Riu Bambu - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

5080 reviews

• 

  Good and cheerful hotel

  Good hotel - perfect location. Quick check-in. Rooms clean and have everything you need. Good choice of food and activities. Bar staff attentive and professional. RIU app very helpful - you can request everything via the app : from mini bar refills to change of towels. Tip top service.

  Dec 11, 2025
• 

  i keep coming back very lovely service from staff very friendly

  i would definitely return to the riu bambu resort very safe place i made friends there had lovely day drinking experince at the pool and beach.

  Dec 08, 2025
• 

  Family and Friends. A great vacation

  We met up with family and had a great time. We enjoyed the resort , the beach was beautiful, the food had lots of variety, the staff worked very hard to make sure we had a great experience. I was worried reading a bunch of the reviews, but honestly a vacation is what you make of it. Thank you to all the staff. We had a great time.

  Dec 05, 2025
• 

  Not terrible, but definitely not great.

  This one was a little tricky. All in all, it's not terrible. We found all the spaces (room, pools, restaurants, etc) to be clean and comfortable. No complaints there. Food got to be a little repetitive, but we honestly didn't have any issues with taste or quality. The restaurants were good too, though we did have our favorites. Our struggle comes with service. Checking in was fine, but after that any service required from the front staff was non-existent. I stood in line for 45mins to get 2 bottles of water (which I found odd that I would have to request more water for my room in a country that makes it well known that the water isn't potable). Staff working the bars seemed unhappy and it very much felt like it was an issue that we don't speak Spanish. Others around us would get served while my husband and I were ignored. It just felt like we were an inconvenience to them. The batteries in the room safe had died and although we had asked 3 times if it could be replaced, it never was. Staff at Riuland seemed like they'd rather be anywhere else. My daughter said they often wouldn't explain the games in English so they kind of had to guess what to do. However, the staff in the restaurants/buffets themselves was fantastic. We had a small handful of really great servers and they were the only ones who made our stay more enjoyable on a personal level. However, on the restaurant/buffet note. The food labelling was annoying. It wasn't uncommon for the food label to not match the actual food in the dish. I never once saw all the desserts labelled, MAYBE one or two, but even then it wouldn't always line up with what was being served. Given that my husband has a tree nut allergy, he errored on the side of caution and just stuck to basics and no dessert. So if you have an allergy that isn't as easy to work around, this is not the resort for you. Don't recommend buying anything at the shops at the resort. Waaaay better prices if you go to the shop that's off site. So all in all, it wasn't terrible, but we spent our 2 weeks feeling like a burden to half the staff. So it wasn't a great experience.

  Dec 02, 2025
• 

  Terrible hotel

  Hello, we are back from our trip and I would like to express my dissatisfaction. We will never return, and the hotel was nowhere near a 5-star—it was at best a 3.5-star by Cuban standards. As soon as we arrived in the Dominican Republic, we were approached by the Nexus Tours guide who pushed us to take a taxi instead of the transportation that was included. We were then bombarded with offers to buy drugs by several drivers, and this happened while I was with MY CHILDREN—THEY HEARD EVERYTHING!!! I also downloaded the RIU app for our trip and we were allowed to make three requests: #1 a quiet area of the resort, #2 a possible ocean view, and #3 a better room if one was available. Upon arrival, I asked the front desk clerk if a larger or better room was available, since he hadn’t offered anything. He said yes, and I ended up paying $150. He refused to let me pay by card and asked for cash instead. Once we got to this supposedly better room, there was absolutely no improvement compared to the superior family room we had already booked. I went to speak with the Nexus representative about the room, and she confirmed it was the exact same superior family room—meaning we were scammed and received nothing in return. This left a very bitter taste. The front desk manager apologized for the inconvenience and offered only a $75 refund, which is extremely disappointing considering we received no upgrade and I ended up paying $75 for absolutely nothing. Completely unacceptable! The hotel is also in terrible condition. Our room was covered in black mold, the air conditioning duct was full of mold, the minibar had a leaking bottle and the wood was moldy. There was gum on the wall, a broken lamp, a broken patio door, stains all over the sheets, and some pillows smelled rotten. Even the towels smelled bad. The toilet lid wasn’t even the right size and didn’t close properly. I am also someone who trains regularly, and the gym conditions were appalling. I even injured myself because the only bench they had was broken, and there was no sign indicating it. The retention pin for the bench angle was broken, and it gave out during my workout, causing a strong impact to my neck and back for the rest of the trip. The food was not good—very similar to Cuba, just with slightly more options. I went to the steakhouse after being told it was great. I ate shrimp with my steak, and they tasted bad. Ten minutes after dinner, I felt sick and was ill the entire night. The mold in the room also triggered my daughter’s asthma and made her sick as well. Even worse, we couldn’t enjoy the beach because every two minutes someone would try to sell us something and insist even after we said no. Honestly, it ruins the beauty of the beach completely—you can’t even relax without being harassed. This was our first family trip, and it was a disaster. I am extremely angry and trying to remain polite. One more thing: the bed only had a thin blanket, no duvet or cover. We were freezing every night. I called the front desk five days in a row and even went in person three times asking for blankets for me and the kids. We finally got them on the last day of our stay. Great job (very sarcastic) RIU—definitely not 5-star service. And I nearly forgot: the shower drain wasn’t fixed in place, and I cut my foot while taking a shower. 🤬 Also, the smoke detector had been ripped out. ---

  Nov 26, 2025