Riu Palace Costa Rica - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

10772 reviews

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  Avoid!

  Place blows, period. Rooms are shot, really run down with lots of wear and tear. Toilet ran whole trip despite asking to be fixed first day. A/C doesn’t work room 75. I expressed my frustration at front desk, they acknowledged the poor state and said a major renovation was coming in August. People nice, pool fine, restaurant situation if messed up. Essentially have to eat in buffet, otherwise need to wait in line at others for 8 pm seating. Riu in general a lower tier flag, I knew as much, shame on me for booking.

  Mar 30, 2026
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  We want to go back!

  A group of 6 couples aged 25-65 had a great time at this newly renovated resort. We had someone with us with mobility issues and she had no problems. The swim up pools are adults only with family pools next to them. The staff was really good at keeping kids out of the adults pool. We stayed mostly at the quieter pool as it was closest to our rooms but there were livelier pools closer to the beach. The Tiki Taco for lunch was handy right at the pool with a good variety. Everywhere we went we found the bartenders to be quick and friendly. The waits were never too bad for the restaurants. It was a pain to try to make a reservation together at the Steak House as the only way to do it was each room separately in the app. Everyone enjoyed all of the restaurants. Entertainment staff was great. Special shout out to Jason on the entertainment team who made sure to say Hi everyday and missed us the day we did an excursion. We did airport transfers and a mobility friendly excursion with Frank the Tank and we would very highly recommend going with this company! We walked to the Monkey Bar and did see the monkeys but they didn't come to us as they did others as we didn't feed them. We had drinks and snacks at the Monkey Bar and stopped at the bar just before it as well which was not as fancy but great service! We took the water taxi ($25/pp) from the beach to Coco Beach for a few hours which was worth it for the scenic boat ride on it's own. We also rented Seadoos on the beach for an hour ($100 for the 2 of us on one). Everyone in our group loved the resort and wants to go back!

  Mar 30, 2026
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  Great resort, needs a quiet pool though

  Great All Inclusive, food was excellent, and rooms as well. Only thing we didn't like was the pool by the kids section and water park had a swim up bar as well as the big pools by the beach. Unfortunately there were drunken slobs loud and obnoxious, in that section by the kids pool were they should have kept it as a quite area. Otherwise resort was good.

  Mar 28, 2026
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  Warm, relaxing and spectacular couples trip - March 2026

  For all the negative reviews of this resort, we can honestly say, that wasn't our experience. Everything was great, from the grounds to the rooms to the food, etc. We ate at, I believe all the food options on the resort over the course of 5 days. I really have no complaints there. While most everything is buffet style, food was good, plentiful and filling. There was a ton of variety and we particularly liked the Japanese-Chinese style option. The Italian themed option was great for dinner one of the nights and also for breakfast a couple of the days. As for excursions, we booked a private (4 people) day long tour with Diamond Tours on the beach. Go see Wilton, he set us up with a great tour. Emanuel (guide) & Cesar (driver) were excellent. We did ziplines, a waterfall, coffee/chocolate 'tour' and got to see sloths, snakes, frogs and toucans in their wild habitat (not in a zoo/nature preserve). It was great. The beach, in my opinion was also fantastic. We did a lot of swimming and snorkeling right off the beach and found plenty of fish on the right hand side of the beach toward the big hill / cliff.

  Mar 25, 2026
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  The place surprised us

  Before we decided to go, I did some research and read the reviews as like everyody else. I was nervious to go because this is the one country, my wife wanted to go. Once we landed, the huimdity is very high here and you will sweat, lol. the resort is 45 mins away from the LIB airport, so get comforable. Once we got there, the resort is very beautiful and very wide opened. Checking in was very quick and we were lead to our room which was a Ocean View on the 5th floor. Once inside the room, my wife was blown away for how big and beautiful the room was. We had a large balcony to oursleves with a ocean view like no other. They also had a sign stating, welcome and HB to my wife. Once we settled in, we walked around the property and saw the 7 resturants they had on site. We ate at the All you can eat buffet and the food was good/great. We didnt have any complains for either breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They have a varity of food for all ages. You want to drink, they have 4 bars (1 of them is a swim up bar) so you wont be empty handed anytime. Pros: Noise level was low. It wasnt packed at all which we were very surprised Cleanliness, very clean and staff always picking up people's cups after they were done. Food, was good to delish. Resort is close by to Monkey trail if you want to visit the monkeys. Beach is beauiful with black volanic sand and clear water. Value, I booked like 9 months ahead so it was so worth it. Cons: Distance to everything. I cant stress this enough. We were far from our excurisions like 45 to a 1 hr & half away. Resort is only thing in the area so you do need transportation to get to other locations in the country. We used Uber.

  Mar 24, 2026