Hotel RIU Karamboa — Hotel in Boa Vista

I’ve stayed at many 4- and 5-star resorts around the world, and unfortunately Riu Karamboa just doesn’t measure up. It’s not a bad hotel, but calling it 5-star sets completely unrealistic expectations.|||Beach: ★★★★☆|The beach is lovely—clean, scenic, and with plenty of loungers available at all times. However, many sunbeds were old or broken, and there are no small tables for drinks, so your cup ends up in the sand. The sea is very rough, so not suitable for casual swimming unless you're strong and confident in the water.||Pool: ★★★☆☆|The pool area is large but lacks atmosphere. It's just a big, square expanse with no charm or character—very basic in design and not decorated in a way that feels luxurious. It gets extremely crowded; if you don’t get out early, you’ll struggle to find a lounger. Many were broken or worn, and again, no side tables and no drinks service. The swim-up bar area gets loud and rowdy, which makes it hard to relax nearby.||Room: ★★★☆☆|Rooms were clean and tidy, and the mini bar was well stocked and regularly topped up—a rare plus. That said, the bed was just two singles pushed together, which is disappointing and uncomfortable. The towels were clean but stained and worn, and clearly needed replacing. The hotel is also huge, with long winding paths between areas—it can be tiring and inconvenient to get around.||Food: ★★☆☆☆|This was a major letdown. The food lacked variety and presentation—it had no elegance or finesse, and no themed nights to mix things up. It became so repetitive that we found ourselves eating pizza, chips, and salad for most meals, simply because the other options weren’t appealing.||The buffet area is far too small for the number of guests, which makes mealtimes chaotic, crowded, and frustrating. People didn’t queue properly, and there was no staff presence to manage it. We only ate at the buffet restaurant once in the evening and avoided it thereafter.||Toscana is also a buffet restaurant, not à la carte as you might expect. The only à la carte option is Kulinarium, where the steak was very good—well cooked and flavourful. A highlight in an otherwise disappointing dining experience.||Another surprising and disappointing aspect was that we were never offered any drinks during meals, aside from water. Not even a glass or bottle of wine—something I've always experienced even at 4-star hotels. You had to leave your table and go fetch your own drinks from a self-service machine. This might be acceptable at a budget hotel, but for a resort advertising itself as 5-star, it was shocking and cheapened the experience significantly.||There are also no toilets on the ground floor or inside the restaurants, so you often have to leave mid-meal to find a bathroom upstairs or in another building. And to top it off: there is no room service, which is something I’d expect at even a mid-range hotel.||Drinks: ★★☆☆☆|Most cocktails were premixed and low quality, either too watery or overly sweet. You can ask staff to make them fresh (the mojito was decent), but this is not made clear anywhere.||The wine came from a tap, not bottled, and tasted very poor. There was no sparkling wine available during our stay, which was surprising and disappointing for a hotel claiming 5-star status.||There were self-service drink points all over the hotel, which again felt more like a budget resort than a premium one. It gave the impression that guests were being left to fend for themselves rather than offered service—which is the whole point of a luxury, all-inclusive experience.||The mini bar in the room was a nice touch and kept well topped up.||Service: ★★☆☆☆|Service was lacklustre across the board. Staff were not particularly friendly or welcoming—rarely smiled, didn’t make conversation, and generally seemed disinterested.||There was no drinks service at the pool, bars, or during meals. You had to queue up for everything—even at the bar, while seated. It’s astonishing that even basic things like being offered a drink during dinner were missing. This is standard at virtually every 4- or 5-star hotel I’ve stayed at.||Front desk staff also weren’t especially helpful and often looked irritated when asked for assistance.||Spa: ★★★★☆|The spa was one of the few bright spots. I had a massage which was professional, relaxing, and very reasonably priced. A peaceful break from the otherwise hectic atmosphere.||Entertainment: ★★☆☆☆|Entertainment was hit or miss. The Friday White/Neon Party was very loud and completely took over the resort. If you're not in the mood to party, there’s nowhere else to sit quietly and enjoy a drink, as the entire space becomes like a nightclub. It felt tacky and forced on all guests, regardless of preference.||Final Thoughts|This hotel is far too big, industrial, and impersonal. It completely lacks the charm or attention to detail that makes guests feel special or valued.||I honestly don’t understand how this hotel receives so many 5-star reviews. If you're well-travelled and have stayed at genuine luxury resorts, you’ll likely be disappointed. I booked based on glowing reviews and left questioning whether we were even in the same place.||What’s even more frustrating is that if you carefully read through past reviews, you’ll see that many of these same issues have been mentioned before—from food quality to poor service to the chaotic buffet setup. Yet it’s clear that nothing is being actioned by management, which shows a lack of care for guest feedback and improvement.||It’s not about being snobby—it’s just that this isn’t a 5-star experience by any global standard. The clientele and atmosphere also don’t match that of a luxury resort. If you’re expecting sophistication, high-end service, and elegance, you won’t find it here.||If you go in expecting a mid-range, 3- to 4-star all-inclusive in the sun, you’ll probably have a good time. Just don’t let the star rating or glowing reviews...

We checked on line, but we still had to join the que to checkin. There is little benefit to this option. Room. The room is a good size. Our room was a long way from the pool area. The bathroom had dirty floors and stains on the toilet seat and bottom of the pedestal was stained. The shower door didn't close properly and the door seal was coming off/broken. Towels were not always replaced and had to ask for them. Bedding was overused with bubbly bits on the bed sheets. Again, had to ask for the sheets as they had only left one sheet instead of 2. There were hairs, stains and bits on the sheets. You could often find others peoples hairs on the floor. Floor in bedroom also not very clean. Mini bar was not restocked every 2 days as stated. Damp patches on the walls near the door. Dead fly in room which I had to remove as it had just been left my the maid. Pool. Getting to the pool area was a long way. At no point are you made aware how far it was to walk to the pools and beach. The pool area is dirty with stains on the floor around the sunbeds. This area never gets swept. This is from drinks being spilled and food being left. There are flies everywhere. The bars areas spray but there are many. You see dead flies all over the floors. The shower for cleaning feet from the beach is always full and with stagnant water. Men do try to get rid of the water but it back within a hour or so. Many of the sunbeds are ripped /broken and we fell through. Be aware. Many of the parasols are broken.

