My husband and I went to Punta Cana for the first time July 4-7, 2008, to celebrate his birthday and our second anniversary. I must say that I was motivated to visit Punta Cana since my son and his wife, who married 2 months before we did, honeymooned there and loved it. They did not stay at the RIU Palace, however. We have stayed at 4 other RIU's and have been very impressed with this Spanish chain, so I chose RIU again. Before I chose the RIU Palace, I read many, many reviews on this website. Many were quite negative and many were quite positive. I took advice and tips from several, and now feel qualified to add my own 2 cents to the reviews. These statements will always be true: RIU's beach in Punta Cana is nothing short of spectacular, reminding me of the movie SOUTH PACIFIC. Their pool is spectacular. The service and rooms and bending over backwards for guests is impressive. The beds in all the hotels in the RIU chain are as flat and as hard as concrete. The walls of this Palace are concrete with marble, granite, and tile overlays, and the rooms are a bit musty, but the designs reflect the incredible eye the designer has for beauty. The Punta Cana breezes and lack of humidity are a delight. The $10 per person tourist tax (including babies) to walk 15 feet and have the attendant throw the form out afterwards is a rip off. All true statements. HOWEVER, a trip for pleasure can never be perfect. You can strive to make your own home oasis perfect, but it still can never be perfect for anyone else. The Dominican Republic is a third world country, on the same island as Haiti, where children are bought and sold for slaves for what I pay for groceries at home. The people themselves are dirt poor. If the DR uses the tourist tax money for the benefit of the entire country, then I don't mind paying it. They need it. The staff at the RIU seemed happy. Some of them are housed at the resort so they have a better situation than going home. The waiter and manager we chose to go back to at the buffet night after night were happy, helpful, polite, and eager to please. Nobody we encountered "had their hands out," and because of that, we tipped freely. I gave a couple of ball caps from our company to the staff we liked the best and they were delighted. I got them to sing to my husband on his birthday, which was delightful!! I put a blanket under the sheets on our cement-hard bed and my husband and I were OK.........well, we slept well enough to jump up in the morning and slip into the pool for 8 hours! I brought some oust-brand candles to burn in the room to stave off the faint musty smell, and we were fine! The average age of the staff at the RIU would have to be 20-something, and most of them wanted to be good at the tasks they were supposed to perform. Of course, some were surly, but nowhere near what we see in the US! The staff involved in the "show" they called Cabaret just wanted to put on a show, and I applaud them for that but I found it to be a lot of hype for childishly substandard performances and lip-syncing. They made an unforgiveable mistake in giving young guests (ages 5-10?) RIU-made awards (which was kind of sweet) right before the "show" started, thereby seating them right in the front, so the poor kids got closeup views of boobs and butts and boas of the actresses playing prostitutes. My husband and I left after about 3 minutes. A walk in the balmy breezes by the gorgeous fountains was much preferred! The wait time out of Punta Cana's airport was ridiculously long. We got there 4 hours early. But there were 20 flights out of the country and only one to the capital of Santa Domingo, so all the passports had to be checked, bags searched, and away we zipped through the security scanner! Still, they are building a new terminal so things should run faster the next time we go back. Coconut palms and beautiful breezes! We got massages in the tiki hut, my husband went scuba diving, and we spent most of our time in the pool from 7am until 7pm, enjoying every minute of what this RIU had to offer.

We went to the Riu Palace Punta Cana from June 28-July 5 with another couple. We've been to the Rui Palace in Cabo San Lucas so we already knew what to expect. We went there open minded. I have just one complaint and it's about the rooms! It was just our bad luck that we got placed at the rear of the hotel where the rooms were smelly and damp. You couldn't even lay in bed without feeling damp. The other couple that went with us had a room right next to us and it was the same, we figured it out that the smell and humidity was b/c we were at the back of the hotel, we tried to switch rooms but the hotel never moved us so we had to deal with damp and smelly rooms for 7 days! Ok, so on to the good stuff...the restaurants were very good!! The Steakhouse was delicious, we got steak & a lobster tail, the Brazilian restaurant was great! The Japanese restaurant was ok, the food didn't have a lot of flavor. The Gourmet restaurant was also very good but of course the portions were small. The buffets were ok, not great but not bad either. I read some of the reviews that said the buffets were better than the restaurants..I don't know what they are talking about b/c the restaurants were way better than the buffets!! The drinks were great, they didn't skimp on the alcohol at all, my husband got tequila shots and each time they were double shots! The staff was friendly and nice. I don't think it mattered whether you tipped or not b/c we got the same service when we tipped and when we didn't tip, it's more of a personal preference. Souvenirs are EXPENSIVE! I guess since tourism is their main source of income, it makes sense...but still I was surprised at the prices! There is absoultely no night life, you get to watch a show that ends at 11pm and then there's the club, casino, bars, bars, and more bars. So if you want to do something other than sit at a bar, this is not the place for you. They do not have a downtown or anything. The beach was the best!! Loved the warm waters and the white sand. Always plenty of beach chairs no matter what time you went out. Overall, had a great time, worth the money, loved the restaurants, loved the beach...everyone should visit the Dominican at least once in their life.

