Riu Palace Bavaro - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

11301 reviews

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  Excellent!

  Been staying at the Rius for years in Playa Del Carmen. First time to Punta Cana Palace Bavaro. Cant wait to go back. Beaches and water a little nicer. Rooms are updated and pood is comparable.

  Apr 19, 2026
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  A happy group holiday

  We stayed here as a group of 13 - 6 adults and 7 children. On the whole the resort is very good and I would recommend to anybody with young children (under 10). Good points; Very clean, the cleaners are constantly working. The staff around the pool are very attentive with drinks. The snack bar by the beach is excellent and has everything for a quick lunch. The buffet is very good, breakfast was fresh and tasty, lots of healthy options. The dinner was outstanding, huge prawns, fresh steak, lots of veg. The pools are excellent, lots of choice. The pirate pool is very good. The band/party around the adults pool was great fun. The grounds are very well maintained and tidy. The shop is nice and has lots of choice but very expensive. The check in service at reception was fast. The pool/towel guy was great and kindly reserved the beds we wanted without us even asking! The coffee shop is great and the food was nice. The daiquiri bar and joes bar were very nice. The gym is 24h which is very useful when suffering from jet lag! Close to the airport Good size mini fridge which was kept well stocked. The cleaners did a great job on our rooms and left lovely towel art which the kids loved. Room for improvement: The entertainment is not as good as other resorts. Some nights there was no mini disco, some nights there was no show at all for the adults. If there was a Riu Party happening at the nightclub then that meant no show for the adults which is no good for those of us with children. The service in the à la carte restaurants is slow, sometimes it took an hour for food to arrive. George in the steakhouse was very grumpy and miserable. The food in the American restaurant was average at best. Nothing to do for teenagers. On the whole a very good resort and I would recommend.

  Apr 19, 2026
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  A brilliant hotel with a bit of a identity complex

  Having read reviews on here for this hotel for months before our trip i was a bit apprehensive about our stay. So here is a honest review about our holiday. THE ROOMS The rooms are very nice and good size and clean and well equipped with a hairdryer, ironing board and iron. Shampoo, conditioner and shower gel also provided . A $2 daily tip to the housekeeper and mini bar man made sure our room was kept spotless and fridge was always fully stocked. 4.5/5 THE STAFF The staff here are super friendly and will go out their was to help you again a few $ tip gose along way here but you never feel pressured to do it. 5/5 THE POOLS The pools here are great and plentiful with both adults only and kids pools available but never seemed overcrowded. The swim up bar at the main pool area had a stricked no kids allowed but the one in the family section to the rear of the property allowed them in which was nice. The splash parks and water park was a great place for the little ones. 4.5/5 THE PROPERTY The property and grounds are simply stunning with every walkway lined with palm trees 🌴 and the gardens always well kept . A pure joy to walk around. 5/5 Now for my biggest worry THE FOOD Having read what felt like thousands of reviews on this i can honestly say I wasn't expecting much but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The buffet had a great selection of food of all types from steaks to roasts to seafood we really enjoyed our meals we had here and unlike a lot of reviews here we never got bored with the choices available. There are also 5 or 6 speciality restaurants to use we only used 4 of them and all but one were fine. The Italian was really nice and everything we had was tasty the only down side was the food was not that warm . Kristal was also very good The steakhouse stole the show for us and we used it 3 times during our holiday very very good. We also tried the american country restaurant and it was bad ,best avoided. All in we were very impressed with the food on offer here. 4/5 THE DRINKS The drinks here were both good and not so good They have a good selection of beers here from the local to the international like Heineken, Miller and Coors light. The spirits on offer were also premium brand you just had to ask for them. The cocktails although very tasty were all to often pre mixed . 4/5 THE DOWNSIDES Only a few here The smell in the sports bar was bad and it simply made it unusable for us. Not enough restrooms around the property which sometimes ment a bit of a walk depending where you were. The entertainment was fine with shows most nights some were really good some not so which is expected. OVERALL We loved our holiday at Riu palace bavero and wouldn't hesitate to book here again and probably will,a great time was had by myself, wife and 9 year old daughter. What i will say is this If you are planning a holiday here and you have kids of say 4 to 6 years or 18 and above then this is perfect for you, the kids club and entertainment for them looked really good for the young ones and the Riu party's looked a blast for those of 18 or older. But if like us you have kids between those ages then there is not much for them to do at night. Overall I feel the hotel despite the hotel being advertised as a family hotel it really doesn't know what it is . But saying that I wouldn't hesitate to go again. 4.5

  Apr 18, 2026
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  well stay there again

  My family and I had an amazing stay at the RIU Resort. The staff was incredibly friendly and always willing to help with anything we needed, which made our experience even more enjoyable. The resort itself was very clean and well-maintained, and we were impressed with the quality of the food—there was something for everyone, and everything we tried was delicious. We truly had a great time together and made some wonderful memories. It was a fun, relaxing getaway, and we’re already looking forward to coming back!

  Apr 14, 2026
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  Bravo to Bavaro!

  Recently returned from a spring break at this RIU property, and we really enjoyed our stay! It's the first time we've traveled as a family to an all-inclusive resort. Our children are older teens (and one is technically an adult), so I can't really speak to amenities for children. We all enjoyed the pools and camping out under palm trees on the beach. The sand was very soft, the ocean was warm, and the beach and water had very little seaweed. Bars and food were never far from where we stationed ourselves, and most of it was good. Overall I'd give the food a "B" grade. The main buffet is solid with many, many choices for entrees, sides, salads, and desserts. Individual restaurants had hit or miss dishes, and we found ourselves surprised to enjoy the "American Country" themed restaurant best...although I really liked the Asian-themed restaurant as well. Members of our group also enjoyed the steakhouse. Be warned that you'll need to queue up a little early for popular restaurants, as it doesn't appear that you can make reservations. They will accommodate some special requests though -- one of the kids we traveled with had a birthday during our stay and they brought him a birthday cake and sang a spirited birthday song for him, which was cute. There is entertainment every night on the patio, and while I absolutely have the "RIUland" children's theme song stuck in my head, I learned to avoid the entertainment until that was over and the adult show rolled in. The waitstaff is very quick to take orders and deliver them, no complaints there. I do wish there was a good spot on the property to play cards... that patio seemed to be the only place to gather as a larger group, and it only had cocktail tables. Since we traveled in a large group with other families, being able to bust out some card games would have been nice but there just was never a good space to do that sort of thing. We did not go off-property at all, so I can't speak to the town. There was a gift shop at the resort, which came in handy for items that we didn't bring (e.g., feminine products), but please note that you will pay quite a premium for those things! The person who checked us in might have been new, and the process was so smooth that we later discovered she had not given us all the info we needed. For instance, we should have received towel cards during check-in, but we were unaware of this, and had to go back later to request them. Not a big deal. Overall, we had a great time!

  Apr 13, 2026