Hotel Riu Palace Tenerife

Location is great - quiet end of Costa Adeje but a lovely walk along the boardwalk to a beautiful little shopping mall and some restaurants. Walk further on and there is a larger shopping centre (designer) and seats where you can sit and look out to sea. Hotel and grounds are lovely. Inside buffet restaurant is very much old style Riu and is probably ready for a refurb but very spacious and clean. There is a large outside area where the views are beautiful. Sadly a lot of the tables overlooking the gardens and the sea seemed to be “reserved” by people who had the same table at breakfast and dinner every day. I got the impression that these were returning guests and the tables were saved by waiting staff. The food in the buffet restaurant is good - the same as most buffet food but loads of choice and well cooked and presented. The desserts are the little cakes that really all taste the same. It would be nice to see proper desserts rather than the little generic sponges and soft ice cream. It probably saved me from myself though so I shouldn’t complain! We did not eat at the other restaurants as we have eaten at other Krystal restaurants in other Riu’s and were not that impressed. The staff are mostly lovely, reception staff were welcoming and cleaning staff very nice. Waiting staff were all polite, helpful and pleasant with the exception of one whom I won’t name who was actually quite rude. A female “chef” on the meat carving one night was also unpleasant. It was also a little challenging trying to get pre-dinner drinks in the bar by reception and we gave up on three occasions. It was not due to being busy, they were chatting and not paying attention to people wanting drinks. Entertainment was OK, a good female singer one night but the World Cup was on so there was more interest in that. Rooms were very comfortable and bathrooms large with great showers. Sheets were not changed and there was not the usual card on the bed to request. Regular changing of towels, even in the evenings, and our bed was turned down twice. Curtains drawn and bins emptied which is a nice touch, I think. The grounds are lovely and extremely well maintained. We actually didn’t use the sunbeds and pools because, quite honestly, we couldn’t be bothered to walk around looking for two together that didn’t have towels on them. There is no enforcement of the rule of not saving sun beds so, of course, the usual game of let’s bag a sunbed and disappear until 4:00pm is rampant. Drinks are plentiful at breakfast but water has to be paid for at dinner which I find ridiculous in a country where you can’t drink the water. I think it’s €3 a 500ml bottle so that soon mounts up! Riu you need to change this like you have with the decision not to charge for room safes. A very welcome change of policy which I am sure every guest appreciates. One last thing, I always read Tripadvisor reviews prior to booking and continue to read them until I go. Shortly before our holiday I

Returned home a few days ago and already missing this place! The hotel is in a very good location right on a long stretch of beach with bars, restaurants and supermarkets. It’s good for evening walks and watching the sunset. The hotel itself is very clean as was our room which was tidied and cleaned to a high standard daily. The hotel grounds feel very “holiday(ee) with lots of palm trees, 2 big pools and a smaller adults only infinity pool which we found our place in from day 2 haha. We didn’t have a problem getting loungers but around the pools did seem filled up by 10am. There’s a nice lounging area away from the pool on sand and under palm trees which was nice for a day out of the sun and reading a book. There’s no pool games/daily entertainment that we saw whilst there but wasn’t bothered about anyways. We ate from the buffet all week and had no problems with the food. It’s a typical RIU buffet. My friend is vegetarian and said the veggie options were good. Beautiful views if you sit outside on the terrace at meal times, too. We didn’t watch the evening entertainment whilst here so cannot comment on that, but we did enjoy listening to singers from our balcony some nights. We found the staff to be friendly and polite, always acknowledging you as you walk by. Just to add on a few things we done outside of the hotel. We took a sunset buggy tour with ‘top buggy adventure/tour’ that took us up to Teide national park to see Mount Teide. Amazing views and a fun experience. We also went to Los Cristianos market and another a 10/15 min walk from the hotel. Siam park is close by but we plan to come back for that in November and maybe a ferry trip over to see La Gomera. A couple negatives, although it wouldn’t stop us from coming back! - We noticed quite a few cockroaches roaming around at night including on our balcony. I know Tenerife does have cockroaches, it can’t always be helped. We also noticed that the bedsheets were not changed daily and only made. I’ve always had daily fresh sheets at other RIUs, so I wasn’t sure if it’s a new thing to RIU or just this hotel. Overall, we had a relaxing and positive stay and are planning to come again in November!

This is a lovely hotel where the staff are so polite, helpful and nothing is too much trouble, it’s pretty high end stuff. Waiter/ waitresses serve you at the table and treat you like royalty. The place is spotless, the rooms spacious with lovely views and entertainment in the evenings wasn’t too bad. Food was brilliant, all cooked well, plenty of it, good variety and if anything too much choice, probably one of the best I’ve stayed at. The location is perfect, if you like **** smoking, drinking excessively and swearing it’s not the place for you, this is a quiet relaxing location where you can easily access the beach, there are a few old people but also lots of youngsters, very few children those here are well behaved. Sandy beaches and views of the sunset. Taxis are on hand, 16 euro ish to Las Americas. I’d also recommend the dolphin and whale watching tour, it was good, we went with White Tenerife tours.

