Riu Bambu

First time in dominican [Details]

The overal hotel is good for the price category - beach, food and accommodation were good. The alcohol served is bottom shelf, tastes terrible and not drinkable. [Details]

This is rated as a 5 star Resort. At best it is 4, possibly less. The hotel room is old and worn down, the sink was cracked in several places, none of the plugins worked. We did not have hot water for the last 2 days and the Tv did not work anywhere in our building for about the last 24 hrs of the stay. The pool has tiles missing in many places and the poolside showers just trickled water. Food was adequate, but the specialty Restraunts were sub par. [Details]

Great beach and nice resort, but not 5 star.
Specialty restaurants are all buffets (except steakhouse). [Details]

Good location, everywhere close olso to airport [Details]

We had a lovely time , everything was seamless from checking in to checking out . Room was bright and spacious and clean . Food was plentiful and flavourful. Drinks were offered all the time be it water/alcohol/coffee or wine and always with a smile. [Details]

We had a great time at this hotel.No complains about the services, the rooms, the facilities , the food, the entertainment, etc..The staff look presentable and very polite. [Details]

Even though it is a big resort, it has a lot of space, chairs at the pools and beach [Details]

The hotel was fine, room was comfortable. Very easy walk to the ocean. Pools were very clean, actually everything was pretty clean. Bit of rubbish on the walkways in the morning, but that's from the idiot guests the night before. Everything was cleaned up pretty fast. All in all had a very nice stay, would recommend to friends and family. [Details]

Arriving at the large lobby was friendly and open. Lots of seating around the bars and waiting areas. The Beach at Riu Bambu was lovely. Lots of beach loungers available if you get out early to reserve one. Poolside chairs were available too, if you get out early to reserve one. This resort is really a great family resort. Lots of happy excited kids around the pools. As a senior couple, I didn't know to ask for a 1st or second floor room. Carrying luggage up to the third floor was hard. Coming down the stairs was easier. The room was clean and efficient. Minibar was well stocked. I really did miss having a coffee maker in the room. I expected premium toiletries. Small bars of soap and a single dispenser of bodywash/shampoo combo in the shower. You need to bring your own premium toiletries. The TV in our room was defective but not a problem since there was very few english channels to watch. Lovely balcony, but could only use it when there were no smokers on either side of us. I was hoping that there were more a-la-cart restaurants to create a little variety from eating at the buffet in the evening. The Kulinarium restaurant was lovely and you were served at your table. Other restaurants like, Italian, Asian and Mexican and Spanish, were buffet and felt rushed. [Details]

