My boyfriend and I came back last week from 2 weeks in Cancun having had a brilliant time. Apart from the excellent location it was the diverse mix of the hotel guests that really impressed us. From groups of college kids, honeymooners, families, groups of friends to old couples, Mexicans, Americans, Canadians and the Brits, the Riu catered for everyone. There were quiet and lively areas and pools which was great.

The staff are very accomodating and always smiling and in the restaurants and bars in particular they fall over themselves to help you.

The rooms seem a little dated when you first see them but since the hotel is only a few years old this is actually the "look" they were going for. The rooms are kept spotless however and each room has a set of optics which thrilled us no end!

The beach is lovely but needs more parasol shades as you have to get up early to claim your shade in the morning.

The area is completely safe to walk around even at night and all the main bars and clubs are literally a 5 minute walk away compared to some other hotels which were a half hour bus ride away!

The food was varied and of a good standard although after 2 weeks I was getting a little bored of it. The hotel's Japanese restaurant, however, is excellent.

The atmosphere was so relaxed and every day you would see a wedding on the beach whilst a game of volleyball was going on a little further down.

Luckily we didn't encounter any mosquitos or bugs and even though you are advised by travel agents etc not to eat shellfish or unpeeled fruit and veg all the food in the hotel is of such a good standard that that isn't an issue and is perfectly safe to eat.

The pirate ship trip a few miles away is a must and is suitable for everyone. Get there early though as the first people on get the best views of the live pirate action including an invasion from another pirate ship!

The hotel's best show is a Michael Jackson tribute act and he's actually really good, he even speaks like him!

If you have any hesitations about the Riu- don't, as it's a great place!

The Riu Cancun is a beautiful property located within walking distance to shops and night clubs. Great location. The staff are very friendly .We had a wonderful time.The food was awesome! I think i missed the buffets the most upon returning home. Oh and the warm 90 weather too.The water is always incredible and the view from the room was fantastic.The pool bar was a bit yucky but when you have lots of drinkers hanging around one place, I suppose that can create pea green pool water. Although i did see workers adding chemicals to the pool at night and cleaning the limes out of the filters. It still was not very inviting...Regardless we spent most of our time on the beach and in the ocean water...we never had any trouble finding beach chairs or shady cabanas...I went for my cinco de mayo 40th birthday and they sang to me and gave us a cake and also a fruit basket was sent to the room with happy birthday wishes.. Very nice! The theater had enjoyable evening entertainment. I went with a friend of mine and I would definiately return with my family on another occasion...the rooms were clean and the fridge was well stocked.The elevators were somewhat slow and we did have several power outages that lasted a few minutes. for the price I think it was worth the trip. The scenery is amazing. The Japanese and the Brazillian eateries were very nice but i preferred the buffet myself. all in all the trip was fantastic and i would return in the future.

We flew out of ORD and used a company called Park-n-Jet. They made parking easy and would use them again. American Airlines did not cause any problems and was just fine. Transportation to the hotel was easy to book at the airport but would of been better to book on orbitz. It would of been the same price and less confusing. Don't take a taxi, they are way overpriced. The hotel was by far the best part of the expierence. The staff is top of the line. Very helpful and very friendly. They really make the whole expierence memorable. I took sailing lessons from an instructor named Juan Carlos. He was a true proffesional who spoke good english and was just a lot of fun to learn from. Sevatica was our first activity. It is comprised of several zip lines, biking, swiming in the coolest little fresh water cenote. Then you return for a hot fajita lunch. Very well organized and a lot of fun for a good price and a good staff.

The next activity was a dolphin swim at the interactive aquarium. Eh... it was just okay. Not real organized and overpriced. But you do get to swim with kidnapped dolphins. I could of done without that.

Shopping, outside of the hotel people are pushy and they want you to overpay as much as possible. I hate haggling and the days of getting great bargins in Mexico (or at least in Cancun) are over.

Overall Cancun is beautiful and a wonderful place to visit. I enjoyed the Riu Cancun the best and the beaches. There is plenty to do and the weather is great. The bus is the best way to get around the town. have fun!

One last expierence, We booked our activities at the hotel. We used NWA vacations who has desks set up in the lobby. Later we spoke with an orbitz rep and she asked to see our activity slips so she could "verify everthing looked okay" she then proceeded to re write the slips under her name and stole the other guys commision. I don't know if they have an agreement about booking only the people who booked through your company or not. But she was not there for the original booking and provided zero information. Not to mention she lied about her intentions when asking to see our activity slip. I feel that we were made pawns and it felt unfair to the original NWA guy who was helpful. We booked our travel back to the airport with her which is why we met in the first place and the van never showed. To her and orbitz credit they did buy us a cab to the airport. But we had 30 minutes of our time wasted which could of been put towards breakfast. So be careful who you book through and who you tell about your bookings. They are very cut-throat about their commisions.