I felt the hotel substantially lacks atmosphere and almost has a somber feeling particularly during the day. For example there is no music, no one is laughing, engaging, or letting their hair down. The majority of guests are elderly or families with very young children looking for a quiet resort. We are a couple in our thirties and found the resort too quiet, strict and subdued. We were quickly and rudely told off by the life guard for taking a long pool float into the adult pool whereas other guests were not challenged at all. It is very clear if you are younger - they are keeping an eye on you. We are a very respectful couple who enjoy having a few drinks however by around day three, it was obvious that we were being watched. I remember reading a review which described the resort as a “private care home”. I felt this was a pretty accurate description to a certain extent. The staff here are very friendly however I started to become very tense and aware that we were being monitored. Letting your hair down and having a laugh here is frowned upon and you will be watched closely. It is clear that the hotel has lots of older returning guests and they receive the best experience. Positives - Nice resort, spacious room and balcony, beautiful views, well kept gardens, sun bed service for food and drinks, good size pools, themed restaurants, easy to use app, helpful reception team, close to Siam Park, nice beach close by, unlimited towels on request, good snack bar options during the day, hard working staff, very clean resort. Negatives - ATMOSPHERE , average buffet food, strict, quiet, most sun beds reserved, NOISY FRIDGE in the room, dirty plates and cutlery in restaurant, no table on balcony.

I wouldn’t recommend going unless you are over 70, it’s like a private hospital, the buffet is like the titanic experience. Staff are nice to very elderly people only and hotel not close to anything at all, beach is black and rocky like mud. Can’t believe it’s 5 star,staff don’t help with bags nor very helpful at all. The manager seems to be actively walking around making sure everything is good but id not recommend this place at all I was really disappointed.

Great location- lovely hotel in general. Costa Adeje is lovely resort and especially enjoyed walking along promenade to La Caleta. The staff really make this hotel and are truly excellent. It was my husbands 60th birthday while we were there and staff made great effort with specially set table . I ordered a birthday cake which was lovely. Special mention to Eva, Effrain, also Valerian, Joshua and Pilar on reception. Food was plentiful, lots of choice. We loved the Spanish restaurant although were only able to book one night. We weren’t interested in the gourmet one. Plenty of sunbeds , get down early to be able to book 4 beds together. As usual , some people hogged beds that were hardly used all day. Entertainment was ok- felt that the entertainers had to really work to get audience engagement and also finished early. Having previously been at Riu Gran Canaria last year I think we were spoiled there with the entertainment which was very good and expected entertainment to be the same or similar. My one complaint with the hotel was that both our room and my son’s room were affected by cockroaches on several nights . We reported these on every occasion and were assured that housekeeping were dealing with them. I didn’t think this was a good enough response from what was supposedly a five star hotel. Eventually it culminated in us both being offered a change of room which we accepted. It’s the first time we’ve ever had to move rooms on holiday and it was disruptive. We were given a complimentary bottle of cava as compensation. Overall, we had a lovely holiday but I’m not sure I’d return in a hurry ( probably because of the cockroaches). For this reason I’ve not given 5 star review.

We stayed as two adults and two teenagers for a short Four night break, and overall the hotel was almost faultless. From check-in, everything was incredibly smooth. We arrived earlier than the official check-in time and, although we had two rooms booked, the hotel kindly allowed us to have one room ready a little sooner, which was really helpful. The food was very good. I wouldn’t say it was five-star dining, but there was a good choice and everything we had was enjoyable. One of the things we particularly loved was that there were no sunbed wars! You were guaranteed a sunbed every day, which made such a nice change and meant we could properly relax. The hotel was clean throughout and, above all, the staff were absolutely amazing for the majority of our stay. I would definitely return. The only reason I say almost faultless is because our experience on checkout day was very disappointing and completely different from the rest of our stay. Before travelling, I had explained that we would need a late checkout because of an invisible disability. I was told this could be guaranteed for an additional charge of €20 per hour, which we were more than happy to pay. However, when it came to the last day, a member of staff called Pilar was extremely evasive, difficult and, unfortunately, quite rude. I was essentially told that she had not been informed about the previous arrangement, despite this having been discussed beforehand. Eventually, we were moved to another room with a single bed and single shower, which was absolutely fine and we were grateful to have somewhere to stay until later. It was really the way we were spoken to and treated that was upsetting. After being made to feel so welcome throughout the stay, it was disappointing to feel as though, on the final day, we suddenly became an inconvenience. Even ordering drinks became unnecessarily difficult because we no longer had our original room number to provide. We did manage to order them, but then I felt uncomfortable being followed towards reception to make payment, rather than simply being treated in the same way as we had been throughout the rest of our stay. It really was a shame, because the rest of the holiday was fantastic and I would happily come back. I just hope the hotel can look into the way guests are treated on checkout day, particularly when additional needs have been discussed and agreed in advance. Overall, a lovely hotel, fantastic staff, great facilities and a really enjoyable stay. We would definitely return and make sure our flight times were better on the way home so we didn’t have the same check out issues