at that time, we were initially refused seating. We were only accommodated after speaking with staff to complain. Once seated, I observed at least six tables remain empty for the duration of our meal. This gave the impression that seating was deliberately restricted, leaving guests with a very frustrating experience. I hope you take this feedback constructively to improve dining operations for future guests. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how this will be addressed. Sincerely, K