This hotel has it all. We traveled May 25 - June 1. He had a great time. I have stayed at Cancun Palace, Riu Palace, and Riu Cancun. For overall fun, this was by far the best.

Nothing against the hotel, but travelers beware for the future, Memorial Day weekend, from Friday to Monday, is what some claimed as Hip Hop week. Cancun itself, or the hotel does not advertise this, but a group of about 50 or 60 come to this hotel every year this time and terrorize it. Boom boxes, yes, they even brought there own boom boxes!! LOUD rap music, and they were extremely loud, they were also very rude to staff who worked very hard. For those days there were there, we could not even use the swim up bar pool. They took it over!! Luckily though, most left Sunday night and the other 20 or so got arrested on Monday.

This did not stop our fun one bit though, there was still plenty to do, and the crowd was not the hotels fault, as they even did do a good job of TRYING to keep them quiet.

We ventured out to eat 3 times.
La Parilla - Very good food, good service. Get fajitas!!
Captains Cove - Awesome seafood. Crocodile outside!! Get Lobster.
Pericos - A definite MUST!! This place was awesome. Words cannot explain. We were there 3 hours and loved every minute of it. This place was better than any excursion I have done in Cancun!

Overall, cancun itself is a wonderful place to visit. I would never do it in any place but a RIU resort. They are great. If you have the extra money, I would stay at the palace, and use Riu Cancuns grounds for entertainment. Riu Palace is a little nicer, better service, better rooms, better restaraunts, many less people, but not near as fun. If you stay at Riu Palace, you can use Riu Cancuns grounds, but not vice versa.

If you choose to go to the clubs, go wherever the animacion team goes, they get you VIP entrance and drink service. They do a great job. The animacion teams makes this hotel so great!

DRINKS!!
Mojitos are good of course.
Ask for Negra Modelo, its a dark beer but you have to ask for it, very good!
Dirty Monkey
Tequila Popper
Kamikazee
There are many more, but those were my favs.
David is the swim up bartender. He is amazing!! I have never seen anybody work like he does. He was by far the best bartender. Ask him for a beerita. Its a drink I made up, he may remeber it. (tequila, sweet n sour, beer, and ice with salt around the rim). It is very good.

Tips
I think everone gets off work around 6 or 6:30. So if you want to take a bus to Market 28 that time, forget about it. Take a taxi for $11 or go earlier or later.
Bring about $150 in ones, the staff deserves tips!!
Have fun. GREAT PLACE, GREAT TIMES.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

We stayed the last week of October 2006. We got an awesome discount because it was fall, which is a bit of a gamble weather-wise (hurricane season). We weren't sure what to expect as we had read practically every review for similarly priced cancun hotels. A little bit of information overload. Here's what we found...

THE HOTEL --

Our taxi ride from the airport took us by many of the hotels in the hotel zone and since we had gotten what we thought to be a great deal we expected that ours would be average. We pulled up to our hotel and were surprised to see that it was one of the better ones we had seen during our ride. When we walked into the lobby we were even more impressed. The high ceilings, elegant decor and friendly staff were definitely better than we expected after some of the reviews we had read. We checked in, and hurried up to our room. We walked in and again what we saw exceeded our expectations. The furnishings were adequate, bathroom was very nice and everything was very clean, there was a well stocked mini bar and liquor dispenser and the view was absolutely amazing. One of the first things I did was crack open a corona and enjoy our balcony. Because of the layout every room in the hotel has an ocean view.

THE FOOD ~

This was definitely one of the areas we were somewhat worried about. Some of the reviews had indicated that the food was sub-par and so we were just hoping for the best. The food, decor, variety and service in the buffet were surprisingly high quality but I'd steer clear of the red wine - served chilled (yuck). Other than the wine my boyfriend and I both agreed that this was the best buffet we had ever been to, there were chefs cooking food fresh in front of you, a wide variety seafood, meat and vegetarian options, all of which were good and none of which made us feel sick (as we had in other trips to Mexico).

The Japanese restaurant was also very good, high quality ingredients, delicious from start to finish, great ambiance and service.

The Brazilian restaurant was also good with a large variety of well cooked meats and attentive staff. Because of the experience we had here we tried one of these Brazilian Steakhouses in Las Vegas and for around $40 per person the food and service did not even come close to the Riu.

We didn't really eat at the a la carte restaurant because the others were so good there really was no need.

THE BARS ~

Whenever you needed a drink there was a bar close by with friendly staff. We got the majority of our drinks at the main bar in the lobby area. There is a comfortable sitting area both inside and out and the drinks were good.

The blended drinks at the pool bar are a bit on the weaker side but weren't bad, they were also a bit weaker at La Mission bar. You can always ask for an extra shot on the side if you need it.

There was another really good couple of bars in the theatre, the drinks here were probably the best but this bar isn't open at all times like most of the others were.

THE "DISCO"

The "dance club" was very small, not much going on. If you're looking to go out, go check out some of the bars in Cancun rather than going here. Every night the hotel staff set up transportation to a different location and a lot of the great places to go out are within walking distance so skip La Pacha and check out Coco Bongos or Bulldog for an awesome night out.

THE POOL ~

The pools here were beautiful, the landscaping is amazing and there were lots of seats in and around them but we prefer the ocean so we didn't really spend much time at the pool. It was a nice place to admire at night when lit up but with the amazing beach right down the steps this really didn't get much use. Especially since the beach in this area isn't extremely crowded with vendors and the water is crystal clear.

THINGS TO DO ~

There are a ton of things to do in this area. You can even snorkel right out in the swimming area in front of the hotel and actually see a decent number of fish but you should also go on a snorkeling trip. We went on a boat trip to Isla Mujeres that offered snorkeling and a variety of other activities. We saw a ton of fish and had a great time. Chitchen Itza is also a must see and interestingly we found this to be the place with the best shopping as the people were hand-carving the masks and statues right in front of you so you could be sure that they were authentic. We also found that these vendors had the best prices and used the best quality materials.

All in all the Riu Cancun was an absolutely awesome experience. We have been to other places in Mexico and this is definitely our favorite place to stay, can't wait to go back!

The hotel was overrun with drunken teenagers. We were given a key to a room that was already occupied. The food was mediocre, at best. There was no form of entertainment, unless you consider passed out youngsters entertainment. The ceiling actually fell down in the hallway on the seventh floor, as we watched. The ceiling in our shower was black with mold and also ready to fall. This is our eighth visit to Cancun, the first at this hotel. Believe me, it will be the last! I must admit, the staff was very pleasant; however, we were never able to get the air conditioning to work in our room, even though they tried to fix it on three different occasions.

My mom and I stayed at the Riu Cancun from May 28th to June 1st 2007.
We really enjoyed the hotel and staff. The food was awesome. You can eat all day if you want - there's that much food out all the time. Our room was very clean and well stocked with drinks all the time. Staff was very helpful and friendly (everyone speaks English.) My only dissapointment was the view from our room was blocked by the roof - We were on the 5th floor. Rooms 550 - 569 are not good for a view of the beach.
The ocean was great I didn't notice any rocks hidden in the sand or anything dangerous. The waves were perfect for relaxing - not too big not too small and we had a red flag everyday.

If you need an interesting suggestion for sight seeing, I highly recommend Chichen Itza and swimming in the cenote. It was an experience of a life time if you are interested in history. And swimming in a 650 ft. hole of the clearest water you have ever seen is something I will never forget,