The RIU Palace is a great place to spend a honeymoon. The Good: 1) Great Beach 2) Friendly Staff 3) Clean Rooms (Good House Keeping) 4) Hotel Lobby is stunning 5) Balcony's are clean and spacious (interior rooms = ocean view) 6) Nightly entertainment was really good. Different each night. 7) Food Selection and availability good. 8) 24hr room service is a life saver 9) Excellent pool bar. Staff even walks along the beach to replenish drinks. Very friendly. 10) Japanese and Sir Oscar's food was really good. Great service. The Bad: 1) Apple representative was not helpful. She persuaded us into booking two excursions. After the 1st excursion, my wife became ill. We attempted to cancel the 2nd excursion (due to her illness) and the Apple Rep declined a refund. Very hard to find. When finally found -very pushy and at times even arrogant. 2) Our first room (we had to change) was very musty and damp. There was no view (we upgraded prior) they did promptly correct. 3) You have to wake up and wait for reservations around 8:00am. The early bird gets the worm. They sell out quickly. You can't make future reservations, only same day and in person. 4) The casino (Macao), beware. The staff is very pushy. They will offer you a five dollar (US) chip to play a specific game upon entry...You can't win and will end up spending much more than intended. Don't use a debit card to advance money, they charge around $25.00 for each transaction. They actually encourage this. The fee will state "commission." You do the math. 5) No access to American cash. Take lots of ones for tipping etc. Try to use credit/debit as much as possible with the vendors and stores. 6) Food = Stomach problems regardless of who you are. Take precaution. "Don't drink the water!" 7) Warm drinks everywhere throughout the resort. I guess filtered ice is an expensive commodity??? 8) Beds are very hard. You have to take the good with the bad. By far, the good out weigh the bad. Stay open minded. Have Fun!

We just returned from a 5 day trip to the Riu Palace Punta Cana and my husband and I loved it!!! The food was very good! The buffet at Don Manuels had a lot of great selections. The line to make reservations was very short and we always got our first choice. Every employee we encountered was very friendly and attentive. The room was beautiful and always cleaned early in the morning. The waiters at the pool bar were excellent and a small tip gets you great drinks all the time!! The beach was very beautiful and there were always lounge chairs available both at the beach and the pool. My only negative comment is that the a/c could have been better in all the areas. I would definitely return!

My partner and I stayed at the Riu Palace Punta Cana for 2 weeks at the end of June. It was our first time in a palace but have stayed at many riu hotels before across the carabian, including the Bambu nextdoor! To those of you reading the reviews of this hotel i would advise you to ignore the negative reviews about hard beds and smelly rooms, these people have nothing better to do than moan, they even moaned on holiday all the time, nothing was ever good enough, at the end of the day the holiday is what you make it and if you moan about everything then you are not going to enjoy yourselves. This hotel is not 100% perfect but does not deserve the 1 out of 5 some reviews state. I hope you find this review useful: When we first arrived we thought 'wow', the ground are gorgeous and the hotel really is a palace, the reception is huge and very glitzy. Check in was short and sweet and all staff were very helpful and friendly the whole holiday. Rooms: Our room was nice, a little fusky but nothing major, however our clothes did smell awful when we returned home. The beds are sleepable and our ac was fine! We had a sea view which was amazing! Pool and Beach: The beach is the best beach ever! Soft white sands and clear blue sea, lots of space and shade if needed. We did not use the pool much as the beach was so nice, though the pool was again nice, large and had a swim up bar. Food: The buffets for breakfast and dinner were nice, a little repetitive after a while so we ate at the a la cartes every other night. The only complaint we had is that the lunch by the beach was not very good, little variety. We ate at all a la cartes except the Japanese as we had eaten there before at another Riu and didnt like it. Sir Oscars is the best, excellent food and service, the brazillian if you like meat, we loved it, we thought the italian was ok and were not impressed with the steakhouse, poor food and service> I would say though that its a personal thing, we all like different things so is best to try them all. Weather: the weather was brilliant, we had one storm and some rain in the evenings plus a few cloudly days here and there but was generally really sunny. Dont be misled by the wind, it is hot and you will burn! The only other thing that bothered us was the language barrier, the staff speak little english! Having said that all staff were very nice and did not expect tips. Staff came around on the beach with drinks and were always filling up drinks etc We met some great friends and had a lovely 2 weeks holiday! Having been to Punta Cana twice, we will go somewhere different next year but we would recommend this hotel!! Go and have a great holiday, you'll love it!!