Hotel Riu Palace Palmeras - All Inclusive

This is a Riu 'Palace' however it did not live up to the standards of other Riu Palaces we have stayed at. Pros: The hotel is absolutely spotless, staff are friendly and helpful (like all Riu hotels). There are free towels, free safe, mini bar stocked with soft drinks and beer. There are three bars, one at the end of the hotel where the entertainment stage is, one at the pool and another, quieter one near the restaurant. They often had a piano player or singer and this was a lovely place to spend the evening people watching. Staff were lovely too and drinks and service was excellent at this end of the hotel, it was run with precision. There were lots of places to sit around the two pools and covered areas during the day. The pools are not massive but then neither is the hotel. We rarely had to wait a long time for the lift and all rooms faced the pool. They had a balcony and somewhere to hang your wet clothes. Cons: The food was definitely NOT up to a Palace standard. There were no gluten free bread options however when I did ask the staff in the restaurant they found me some and also sought me out in the morning to see if I wanted GF toast. They DO however have lactose free milk. I'm not particularly fussy when it comes to food but there was little choice at dinner time. A Sunday roast without yorkshires (even though they were advertised) and fish balls that were still frozen in the morning. I was very disappointed with the food. There were very few Brits, this is not normally a problem for us but the other holidaymakers were just so rude to everyone. Finally, and this is the biggest complaint of all is the bedrooms. Very little storage space in the room but that I can just about cope with as there was an ironing board and iron (free) if my clothes got creased. Then there is the opaque screen between the bedroom and bathroom. If anyone dared to go to the bathroom at night and turned on the light it LIT UP THE WHOLE ROOM LIKE WEMBLY STADIUM. I mean, who thought it was a good idea to put an opaque glass wall in the bedroom, this is madness. Pack your eye masks people or take the lightbulb out of the bathroom ceiling or you will get woken up if someone goes to the bathroom.

Special from start to finish, beautiful hotel, amazing, friendly and helpful staff Made us feel we didn’t want to leave.

Great holiday. Quiet relaxing stay. Only issue was young German lads probably on first holiday away from parents. Hotel dealt with them by firstly addressing behaviour then calling police- all good after that. Location is excellent.