I stayed at RIU Cancun in April 2009.

I've divided this review into two parts - PROS & CONS.

PROS: The RIU CANCUN is a clean hotel. You will find the hotel staff cleaning the floors all day long. The location of the RIU is perfect – if you are looking to be close to the action. It's close to shopping centres, bars, nightclubs and restaurants. We almost never had to use a bus or taxi (however, we did use a taxi to get to RIU Caribe). The beach area is not wide, but it is long, tons of areas that get sun all day. Many previous reviewers complained about lack of sun presence due to shadowing of hotel - but this is not as bad as those reviews make it out to be. Sun out until approx 4 pm in pool areas. And trust me, considering how strong the sun is most of the day, you'll have had enough of the sun by 4 pm! There are four separate pools at this resort and each pool has it's distinct feel to it - there is the infinity pool, where a lot of adults and kids hang out... then there is the pool bar, where the teens hang out...and then there is a pool on the west side which is pretty empty most of the time. Decent quality of food. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the 24 hour Sports Bar had a ton of healthy food alternatives (salad, eggs, and sandwiches). Three a la carte restaurant choices as opposed to typical one or two choice in previous resorts visited. No pressuring to buy drugs. No timeshare pressure at all (we didn't get approached once!). Three times now visited Cancun and no rain at all. Great thing about the RIU chain is that you can visit the other hotels in the area. We were able to go to RIU Caribe for the day, where we chilled in the one big pool and had lunch in their buffet restaurant. Our room was nice. We got a King sized bed (and it wasn’t two small beds pushed together – but an actually king sized mattress). We had an open bar in the room that was stocked with RUM and two types of TEQUILA and stocked fridge with water, coke and beer. The safe was included (we did not have to pay extra). The bathroom was very spacious with two sinks and a decent sized bath tub. The closest was large and had tons of hangers (more than twenty hangers). The maid service was great – we asked for an extra pillow, and got the extra pillow the next morning. Almost all views are ocean views. We were lucky enough to be on the 13th floor – we highly recommend it. The rooms on the 13th floor do not have railings, but a concrete barrier – which acts as a noise barrier at night. Whereas most rooms in the resort could hear music from the night clubs, we didn’t hear anything!

CONS: Where do I begin - the service in the buffet area is lousy. The staff there is generally unpleasant all the time, never smile, and seems annoyed at you. During one breakfast, we were completely ignored and never asked if we wanted coffee. The lack of elevators was annoying. Since we were on the 13th floor, it was a long and tedious task to get to the first floor. For the number of rooms and people staying at the resort, there should have been more than four elevators. And once I got on the elevator, I was always disgusted to see food and alcohol everywhere. There is only one swim up bar, and most of the people in the swim up bar pool never leave (kind of disgusting considering that when you drink you need to pee more frequently – and where are they peeing if they never leave?? I’ll leave that to your imagination….). And this resort is not for families. It is geared towards younger people, and not families. There were few things wrong with the room, but they were corrected within 24-48 hours – our remote control and hair dryer were not working when we first got there. The BED is extremely uncomfortable. Yes, it is true that the bed is only for sleeping and shouldn't be that comfortable...however, if you are expecting a four or five star resort, you should get a DECENT bed. The bed is far from decent. I had the worst sleeps of my life in this resort. The amount of Mexicans walking the beach selling sunglasses, or sea shells was irritating. We were bothered every ten minutes. Also frustrating was the large amount of Mexicans that were not staying at the resort, but were on the beach, using lounge chairs. I don’t expect security on the beach, and I was ok that there was no security on the beach, but I did not expect and I did not like the amount of lounge chairs that were taking up by people NOT PAYING to stay at the resort. We have stayed at many resorts, in many countries and what we took for granted there, we did NOT get here. For example, there was no complimentary newspaper. Oh, there was complimentary newspaper – but less than five newspapers, and you had to pick it up at the reservation desk before 6:00 am. When I asked one morning (around 7:00 am) if I could have a newspaper, I was informed that they were all out because they only get “a few” copies. The one thing we didn’t like about Mexico (and this has nothing to do with the resort itself) was how aggressive staff are becoming about getting tips. We were pretty much harassed every time we went to bars, nightclubs and restaurants outside of the resort. This is something you should consider when going to Mexico – if you aren’t aggressive with them immediately – they will walk all over you. We went to Coco Bongo’s and the City, and they tried to squeeze as much money from us as possible…and they were not even nice about it. Staff in Cancun night clubs have not learned customer service skills and do not appreciate vacationers.

After a 10 hour flight you are quite hard to impress but believe me when I say this hotel its outstanding. The lobby is amazing and you're immediately given a Pina Colada when checking in.

The food was nice at first but we quickly got fed up with food catered for Americans i.e. Sweet breakfast food?? The Al La Carte restarurants were a nice change and very good service particularly in the Japaneese restaurant.

The hotel rooms were nice and spacious with a beautiful view of the white sandy beach and turquiose caribbean waters. You could have a quiet or rowdy day depending on which pool you're at so you're not forced to join in if you don't want to. The beach was where we spent most of our time but get up early to get a umbrella. The water sports were good value but you do get charged a water tax for any watersports so be aware also on excursions to take extra money for this as we got caught out. The Thomsons rep wasn't very informative so this is why i thought it was nessessary to imform people.

The top tip we got all holiday is the bus service from directly outside the hotel, it's 8 pescos which works out about 35p and you can travel anywhere you want in the hotel zone of Cancun including down town. We particulary like the shopping centre called La Isla Island Village which has the top rated restaurant in Cancun called 'Thai' which is completley authentic and out of this world, check out the reviews.

Overall an excellent holiday and highly recommended to everyone of all ages, i'll be back......

I was very nervous about this hotel after reading the reviews here. We loved it. We arrived at noon and were promptly given a welcome drink at the front desk and were able to get to our room 3 hours before check in time. The staff were always attentive and very pleasant to deal with.

The location of the hotel is wonderful. You are right across from a mall and a 5 minute walk to Coca Bongo's, Hard Rock and Senor Frog's. There is a bus stop right outside the hotel, and cabs are plentiful.

The beach was wonderful. It was so nice to walk on the fine sand and not have hot feet. And the water is a beautiful color.

The food was great. There was always something different to try. We tried all the restaurants and found that we liked the Brazilian one the best. The drinks were fantastic. They did not short you on the liquor at all.

The rooms were large and comfortable. The mini bar and fridge were re-stocked every other day. We did make use of the safe and kept everything of value in there, and the key with us always. Make sure you get a lanyard to carry it on. We had a wonderful time here.

This hotel is by far the most luxurious hotel i have ever visited. as soon as you walk into the foyer, you will see what i mean!!! The 3 pools are large and have plenty of room around to manouver your lounger which i know a lot of people complain about. The pool bar can become busy, and a bit noisy with a lot of americans taking over the bar area. The beach is very clean and well maintained, and there are lots of activities to take part in (if you want to)

The restaurants are fantastic, and offer unlimited options for ever palate. And if like us, you alternate between restaurants each night you can never get bored.

The rooms are superb, spacious and very clean. The maids service is second to none, and each day you find a new animal made from your towels which for me personally was fantastic ( i might be a bit sad, but i liked it) One thing to be a bit wary of is the balcony rails seemed a bit loose so just be careful with young children.

The hotel is very well located being just 5 minutes walk into the main shopping and restaurant area (and nightclubs if thats what you want) Everybody (all ages) has to visit Coco Bongo NIght Club, this is not just a night club, it has everything, check it out on "You Tube"!!!!!

You will not regret the decision to go the Riu Cancun, it is fantastic!!!!!