The Riu Palace Las Americas, was so far the best of (three couples) have stayed in Cancun and the area of the Yucatan Peninsula. Our Ages 41-70 . I am 46.
The six of us that went all agreed. We have stayed at the Adventura and Moon Palaces and they were indeed very nice, but not as nice as this one , for different reasons.
We would definitely go back to this resort next year. The resort and grounds were beautiful and extremely clean.
From the moment you walk through the doors you are pampered.
Our seven nights there were pure luxury.
We didn't get bored with any of the food. We made our reservations and ate some place different every night (reservations are no big deal.) Other reviews complain , but you just need to be organized. If you were too busy to make them the night before, then you can always eat at the buffet at the "Riu Palace" or next door at the huge buffet at the Riu Cancun. Staying at the Riu Palace Las Americas as guests can go to the other Riu resorts in Cancun, but their guests cannot come to ours, as they aren't a "Riu Palace" resort.
If you have any problems, all you do is tell "Ramon " at the front desk or Gabriel and with in minutes they are there to fix it or make it right for you. Although the beds are firm, we slept great, and they brought us a bed pad after the first night.
The food was excellent in the Italian restaurant for lunch ( no need for reservations), we did not eat at the Brazilian for dinner.
Tio Pepes, and the steak house were pretty good, but, the Japanese and Sir Aurthur's in my opinion was the best of the ala carte restaurants.
We thought that the service was excellent, the drinks were top notch.
Besides the beer ( Corona ), bottled water and sodas in the refrigerator the rooms had a bar, with four bottles of booze that you can dispense right at your finger tips ( Smirnoff Vodka, Cuervo Tequila Gold , Brandy -not sure of brand and Bacardi Rum. I think I had
one shot of tequila and my husband had a little bit of rum the whole time in our room.
At the bars they served even more expensive liquor and the drinks were plentiful and good. The waiters and waitresses do an excellent job of serving you .
You might not want to stay there if you are an alcoholic or a recovering alcoholic.
Every where you go in Cancun ( tourist things anyway ), is a party with booze and food and they want you to drink, eat and have FUN !! Even the mall across the street has a bar right he middle of it.
Gabriel, Carlos, David and Jerry are very nice and are there to please and help make the stay even more enjoyable.
Our rooms were beautiful and clean with an ocean front view. Loved it, loved it, loved it !!!
We had rooms 449, 451 and 452. Room 452 seemed to stay a little warmer than ours and the other room , as I believe the sun was directly on it and it was on the corner and had more windows and they left their slider open too much . As in most tropical, humid resorts, you must leave your slider door shut for the air conditioner to work properly , other wise it will get hot and humid in your room.
The hotel does have a musty humid odor as people say, although, you do get use to it right away, but it's the same smell that I notice at every humid tropical place that I have ever been to. Our clothes still smelled like it when we got home, clean or not, so I washed them all anyway. But there again, that's a given.
The beach was fantastic, calm, ( good for some snorkeling ) with white beautiful sand that they groomed every morning and next door was a beautiful beach as well. There were a few rocky areas but if you walked out on to them you would find the beauty in them as they have little miniature blow holes and tiny live shells.
If you like to snorkel they give you snorkel gear one hour per person per day. They also offer a paddle boat and a small sail catameran.
A lot of the beach was white sand going into the beautiful blue ocean in which the two Palace Resorts we stayed in had terrible ocean fronts.
If you go anywhere around the Cancun area it is way cheaper to take the city bus rather than a taxi. Kind of a fun ride too !! You can catch the city bus right next door in front of the Riu Cancun. Cost is 15 pesos for two people. We were paying $1 each then got smarter as time went on. You do not have to tip at the resort, because it is included, but if
is in your heart, and you plan on tipping, take a lot of ones and fives as the resort does not want to give out American change, my hubby and I took $150 in ones and $ 150 in fives and used it all for tipping, they were well worth it !! The people who work there work very very hard and their tips are very important.
If you can afford this vacation, you can afford to tip them ....
.Susie Q

I will preface this review by saying I am not the "review" type of guy. My wife and I have been all over the caribbean and have stayed at some fabulous resorts - and this is the first hotel that has inspired me to write.

My wife, I and our 11month old daughter just got back from a 4 night weekend at the Palace. We were a little concerned that the place would not be set up for a young child, but we were sorely mistaken. If you are willing and able to travel with young children, this place is as good as any we've been to. Highchairs in every restaurant. The ocean is not too rough as to scare small children and the staff just loved her and entertained her the whole time we were there.

