Hotel Riu Palace Las Americas

Boulevard Kukulcan, Km 8.5, Manzana 50,
Lote 4, Zona Hotelera
Cancun 77500
Mexico

Description: 368 rooms

"Always high class..."
I Stayed at the RIU PLA in Feb. 2005. I arrived there by luck, as I had purchased an Apple Vacations Square Deal - you pick the quality and they pick the property. This is the 2nd Square Deal, and I have always been thrilled with the property that I have been assigned to. Now, back to the RIU...

Having stayed at 2 other RIU properties in MX, I already had an idea of what to expect - the 2 double beds pressed together to make a king, the liquor dispenser, lots of marble and stunning landscaping & architecture.

The room was nice - regular things. The double sink was a bonus. The tub wall was a little tall and hard to get into with a buzz on...

The lobby was spectacular, as were all of the common areas. There are 2 infinity pools, one quiet and under utilized, with the other being the active pool with the famous RIU swim up bar (See pics).

Along with the buffet, there was a Tapas restaurant and a steak house for specialty restaurants (may have been more, those were what I was able to sample).
The Tapas was very good, and the steak house average - order your meat cooked one level more rare than normal. My "medium" was cooked to well done. Although the steak was OK, the pepper sauce used in the marinade/cooking process was excellent.

The RIU PLA is on the "bay" side of Cancun Island - at the top of the "7", so the water was calmer than other hotels in the past.

The biggest problem/complaint was the beach - very narrow and rocky in some points, but the beautiful water compensated.

Demographics: I am a male aged 36 who traveled with my girlfriend. I will eat anything, she is very picky. Both were able to find drinks and food all week that were suitable.

All in all I enjoyed every aspect of the hotel and staff. I will always stay at a RIU when finances allow or when on sale. I would recommend this hotel to the over 30 crowd. There were not a lot of things for children. They would be happier at the RIUs in Playa del Carmen where there is more real estate for activities.

"Ok for what it was"
The Riu Palace Las Americas was a nice hotel that did everything it was supposed to do. It was a well built structure (something one appreciates when looking at the post-hurricane devastation around), the staff is good-natured if inconsistent, the food is solid. We might have even rated the hotel higher if it hadn't been for the unexpectedly windy and cool weather (not the hotel's fault, of course, but it does affect how we look at the place).

A couple tips:
1. Tipping the front desk $20 upon check-in for a room upgrade really does work. Currently, probably because of the recent hurricane, hotel occupancy was around 60-75% cap., so there were plenty of extra rooms. We booked the most basic room available on Orbitz (junior suite, no guaranteed oceanview), and were first given a partial view room with balcony and two double beds pushed together. We went back down to the lobby, and $20 later (no a bad investment when you consider the cost of a week at the hotel), we had a full ocean view, overlooking the "quiet" pool and a considerably larger deck. A king sized bed, too, despite the clerk's original assertion that there were no available king-sized beds.
2. The only heated jacuzzi is in the spa. Every other one is pretty buy tepid.
3. If you're used to good Japanese food (you're from a major city such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York), do not go to Sakura. The fish was smelly, the tempura was soggy, and there was no sake at all in the restaurant. However, asthetically, the restaurant was more pleasing than the other ones.
4. If you're there when the guy fills up the mini-bar and refrigerator, he will remember what you like to drink and make sure that it's there in abundance the next time he comes around.
5. Tipping the maids will not guarantee turn down service or even complete towel replenishment. But the room was always spotless otherwise.
6. Making reservations is not a problem, just be aware that if you don't take my advice and decide to eat at Sakura, you need to be down there by 5pm the day before, otherwise, there might be no spots open. However, sometimes, if you speak with the waiter/maitre'd really nicely, he'll "find" you a table, even after reservations are closed.

Hope this helps. For the price, the place was great, and we had fun, despite the incredible winds.

