Riu Dunamar

This is a really good hotel! We travel a lot and have stayed in hundreds of hotels and all-inclusives, and this is one of the best - We booked with lower expectations for this holiday to be honest, and have left as ardent fans! We travelled with TUI and the hotel transfer was an hour and a half each way due to other hotels drop offs. I’d consider booking my own transport next time, as it was long and the pick up for a 5pm flight home felt early at 12:15pm. We stayed in February in a king sea view room above the main stage area on level 4 - contrary to other reviews, it wasn’t noisy at all and we slept brilliantly. The room and bed was comfortable, with plenty of storage for 2 weeks worth of clothes, and room to hide the suitcases away from sight. There were 4 optics in the room, coffee machine, and fridge stocked with water, tonic, beer and soft drinks every other day (you could ask for an earlier top up via the app and it arrived really, quickly within an hour) There was nice hand soap, body gel and shampoo and conditioner provided. The room was immaculately cleaned every day by Paty - every evening when we returned to the room it was like a brand new check-in, in fact, the entire resort was probably the cleanest we’ve ever stayed at, with cleaners working all day and night! I am an early riser, so saw the pool chairs and decks being cleaned every single morning meticulously along with the pools - something I’ve never seen daily before! There are plenty of seats around the 4 main pools - 2x adult only, 1 more activity based, and the quieter family pool. There were also plenty of seats around the children’s slide pool and water slides pool. If you wanted to be seated in a particular place you would need to be down before 9am ish, but there really are plenty of seats both pool side and on the beach for everyone with no stress. Bed reserving does happen where you don’t see anyone using them all day, but to be honest I’ve never been to any resort where this doesn’t happen! I presume people reserve seats both poolside and at the beach to take their pick during the day. The towel booth stated it opened at 8am, but always opened earlier and there was no problem swapping wet towels throughout the day, and at the end of the day. We started every day with a coffee from the sports bar before breakfast, taking it up and sitting on the balcony - they serve what I call ‘proper coffee’ and the barista was really friendly. The pool bar was really good - we started each morning with a “cheeky monkey” made by Jerry, he was really friendly and welcoming every single day to me, and finished the drink with a swirl of decoration, it really made my day! The breakfast buffet is superb - I can’t think of anything it didn’t have! The honey mango is amazing and very popular. Evening buffet was good, with a solid selection of cuisines for all tastes, and we also visited the Asian buffet restaurant and the Kulinarium - all food was fresh, well stocked and nicely presented - I think especially the buffet does a great job keeping stocked for so many people, and the tongs and floors were always being cleaned. The taco station with live cooking was a massive highlight of us! I’m celiac and there was a good selection to choose from, and I never struggled. The marble floor in the buffet is really beautiful, looks amazing but is really slippery - I couldn’t wear the evening shoes I’d brought with me, as the first evening I was sliding all over - not a negative at all, but just worth mentioning and something to bare in mind when packing. Service was good for all meals, but we always chose to sit in Ady’s section for our evening meal as she was so friendly and always remembered our drinks order before we’d even said hello! There’s a good programme of evening entertainment for all ages, with kids show on until 8:30 ish, followed usually by a live band and then show in the evening at the main stage. The neon and white parties on Wednesday nights are superb for all the family, and is one of the reasons we do love Riu hotels and keep returning! The main show was usually professional dancers/singers with a couple of evenings put on by the entertainment team, which were more comedy based. The entertainment team are good here, and work tirelessly, we saw the kids club playing a few times and the staff seemed fantastic. There is also often a saxophonist in the main reception bar which is really nice. We spent all evenings using the entertainment, bar one, where we took our fire stick to watch a film in the room, which was easily done. You can use 4 devices at once using the WiFi, and the only time WiFi dropped was on the beach, which was understandable! There’s a really lovely little wildlife garden walk at the front of the hotel we used a couple of times for a peaceful walk - don’t miss that. The gardening and planting at the hotel is beautiful and meticulously maintained. We also suffered from no bug bites at all at the resort so it is obviously well managed. There were both poolside drinks service and beach service which was very good. Freddy around the quieter pool actually made our holiday, he knew our order and was always so friendly and happy to be around! “Two Mango!!” was his shout as he came over every day … he is an exceptional asset to the hotel, and genuinely such a lovely person! Drinks across the hotel were very good, you could specify branded liquor if you wanted it, sometimes we did and sometimes we didn’t … nothing was ever an issue for the bartenders. At the bars you never waited longer than 30 seconds for a drink, and in the evening there was table service to the rear of the stage seats and at the main reception bar. Our preference is to tip the staff, as they work so hard, and we always do, factoring in the price of this to the cost of our holiday - but the service at this hotel wasn’t determined by this, it is genuinely appreciated though each time, and extremely well deserved as the staff at this hotel really are exceptional. The hotel shop is really expensive for essentials, make sure you over pack what you may need, I had to pay $26 for 16x female sanitary products which was quite infuriating - again, this is not the hotels fault as it is a separate entity, but worth telling you! I would recommend this hotel to anyone, it really did have something for everyone and looked fantastic for families, with loads of daytime activities. We were a couple and had a great time though - it offered us just what we wanted, with a quiet day time, reading and relaxing by the quieter pool, or on the beach, with good meal and evening drinks and varied entertainment! I’m already looking at booking again, it really is exceptionally good.

