Riu Vallarta - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

9138 reviews

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  Wonderful vacation and exceptional service flight and hotel.

  Hello to people who read these reviews which I find really helpful. I just recently spent 7-day vacation at the Riu Vallarta April 16,2025 to April 23,2025 and traveled from YYC to Puerto Vallarta with Sunwing Vacations. This charter was absolutely flawless from start to finish. Sunwing (West jet) has some pretty poor reviews, so I just wanted to share my experience. From on time departure from Calgary to early arrival to PV and hotel transfers were very easy and well organized so from touching down to the hotel maybe an hour and the airport was very busy. The hotel was 4.5 stars easy, and the staff were exceptional and attentive. Happy to see tourist that's for sure!! I was with my adult children and 4 grandkids, and everyone was well taken care of. Food was really well done, and no one will ever lose weight there lol NO RESERVATION required at the 4 Ala chart restaurants which is so much nicer than years ago lining up to make a timed reservation which was never my style attached to a timeline. Back to the Sunwing flight attendants and their service. These people were on the ball and smiled so a real nice experience there. Fly home we loaded quick and arrived back in YYC 20 minutes early. Pools at this property were really nice and a couple were heated if you wanted that. Plenty of chairs around the pools and on the beach. Bar service top notch as well. I was told this Riu Vallarta was updated in 2022. Good job by Sunwing and the hotel staff we stayed at. Highly recommended.

  Apr 24, 2025
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  Solo trip

  I stayed at Riu Vallarta from April 13th to 20th. Check-in was super quick and easy. I booked a standard room with Sunwing, and I was a bit nervous about what I’d get. But guess what? I ended up with an awesome room with a fantastic view! The room was clean, modern, and spacious. If you’re a bit of a picky eater, bring your own soap and shampoo/conditioner (I’m glad I did). The room was well-stocked with water, sodas, beer, and even liquor dispensers. There’s a coffee pot with coffee that you can use for a morning brew or just head down to the sports bar for your favourite drink. The food was pretty good at all the restaurants and the buffet. The steakhouse was okay, but I didn’t think it was worth the wait. My favourite was the Kulinarium, followed by Italian (both a la carte). The buffet was always consistent with different foods. The drink service was awesome! Just specify what you want, or you’ll end up with low-grade booze. Pedro at the pool bar was the best bartender I met. Fast and friendly, that guy! Theresa at the lobby bar created some amazing cocktails and was always so chatty. As a solo traveler, I found it super easy to meet people. The staff were always so engaging and made sure I was doing great. The entertainment was great! There were lots of things going on during the day, and there were also good shows and live music at night. The beach was amazing! You could walk forever. Is it busy? Yes, it is, but I never felt crowded. I always managed to get my pool chair each day at the adult pool, and there were so many different pools and spacious grounds that people weren’t crammed into one area. Would I return? Absolutely!

  Apr 23, 2025
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  Parkalski 2025 Group Trip

  This is our second time at a RIU Resort. The RIU Vallarta was awesome! We met up with our friends (2 couples). Check in Our check in was flawless and quick. We didn't have any language issues. We were early and our bags were put away for us until our room was ready and we were good to go meet our friends at the pool...which we did :) Room (s) Our room was nice and clean. Our view was not great (parking lot), but we didn't book a ocean view or even a partial ocean view. Day two in this room or toilet broke at 3:30am. My wife was worried about it not working as she wasn't feeling top notch. So, I went down to the lobby at 4am and was told they would send someone up right away....I didn't expect it until later in the morning, but the maintenance gentleman was there within 20 min. Figured out what was wrong and went to get parts and was back in 5 minutes. Fixed it promptly and was on his way. Excellent service! Day three, we wanted to have a view for night time and morning...always nice to look at the ocean, so we went to reception to talk to them about moving rooms to an ocean view. Initially we were told that they were booked up, but they managed to find two rooms that were just recently vacant and we were surprised that they gave us a key for both rooms to go up and see what one we wanted....again amazing service. We looked at both and decided one. We were very happy and now had our view. Pools We moved back and forth between two pools and enjoyed our days. The pools were well maintained and cleaned. Getting chairs reserved was never a challenge, but that was because we took turns going our early to put our towels on them in the morning....due to it being at the end of spring break, it was a busy resort. We had to be out there at 6am ish to get our 6 chairs together. Beach Lots of space, lots of chairs. It's a beach in Mexico...how can you go wrong. The vendors come up to you, but don't hound if you just say no gracias Buffet The buffet was large, many options and as far as we were concerned delicious. We had our favs and stuck to them, but there were some new options here and there. The staff was always friendly and were attentive. The amount of birds was a little overwhelming at times....they would cruise by your head. Ha ha we got used to it. Just look at your chair before you sit as there might be a little surprise on there. Ala Carte We ate at the Asian, Gourmet and the Italian ala carte's and they were all decent. Men need sleeves to be in there. Sports Bar Great for late snacks. The one thing that needs to change in there is to have different sport channels. We being from Canada (some of many), when hockey is on, we usually want to watch it. That was disappointing. Entertainment We sat an watched a few shows and the ones we saw were quite good and applaud the staff/entertainers on their abilities and enthusiasm. Poolside entertainment was also good. The games were fun to watch....we had some of our group participate and one even won ha ha fun. I was at another resort that had trivia (movie, songs etc etc) pool side and that was a big hit. Neon Party Wasn't expecting a lot with this, but was really pleasantly surprised how good it was. We as a group decided to have fun and dressed up neon and got our faces painted. We got many compliments from staff. We had a great time and danced a lot. The staff/entertainment crews were spectacular. The dancers going full tilt during their time slots (there were two or three groups) and the acrobatics, the stilt performers...all spectacular...hats off to everyone involved with this....top notch! Staff Most staff very committed to customer service...a couple that didn't love their job as much as others, but still happy and pleasant. I know you don't need to tip, but I certainly do as these fine people work hard and give really good customer service and I appreciate the efforts and the service. Note to RIU if your wrist band could also be your room key (had that once before a another resort)...that would be awesome! more sport channel variety in sports bar Thanks again RIU for the great time! RIU's haven't let me down yet and I don't expect they will :) We will be back to a RIU for sure! Parkalski 2025! Jamie

  Apr 23, 2025
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  Just Ok

  The Riu Vallarta is just ok! As stated by most it’s only the staff that make this resort!! Lovely people. We went for two weeks last week of March & first of April. Thinking we missed the spring breaks; boy were we wrong! We felt like this resort is simply a party resort. Don’t get me wrong; we’re not grumpy old folk & can have a few drinks & have fun like anybody on vacation. But this resort was so loud everywhere you went into the wee hours of the morning! The pool loungers are reserved by 7am. So expect to be up early. There were always many on the beach; which would be fine but horses or going up & down the beach so needless to say that smell is disgusting. The food everywhere was underwhelming. We’ve travelled a lot & buffets are always what you expect cold & repetitious. But the other restaurants were pretty boring also; ended up horribly sick for 24 hours after eating lobster at one. Would we go back? Nope

  Apr 23, 2025
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  Excellent Resort

  The Riu Vallarta is a great resort. Our room was great looking over the grounds and ocean. The food was also excellent. I can't say enough about this resort, we will definitely go back.

  Apr 23, 2025