Hotel Riu Palace Costa Rica (All-Inclusive), is located in Guanacaste, Costa Rica on the edge of the beach of Matapalo.
This hotel, fully prepared to provide the best service to its customers, has four swimming pools (one with a wet bar), jacuzzi, gym, sauna and a wellness center "Renova Spa" with different treatments and massages. Everything you need for maximum comfort during your stay.
The quality of the cuisine offered at the different restaurants of the hotel is exceptional thanks to our chefs, who prepare a variety of dishes, from classic to the most exotic. You'll want to to try each of our menus and, thanks to the All Inclusive service, you will be able to enjoy the buffet restaurant or the four different theme restaurants of the hotel.
Being on a privileged environment, the hotel offers a variety of activities on the beautiful beaches such as diving or fishing in the Pacific waters, ecotourism in the volcanic areas, and during the day several programs of entertainment for all ages, whether in family or friends. The hotel has a gym, table tennis, volleyball, tennis court, windsurf, sailing, snorkeling equipment, kayaks and other water activities. If your favorite sport is golf, the Four Seasons Golf Club has fantastic views over the sea.
Guanacaste is less tropical, humid and lush than the rest of the country. Its plains and dry forests sometimes remind you of African savanna landscapes. Inland you can see the savanna, local cowboys on their horses while driving their flocks, which are authentic figures of popular culture of this destination. From the hotel, you can do several excursions, such as the visit of the National Park Rincon de la Vieja, the Safari Park or the capital of Guanacaste: Liberia.
Location
GuanacasteProperty Information
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Resort Details
Hotel Advisories
General Policies & Fine Print
Check-in Policy - Deposits or credit/debit card hold authorizations are not requested at check-in. Minimum age of 18 is required for check-in, an ID/Passport will be requested upon arrival.
Convention Policy - Individuals attending a convention cannot book this property for their stay. If found attending a convention, guests may be subject to higher room rates upon arrival.
Hotel Spring Break Policies - Student Groups/Spring Breakers (either groups or individuals, regardless of age) are not allowed at any time during the year. Guests disturbing or generating complaints from other guests or hotel may be removed from the property, at their own expense. Parties in rooms are not permitted.
Transfer Policy - A price may display when children stay free, if your vacation includes transfer to your hotel.
General Information - Room taxes and service fees are included in vacation price.
Minimum night stay restrictions may apply.
Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
- Early Departure Penalty: 1 Night Applies: Sunday - Saturday 04Jul24 - 23Dec26
- Early Departure Penalty: 2 Nights Applies: Sunday - Saturday 24Dec24 - 30Apr25
- Early Departure Penalty: 2 Nights Applies: Sunday - Saturday 24Dec25 - 30Apr26
Customer Ratings & Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
10219 reviews
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Oct 13, 2024Nice place, little outdated
Beautiful hotel but is outdated and need some maintenance, nothing serious but there’s little things some people might notice. Most important, it needs to get some EV chargers, at least some 220 outlets so people can charge their cars and can leave the hotel with a full charge.
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Oct 12, 2024Birthday Trip
This was my second time staying at an RIU All - Inclusive !! It was great! Beautiful scenery, Food was delicious !
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Oct 07, 2024
Nice Hotel with beautiful Surroundings.
Spent a week here 40 Minutes from Liberia Airport . The Resort is definitely a nice place with 2 soon to be 3 Rius in the same complex with a small Water park. And shops and a disco ( mostly empty all week) . The Resort was not very busy during the week but on the weekend much busier . 4 a la carte Restaurants Steakhouse was the best . Buffet was good as well Food overall was Very good. Nice pool area . Busy Swim up bar and good place to hang out . Beach wasn’t the greatest people selling items and tours etc immediately when you walk onto the beach. Rooms were dated you have actually keys for use . I’m not one to complain and enjoyed my first visit to Costa Rica having been to other sun Destinations . Overall it is a very nice place and I enjoyed my stay seen monkeys from my balcony. Nice place not super fancy if you want a more luxurious stay at the riu palace next store .
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Oct 05, 2024People great, Grounds Beautiful. Bedding poor -food needs major help.