Rooms – nice, bright, and spacious. Our AC wasn't working. I had downloaded the RIU app and requested maintenance for the AC. Later that evening while we were in our room, someone showed up to fix it. Apparently, there was nothing wrong with the AC, it does not work if the patio/sliding door is open. None of our outlets were working except the one in the bathroom. That's were I ended up charging my phone. The USB port by the bedside were both broken. We didn't use the liquor dispenser, but the bottles were full. In the fridge they had bottles of flat water (2), sparkling water (2), diet Pepsi (2), Pepsi (2), 7 up (2) and beer (2). They refill every other day. I ordered more by using the RIU app. I also requested more towels and blankets. The beds only had the top sheet. Our shower leaked a bit. I slipped on a small puddle in the bathroom and fell hard. After that I made sure I had an extra towel on the floor to soak up the water after my shower. The maids did a great job cleaning our rooms. I travelled with my 4 kids ranging from 16-22 years old. I had gotten 3 standard rooms. The boys had their own room, the girls had their own room and the last room for my husband and me. I had emailed the resort a week before our arrival to request the rooms be next to each other. They were. In the girl's room there was only 3 out of the 4 liquor bottles there, I think 1 of the dispensers was broken. In the boy's room, 1 bottle was siting near the dispenser because the dispenser was broken but then they took it away, so both rooms only had 3 bottles.
Buffet/restaurants – The main buffet had a large selection of food. I really liked the fresh avocado that they had but unfortunately it wasn't available at breakfast. The worker did their best to keep the food area clean and replenish. Unfortunately, the guests are messy and don't care about keeping things clean for other people. What I didn't like about the buffet was that it was busy and took a while to get your food as there are line ups, by the time you get back to your table, your food is not hot anymore. That's not the resort's fault, it's just something I notice which is why I prefer eating at the a-la-carte restaurants for dinner. I also notice a lot of unsupervised kids in the buffet area, helping themselves to the food by climbing on top of the ledge and being very unsanitary. Grabbing food with their hands and sneezing. Again, it's not the resort's fault but the parents.
Mama Juana restaurant by the pool was open for breakfast and lunch. It a smaller scale then the main buffet but less busy.
I notice that when you enter any of the buffets, you should wait for them to notice you and be seated. You will get your drinks served to you and plates removed faster. If you seat yourself, you will not get any service. I think it's because if your seated by the waiter, they know to serve you. If you seat yourself, without any waiters noticing, the waiters will assume someone else is taking care of you.
We only went to 2 a-la-carte restaurants, the Steak house and the Gourmet. The Steak house is busy and very popular. It open at 6pm. If you show up at that time ready to dine, you will be allowed in. If you want to dine later, you will have to line up by 5pm. At 6pm, someone will come out with a pad asking how many people are in your group and if you would like a 7:30 or 8:30 sitting. The first time I got in the line up at 5:15. There was about 15 people ahead of me in line. Thankfully I got a ticket for 7:30. The next time we got there for 6pm, ready to dine and was let in. The 3rd time I tried to get in line @ 5:30, only to be told that they were filled for the night. Usually around 5:30, someone from the restaurant goes down the line asking how many people are in your group to get an idea of how many people are expected to dine. Once they hit their limit, they will turn people away to help them avoid standing in line for nothing. You can see their menu by downloading the RIU app and clicking on the restaurant.
The Gourmet restaurant opens at 6:30. There is usually a line up for that too. They will start to let people in when they open but only if everyone in your group is there. If there is someone missing, you would have to stand aside till they arrive. After the restaurant is full, they will issue pagers for you to come back when they have a table ready. Usually in an hour. I did not try the other restaurants. I got the impression from the reviews I've read that they were mini buffet style. On Christmas Eve, you had to book your dinner reservations ahead of time at any restaurant or the buffet from the maître'd standing outside the main buffet. I tried to book at the steakhouse, but it was full, so we went to the Gourmet again. They serve champagne, had an extra seafood appetizer for the occasion. They also had a special that night in addition to their menu which was a lobster tail.
The snack bar near the beach offers, pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, nacho chips, fruits, and salad options. You need to be wearing shoes and a cover up to go in. No bikini tops or shirtless.
The beach was full of seaweed our first night there. There were piles of them. The next day, a clean up crew went down the beach picking up the piles. The waves were big at times full of seaweed and garbage. I was surprised at how much garbage was in the ocean. A lot of plastic bags. There was this one guy who was in the ocean grabbing every plastic bag he came across. It didn't take long for him to accumulate a huge pile. My husband started to follow too every time he went into the ocean, grabbing at the garbage and throwing it in the garbage cans on the beach. Even though it's Dec, it's not seaweed season, there was quite a bit. The beach is long with lots of palm trees for shade. They had a volleyball court and soccer on the beach. My kids spent everyday playing volleyball and made friends. There are a lot of vendors on the beach. If you're not interested, you just say, ‘no thank you' and they move on.
The pools looked nice. We didn't spend any time there since my kids preferred the beach. They are opened 24 hours. Our travel rep told us that they do put chemicals in the pools to clean them @ 9pm. You can still swim in them but it's at your own risk. It should be fine by 5am.
I went to the RIU ‘Jungle' party in the afternoon with my son. We went in, no problem. We were there ½ an hour after they opened. It wasn't very busy. I guess we were early. My son had a drink, then we left. I went back to the ‘White' party at night with 3 of my kids. They were stopped at the door and asked to show ID. They didn't have any with them, so we had to go back to the room to get them. At least the RIU party is close to the Bambu. We didn't have to walk far like at the other resorts. It was busier at night. They had face painting and VIP areas, plus pools with foam. There was a younger crowd but also plenty of older adults.
We did not try the water slides. My kids were not interested. [Details]