Upon entering the lobby, we were immediately impressed with the palacial feel of Riu. We wre greated and our bags immediately swept up to our room. Which by-the-way was upgraded to an ocean front suite on the 3rd floor with a balcony. The room was spacious and very clean. There was a musty smell to the hallways, but staying in a place that is notorious for huricanes and flooding, you'd have to expect that.

Sitting out on our balcony was fabulous. Great breeze blowing and plenty of shade. We ordered room service every morning for breakfast. Drank our coffee and juice and got ready for the day.

The breakfast buffet was great as well. Cooked-to-order omeletes and their pancakes are to die for. My daughter really enjoyed them.

Speaking to couples with young children: My child takes 2 very long naps during the day. One from 10:00 - 12:00, the other from 3:00 - 5:00. My wife and I took turns being in the room while she was sleeping. My wife would lay out at the beach in the morning, then I would do the same in the afternoon. In the middle of the day, the 3 of us would go to the pool or beach. It was a great system and seemed to work great for us. Plus we had that great balcony to read or nap while listening to the waves crashing.

Here are a few things we found to be "not fabulous":

The system they have for reservations for dinner is not up to par. Other resorts just take reservations anytime, this one you have to wait in line the night before you want to eat. The lines were not bad, but just an incovenience. Plus the food at a few of the restaurants was not that great. I thought the food at the Brazilian Steakhouse was terrible.

Also, the buffet gets a little repetative after a few days. We didn't do this, but there are a couple of local restaurants close by that might break up the monotany.

My shoes were stolen off the beach while I was snorkling. So, if you go and see someone with a pair of Burkenstock sandles with dog chew marks on the left heel. Tell them I said hello.

The pros far outweigh the cons here. A great resort. Great service. Very clean and definately worth the money. Hope this helps.

My wife and I stayed at the RPLA for our 20th anniversary. It is a beautiful hotel with great rooms, views, beach, pools, amenities, etc. My comments would be the same as most of the other positive reviews, going on about the service, the hotel itself, etc...it was really great. I would like to point out a few unique experiences to help future travelers:

About 1 week prior to our trip I emailed the hotel to confirm our reservations. The manager responded immediately and confirmed that we had a reservation for an ocean view room. Luckily I printed out the email message and brought it with us - they originally tried to put us in one of the few rooms that are not ocean view. When I went back down to the front desk and showed him the email, they corrected the room and gave us one of the best rooms in the house (directly on the beach with a larger balcony) - I did not "tip" or bribe him at that time but later that day thanked him with a tip.

Dinners - On the first day we were supposed to eat dinner at the buffet. As we were walking that way we passed the Brazillian restaurant and noticed that it was less than 1/2 full (perhaps due to cancellations or no-shows???), so we asked if we could eat there and they let us in immediately and treated us to a fantastic dinner. That was probably our favorite restaurant. The Japanese restaurant was very good, but really about the same as any other high-end Japanese sushi restaurant in the States. We also ate at the Spanish restaurant - the dinner itself was very good, but the appetizers (tapas) were just fair and the service was not as good as the others - not bad service, just not over-the-top excellent as at the others.

Regarding the reservation process, we did not find that to be a problem at all. We simply went by whichever restaurant we wanted to eat at and signed up - no lines, no waiting, no problems at all. We did not make a point to be there right at 5:00 PM and we still were able to get whichever restaurant and seating we wanted.

An example of excellent service - on the 2nd day, the room safe was not working properly. Within 5 minutes they had a security guard and two maintenance staff in my room to fix it. Every single person at the hotel was there to help you and to serve you in any way.

Overall, it is an exceptional resort hotel with great service and amenities - you will not be disappointed!

i went there for my spring brek of 2006.
I went there wit my mom. For the first two days i was DYING of boredness, it not even funny. Because i got used to going to vacations wit a lot of ppl, but this time it was just me and my mom. On the third day i met two people, and it was fun.
There was a lot of actvities for little kid, in the morning they were making bracelets, then they had water aerobic, water voleyball..and many other activite in the pool. I did coupld of the sea activities ..the banane boat was awesome it cost 16$ and i also went jet skiing............... it was so much fun it costed 60$.
The food in Riu Palace was much better then Riu Cancun...all people were really nice and smiley....................
The restaraunts were really good
the hotel was really clean ....................

i gotta tell you there was no evening activities for teens at all except for the show.........at night
i was kinda bored..
at all this vacation was awesome
and i'm looking forward to go there agen next years...!<3