Restaurant Food is often over cooked and cold including the soup. Always very similar each day. You can often find food and cutlery on the floor around the tables. It can be there for a couple’s days. Placemats are often stained. You could not get a tomato for 4 days. Entertainment area. Stained floors, seats is falling apart and cushions ripped. Rui Party. It might be part of the activities for the hotel. However, it does not say anywhere that other RUI hotels would be attending. The manager said 2 or 3 thousand people. We had to use plastic glasses!. The manager said this was because of the people getting drunk. I do not like be stereotyped as a drunk! I have never been treated like this in a real 5 start hotel. This party was not held in the entertainment area it spilled out into the nonsmoking area and the lobby area. The bars were often 3 fold to get a drink and a very long waiting time. This meant for us and many more there was no alternative place for us, only our bedroom. This took one of my nights off my holiday. There needs to be an area where you can stay if you do not wish to go the loud party. The hotel is very tired and needs a good overall. Not 5*.

Response to hotels reply…

Our room was not clean when we arrived. I cleaned the toilet and the floor as best I could but the stains are embedded in on the toilet seat and floor. As for the shower these things should be checked before letting guests into the room.

The bedding is old and well used, stained and bobbly. On the 4th day of our holiday we did not get a complete service as you stated. If you require your bedding changing you have to ask for it to be done by leaving a card on the bed! It is not automatic. This is the hotel policy to ask for bedding to be changed! We also did NOT have a carpet in our room.

Staff at do try and keep the pool and bar area clean. However, the sunbathing area do not get swept let alone cleaned.

The party would not have been an issue If the party had been contained in the entertainment area of the hotel instead of taking over the whole hotel leaving some guests with no where else to go if they didn’t wish to participate. Should be an area of the hotel for guest who do not wish to participate.

No where on the TUI/RIU websites does it say that having this party our hotel would be invaded by other RIU hotels, meaning thousands of people could attend. The party may have finished at 11.00 I don’t know I as I wasn’t there, but there was noise long after this time after and the mess the next day was...

So we’ve not long returned after booking through Tui for a week in June, this is an honest review of our week away.

Flights- flight time out was 6 hours, nearly long haul so we did feel cramped for all this time. Upon arriving at the airport security was relatively quick.

Transfer- the hotel is around 2 minutes away from the airport, there were taxis, but it was a quick easy journey

The Hotel- the hotel is lovely, check in was quick and easy and we did have to pay the local visitor tax upon check in. The hotel internally is beautifully decorated. Bags were taken to our room. Externally it is immaculate with beautifully manicured grounds, all well thought through, everything is accessible.

Room- the room was fantastic, we had a ground floor room, plenty of space, nice strong shower, excellent aircon, well stocked drinks fridge and optics to use. All clean, and the cleaning each day was excellent. Blackout curtains and aircon gave us some fantastic nights sleep!

Pools/poolside/loungers- there were always plenty of loungers so we never had an issue in fighting for space. Some have canopies over that can be pulled over you if you prefer the shade. Plenty of pools with lots of space to swim and relax, all very clean. The poolside bars were excellent. Toilets around the area were immaculate with a cleaner stationed there all day!

Food and drink- drinks are quite limited to basic cocktails, spirits, and soft drinks, however good service. It would have been nice to have some “premium cocktails” or a cocktail bar just to offer something different, the cocktails were slushy with alcohol added but otherwise nice! The food in the main buffet is plentiful, the desserts looked fantastic but were quite bland and gelatinous, however you certainly won’t starve! There is also the snack bar and small snack bar by the pool bars for during the day. We tried to book all three restaurants which were full, however we’re advised to book just after midnight and there should be availability.

The Asian restaurant- fantastic! It was the first restaurant we visited and we were so happy to have flavour! Would highly recommend.

Standard Restaurant- we were a tad disappointed with this as it was the same things as in the main buffet restaurant and nothing different

Steak restaurant- excellent service, very nicely done, would recommend

The staff throughout our visit were always fun, friendly and always willing to help.

The Spa- we booked for a chocolate body wrap and massage. The prices were good compared to other spas. The body wrap was excellent and very relaxing, the massage was good, however it’s more of a body rub with no pressure.

Excursions- we booked two excursions, Turtles visits through a third party and the 4x4 island tour with lunch.

Turtles- would highly recommend, quite a moment to be on the beach after dark watching a turtle lay, cover her nest and return to sea- a moment you won’t forget

4x4 tour- we were in the back of the vehicle with six others so it was tight, and very warm. We visited two towns (nothing there) and several beaches (we didn’t stop long enough to swim etc) with the one beach having the shipwreck. Lunch at the restaurant was tasty. In the afternoon we visited the best rated beach and were given a cocktail and an hour which was lovely to enjoy the sea- it was a long day (8 hours) and after being bumped around and roasted in the car we were pretty exhausted!

Would we go back? Probably not. Not because of any negatives around the hotel, the service etc, but the island only really offers sun, sea, food and drinks in your hotel, if you want a fully relaxing week there are possibly places closer to home that would offer a similar standard. If you are looking for a mix of culture (visits to local towns/restaurants etc) the island isn’t for you as there is very little there. But as I say, the staff and people are incredibly friendly, the hotel is lovely and for an all inclusive it is...