Hotel Riu Cancun — Hotel in Cancún

I recently spent 6 day at Riu Cancun and I’m rating my overall stay 3 stars. Note that back in May I spent 5 days at Riu Palace Las Americas (the resort next door) and I rated that one 4 stars and I would definitely recommend it over Riu Cancun.

Staff Staff is always friendly and helpful. That’s something I love about Mexico. Everyone works really hard especially the guys at the bars. Be sure to tip them because they deserve it.

Pools There are different pools. The bar pool which is where the drunk people spend most of their time. They always play some repetitive Spanish music (Bachata, Salsa) even though most of the guests are American, Canadian and even European. There should be more variety, not to mention there’s a mix of music coming from the bar area and music from the entertainment staff in the adjacent pool so sometimes it’s messy. The entertainment pool has better music and some daily activities but no bar. There is also a quiet pool on the other side of the hotel.

Beach Beach is nice, clean, quiet even on windy days but there are no umbrellas so we ended up staying in the pool and going to the beach just for a walk and swim.

Entertainment Similar to Riu Palace Las Americas, the day time entertainment is nice, lots of games, but the evening entertainment is pretty bad. The shows are basically people dancing to playback music and the live bands are local bands playing Spanish music which, for us non-Spanish, get repetitive and boring. Once again, wheres the variety? One Spanish night and one top hits/pop/rock night. So if you visit this hotel don’t expect a lot in the evening unless you go out to bars and clubs. The only fun night at the hotel was the silent disco so make sure you catch that!

Riu Party There some parties at Riu Caribe which is a 5 minute ride away and they offer free shuttles to/from the hotel so those parties were nice. Jungle and White pool parties were very fun with lots of foam but the pink party wasn’t nearly as great. No foam, annoying music. We didn’t go to the Neon Party so we can’t comment on that one. But overall if you like pool parties make sure you don’t miss these.

Restaurants For an all inclusive resort the food is pretty decent. We liked the buffet for breakfast and lunch but it wasn’t good for dinner. Dinner food was almost the same as lunch, very limited choices. For dinner, make sure you visit the specialty restaurants and go before 7:30pm since they all close at 9:30pm and since there are no reservations if you go after 8pm you might not be able to get a table.

When the restaurants are full you can leave your name, get a pager and wait by the bar until you’re called. The wait time varies between 10 and 45 minutes depending how busy they are. The earlier you go the faster you’ll get a table.

We liked Kulinarium and La Toscana (Italian) restaurants (make sure you have the flan for desert which is the best!). But we didn’t enjoy the steakhouse. The dish we ordered which was a mix with beef, chicken, sausage for 2 was very small and not very tasty.

There’s no room service and the only food option they offer after the buffet closes at 3:30pm and before dinner at 6pm or after 9:30pm when the restaurants close is the Sport bar. But the only thing they offer are low quality burgers, hot dogs and burritos which are stored in a fridge and need to be heated in a microwave. There should be at least a pizza place or a snack restaurant with fresh food especially after people come back from a night out.

Room The only advantage of Riu Cancun compared to Riu Palace Las Americas is the room. There’s a blackout curtain and lots of closet space and drawers. Our Riu Palace Las Americas room had very thin curtains so we couldn’t sleep past 7am. But other than that rooms at both hotels are great.

Check out Check out we also smooth. We asked for late checkout but they said it wasn’t available but they allowed us to spend the day, have drinks, lunch. Also there are dressing rooms and showers near the reception area so you can always take a shower before catching...