Had a decent stay, excellent customer service throughout the stay. Food was average, hotel was clean. Sunwing was HORRIBLE [Details]

It was one of many visits to Rui hotels all over the world and 5th stay at Bambu, starting since opening about 24 years ago [Details]

Entertainment and restaurants are in my expectations but, rooms are way below from 5* standard also cleanest in side the room I should give 3* hotel standard. There is day in side the room with out single towels, I am still recovering from back pain because of uncomfortable bad. [Details]

This hotel is nice but NOT a 5-star, the number of stars should definitely be reviewed.
This was the longest check-in at a hotel I've ever had. One hour standing infront of the check-in desk. Deluxe rooms were incorrectly assigned. We were 5 travelling together, we asked in advance to have deluxe rooms close together in the hotel. That was not done, so the agent at the Riu Bambu tried his best to resolve the situation, we ended up having one of us in a different block than us...Rooms were not as we expected for a 5 stars. Pillows were smaller than a standard pillow and we had a king bed! I froze the first night and asked a blanket on the next day for the rest of the week. We had little glitches in our room that needed to be fixed. No hot water in one sink, only cold...the toilet paper holder was missing a screw so the toilet paper was always going on the floor – the light in the shower did not work – Thank God it was all fixed the next day.

The main buffet was nice, however the best of all was only there for our first 2 days (best hash browns in the world) unfortunately there were missing the rest of the week :-(
It was the birthday of my husband and we arranged a little surprise Happy Birthday Time with a cake and the crew came singing Happy Birthday, that was well organized and well received too!
The theme restaurants were fine too except the Italian which was a total nightmare, EVERYTHING was cold. My husband took lasagna, totally cold. I had pesto pasta super cold (I did not eat them). This is for me where the hotel becomes a 4-star. This was totally not acceptable. The steakhouse was hard to get in. It took us 4 days to finally be able to have dinner in that restaurant. Food was excellent. The other restaurants were pretty good too: Asiatic was very nice and tasty, Mexican was good, Spanish was just ok and French restaurant that was okay too. Italian: DO NOT GO THERE, it is horrible.
Also, no champagne anywhere in the hotel, not included; we were expecting champagne as it was included in the Riu Republica, which is also a 5-star Hotel in Punta Cana....but Riu Bambu, totally different, the buffet was great but this not have the same variety than the Riu Republica.
We had amazing weather all week so at least that was that. There was a red flag on the beach but we were swimming in the waves and floating on top of them all week. It was amazing.
The PCR testing was well organized, we waited about an hour to get it done but they are well organized, you can pay cash or credit card. You get your result by email within 48 hours.
The very most frustrating part is one day prior to leave Punta Cana, I went in the lobby to meet with the vacations company agent to confirm I was okay to bring a bill of 1000 dominican to give at the airport the next day (departure tax) and he said YES, there was no problem the airport was taking the bill of 1000. NOT TRUE.....They only take US DOLLARS.
I would not go back to that hotel, but would go back to Punta Cana again for sure, but overall, it was a nice vacations. [Details]

We stayed at the RIU Bambu for two weeks. The room was in need of upgrading. The bathroom mirrors had mirror rot (desilvering) and the bathroom grout had areas of mold. The pools also had moldy grout and were missing ceramic tiles. The pools were in need of skimming as there was alot of hair floating around. It was very disappointing to find that smoking was allowed around/in the pools, bars and terraces. We would have preferred designated smoking sections. Restaurant food was okay, however few foods are labelled at the buffets. This is not the place to go if you are celiac. We printed off cards explaining in Spanish what a person with Celiac Disease can/cannot eat and searched out someone at each restaurant to point out food choices. Choices were very limited and depending on which chef you spoke with the answer would change. [Details]

