345 reviews
Wonderful stay at Riu Dunamar
Beautiful hotel, amazing staff, very clean, lots of great food and drinks and service, we travelled with our family of 6, 3 adults 3 kids age 7-10.
Rooms are very clean, but standard/nothing too special. The setup of the shower window in the bathroom was strange - if you need to turn on the light to the bathroom the whole hotel room sees that light, kind of annoying but not a deal breaker. Room fridge fully stocked, we asked for more cervezas - tip the room cleaning staff and you get whatever you want. Beds were comfy enough, nothing spectacular, couch pullout was springy as expected but didn't bother our 7yr old daughter, room always clean and staff made a cute towel statue for the kids upon arrival was a cute touch.
Hotel grounds were kept immaculately clean and beautiful, you always noticed staff grabbing anything sitting around, garbage/plates/cups left on planters or tables etc were picked up before you noticed. Bathrooms all around the grounds were consistently being cleaned and restocked, the staff are working so hard it's obvious and greatly appreciated!
Bartenders all amazing and accommodating to kids and adults alike. Hubby made friends with all the bartenders - tips go a long way and are obviously appreciated by staff.
Food service was great everywhere, the buffet was repetitive as expected - which I appreciated because when the kids found something they loved they knew they could go back to buffet and get it at anytime. Fine dining restaurants were great, a little too high end for the kids at times - which was fine we took them to the buffet after for their favs…win win for everyone.
Pools all great and clean(ish - you know that many people not getting out of the pool all day they're peeing in there so…eww, but nothing anyone can do about that). You do gotta get your towel on your chair(s) before 9am or you won't get one. Beach was beautiful, lots of chairs, and service by the beach was impressive too.
We took some family photos on the beach, while I do recommend - the photographers are great - the photos are expensive to buy, but worth it if you don't get your own.
The waterpark is a fun place! The riuland kids club is certainly more for the younger munchkins, our 7-10yr old kids were bored with the activities so we didn't leave them there more than once (slime making was disappointing apparently lol) but that's not to say it's not a great program for other littler kids - the staff at Riuland were wonderful, kind, fun people!
The entertainment staff was my favorite, the “classics” show was so great, corny…but so entertaining and the dancers are really versatile entertainers, all over the resort telling you what's coming next, pool activities, exercise classes, good fun.
The location of Riu Dunamar is about 1.5hr shuttle from airport, far but nicely isolated. We enjoyed not being bothered by locals selling you items along the beach.
Our luggage was damaged by the airport handlers (nothing to do with RIU) so we ended up purchasing a lot of clothing and things at the pier 27 store located in the hotel, it's wildly expensive and all in USD which isn't ideal for our CAD exchange, we brought mostly pesos and wish we would've just brought USD cuz it was preferred everywhere on resort. Also strange you got a discount for using credit instead of cash…that's not normal in Canada so I was surprised by that, and didn't really want to use credit.
Overall I would definitely stay at a Riu again based on this experience. I can't say 5* because I think you can't really attain that level of experience with all the kids, but being our family vacation it was 5* for us and our wants/needs as a family.