Riu Bambu - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

5198 reviews

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  Mixed feelings

  We went to Riu Bambo for a week at the end of January. The resort layout and the beach are great. There are 3 pools and plenty of sits available. Unfortunately this is all that I found satisfactory there. The cooked food was bland and plain not tasty. The labels on the top of the buffet often do not much the actual food. Soups are unlabeled and you have to guess what it is. Coffee is undrinkable. Meats often very tough to chew . Once I noticed a cook frying fish and touching it with his bare hands , no utensils. The salad and cheese bar was very nice and provided alternative to escaping the cooked food. Public washrooms poorly maintained . The rooms are old as well as beds . The walls do not protect from noise - you can hear your neighbour flushing a toilet. Staff was nice, they try their best and it shows. I would gladly go back there if they can do something about the food , coffee and some renovations. I would not give this hotel more then 3 stars, which is too bad as the grounds are perfect. Nela K. Toronto

  Feb 05, 2026
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  Fantastic hotel

  The food, beach,staff, entertainment and hotel was all perfect. The rooms are a little tired and could do with a makeover. However I only shower and sleep there so no impact on my holiday

  Feb 05, 2026
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  Never a 5*

  Well went as was sold as a 5* from tui!! 3* really run down rooms we had 3 room changes, key cards dont always work minimum of 8 times for us... Were were at the furthest point from reception! Spent a lot of time waiting around for maintenance to let us in...basic rooms, optics the local spirits we never touched them. 2nd room, stunk of damp, damaged ceiling/wall to water damage, door locks on teraced broke and hangin off, stained and dirty white bedding! Took to tui rep, spoke to management room changed at 2pm.. Very clean room, near tui pool area... But i got feasted on in the night on my feet (under the sheet?) did see a few bugs... Entertainment shocking! Staff at food courts very very attentive, the males work very hard, women seem to be lazy! Noone would go hungry here plenty of choice no complaints on staff or food. Toilets! 3 public toilets in the whole complex no where near enough, if u was desperate u would have to set up. Camp near them! Tui pool area quiet what we enjoyed plenty of choice with pools plenty of beds... All down to personal choice but i would not come back this holiday was far from what we expected never done 5* before and was definatley not!... After 3 room changes we enjoyed the last few days, and meeting few good people. U want 5* got to the palace next door!!! Thats exceptional

  Feb 04, 2026
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  Hotel nicer than the reviews but water sports disappointing

  Hotel was nicer than I expected from the reviews I read prior. No mold, no bed bugs, no cockroaches. Food was good (though not great). Beach is excellent, lots of lounge chairs, no shortage of towels, water very warm (in January!), can literally walk for miles in both directions. My only big complaint: I wanted to go windsurfing, kayaking, take out the catamaran. In the 8 days that I was there, they were only available on 3. There was minimal wind on 7 of the 8 days, but on 2 of those days I was told it was too windy to take out any equipment; on 2 of the other similar days I was told there wasn’t enough wind for the windsurfer or Hobie cat, but at the same time it was too windy for the kayak! It made no sense. (Though on the 3 similar wind days when they did actually let me use the equipment it was great!). So overall it was a good vacation but with a little more reasonable availability of the water equipment it would have been even better

  Feb 04, 2026
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  The Most Terrible Vacation/Trip/Stay In 40 Years Of Travelling!!!

  If you ever made a Movie about a HORROR Vacation, our vacation would be the script you'd write. It began like every other trip at 7:30 am on Jan 20th, we showed up, checked in luggage, went thru Security, walked in the departure area and seen our Sunwing/WestJet 737-Max-8 sitting waiting for us on the bitter -40C wind blown tarmac. After waiting an hour in the waiting area, we heard the first of many (5-6) announcements telling us our 9:15 am Departure would be delayed due to the plane needed to be warmed up, then an hour later, the planes water/septic systems needed attention/defrosting. For the next 3 hours they hooked up external heaters while we sat watching our trip getting shorter each hour. Finally Sunwing/WestJet informed us our trip was cancelled till 10 am next day, when asked about them sending a replacement jet we were told " There are NO extra planes anywhere from Winnipeg to Toronto to be brought into Thunder Bay" which was less than 1.5 hour flight away from both of those cities. So back home we went dragging our bags and frustrated about losing a day of our 7 day trip. Later that day, Sunwing/WestJet did send a jet to Punta Cana from Toronto to pick up those poor people who would have had to stay 1 extra day in +30C Punta Cana and brought them back to Thunder Bay, not bother sending it first to pick us up, guess the extra 1.5 hours of travel was too much bother? Later that night Sunwing/WestJet did send a empty jet to Thunder Bay, but to that new crews surprise, we all were sent home and the crew was told to relax in hotels till tomorrows 10 am flight, BTW as we left we heard from Sunwing/WestJet Staff that the original jet was flown from Winnipeg already FROZEN and they did NOTHING OVERNIGHT to thaw out the water/septic systems. Next Morning we again went thru baggage checks, Customs and headed to the waiting area where again we found another jet sitting ready to board, maybe? We were told that anyone who paid extra to pick their seats wouldn't get those seats due to the new jets seating was not the same? The first jet was towed away to thaw in a hanger, but again, another few announcements telling us the new jet was also having issues with frozen water/septic systems?? Guess they didn't learn from the first event! Finally we boarded after another 1.5 hour delay, we were headed south. Then an hour into our flight, the Auto-Pilot system died, FAA rules state all aircraft must have Auto-Pilot to fly higher than 29,000 feet, but at that restricted height we didn't have enough fuel to make it to Punta Cana, so we circled 2-3 hours over Michigan burning up fuel to land at TORONTO! We landed at Toronto around 2 PM and was told our new jet was set to leave around 4 PM, of course it was late due to finding new crew members and deicing line ups. We finally took off around 6 PM and made it to Punta Cana around 11:30 PM Punta Cana time. We were shuttled to Hotel in 25 mins to find a single Employee at the desk, when asked to check us in, he said no rooms were held for all booked on our flight (6) because we were "NO SHOWS" and Sunwing Rep J.D. ether didn't let Hotel Management know about our 2 days of delays or Hotel Management didn't care, so our rooms were given to other guests earlier than day. So after an hour of that lone Employee talking to the Manager over a phone, we finally got assigned rooms, no Staff to help us find our building, no staff to bring our heavy bags to the far edge of the resort or carry our bags up the 3 stories of stairs at 1:30 AM (we requested ground floor due to health issues). So the next morning, now 2 full days lost into our 7 day trip, we headed to get a ground floor room, front desk sent us to see J.D. the Rep from Sunwing, she explained no rooms were left and we'd have to stay on the 3rd floor till the next afternoon at 2 PM when she'd get us a lower floor room. Now on the 4th day we headed to our Sunwing Reps area and no J.D. to be seen, front desk had no idea where J.D. from Sunwing was, so Juan the Manager finally set us up with ground floor rooms in very same building we now were staying. We later found out J.D. the Sunwing Rep was sick and didn't feel it was important to inform hotel Management about moving us before she went off sick 1 day. Next 3 days were fine, food was ok but not great, rooms were fine but not what we requested and didn't enjoy the 3 last days due to all the stair climbing, room issues, plane breakdowns, lies/poor service from Sunwing/WestJet Employees! We will never ever travel with Sunwing/WestJet, never stay at the Hotel Riu Bambu or any Riu hotel/resort due to them having poor communication and calling us "NO SHOWS" when a simple phone call could have saved us from more issues/stress/pain, NEVER EVER WILL WE USE SUNWING/WESTJET for our vacationing needs.

  Feb 03, 2026