Riu Palace Tenerife

Visited here for 8 nights with my husband. Location for us was perfect, nice 10-15 minutes walk into main centre or 5 minutes walk the other way and your in the lovely little fishing village of La Caleta, where you will find some beautiful restaurants. Hotel staff were all polite and work hard to make attendance to your needs. Cleaners work endless to keep rooms and the rest of hotel in order. Unfortunately the rooms and hall ways are dated and need some attention. 5* hotel, that does not supply any free water daily. This is something I have never experienced before. Usually at least a bottler per day. My advice would be to visit a local supermarket to stock up as the water in the room is overpriced. Sun lounger were an issue on our first day, many being reserved and not used till late morning. Following days we did get up early to have breakfast so we were able to get a sun lounger. The hotel says it has a no reserving policy in place but this is not adhered to. Food was good, always finding something we would enjoy at breakfast and dinner. Just a few changes would make it a little more like a 5 star.

Location is great - quiet end of Costa Adeje but a lovely walk along the boardwalk to a beautiful little shopping mall and some restaurants. Walk further on and there is a larger shopping centre (designer) and seats where you can sit and look out to sea. Hotel and grounds are lovely. Inside buffet restaurant is very much old style Riu and is probably ready for a refurb but very spacious and clean. There is a large outside area where the views are beautiful. Sadly a lot of the tables overlooking the gardens and the sea seemed to be “reserved” by people who had the same table at breakfast and dinner every day. I got the impression that these were returning guests and the tables were saved by waiting staff. The food in the buffet restaurant is good - the same as most buffet food but loads of choice and well cooked and presented. The desserts are the little cakes that really all taste the same. It would be nice to see proper desserts rather than the little generic sponges and soft ice cream. It probably saved me from myself though so I shouldn’t complain! We did not eat at the other restaurants as we have eaten at other Krystal restaurants in other Riu’s and were not that impressed. The staff are mostly lovely, reception staff were welcoming and cleaning staff very nice. Waiting staff were all polite, helpful and pleasant with the exception of one whom I won’t name who was actually quite rude. A female “chef” on the meat carving one night was also unpleasant. It was also a little challenging trying to get pre-dinner drinks in the bar by reception and we gave up on three occasions. It was not due to being busy, they were chatting and not paying attention to people wanting drinks. Entertainment was OK, a good female singer one night but the World Cup was on so there was more interest in that. Rooms were very comfortable and bathrooms large with great showers. Sheets were not changed and there was not the usual card on the bed to request. Regular changing of towels, even in the evenings, and our bed was turned down twice. Curtains drawn and bins emptied which is a nice touch, I think. The grounds are lovely and extremely well maintained. We actually didn’t use the sunbeds and pools because, quite honestly, we couldn’t be bothered to walk around looking for two together that didn’t have towels on them. There is no enforcement of the rule of not saving sun beds so, of course, the usual game of let’s bag a sunbed and disappear until 4:00pm is rampant. Drinks are plentiful at breakfast but water has to be paid for at dinner which I find ridiculous in a country where you can’t drink the water. I think it’s €3 a 500ml bottle so that soon mounts up! Riu you need to change this like you have with the decision not to charge for room safes. A very welcome change of policy which I am sure every guest appreciates. One last thing, I always read Tripadvisor reviews prior to booking and continue to read them until I go. Shortly before our holiday I read a review from someone who said they had a lot of cockroaches in their room. This disturbed me!!! I am happy to report that I didn’t actually meet up with any cockroaches at all during our week away. Maybe that room was ground floor, I don’t know but we were safe on level 7. We had a lovely week away A very comfortable hotel and one which I look forward to going back to.

Hotel was nice but looks dated in places Pools are nice and heated Food was terrible warm lack of choices very greasy poor coffee Entertainment very poor zero music around the swimming pools And evening entertainment hardly any starts at 9pm all finished by 10.30 pm Drinks and food very expensive I would not stay at this hotel

Returned home a few days ago and already missing this place! The hotel is in a very good location right on a long stretch of beach with bars, restaurants and supermarkets. It’s good for evening walks and watching the sunset. The hotel itself is very clean as was our room which was tidied and cleaned to a high standard daily. The hotel grounds feel very “holiday(ee) with lots of palm trees, 2 big pools and a smaller adults only infinity pool which we found our place in from day 2 haha. We didn’t have a problem getting loungers but around the pools did seem filled up by 10am. There’s a nice lounging area away from the pool on sand and under palm trees which was nice for a day out of the sun and reading a book. There’s no pool games/daily entertainment that we saw whilst there but wasn’t bothered about anyways. We ate from the buffet all week and had no problems with the food. It’s a typical RIU buffet. My friend is vegetarian and said the veggie options were good. Beautiful views if you sit outside on the terrace at meal times, too. We didn’t watch the evening entertainment whilst here so cannot comment on that, but we did enjoy listening to singers from our balcony some nights. We found the staff to be friendly and polite, always acknowledging you as you walk by. Just to add on a few things we done outside of the hotel. We took a sunset buggy tour with ‘top buggy adventure/tour’ that took us up to Teide national park to see Mount Teide. Amazing views and a fun experience. We also went to Los Cristianos market and another a 10/15 min walk from the hotel. Siam park is close by but we plan to come back for that in November and maybe a ferry trip over to see La Gomera. A couple negatives, although it wouldn’t stop us from coming back! - We noticed quite a few cockroaches roaming around at night including on our balcony. I know Tenerife does have cockroaches, it can’t always be helped. We also noticed that the bedsheets were not changed daily and only made. I’ve always had daily fresh sheets at other RIUs, so I wasn’t sure if it’s a new thing to RIU or just this hotel. Overall, we had a relaxing and positive stay and are planning to come again in November!

Just returned after a weeks stay and overall this hotel is really nice. Everything that you would expect for a 5* hotel. Only drawback in my opinion is being half board. Everything gets charged to your room and the invoice isn't very detailed it just references the bar / restaurant with an amount so there's no real way of tracking if the charges are yours or not. Its worth knowing that if you have stayed in a RUI before and made an account you can use points to deduct from your bill or book against a late check out we had 56,000 points from a 2 week prior stay. There's lots of food options for breakfast and evening meal and lots for children to choose from too. We landed in very late/ early morning and there was a cold spread and cereal left out for us in the dining area. You can walk along the beach front to some local restaurants and shops its well lit and not overly busy. Id recommend getting a private taxi from the airport as we were the last stop of about 10 after a very late flight. We would stay again but would prefer to go all inclusive.