Riu Gran Canaria

Just returned from Riu Grand Canaria after 14 nights. We return every year to Grand Canaria either staying at the Riu Palace or one of the Lopestans. We decided to try here after the great reviews and regretted our decision as soon as we arrived. Positives: - Food is good and plenty of choices. Sometimes the buffet was cold if timed wrongly. - Spaciality restaurants - Italian buffet, Asian buffet, steak house. - Full entertainment program for day and night. - Riu parties are great. - Love that the entertainment finishes at 11. - Comfortable beds. - Great black out blinds. - Great mini bar with lots of water. - Plenty of choice of soft drinks and drink stations everywhere. Fresh orange is only available at breakfast. Its like squash for the rest of the day. - Poweful shower. - Coffee shop was great. - Sports bar was good also and snacks available later on. - Could ask for more than one beach towel. Negatives - We paid for a garden view room and got given a room facing the outside restaurant. This is after requesting in advance a quiet room, away from the main block and up high due to getting away for recovery purposes. - Bathroom on arrival was dirty, needed a new toilet seat and I had to clean the shower myself to use it. - Bathroom mouldy - Other peoples hair in storage places. - Ant infested room. When we asked to be moved we were shown a worse room although people were bragging around the pool they had paid for basic room and had upgrades. We only asked for a room we paid for. The room was 2-3 star at best. - Bugs running over our table in steakhouse. Waiters didn't seem bothered so we had to walk out. - On our last day big fight broke out at quiet pool over inflatables. - Quiet pool needed cleaning, lots of dirty and broken tiles. - Other pools too busy to swim in. - Drunk asleep outside our room at 4pm. - Complained about safe on first day, batteries were only changed on last day when it finally worked properly. I can see a family with young children or teenagers would love it here. For us it was going from 5* next door to a 3*. Would not recommend it and would definitely not return.

Our 2nd visit to this hotel. By far our favourite ever. We are a family of five - now all adult. I’ve just spent two weeks here, and it’s paradise for us. I think during those two weeks I may have spent an hour a day on a lounger tops, as the ongoing daily entertainment is amazing. I’ve played Shuffleboard, water volleyball, the daily crazy game, to name but a few, with other people from other countries who all manage to communicate and have great fun. Made all the more special by the super enthusiastic entertainment team who really get involved and make everything fun. They even remembered us from the previous year. So good to see the same staff. The party nights are amazing. The 24 hour sports bar is chill and a lovely place to sit for a night cap / snack if you’re feeling a little peckish. The pools are just lovely and yes the “premium” spots are taken by super early risers but it isn’t at all necessary as there are always lots of spare loungers in other areas whatever the time may be. The rooms we had were great, clean and great to see more bottled water in the mini fridge this year. Lots of storage and spacious bathrooms. The food is just fabulous. We are a family of vegan, vegetarians and meat eaters and everybody was impressed with the selection. The speciality restaurants are amazing - we tried a couple and again excellent. We will definitely be returning again next year and I can’t wait. The entertainment team here really make it super special and there is always something going on. Thank you Riu Gran Canaria.

