THE best place on the beach. Love it, love it!! All inclusive with lots of extras!!! Been there twice and can't wait for the third trip!!

My boyfriend and I just returned a 6 days 5 nights vacation at Riu Cancun. I would say the overall experience staying there was EXCELLENT! My boyfriend visited Cancun in January with his buddies for bachelor party and stayed @ Riu Las Americas. He mentioned the food was excellent, services were excellent, and the views were breathtaking! I will just list the pros and cons below for easy reading.


PROS:

1) They had 2 theme restaurants and 2 buffets. I didn't like the theme restaurants at all. Specially the japanese restaurant food was pretty bad. But BUFFET food was SO GOOD! I mean the variety of food kinda got me confused. Everyday for lunch and dinner I had to stand there and think what do I crave for first. Breakfast they got fresh blended juice. It was just so refreshing. But I did get sick of the breakfast buffet fast because they are all the same. At least for dinner buffet you get different theme everyday.

2) Rooms are very clean and good sized.

3) Beach is very clean. Since I went on the 5/7-5/12, We have already missed the spring breaker. There were plenty of chair to lay out. But people do put towels on the chair at 8am to get the umbrella. haha, but it didn't bother us since we were there for the sun!

4) Very convenient location. Right across from Riu Cancun there's a small mall and souvenir outlet. Bus stop close by. We took bus everywhere and it only cost us 6.50 pesos each way per person. That's like 60 cents! Walking distant to all the clubs and flea market.

5) Staffs are VERY FRIENDLY and they work SO HARD. You seriously don't see that in the states. American expect you to TIP TIP TIP. But all the restaurant waiters and bartenders never pressure for tipping and they just provided excellent services.



CONS:

1) AC in the room wasn't cold enough. But it was fixed right after 10 minutes we called the front desk. I wished it could be colder tho since the weather was so hot and humid.

2) Elevator AC is so low that i felt like i was in a sauna. And Elevator was pretty slow. I mean who programmed it? The way they worked doesn't even make sense. They literally start one elevator to go to one floor to pick people up...they don't pick people up on its way up or down. Just doesn't make sense. But we weren't in a hurry since we are on vacation. But just thought to point this out.

3) Bed is a little firm, but it kinda floats my boat. I never had any problem sleeping at night nor waking up.

4) Pool water temperature can be a little lower.... The swim up bar pool and the main infinity pool is filled with drinkers that it felt like... pee water.... sorry... but it's true. Cancun is very hot and yet i felt like i jumped into another hot tub.

5) Maybe they can improve the theme restaurant a bit? The japanese restaurant food was just aweful! We couldn't finish out food, left the tip on the table, and we walked straight to the buffet. The buffet food was just so good that we couldn't get enough of it.

6) I would suggest you not booking the tours through the hotel lobby reps. Expedia and Orbitz have their own reps stationed down at the lobby helping you book the trips and confirm your shuttle ride. I completely got RIPPED OFF! They gave me a wrong exchange rate so they can get higher pesos and i get charged more in USD. And the price comparing to outside is a bit more expensive. I suggest you do research online and book it online. Usually online has discount rate. That's how i found my jungle tour for just $53.00 where others all charge $65.



Suggestions:

1)Bring the bio-degradable sunscreen. Too bad they only make up to SPF 30. Make sure you reapply every hour because sun is very strong there. YOu easily get burned in an hour.

2) If you decide to visit the ruins, make sure you wear a white t-shirt, wear a hat, or BEST bring a umbrella! The temperature is just SO HOT that i realized umrella is teh best to go!!!!!!


3) The tulum xel-ha tour was the best!! Xelha is a lot of fun. You get all inclusive food when you walk in until you leave the park. So many tropical fishes and i mean a lot and they are all huge!!!!

4) I wouldn't suggest Isla Mujeres. You take a boat ride for 1 hour and then snorkel for an hour. Then they drop you off at the island to eat lunch. The food there was just alright. Then you don't get to ride bike or ATV or anything becasue they tell you have to meet in an hour. So basically we just sat around and wait for the boat to take us to the north island to walk in the town. Town is very ghetto and nothing specially to see. The tour group worked with the silver shops there and they just kept forcing to go in and buy silver jewelries. We just walked back to the boat early and wait to go home. That was definitely not worth of money. Should ahve gone to Cozumel to snorkel.


Overall for this trip is just FUN FUN FUN! WAter was so blue, weather was so nice, Sand is so white! I definitely would suggest this hotel to all my friends. In fact i am planning to come back and stay @ Riu end of the year with my family!!!

So HAVE FUN and ENJOY YOUR TRIP THERE. Every hotel has goods and bads. SO instead of focusing on the bad part, why not be more positive and enjoy this once in a life time experience?

My boyfriend and I came back last week from 2 weeks in Cancun having had a brilliant time. Apart from the excellent location it was the diverse mix of the hotel guests that really impressed us. From groups of college kids, honeymooners, families, groups of friends to old couples, Mexicans, Americans, Canadians and the Brits, the Riu catered for everyone. There were quiet and lively areas and pools which was great.

The staff are very accomodating and always smiling and in the restaurants and bars in particular they fall over themselves to help you.

The rooms seem a little dated when you first see them but since the hotel is only a few years old this is actually the "look" they were going for. The rooms are kept spotless however and each room has a set of optics which thrilled us no end!

The beach is lovely but needs more parasol shades as you have to get up early to claim your shade in the morning.

The area is completely safe to walk around even at night and all the main bars and clubs are literally a 5 minute walk away compared to some other hotels which were a half hour bus ride away!

The food was varied and of a good standard although after 2 weeks I was getting a little bored of it. The hotel's Japanese restaurant, however, is excellent.

The atmosphere was so relaxed and every day you would see a wedding on the beach whilst a game of volleyball was going on a little further down.

Luckily we didn't encounter any mosquitos or bugs and even though you are advised by travel agents etc not to eat shellfish or unpeeled fruit and veg all the food in the hotel is of such a good standard that that isn't an issue and is perfectly safe to eat.

The pirate ship trip a few miles away is a must and is suitable for everyone. Get there early though as the first people on get the best views of the live pirate action including an invasion from another pirate ship!

The hotel's best show is a Michael Jackson tribute act and he's actually really good, he even speaks like him!

If you have any hesitations about the Riu- don't, as it's a great place!

The Riu Cancun is a beautiful property located within walking distance to shops and night clubs. Great location. The staff are very friendly .We had a wonderful time.The food was awesome! I think i missed the buffets the most upon returning home. Oh and the warm 90 weather too.The water is always incredible and the view from the room was fantastic.The pool bar was a bit yucky but when you have lots of drinkers hanging around one place, I suppose that can create pea green pool water. Although i did see workers adding chemicals to the pool at night and cleaning the limes out of the filters. It still was not very inviting...Regardless we spent most of our time on the beach and in the ocean water...we never had any trouble finding beach chairs or shady cabanas...I went for my cinco de mayo 40th birthday and they sang to me and gave us a cake and also a fruit basket was sent to the room with happy birthday wishes.. Very nice! The theater had enjoyable evening entertainment. I went with a friend of mine and I would definiately return with my family on another occasion...the rooms were clean and the fridge was well stocked.The elevators were somewhat slow and we did have several power outages that lasted a few minutes. for the price I think it was worth the trip. The scenery is amazing. The Japanese and the Brazillian eateries were very nice but i preferred the buffet myself. all in all the trip was fantastic and i would return in the future.