Riu Bambu

My review will be short and sweet… just like my 5-day stay. Check-in at the hotel desk was quick and efficient — thank you, Mr. Jethro. The bars served amazing drinks throughout the trip — thank you to Mr. Noel & team. I had my braids done at the Club with Rosanna, and I highly recommend using her instead of the beach vendors. The beach was always clean with plenty of sunbeds available. The buffet was actually very good — thank you, Mr. Augusto. A huge plus: no restaurant reservations were needed. Only negative: the rooms are a little outdated, and the towels had an unpleasant smell.

So happy that we picked this hotel,our first visit to Dominican Republic,and not let down. Staff were helpful attentative,food was a great selection and restaurants offer more delicious food.Pools were lovely,warm and the Tui pool very nice to have own pool. Rooms nice and clean,bar fridge stocked every two days,and your own optics replenished when empty.Overall very lovely experience and cant wait to return withTui and as a RIU member

I have so many conflicted thoughts about typing this review.. First let me say, our Dominican vacation was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, so don't let anything I say in the review going forward diminish that fact. Our transport from the hotel was courtesy of Amstar, and went smoothly from airport to resort. The check-in process itself went pretty smooth and like checking in at any other resort. The only downside was that we were a large family/friend group and our rooms were spread out from each other. However, they said we could move into the same building as my in-laws the following day which was great and the other members of our party were also able to move to closer villas. Our first room was in villa 37, room 3717. Villa 37 is absolutely the farthest building away from the Sports Bar, beach, pools, Riuland kiddie pool (we have a 4-year-old) and the majority of the restaurants. It also sits right next to a road where busses sit and idle and is pretty close to where they host the Riu Party events. Needless to say, we moved for more reasons than just being closer to family as room 3717 had black mold on the ceiling that they tried to scrub off, broken outlets, and a fuse panel box that was not secure (fell off wall). Our next room was significantly better, we were moved to villa 23, room 2304. This room had no visible evidence of mold and the fuse box stayed on the wall! We spent the remaining 6 days 5 nights in this room. Villa 23 is very close to the main area with the bar, pools and not very far from the beach. Overall, the rooms are nothing fancy and they could definitely use a repair/refresh/upgrade as they are all looking a bit rough. The food at the restaurants was nothing to write home about and I preferred the buffet for its variety. Lots of chicken and pork dishes, not much beef, and as far as seafood goes mostly calamari, fish (various types), and octopus. I was really hoping for more of the large, cold shrimp but they only had that for one day. The coffee is good with milk and sugar added. The Pepsi was ok, not terrible but I'm a Dr. Pepper junkie so what do I know. You will be drinking a lot of water and pepsi, pepsi and water, throw in some juice every now and then. By day 6 of 7 I was over the buffet. I have no complaints about the pools except for it was like swimming in bath water (but the resort doesn't have control of the temperature or sun). Otherwise, the pools were good, clean water and enough space so that you aren't running into people. The best part was definitely the beach! Oh my gosh, it was beautiful!! The water was cooler than the pool water but not freezing and so clear! Plenty of beach chairs available too! The kiddie pool, Riuland, was nice for my 4-year-old and had quite a bit of shade so you can sit and watch your kiddos without barbecuing in the sun (unless you'd prefer that). The kiddie pool water was also a lot cooler than the main pools, so we spent some time in there to cool off. Now for the random stuff: girl puking in the garbage can inside the Colonial (buffet) near where other people were eating smelled terrible, not a resort issue per se, but they didn't seem to care either; majority of the resort workers were not friendly (the ones that were friendly were in the food areas); English is not the native language (OBVIOUSLY) and most of the workers speak only a small amount of English so you will have to accept that fact and make it work (or find a resort with more English speaking people); Previously I said that the resort workers weren't overly friendly - but the Dominican people were VERY friendly, the farmers we met, the tour guides, they were all friendly and welcoming; there are a lot of shops near the beach and spa and you can (and should negotiate your prices); there is also a pharmacy if you are desperate for something, but it is EXPENSIVE!! Oh yeah - go on a couple excursions while you're there. I recommend the Plantations and Monkeys at Monkeyland! All in all, this was a great trip, but I had my expectations set too high for the resort and was a bit disappointed!

Food wasn't the best, but rooms were clean and service was great also. It's alot of walking to the night activities with minimal transportation. Beach was clean and pool bar was the best.

Pool tiles falling apart pool not cleaned well daily often found limes and leaves floating around, should have been cleaned way better