Hotel Riu Cancun

After a hellish 2020, I needed to get outta NY for warm temps, sunshine and a dip in the ocean. Got the vaccines in January, Mexico was a quick fix with no quarantine upon arrival or Covid test needed. Cancun is direct from JFK and Delta’s middle seats were empty!! Pros: 1) Riu Cancun is a short ride from the airport. 2) Rm 722 was clean and roomy enough for two females to not be in each other’s way. 3) Most of the staff were polite and pleasant. My interactions with the staff is what led to the 3 stars. Some notable mentions were: Monica at front desk-extremely helpful Franc also at front desk David-bartender from Bar La Punta Nisan-bartender at Corner bar Enrique delivered “virgin” Bahama Mamas Moises - (“nice smile”) Esteban-dining room “Bacon” - server Alma (amazing deep tissue massage) Young woman who made the omelettes 4) The gym is small but has modern working equipment and was not crowded in the morning Cons: 1) Riu Cancun was tooooo crowded for my liking. 2) Be prepared to take the stairs as the elevators have the four-person max and are almost never available! 3) Most of the food options had a high sodium content 4) Not enough entertainment for the # of guests. 5) There were restaurants on site but they were not available

This place was very clean everywhere, always saw staff cleaning every surface. The entire staff is so friendly and welcoming. KARLA from RiuFit was amazing and her Zumba lessons at the pool have made my mom and I decide to start taking a Zumba class back home! Drinks were delicious. Had the breakfast buffet every morning which was pretty good! My favorite of the restaurants was the steakhouse for sure. I had a great time here.

Me, my husband, my sister and brother-in-law all took a two week trip to stay at the RIU Cancun for our anniversaries. They set up a private dinner for us by the beach. It was awesome! Hermes was the best waiter and completed a wonderful meal with excellent service! Avimeal, Hermes, Francisco, Ricardo and so many other waiters went above and beyond every day to make our meals enjoyable. The sports and entertainment staff were awesome! Charly, Paloma, Andrea and Daphne were the best! They kept us entertained and included in the shows and activities! The housekeeping staff was awesome! Cleaned the room daily and it was spotless! We each got a bottle of champagne with a special note on the night of our anniversary also. A special shout out to the Wet and Drinking staff! Angy was our bartender most days and was excellent! We also had Jesus, Nissan and a few others. They were all awesome and did a great job keeping our drinks full at the swim up bar! I cannot say enough about how great this resort and it's staff are! This is my third trip to this resort and recommend it to everyone!

The staff is amazing!! They made our stay a 100x better than we expected. The sports and activities team are so friendly and entertaining. It was about 3-4 minute walk to the clubs and a block away from the super market. Will definitely be coming back later this year.

I gave this hotel a 4 rating because the rooms may be dated but where we spent the most of our days was quite enjoyable. The beach, pools, restaurants and drinks were all very satisfactory. This was a mother-son group of 6 from Wisconsin that had our original trip postponed because of COVID, celebrating graduation a year late. We arrived the Saturday before Easter Sunday and left on Wednesday. It did not feel crowded; did not wait for elevators, always got a table immediately at buffet, no wait for check-in or check- out but I saw lines on other days and earlier than we checked in. We always had lounge chairs on the beach but we got out there early. You can save your chairs by putting towel on them. My tip is to go to far right "quiet" side of beach...plenty of chairs, nice pool, no loud partying, nice clean bathrooms which I never waited for, and wonderful quick service at bar. On Saturday a waiter took your drink orders on the beach but had to go to bar yourself on other days. The employees were all extremely attentive and nice...can not complain about service. We did have loud neighbors in room next to us but i took care of that myself. Rooms- they are dated with furniture that has rusting hardware and our safe wasn't working. The rooms were musty smelling but clean. The bathrooms seemed like they were renovated and we had plenty of hot water and pressure every day. The water does leak out of shower stall because just half a glass door, I needed extra towels to soak up water from floor. We were on 12 floor with gorgeous views of ocean. We left door open at night for hearing surf and then put on fan above beds. ***need a key to put in slot by door to turn on electricity*** so can't charge anything if you leave with both keys. I am an early riser and lots of staff cleaning inside out outside in the early hours. The whirlpool/ jacuzzi is nNOT heated, which explains why I felt so lucky no one was in it! I suggest watching a sunrise if you can, if your room isn't facing East, just walk to end of hallway and the end is all glass where you can watch the sunrise COVID testing: I thought it would be a rapid test but it was a full nasopharyngeal double swab, we received results the same day even though we were told results may not be till next day ** a couple of us discovered our results email went to our Spam folder, so check there if you haven't received it** Restaurants: loved eating outside (but covered) area by beach for buffet. There was an excellent variety of food!!. You'll like the coffee, but decaf is only instant coffee. We ate at the Japanese restaurant twice and once at the steakhouse, which both were good. We went down and got in line around 6:20 for an opening at 6:30 and got seated right away. They are very serious about wearing masks and always having you use hand sanitizer at restaurants which made us feel safer, glad they are strict about that, do not need to wear masks on beach or pool area but will need one if getting drinks at the outside bars. If you want to walk the beach to lighthouse, you will come to a low wall by the public beach area which you have to climb up. You can walk the beach as long as you aren't on resort properties just like the locals are not allowed to do. People will try to sell you stuff on the beach but just politely say no. There was security always to keep only guests on the property and we never felt uncomfortable while on the beach. The water is gorgeous and waves were big enough to be fun but can easily swim past them to enjoy the warm water. Sand is shell and rock free by the Riu but if you go west it will have some shells and rocks, but it also gets shallower and less waves which is nice for younger kids. You will lose sun on the quiet end of resort in mid-afternoon but can move down the beach if needed. Overall, the money spent on this hotel is where we spent most of our time, the lobby, beach, pools, bars, restaurants, etc....if your picky about the rooms then you may want to choose another resort.