I have been here twice before-so I thought I knew what to expect. When I read the negative reviews, I thought people were just being ridiculous. They were not. This is my honest review of my experience a few weeks ago. I will preface this by saying despite my complaints, staff are very hard-working, polite, and overall wonderful people, -Booking process easy. -Price- great ( I booked 10 months out, during a sale, using my birthday discount). -Free Shuttle- this was a good added value, drivers were polite, there were no stops other than the palace next-door. I will say the drive was a bit treacherous as it was a torrential downpour and roads were flooded with. Over a foot of running water pouring over the road. The drive took about 90 minutes due to the weather. They got us there safely and comfortably. -Check in is a bit slow even though we already checked in online. It was3 pm so BUSY!! They had a separate line for those who pre checked in,however,there was no one dedicated for this line, so itmade no difference.. We got to our room and found they had not honored any of our requests regarding room location and bedding (specifically asked for a king size bed not doubles, and for a jungle view. I immediately went back to the front desk and explained what we had asked for.. It took a while, but eventually, she found me a room that was perfect. I was grateful and tipped for her trouble. -Room, the room we ended w was a good location for us. We had a beautiful jungle few, king bed, and a huge lanai. Door key was AWFUL-the entryway is dark and you cannot see to get your key in. We had to use our flashlight. This door was the hardest lock we have ever had. The key did not want to go in and it was in did not want to turn . After about three minutes of jiggling and Koch scene we finally got the door open.. I never could get it open on my own. My husband had to open it . About halfway through our visit, We noticed they had changed our door lock. Apparently, they were changing all of the locks slowly.I had never said anything - but this was great! after that we had no door problems. * note -I had bought a each a lanyard to put our keys on. This made it much easier to keep track of the key. I brought a shower mat with rubber grips to place outside of the tub to stand on, a toilet drop in to help w the odor, and a few car air fresheners. While this helped, the room still occasionally had that sewer smell. It seemed to come from the bathtub and sink drains. The room was clean, fridge stocked frequently,safe worked. The bedspread was literally worn,snagged, and 16 years old-that old slippery material where if you move the entire thing slides off. The air worked! It was cold!!! It did not matter what we set it on it was on high and if it was, we would freeze to death. we had to turn the air off and just use the ceiling fan. The room was uncomfortable temperature wise very humid. We took damp rid to help. The bathtub area was very worn and fixtures rusty— There are no face cloths, but they did bring some when requested. There are two of us. We only had two towels the entire time. The towels are adequate but rough and very worn… I expected this from previous visits. It was not a big deal for me. I will note the electrical outlets were broken on my side of the bed and there are very few outlets in the room. Definitely bring an extension cord as you will absolutely need this if you plug-in thanks in charge devices. There was an iron, ironing board, mini hairdryer, and small coffee pot in the room, -If you need anything, use the app, it works well and any request we ever made was always done promptly through it . House keeping was good and came early. No fancy towel animals or any of those things, but the room was cleaned well and stocked. -the grounds were lovely and landscaping was beautiful. -Pool area area. Absolutely love the layout of the swimming pools., however, the pools themselves need some serious maintenance, some tiles are broken and sharp, The water was not Very clean (it was rainy season so that probably contributed to the water) lounges were mostly filthy, finding totally dirt stained. I think they were understaffed, when I was there there was only one girl walking around taking drink orders, and it could be a long long while before you got your drink. The swarm up bar was usually packed, especially on weekends full of locals who were loud and rowdy. It was hard to get a drink there on weekends.. They did not have much of a variety of alcohol. Just the Spanish brands.. The bartenders were awesome and friendly and very hard-working.. If you want namebrand liquor, however, you will not get it here. They just do not have it. This was not a big deal to me as I drink very little other than Diet Coke. Or martini. If I wanted something fancy, I would go up to the Philadelphia bar. They had great drinks there in the evenings. -FOOD… This is where the resort really fell short.. I am sorry but the food here overall was not good! Remember, I have been here twice before as well as many other RIU properties. I thought I knew what to expect but I was wrong.. It was very difficult to find something I like here.. there were no tacos. There was no guacamole. The chips were stale so they were in my opinion not edible.. the chicken was undercooked., The beef was very tough. Coffee makers that made lattes were constantly either not on or broken. They had a lot of black beans and rice and some kind of meat with gravy that you put on top of the rice.. I get that TICO food is different but that is not my taste at all. I do not care for it. I would always just grab a taco and be happy and I suggest they be put back on the menu. The pizza was not bad. The salad bar was good and I resorted to eating that most days. Breakfast was the best meal.. if I had time to stand in line at the omelette bar. Precooked scrambled eggs all had runny white still in them. There was no bacon the entire time I was there. While the pastries and donuts looked delicious. I have dietary restrictions. The fruits this time were different well plentiful, many were not ripe. The watermelon.. bananas and pineapple were often not fully ripe.. Overall, the food choices and taste good. Problem the last two times I was here. Obviously, others do not necessarily feel best because I saw a lot of people with huge plates of food. I will say the steakhouse was good, the Tucán was not. The salad bar was good. The breads, pasteries, once cream were good. The sports bar used to make good lattes but this time could not make a mocha. -entertainment. I think the RIU overall needs a rehaul on the entertainment.. I have seen all of the things shows before once you have been to a RIU and seen them. They are all the exact same. I have been to many RIU and seen the shows many times they work hard however they need new content. The show starts very late and there is nothing to do between dinner and the show. we ended up just going to bed early most nights. The entertainment team is great. They did a great job communicating and mingling with the people at the pool. The pool party were fun a great time everyone seem to have fun. Bingo was really fun in the bar at 5 PM and we look forward to it. One day, the staff did not even show up for bingo, which was a bit disappointing. it would be fun if they had this option around 7 PM between dinner and the show. The weather was not great while we were here, but we still had a good time . The people were wonderful, the resort itself is old and tired, and desperately needs the renovations. It will be getting this year.. Hopefully the food situation will. I do want to make a shout out to the chef. My husband caught a yellowfin tuna, and the cook prepared it, especially for us.. that in itself was delicious and well done and made our trip special. I look forward to the renovations and hope the cost does not become too prohibitive to retry. at this point, I would recommend anyone coming just try the palace. Food is an important issue in your vacation.
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Oct 01, 2024
Another Great Stay at RIU
Our last stay at RIU was in Jamaica (where we got married!) the White Party then was a fun DJ on the beach with a bon fire. This visit the entertainment was AMAZING! The property was beautifully maintained and the staff provided excellent service.