Riu Dunamar was a good learning experience for Cancun AI's. The entertainment/activity staff and bartenders were great. Rooms were nothing special. We booked a "lateral sea view" but were offered an "upgrade" to an ocean view when we arrived. I accepted the upgrade, only to find that while we did have an ocean-facing view, the room was farthest from the ocean and the pools. So really it was a "resort view" with the ocean in the background. Additionally, there were 3 of us and I booked a 2 double bed room. There were 2 double beds, but they were pushed together to make one large bed, with no way to separate the 2. My young adult daughter was not thrilled to be basically sleeping in a bed with her folks. Beds were not awful, but I wouldn't call them comfy. The app leaves a bit to be desired. While it tells you what's going on, it gives no indication of location of each event or any descriptions of events/activities. The cons: Food and communication. The food was average at best. In addition to the buffet, we tried 2 of the 3 open restaurants. The asian restaurant smelled like open sewage - so bad that we did not finish eating. Buffet was mostly ok, but not outstanding. Breakfast at the buffet was the best meal. I would NOT go here expecting good food. Communication regarding complimentary airport transfers was abysmal. Like, there was none. Getting from airport to hotel was easy once we found the RIU kiosk. I had to inquire about the procedure for our return to the airport, and the ride we scheduled (through the hotel) never arrived. There are several transportation companies, and the one who I think we were scheduled with (because the hotel never actually told us) ended up paying out of pocket for another van to take us back to the airport - an hour later than our scheduled time. Our driver said many of the drivers don't like to come out that far. Location... While the location is beautiful, don't expect to make a quick trip out to do much. We probably won't stay this far from the airport in the future. Distance wouldn't be a huge deal, but there is absolutely nothing nearby. The food sucked, but popping out for a quick bite of real local (or chain) food was not an option. Overall, we did have a good time, but it's unlikely I would choose this particular resort in the future. I'd be more likely to try a RIU property closer to the hotel zone.

Great service, beautiful beach without any rock or coral. Buffet is very good and À la carte restaurant are average. Différent show each evening and on Wednesday, there is their RIU Party (Neon or White party) which is kind of IBIZA party. Really fun!

Can always count on the quality of Riu hotels. Last year stay at the Princess was superior, however, the Dunabar provided consistent quality and cleanliness. A variety of things to do for all ages.

Jerry who is a bartender there at riu dunnamar , was very very rude to me and my mom we were eating a hotdog and right in the middle of me and my mom eating. He comes out out of nowhere very rude and says you guys need to get up and get a table. I told him that the tables were either durty or occupied for him to look before coming up to us like that and he said that there’s rules that need to be followed and everything. ( saw no postings , he came out like crazy for no reason ) He was very rude very unprofessional. He should’ve said maybe next time you cannot eat here in the bar. I’m just letting you know blah blah blah but noo. He wanted us to move immediately. He was very very mad and we were not even doing anything to him. I don’t know what his problem was, but we will not be going back to that hotel ever again neither me and my family or my friends and I suggest everybody not to go there because of their staff are rude.