"Awesome Cancun Vacation at the RUI"
Airport and Transportation:
Personnel customs took us about 5 minutes and luggage customs took about 15 minutes. Be cautious right after walking out the sliding doors after customs checks your bags. Once you go past the sliding doors there is a room full of “tourist advisors”. These are the same guys who annoy you during the entire trip attempting to sell you tourist attractions. Some will even chase you down to get a sale, I thought that was funny. You could probably get a great deal if you want to reserve some type of tour but they will take up your time and the deal gets better and better as you walk away just like buying anything else at a high tourist spot.
I ended up reserving a car with a driver from Cancun Vans for $48 roundtrip. This was great because only 1 car was in the airport parking area, which was our reserved car, with the driver holding up our name on a sign. As we drove off, I looked back and saw a lot of the other vacationers either sitting on the curb waiting for a ride or attempting to load up with others. (in and out it was great!)

Junior Suite:
I checked in on Dec. 15th and was first assigned a room with no ocean view suite #501, which was what I had reserved. I didn’t think it would hurt, so I asked if they could switch me to an ocean view suite (#220) and they did with NO extra charge or tip!!! My wife and I were very pleased with our room and ocean view. Spectacular View, see picture!
It was Two Double Beds pushed together to make a very large bed. One was pretty firm, hard on the back. The other bed was soft…gave that one to the wife who slept very comfortably. Highlights of the Suite came with a Safe with key lock, a Mini-fridge with 7up, Pepsi, bottled water, and Corona beer (stocked every 2 days or upon request) and a blow dryer. Above the fridge was 4 bottles of hard liquor for the party drinkers! (Rum, Vodka, etc). Living room was partitioned off with a half wall and a step down. It had a loveseat, coffee table and 1 TV (needed to be angled to watch from the right side bed). (Picture included)

Pools, Beach and Jacuzzi:
My wife and I (low 30’s) enjoyed the pools, beachfront, and the Jacuzzi. Two pools, large one is surrounded by the ocean view rooms seemed to be quiet and relaxing. The other is considered a party pool that has scheduled activities, DJ with Music, two bars with 1 in the pool and an attached Jacuzzi. Most of the servers are in this area to order drinks while you lay out in the sun. There is also a sun deck, perhaps used for busy periods, but during our vacation it was not crowded at all. Beachfront was great, again not crowded, white powered sand (first time seeing that type of sand), and warm ocean water. You could take out the inclusive foot paddled boats; catamaran sail boat or kayak out to enjoy the ocean. ($2 tax fee required) (Picture included)

Food & Shows:
We also watched one of the nightly shows (Broadway Show) and ordered drinks while watching but opted not to watch the other 3 different nightly shows. Lobby was very elegant along with all the restaurants. Breakfast (Don Romero) and lunch (El Romero) were buffets and both tasted pretty good with a lot of varieties. Italian Lunch (Los Arcos) was a menu with a buffet salad and dessert which was OK. Like other reviews indicate, the dinners need to be reserved between 5-6 PM for the next night. However, I was able to walk up to the hostess after that time and make a reservation as long as there was an opening. Again, during our stay that was never an issue. Out of all the restaurants, we really enjoyed eating at Sir Arthur’s. It was a gourmet restaurant and just to be safe I ordered the beef fillet and it was absolutely delicious. It seemed that all the workers at the hotel spoke pretty good English, so we didn’t have any problems communicating. Helpful hint: ask the front desk to look at all the menus for the restaurants to give you a better idea of which place to pick for dinner if you aren’t the adventurous type.

Hotel Zone:
The area was deeply impacted by the hurricane, as we drove up and down the hotel zone, one hotel after another was heavily damaged. Both RUI hotels looked great…no indication of any damage except for palm trees. We didn’t venture too far out, just across the street was a mall about 85% open (pretty big) and a flea market down the street to buy a few souvenirs. (Picture included)

Overview:
We had a very relaxing and wonderful vacation. It wasn’t crowded at the hotel and there was plenty of seating at the pools and beach areas. Of course, this is probably due to the hurricane and the fact that most people were trying to cancel or postpone their vacations. It worked out great for us. This would be a perfect time to go for those of you who don’t like big crowds. As we checked out on our last day, we had to vacate our room at noon, (there were no late check outs available), but our flight back to California wasn’t until 5PM. We were able to keep our bracelets that they give you when you check in, so we were able to still have one last lunch before we left the hotel. Great stay and we will return.