Riu Palace Bavaro

The best holiday ever! I enjoyed every minute of my stay at this hotel. I loved the variety of food, plenty eating out areas; clean beach and the rooms were very spacious.

We stayed 10 days in sept. The hotel is vast and is extremely well kept . The rooms are very nice and clean. Numerous different restaurants and main buffet restaurants all very good. We had one bad meal in the Italian , “Lasagne wasn’t great but rest lovely”. Negatives very busy especially at weekends when loads of party goers come in for the long weekends with lots of drinking / drunk young people, but this did not impact our lovely holiday. The staff are brilliant I have to mention Edwardo in the buffet restaurant and Santa in the lobbie bar she looked after us very well . The staff work extremely hard never stop 👌👍

If anyone is thinking of going here then I would give it a 2nd thought! Rooms - not cleaned very well. Had to ask for fresh bedding to be put on the bed and when they did it they put stained bedding (either food, blood or bodily fluids) which I had to complain about. TV doesn’t work very well. Only good thing I would say is that the minibar was stocked up daily. Service - when I complained about the bedding I was told someone would be up ASAP. Over an hour later I was still waiting which meant I had to go down to reception and complain again. I asked to speak to a manager and then had to wait a further 15 minutes for one to come over. Also found staff would treat you differently if you didn’t tip or didn’t speak Spanish. Location - location was good, right on beach front, felt very secure during stay there. Food - food was less than desirable. Poor quality, over cooked, seen that they have a hot holding cabinet to store extra food in so they are not constantly cooking fresh. Pools weren’t cleaned out (see photo). Been to other hotels where pools were cleaned daily. Communal areas also weren’t cleaned well. Floors were constantly dirty, glasses and plates were left on window ledges for the whole time we were there. Bars - good range of drinks at the bars. Sports bar is awful. They never know what they are able to show, they just pass you the remote and you have to find it. Issue is that you can view the TV guide so you are having to go through channel by channel and they have over 100 channels.

The hotel is about 35-45 minutes from Punta Cana Airport, depends on traffic. There are more Riu hotels in a bunch with some common areas. It’s huge, the buildings, distances. There is a mini market with souvenirs and drinks, snacks, tabac, drugs. It’s useful because there is nothing nearby. Our room was comfy, but.. almost every morning at 7-8 they mowed the grass or repaired sg. Cleaning was sometimes nice sometimes perfunctory. After check in I asked for changing the bedsheets because it seemed used and was stained. One day they forgot to clean the room, even though there was the sign out. For two days didn’t refill the minibar, on the 3rd day I had to ask 3 times. More times the towels had a dirty feeling, as well as the beachtowels, which they could not change more times because they didn’t have clean, had to wait. Overall, I felt the cleanliness was lacking, in the restaurants, the beds at the pool. We tried all restaurants, Steakhouse was good, the others average, the mexican we didn’t liked. The buffet had always large selection, tasted good. At food court we also find sg. to eat a snack, ice cream etc. We missed the shadow, it’s really hot there and to go from a to b it can be really unpleasant. At the pools there is also not so much shady spot. The water in the pools was also hot like a jacuzzi on the first days, not refreshing at all. After a week somehow it was cooler a bit. And the beach, could be so nice, but seagrass is everywhere. On the first day we saw a tarctor which collected from the beach and so, it was not so disturbing but then it was more and more everyday just in front of our hotel, next to us they didn’t. Don’t understand why could not collect it after then. Also on the beach area was uncomfortable that always comes someone to buy this, do that, massage etc. Most of the the restuarant staff was not friendly, they just threw the drinks and plates before you, forgot orders. The staff overall seems so moody, listless. I was in may in Playa del Carmen, not in a Palace from Riu but all in all it was nicer. This was not more, so in terms of value for money it’s not worth it.

My husband and myself were equally impressed with our holiday at the Palace Bavaro, the location, our room, and the food and pools, all marvellous. Staff in all departments we had contact with were very professional, polite, and very friendly.