A great resort — just don’t expect peace and quiet around the infinity pool! Expectations were high. I’ve stayed at several RIU Palace 5-star resorts in the Caribbean, so perhaps unfairly, the bar was already set fairly high — even though this is a 4-star all-inclusive resort. No snobbery intended! This is a large resort catering for both families and couples, so if you’re looking for complete peace and quiet, I’d think carefully about whether it’s for you. That said, there are quieter, more laid-back areas where you can escape the hustle and bustle. When we visited in early September, the sheer number of guests was quite overwhelming at times. Everywhere seemed busy, particularly the main buffet at mealtimes — at certain points, my local airport felt positively deserted by comparison! The pool areas are also very busy, especially the infamous infinity pool. If you’re not prepared to get up at around 5am to claim a sunbed, you may struggle. I tried it once, arriving at 5:30am, only to witness the massed ranks of various nationalities staking their claim to prime sunbed territory. People were marching up and down rearranging beds with the determination of border guards protecting their country’s sovereignty. It was quite a sight! By peak times, the infinity pool itself can resemble human soup — just about enough room to wade rather than swim. The more popular areas around the main pools are equally competitive. I half expected to see estate agents wandering around offering “sea-view sunbeds, south-facing, excellent potential”! Accommodation The rooms are functional rather than luxurious, but they do what they say on the tin. Our bedroom was a decent size, with a good-sized bathroom, although the shower occasionally seemed to suffer from questionable water pressure. Storage was adequate, the bed was comfortable and the minibar/fridge was stocked with soft drinks and beer. We had a ground-floor room next to the quiet pool, which turned out to be an excellent choice. It was very convenient and, importantly for us, away from the main hustle and bustle. Food & Drink Considering this is a buffet-based all-inclusive resort, I thought the food was good. Buffets can inevitably become repetitive, but there was plenty of choice and enough variety to keep even the pickiest eater happy. The food was consistently well cooked and tasty. The speciality buffets and restaurants offered something a little different and were also of a good standard. Our favourite was the Atlantic Steak House — good food, a pleasant atmosphere and views over the Atlantic Ocean. The clue really is in the name! The speciality restaurants and buffets need to be booked through the RIU app, which worked well enough. My only minor criticism regarding drinks was that the wine in the main buffet comes from taps rather than bottles, whereas bottled wine is served in the speciality restaurants. Overall Overall, we were very happy with our stay. The resort has a lot going for it: a great location, around a 30-minute transfer from the airport, approximately a 10-minute walk to the shops in central Meloneras, and around 15–20 minutes on foot to the beach and dunes. It can be as hectic or as peaceful as you choose, provided you pick your location carefully. My wife and I prefer things fairly quiet, and our room was ideally placed for that. But what really made our stay was the staff. They were outstanding in every respect — helpful, friendly, courteous and always willing to assist. In all my years of travelling, I genuinely cannot remember coming across hotel or resort staff who impressed me quite as much. They were a real credit to RIU and, for us, the people who made the holiday. Would we return? Never say never. Although next time I’ll be packing a camping chair, a flask of coffee, night-vision goggles and possibly a small UN peacekeeping force. Because if you want that prime infinity-pool sunbed… You’d better be prepared to defend it. 😄

Well we arrived on the 4th September, and booking in at reception was easy with friendly staff. Our luggage was taken to the room (6077). We were directed to the Amore Mio restaurant where a cold buffet was available for those of us arriving late (10pm). We then headed to the main bar, as it was Riu White Party night. So the holiday started on a high and this continued throughout our stay. Our room was in the main building on the top floor, with an excellent view. Everything in the room was perfect. The food choices around the resort were fantastic. We tendered to go for a light breakfast and lunch at Pepe's snack bar. Therefore enjoying evening meals in the main restaurants. Our favorite was the Kulinarium, followed by the steakhouse and the Amore Mia (Italian). The Asian was also good, however on the night we went there appeared to be a staff shortage, so no one was serving drinks to the tables. The main buffet (Las Dunas) there was always a great selection of food each evening, and the couple of times we used it for breakfast, we were spoilt for choice with the selection of dishes. There are 5 main pools plus a large childrens pool and play area. We tendered to use the quiet pool which was mainly used by adults and is by block 5/8. It has a self-serve drinks station for beer, sodas tea and coffee. Unfortunately there are no nearby toilets. We are not into hotel entertainment, but we saw some excellent shows here, not forgetting the Riu Party nights. We will return and would also recommend it to family and friends.

Booked through tui but could not offer an upgrade, told to contact hotel we did this a week after booking asking if it was possible to upgrade... we never got a reply. Apparently after talking to the riu reception on our stay they told us they get thousands of emails that is why we never got a responce. This obviously made us feel very important...Not... don't get me wrong the hotel is great and i understand there might not have been an upgrade but it would have been nice to let us know. We were told we may have had the oppertunity to upgrade if we had let them know sooner well as you never replied to our emails that boat has sailed as they say.