Riu Palace Aruba

Beautiful hotel. The staff is extremely friendly and will help with anything you need with a smile. The buffet was phenomenal. Everything was kept spotless. I would highly recommend the riu palace. I know our family will definitely return

**My wife, our 22-month-old, and I visited the Riu Palace Aruba for a relaxing Labor Day weekend before the baby arrives.** My wife works in the travel industry, so we were able to get a discounted rate for the week. The last time we were in Aruba, we stayed at the St. Regis a few months after it opened. Based on what we paid, I’m actually amazed to say that I would choose the Riu over the St. Regis. The Riu Palace recently renovated the rooms, pools, common areas, and restaurants, and they did an excellent job. They also have an Elite Club option, but minors cannot be part of your party, so we weren’t able to take advantage of the upgrade. Elite Club includes perks such as swim-up rooms, exclusive liquor brands at the bars (Grey Goose and Patrón stood out, although there are still plenty of great options for non-Elite guests), a private section of the beach with a self-serve bar, restaurant reservations, and an exclusive Elite-only restaurant. We spoke with several Elite guests during our stay, and none of them seemed particularly impressed with the exclusive restaurant, so I don’t feel like we missed out too much. ### The Food The restaurant options include the Elite Club restaurant (I’m not sure of the schedule), the buffet (breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with themed dinners every night), Asian, French, Italian, and a steakhouse. The specialty restaurants are dinner only. There is also an American Sports Bar that is open 24 hours for drinks, with select hours for lunch, dinner, and late-night food. Room service is also available 24 hours a day, although we never tried it. The **buffet** was consistently decent. Some days had some genuinely delicious options, while other days were more of an “it’s okay” situation. The **Asian restaurant** was good and actually had the best house red wine of the trip. My biggest complaint was that the food was warm rather than hot. The Pad Thai was our favorite. It wasn’t traditional Pad Thai, but we thought it tasted great. The **French restaurant** was our favorite from starters through dessert. The lobster bisque was so good that we went back for a second round. My wife really liked the snapper, although she thought the skin could have been crispier. I really enjoyed the beef bourguignon. And the Ferrero Rocher dessert was delicious. The **Italian restaurant** was nice because they have an appetizer bar, so you can grab something to eat right away. Their build-your-own minestrone was pretty good. I liked the chicken Parmesan, although it was a little salty. My wife enjoyed the lasagna but pointed out that it didn’t have as many layers of noodles as most lasagna. She actually ended up preferring it that way. The zeppole, however, were a little short of acceptable. The **steakhouse** was good. The appetizers were okay, but I really enjoyed my surf and turf. If you order lobster by itself, I would ask for the smaller lobster that comes with the surf and turf. I go on a Caribbean lobster trip once a year, and in my experience, the larger lobsters tend to be a little tougher and less flavorful. The **sports bar** food was okay, but nothing that made us want to come back. Of course, Aruba has amazing food, so it’s hard not to want to leave the resort for dinner. We ate off-property once for dinner and three times for lunch. The pier restaurant next door is great for lunch. If we come back, we’ll probably eat out even more so we don’t miss out on some of the great food around the island. The food at the Riu was good, but it’s tough to compete with the rest of Aruba. ### The Good They did an **excellent job with the renovations**. The Riu is a great value, especially for a family, and I wasn’t expecting it to be the St. Regis. For what we paid, though, I had a memorable and relaxing trip. And perhaps most importantly, **I didn’t have to ask for a manager.** At the St. Regis, the elevator dropped three stories while my in-laws were in it, and then dropped another two stories while my wife, child, and I were in it another time. Needless to say, I had to ask for a manager there. ### The Bad **They hardly have any trash cans!** Management, get some darn trash cans. Seriously. Follow the Disneyland rule: **you should never be too far from a trash can.** Their **hot sauce game is also, plain and simple, terrible.** They have some Tabasco and a strange peppery hot sauce, but other than that, not much. Aruba has some amazing hot sauces! I suggest going to Super Food and picking up a small bottle of the I Heart Aruba Papaya or Mango hot sauce. You won’t regret it. The rooms will only allow you to set the thermostat down to **22°C (71.6°F)**. Sorry, fellow Americans—the thermostats are in Celsius.  Our room never actually got below 23°C. If you like a cooler room for sleeping, this was a little disappointing. ### The Ugly **The internet.** It is so inconsistent. Some days I felt like I was on Wi-Fi, and other days I felt like I was on AOL dial-up. *(For the younger readers, Google it.)* ### Would I Stay Here Again? **Definitely—but the price matters.** If the cost per night were right, I would absolutely stay here again. Once you get much above **$650 per night**, though, I’d have to think about it and compare it with the other resorts on the island. At that price, I would also want to eat off-property for several, if not many, of our meals. Overall, though, the Riu Palace Aruba delivered exactly what we wanted: a relaxing, easy family vacation with good food, great renovations, and a lot of value for the money. I’d happily come back.

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!