A group of 4 stayed there during the 1st week of May 2008. I had read many reviews prior to booking the Riu Cancun and really didn’t know what to expect because the reviews were all over the board. I know the Mexican Hotel rating system is on a 6-star scale, but to even call the Riu Cancun a 3-star Hotel would be a stretch, let alone a 5 star.

For reference, I have been to Cancun several times and have stayed at the Following Hotels:
Barcelo Tucancun
Gran Caribe Real
Omni
Fiesta Americana Condesa
Royal Cancun
GR Solaris

Hands down, in my opinion the Riu Cancun was the worst ranked Hotel out of all of them. My overall review is a bit long, but details help when I read other reviews.

We arrived before the scheduled check in and were able to get a room within 20 minutes or so. The Riu Check-in process is something from the 1970’s. They have no computerized system and everything is handled in paper. They give you actual keys for the room and safe, but towel cards for the pool? Have they not heard of Key-Cards? When we checked in, they only had 1 key for us but said we could come back later and get another key, which we did. Ironically the key had an engraved room number that wasn’t our room number, but worked anyways? I am assuming that these keys are inter-changeable and it probably would have worked on the room number that was engraved on it, which is a safety issue for a variety of reasons.

If you are looking for a nice room, the Riu is like staying at a Holiday Inn Express. Nothing fancy, just your basic room with the aforementioned hard-beds, a small table and 2 chairs and a 13-inch TV that was made in 1990. We did get mattress pads brought up so it made the sleeps tolerable. Our room did have a nice balcony with had a great view of the ‘quiet’ pool and beach. The showers were adequate.

The food was average to above average. If you are accustomed to eating at Flemings, Ruth Cris or other high-end steak and seafood joints, you will be disappointed. The buffets had something for everyone, Italian, Mexican, American, fruits/veggies etc. The breakfasts were good. There should be enough selection for everyone.

The pools looked nice from afar, but were disgustingly dirty, especially the Pool Bar. Seriously, they couldn’t dump enough Chlorine in that pool to kill the urine, bacteria and puke that was swirling around there during my stay. Also, there isn’t such a thing in Mexico with bartenders turning down people who are obviously drunk. Its usually 2 more shots and a beer.

I didn’t pay much attention to the nightly entertainment, but from what I saw it mirrored pretty much what I have seen at other resorts. The Resort does have a ‘Disco’, which actually is a nice alternative to heading out to the local clubs off resort.

The Beach had a nice stretch of sand and calm waters. We spent a good amount of time on the beach as the chairs were plenty. They had a nice beach volleyball court set-up and there was ‘sporadic’ beach service for drinks.

One of the previous reviews called the Riu Cancun an ‘Ash Tray’. I couldn’t agree more with this reviewer. Smoking seemingly is encouraged at this Hotel, and the smokers (seemingly mostly Europeans), don’t show any etiquette when smoking around others and will just ‘flick’ their ashes anywhere and blow smoke in your face. The stench of smoke is everywhere, Lobby, Elevators, bar areas etc. This is quite the opposite direction of the United States where smoking is being banned virtually everywhere.

This hotel is very ‘diverse’ in its clientele. There is a nice mix of Americans, Canadians, British, Italian, Scottish and even some from Mexico. The bad thing is that it appears the Scottish don’t like the British, the British don’t like the Canadians and everyone hates the Americans. I got a sense of ‘standoffishness’ from those counterparts across the pond. It seems they have a dislike of Americans? Perhaps it is because we were the only ones at the Hotel not wearing our favorite Soccer Jersey 24/7?

Lastly, Trip Advisor labels this hotels as the #1 ‘singles’ hotel in Cancun. I couldn’t find that to be true. Our group had a couple of single guys who were looking to meet other singles, but they seemed to be few and far between. Maybe it was a bad week or something, but there were more couples out than on Valentines Day.

(Oh, and I almost forgot……We went over to the Riu Caribe for an afternoon as exchange privileges are allowed there, and this resort seemed to be much nicer. At least it had a more spread-out pool, grounds and the Hotel was placed on more land than that of the Riu Cancun.)