The stay at the hotel is nice, me and my friend we had the room in section 34 which is quite and 5 minute walk from the reception area... lovely design of the hotel and all the units look the same. The garden area is well kept, no flowers but lots of greens... and high necked palm trees... first time I see this. Also the people are nice, don't get to buddy buddy the Ge's keep it nice otherwise they will start getting personal with you. Weather excellent at this time of the year... paid a good price, you have many Russian people there and locals come in on Friday, Saturday and leave by Sunday so you have a little of all... people stick to themselves so you have to make an effort to make friends... best time is when they evening dancing comes on but the DJ is terrible with the music... so it's a real shame... anyway you have to make the most of it... it would be good to have dominican music played... besides that had a really good time, you have the Palace, and two or three hotels in line which you can visit using the connected path way on the beach which is really nice. Ask for the Brugal rhum when you get your drinks otherwise you will get the low premium rhum which is OK because you won't be as tipsy... LOL... had a super nice time will go back again one day soon... hopefully the change the dame DJ or get him to play proper music... SiYa... free wifi all over the hotel location and onto the beach - BIG PLUS. [Details]

The very polite staff especially (Alex). Attractive and family activities. Great restaurants and varied cuisine and clean rooms [Details]

The resort is very nice! Clean rooms, beach, pools and dining areas. The waterpark is tons of fun but only for a couple of hours. The pool parties are wild but fun if that's your scene. [Details]

100% disappointed with the dirty conditions of this so call 5 star resort. There was black mold in our shower and hair on the floor upon arrival. The pool was murky with lots of floating bugs.. cigarette butts.. vomit... and cups. The smell of raw sewage wafted throughout the resort. Witnessed 2 children defecate in the pool deck and after addressing staff to get the mess cleaned up.... it took over an hour. Food was sub par and the dishes and cutlery were often dirty. The beds were hard and the pillows were super thin. [Details]

This newly renovated resort is absolutely gorgeous. Very modern architecturally. They were very accommodating in terms of my requests; I requested to be beside my friend's room and to have a have a room located on the second floor near beach and they fulfilled my request, first time ever this has happened on a resort and it was so great. The beach is spectacular and you do not need to reserve chairs on the beach in the morning to get a spot there is ample seating throughout the beach and pool throughout the day. The resort may have 1000 rooms but it did not feel like that, it was very well planned out and all restaurants, bars and lobby were centrally located and very easy to access. The room was spacious, updated, very nice and most importantly very clean, the room was great. Food and beverages on the resort were quite good, the buffet was great in terms of selection, however the quality of the beef sometimes was not the greatest, however ther majority of the food in the buffet was very good. The A la cartes were not exactly "a la carte" they were themed buffets like the italian, spanish, japanese, they were themed buffets. But the food was very good in them. The steakhouse was excellent and was an a la carte dinner. Entertainment was great always something to do on resort especially the pool parties which were a lot of fun. The great thing about this resort was the fact that it is suitable and enjoyable for all different groups and ages, plenty of activities for families, couples and even young adults like myself and friends. At night after the kids shows and the family events the lobby and lobby bar, especially with that plaza in the middle of the resort became a highly sociable and fun lounge environment for young people and older couples. To summarize in total I really enjoyed my stay, and would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to enjoy Punta Cana. [Details]

Overall we were satisfied with the resort. The food, staff and entertainment were satisfactory. The multiple pools gave you whatever atmosphere you were looking for and the beach was a lot of fun [Details]

Hotel was beautiful, first day staff were welcoming and so very helpful. We were a party of 5. Our children enjoyed swimming in the 5 pools the hotel had to offer. I also enjoyed the different food options offered. However My wife and I ended up sick. My wife also ended up getting her phone stolen out of our babies stroller. There are no security cameras in the hotel therefore couldn't figure out who stole it. Because of food illness and phone theft we would not return nor reccomend this hotel. [Details]

the room was very beautiful and clean,loved the flowers.the beach had alot of seaweed,even in the water! the water bottles found in the room were very difficult to open,i had to ask the staff to open them each time! the balcony was great to have,a nice place to sit and dry bathingsuits. [Details]

