Riu Papayas

We are just sitting in the hotel on our last night of a week all inclusive as a family of four with two kids aged 10 and 9. We booked this as a planned trip to the UAE was cancelled due to ongoing geopolitical tensions. The week cost us around £5000. The headline is that this is absolutely not a 4* hotel - one step down from luxury. What this is, is a functional 3* family hotel. I think if we’d paid £3k for the week I’d feel it was value for money, but having stayed in numerous TUI hotels and others around Europe and wider, here are my observations. The Good - Communal areas are clean - No shortage of sun loungers around the pool - Pool depth perfect for young swimmers, plenty of shallow areas - Entertainment team put on loads of poolside activities which kept the kids occupied and happy - Short walk into town, although be careful of going to Yumbo too late as it gets a bit… not family friendly The Bad - Food generally low quality, although varied enough to not go hungry but for a self proclaimed 4* I’m not sure that daily fish stew and similar is what should be on the menu - On the theme, the non-buffet restaurants are… buffets. There is no à la carte, which is absolute standard for all inc hotels. One step below luxury and everything is a buffet? - No snacks in the evening. Watching the entertainment and no snack bar open which we haven’t experienced before - Cheap unbranded drinks and hideous wine. Fine for a basic 3* but come on if this is 4* the drink option should be significantly better The Ugly - Our room (116) is so tired, plaster that’s been patched over the years by someone who absolutely doesn’t care as it’s lumpy and horribly finished. Whole room is tatty with creaky mattresses, poorly fitted shelves/fittings - Restaurant frequently didn’t tell you what was in the dishes, so you had to guess. Not great for people with dietary preferences or allergies! All in all, a decent hotel if booked for the right price. But be realistic about expectations, it’s not 4*.

Overall hotel is okay but is let down by smoking on the Entertainments complex. Get with the times RIU and ban smoking completely as I don’t think we want our children poisoned with second hand smoke which knows no boundaries. You can’t smoke on planes cinemas and theatres etc - we know what second hand smoke causes ! Rob

Our 5th visit to the Papayas. As always we were comfortable, well fed and enjoyed a restful and relaxing time. The room was comfortable and very clean as was the hotel in general. I needed a blanket and that was delivered very promptly. The only issue we had was with smokers on the balcony which meant that we couldn’t enjoy our balcony with its nice view and had to close the door or the smoker came into the room.

Pretty much first time at an all-inclusive since childhood and it was absolutely fantastic! Staff were brilliant, food was gorgeous (many different choices for each meal and each day was different), entertainment every night! All in all a fantastic holiday! Thank you!

3rd time here and sadly I think would be the last, the hotel itself is great. The staff were all very friendly and accommodating. Food and drink were spot on no complaints there and the room was as we expected. However, the hotel was absolutely overrun with a particular nationality who seemed to find screaming shouting and having loud conversations in the corridor outside your room at 1,2,3,4am perfectly acceptable. This lead to awful interruptions with sleep for most of the 10 nights stay. I challenged one couple about the noise and asked they keep quiet past midnight when returning to their room and was met with complete disregard. I’m afraid to say it seems to cater for this nationality quite heavily and found them generally to be exceptionally rude. The behaviour around the pool area also showed no respect for others. If you want some peace and quiet to relax in the day, particularly after being woke up multiple times throughout the night, then think again. Children’s screaming shouting and balls continually hitting you whilst lay on sun loungers causing multiple drinks to be knocked over for most of the day. Absolutely never again. It’s a shame as the hotel itself if lovely. Some people are just selfish and could care less about others.