My wife and i just returned from 2 weeks at the fabulous PALACE March 28 to April 11th. ....and could not have been more pleased with our vacation.....the service was superb the people amazing....

the food was fantastic...the beach the pool...unbeliveable!!!!!!
we spent most of our time around the activity pool and I played pool volley ball everyday 2-3 hours...great!!!!!! it sure helped keep
my weight down from all the food and drink...

I found that "Wibert" the pool bardtender was the best...
I did tip him very well at the beginning of our trip...$25.00....and
he deserved every penny...I also tiped at every meal...the evening
meals $5.00...they do not make a lot of money and anything helps for the care they give you...same for the maid service ....

we met some very nice people on our trip from England and
theUSA..that we will be keeping in touch with....

all in all love thePALACE
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My wife and I stayed at the Riu palace las americas in April. I am a fan of the Riu chain and have stayed at them around 7-8 times. We have always had great service and food.

The Palace's are the top notch of the Riu hotels and decided to stay at this one because I had a voucher which paid for some of the cost. We have stayed at a palace before, and I definately think they are a step above their regular hotels.

We stayed their April 4-11 and the weather that week was flawless. We stayed in the Junior suite which had a sitting area with a couch and a balcony. It seems that most rooms would have a balcony facing the sea because of the way it is laid out. I did email a request to get an ocean view room, but I am not sure if that had any impact on our room or not. I think I have read some reviews about the musty smell. Their definitely was a musty smell in some of the hallways, and I believe it is the carpets soaking up the humidity. It didn't permeate into our room anyway and having stayed in the caribbean a number of times, it is quite common.

The service was great. For some reason the front desk was out of safe keys when we arrived, and our balcony had only one chair. Both of these situations were rectified by the morning. We tip for almost everything, so that may help the service situation.

My wife and I like the ease of the buffet, so we don't care too much about the other restaurants. With that said, we always hit a couple of them. None of them were great, but they were exactly what I expected. The palace's have a new restaurant called Krystal's. We ate there and had a nice, good quality meal, although we left hungry. That's alright the buffet is just 9 more hours away.

We are beach goers, and not really pool people. It was the usual at the pool. The crazy's get up at ungodly hours to "hog" the chairs with their towels. The beach wasn't too crowded and we never had trouble finding a place to lie down. It has been hit and miss at our stays in the caribbean as to whether they have a server on the beach, but this hotel did have a server all day down by the sea. It was nice to see again.

We scuba dive so we did dive while we were there, but didn't use Scuba Caribe(the house diveshop). No real reason, and we have used them before. We ended up going to the Mcdonalds of diving, Aquaworld, because we wanted to do a wreck dive and they had one listed. Our night dive was canceled do to silty conditions. I was annoyed that they didn't call us and only told us once we took the cheap bus ride out there. The beauty of Cancun is the 65 cent buses that go anywhere. Hold on tight though. Oh well, don't stress, it's vacation.

We took a couple of trips to Isla Mujeres and Chichen Itza. I would suggest the "limo" bus for Chichen Itza as we got more space and free drinks and a decent lunch after swimming at the Cenote nearby. Be prepared for a 3 hour bus ride each way, but since it is one of the modern 7 wonders, it is worth going.
Isla Mujeres was great to wander around in our golf cart for the day. You must go see the south point. What a view.

I would definitely return to this hotel. I am also looking forward to checking out the Riu Palace in Cabo. Maybe next time.

Best Vacation Ever... and that's saying a lot.

I know it's customary to air your complaints in these reviews so here are mine...
1. The sun was too bright
2. My drinks were too strong, and
3. The wait staff was too attentive.
Really, if I came up for air, they were clearing my plate.

Seriously, this facility and their people were just fantastic. The room was large, clean and bright. The restaurants and bars were top notch and again the staff was happy, friendly and sincere about taking care of you.

By our 3rd day we were already planning to return here again next April!

Here are a couple of tips...
- Make a dinner reservation by e-mail a week before you get there, then make the rest of them when you get in. The Japanese and Gourmet were our favorites, but there were all very good
- Ask at the front desk to have your bed made up as a king with the mattress pad... it was really comfortable!
- Cash in US dollars at the lobby and use pesos to tip.
-Use the bus whenever possible it's very cheap, easy to use, fast and fun.
- Take a fishing charter, I went on a "share" for a hundred bucks and hooked into a 7' Swordfish!
- My wife really enjoyed the massage on the beach, she said it was excellent.
- Don't eat the worm!

I attached some photos but we were in the pool playing volleyball, having a cocktail at the swim-up or plain ol' lounging in the sun most of the time, so we really didn't take that many.

This place is very elegant and the staff is just so very friendly. Both my wife and I highly recommend this hotel, and you can even ask her... I don't like ANYTHING!

I went with my Mom, 2 sisters, and brother-in-law. The hotel itself was beautiful with a big marble lobby with soaring ceilings, and they had an art display going on in the lobby while we were there and it was wonderful to be greeted every morning by Monet, Dega, and Van Gogh. The grounds were also spectacular and always being taken care of. I've never seen so many people working from 6:00AM and going all day. Constant motion - nothing left undone. And if you requested something, they really did their best to get it for you. From the servers in the lobby lounge (Allen & Amanda), to the Mgrs. behind the desk (especially Jessica & Omar), we couldn't have asked for a better staff or vacation. The Entertainment staff (Aaron, Rebecca & Mario) were really friendly and did their best to have activities for the adults and the children during the day, and shows at night in the theatre. I was a little disappointed that they didn't play more English speaking music during the day at the pool. Lots of spanish music and language. I could barely ever find a station besides CNN on the TV. Everything was in spanish. Also, the shows at night could've been better, but they did try their best. The shows that they participated in were hysterical. The Mariachi Band and the Flamingo dancers I couldve done without. As far as the pools were concerned, the activity pool with the swimup bar was fun but you had to get out early in the morning and pick your chairs and umbrellas or you ended up with nothing. The guys at the Can bar, espcially Diego, were extremely attentive. And the servers, Juan and Junior, were fantastic. It's amazing what a few dollars in tips can do for you. They were so gracious and worked so hard that they deserved all the tips they received. As far as the restaurants are concerned, Sir Arthurs was the cream of the crop, the Japanese restaurant was also delicious. The italian restaurant (Los Arcos) for lunch "only" was also very good but changed to Brazilian at night and was scarey. A far as the buffet was concerned, I enjoyed breakfast but wasn't crazy for the rest of the fare. The biggest laugh was the Steak restaurant. I ordered surf & turf and they do this big production when they take off the plate covers, and low and behold, it was the smallest lobster tail I ever saw. I may have even seen shrimp bigger than that, but we laughed all night over it, and the steak was very good so it wasn't a total loss. Another restaurant is Tio Pepe's for tapas. That was also very good, and the sangria was also surprisingly good. The atmosphere is like a little cafeteria but you can't expect everything. All and all the specialty restaurants were really good but you MUST make reservations as soon as you arrive. We also got extremely lucky and had beautiful weather every day. The day we left was overcast and they were showing a movie in the theatre so even on lousey days they try to do everything to please you. One hint, don't let them cut off your bracelet until you are walking out the door to get onto your van to the airport. Otherwise, you may have problems getting drinks and lunch. We kept ours on til we walked out the door at 4:00PM. I would recommend this place to people of all ages and even families. They were children of all ages, from very young to teenagers. The other Riu hotels in Cancun don't even compare.