First visit to the Caribbean and could not ask for a better experience! Hotel and facilities were clean. Food was delicious (especially Ole restaurant and the steakhouse). Friendly staff. [Details]

Beach was very nice. Rooms were nice, clean, comfortable and modern - love the tile floor. Restaurants and food were disappointing, no true served, a la carte restaurants. Buffet food was very similar in each restaurant - my son, travelling companion and myself all got food poisoning. Arrived late evening and the only option was a small (and not very nice) sports bar with cold sandwiches, burgers, hotdogs (just piled in an open fridge), nachos and a microwave to heat things up - gross.
Watched the entertainment a few nights, was ok, but nothing special - appeared amateur. I would go for the beach and location, everything else I could do without. First all-inclusive and very disappointing. [Details]

we booked the Riu Bambu to celebrate our 25th anniversary and they did not disappoint! I can't say enough about the staff at this resort right from the young man at check in the staff throughout the resort we enjoyed every single minute of our stay. The resort is beautiful and kept clean, we had a deluxe room and it was spacious and spotless our maid was a lovely lady very friendly. We both found the food to be quite good and i am a picky eater we tried the asian restaurant one night but ended up leaving there and going to the buffet and stuck to the buffet because they had plenty of variety. The entertainment staff are quite friendly and try to get all involved . They have 4 pools and the one beside the kids club is quiet during the day so if you want quiet you can have it. i would recommend this resort to anyone as it has something for everyone. [Details]

We had a good time at this resort it was very clean overall a few pet peeves but nothing that ruined our vacation.
It is a big and modern looking resort, plenty of loungers around pools and beach.plenty of pools ( 5 ), the bars are plentyful and good bar tenders.
No problem with the food or restaurants with a good selection of both, the buffet was quite chaotic.for.the first half of our vacation especially finding clean tables, then on the Friday total turnaround for the better no problems after.
Room was clean and renovated, the entertainment was not great.
Weekends are taken over by the local people be prepared.
Biggest peeve was the guests, lot's of people leave their manners at home when they travel, I.guess.they are too heavy to pack and carry.
Highly recommend this resort and rhe price is right and would go back. [Details]

The rooms were clean, the service was good. Good variety of food to eat at the buffet. [Details]

We love this hotel and the this part of Bavaro beach! This was our third vacation at Rui Bambu. When we arrived, we were so pleasantly suprised that hotel just got completely renovated 2 months ago into even nicer, more modern, sleek and functional property. So many features we adeded such as new or renovated restaurants, pools and bars with more comfortable, functional furniture and more so all close to the beach. Everything is close by and cozy. This is why we keep coming back! And the beach is magical!

I have to add special thanks to all the staff for their professionalism, pleasant and very calm and positive behaviour and service prior and during arrival of Irma hurricane last week. The staff was so wonderful, Informative and respectful, ensuring that there is no reason for panic. We were well informed and staff worked seemlessly late at night and early in the morning to set up everything for high winds and rain.
We were explained on Wednesday, Sept 06, 2016 that the storm was moving 220 km north of us and that winds will be around 70 km / hr. Staff asked us to not to use the beach on Thursday Sept 07, 2017 and to be in our rooms as of 10 pm on Wednesday night. They stayed cool and content and ensured that all the service were provided as usual and as appropriate until announced cut off time. In another words, they kept their cool, so tourists would stay in reasonable state of mind and I really admired that. Staff kept smiling and stayed pleasant throughout and ensured us that the storm will not be so bad, so we do not to worry, just to follow the protocol. Of course we were lucky that the storm moved just north of us. On Thursday morning, staff cleaned all the debris around the hotel and the beach and services continued on as usual. The staff helped everyone to try to make the right decision and stay put. There were other areas of the island where more help was required and that is what was recognized and appreciated.
Knowing all above - we will definitely come back! [Details]