🤮🤮🤮What an absolute hell on Earth. We checked in and the employee was continually hanging up the phone on another client calling. As well there was many clients complaining at the desk (this is always the case whenever we're at the front desk) We get our key cards, can't find our room, go back to the front desk, get help to find the room, get in the room and the air conditioning is broken...the room is 24c with so much humidity, the sheets are damp. We turn on the TV, it has several distorted lines through it and slowly blacks out and freezes. It's also covered in mold on the back and must be at least 15 years old. We go to open the door to the terrace where there's a permanent sign that says due to the weather, don't open this. We open it anyways because it's hot and the air conditioning turns off (even though it wasn't doing anything). This is there cheap way to try and save electricity. We go to the front desk to complain about the room, they give us another room, we go to it and the air conditioning problem is the exact same.. the air conditioning system must be 50 years old and is caked in dust and dirt. And the TV too is broken again but with different damage as if somebody threw something at it. We call the front desk, they say to try closing the terrace door all the way to make the air conditioning run. It doesn't help at all. We go back down to the front desk AGAIN, get another room and the air conditioning is the same again! Not working, stuck at 24.5c this time. We go back to the front desk AGAIN (literally have blisters on my feet because it's a long walk each time) and this time we go to yet another room but with the maintenance guy who doesn't speak a word of English. He bring us to the new room, air conditioning is broken again and the mini fridge is open with a towel stuff in it, and the floor is covered in water all the way up to the bed. And also in each room so far everyone had stains on the sheets. We go to yet another room with the maintenance guy, desperate at this point because we are exhausted. (We arrived at the hotel at 6:00pm and by then it's 9:00pm.) In the bathroom is a cockroach!!! Air conditioning broken again too like every room (we're up to 5 rooms tried now!!). The maintenance guy "tries to fix" the air conditioning by pushing random buttons but it did absolutely nothing. We then get taken to the final room, no air conditioning again but at least it's not flooded or has any cockroaches.... The front desk person says to stay for tonight and tomorrow they'll figure it out with us (not her though, she's off tomorrow but notes our account....) The next day, our passports are literally curling, and our cash is damp from the humidity in the room. We go to the front desk the next day without sleeping at all, and tell them we're done and leaving and want a refund. We even booked a flight to go home right away because of how stressful this was for us. It was our first and LAST time in Mexico ever. The staff lie and act polite but literally say anything to get you to go away. They think of their clients as if they are just cattle, just milking us for money. We still get charged for the 1 night (unbelievable!!!) and are told if will take 15 to 18 days for the refund! (We had planned to stay a week originally). I'm certain I will have to chase after them for the money back for months... We also aren't given a free shuttle back to the air port so we have to get a taxi that has no meter and charges us $60 USD to the airport that's not 20 minutes away AND brings us to the wrong terminal!! We then have to take another taxi that charges us $40 USD to go from Terminal 4 to Terminal 3 (literally a 2 minute drive). Mexico, you are a living hell on Earth and Riu Cancun, I hope you go out of business and other people read this so they can avoid this place like the plague. Good riddance you garbage place that's filled with garbage scamming people. See photos! ZERO/10, ZERO...

EXTREMELY NICE VIEW FROM ANY ROOMS. BEST LOCATION FOR EVERYTHING, EVER.

Beach 10/10 Staff 10/10 Clealiness 10/10 Individual space 10/10 Food 8.5/10 Walking score to anything 10/10 Safety 10/10 Ocean quietness 9/10 Pools 10/10

NOTE: Please bring enough cash money for tips. $10/day is fair. $1 american dollar goes a long way in Mexico. Tip everybody: cleaning, boss boy, waiter, bartender, concierge, shuttle driver.

Rooms are very sterile but the washrooms are nice. Fair size balcony, plenty of space for 2 sober people or 4 drunks.

Surprisingly, the rooms are quieter. There is a 2 doors 12 feet long buffer hallway inside the rooms, which set the sleeping area away from the main hallway, which really stop the sound from travelling too much. However, the wonderful sound of ocean is omnipresent.

The whole establishment is pristine clean. The whole staff is freindly, cordial and polite and seems to be happy. All (4) elevators are running well and fast. If it's full, just wait out, another will show up, often empty, in less than 2 minutes.

The ocean is not tumultuous like it is further on the south portion of the strip. So it's manageable to hang out in the sea.

The beach is spacious, never feels over crowded and there are a large supply of extra beach chairs. It's also nice to walk on the beach in both directions from one resort to the other. Sometimes it seems you have to take a second look to find the small connecting paths, but keep going, they become obvious as you come closer to the property line, which are privately guarded but not restricted. You can swim and hang out on any beach section, as long as you don't use the other resort accomodation. (They'll spot you in half second).

The Riu beach sands are fine and white and very easy to walk on. During our stay, (feb weeks #3 and #4), there was no seaweed. The beach slope is gentle as you get in the ocean, no rocks or anything shitty.

If it gets windy, just go 5 feet further pass the "curling point" of the waves, and you won't get slammed, but yet, you'll still touch the bottom.

There are 3 pools, which one is the party side, and the other one on the "silent side". Both pools offers plenty of long chairs and enough personal space. Fair amount of shade if desired.

In addition to a very decent buffet, There are 5 bars and 3 nice restaurants on site, all inclusive. You never wait too long to get a drink refill.

Wines and champagne flows at any food points.

The hotel location is perfect: quiet enough to relax, and only 2 blocks from the legendary club strip with vibrant restaurants if you wanna go wild, or just take a colorful night stroll.

There is a strip mall across the street, with tons of fair priced merchants, many pharmacies and convenient stores and a bigger mall near by.

Overall very safe, cops are to be seen every 5 minutes on patrol, in addition to military patrol posted on foot on the beach, on boats and armed suv's on the strip.

Cops and military are discrete quiet, non-invasive but they're not hiding.

Just like in Vegas, they work for the Hostels interests, which is you!

Food is someday good, someday great. It's very fresh, everyday. Cooked on the spot. Enough options if you're vegetarian or vegan. Tons of pork, beef, poultry(even bbq ducks sometimes!) fishes, shrimps, delicious stirred fried octopus, battered calmari, Also plenty of fast food if you need your daily dose of processed food. (Beacon wrapped hot dogs and all)

Overall low msg and hardly any food chemicals.

The crowd is diversed but with a good vibe. There are elders and young adults, whites, blacks, yellow and browns.

The ferry to Mujares island is literally 500ft...