Hotel Riu Karamboa - All Inclusive - Adults Only

Second visit to the Karamboa, despite a minor issue on our arrival last year, we decided to return and stayed longer for 10 nights. We did have a great relaxing stay and we were happy with our overall holiday experience. However there is room for improvement. For one, I am not a fan of the late checkout policy operated by the RIU chain who make it impossible to book a late checkout until the morning of the very last day and you can’t arrange this over the phone from your room - you are told this needs to be discussed face to face at reception. Why?? I headed off to reception on the last morning and was bluntly informed there’s no late checkout available. This is a poor experience. There’s a late checkout option in the app so presumably this does not work? I never tried as was told you can only book this via reception. Anyway I reported these concerns regarding that and two other unrelated matters to the main RIU customer services email address and because I’d booked a package from TUI, they were not interested in the slightest and fobbed me off to TUI customer services, even though my issues were directly with the hotel/service received. As a returning customer we were very disappointed with this dismissive attitude.

The RIU Karamboa is first class in every way. The room was spacious and well looked after, the food was outstanding and the staff were so hard working.

Fabulous hotel, amazing service. Great food, plenty of choice. Really recommend dinner in the restaurant near the beach, just lovely. Clean, friendly staff. If you want a holiday based at the hotel it’s perfect. There’s not much else to do on the island. We loved the beach and sea but you can’t swim out far as the sea isn’t that safe.

Myself and my husband have just returned from 10 nights for our wedding anniversary. We have stayed in many RIU hotels in Europe and the Caribbean and this is up there with one of the best we have stayed in. We booked a swim up room and felt the additional cost was well worth it. The hotel is huge with plenty of sunbeds available throughout the day. The RIU app works really well and they were so prompt with requests to refill the mini bar and extra pillows. We booked in all 3 restaurants and never stayed up until midnight to book these, we booked first thing in morning. Our favourites were the a la carte and Asian. I am vegetarian and found this to be one of the best hotels I have been to that fully caters for this dietary need, in the evenings there was a whole section of vegetarian food that is clearly labelled and they had chickpea curries, lentil stew, cheese & spinach pastries, lots of different vegetables ,rice, quiches and potatoes. When I visited the Asian restaurant the chef showed me all the veggie options (8 sushis), noodles, curry, tempura vegetables plus more. You do have to be careful with the general buffet as one night there was meat in an item labelled as vegetarian a potato salad but I found the overall choice excellent. The a la carte was really nice and also has veggie options. The evening entertainment is a bit hit and miss, some nights it could send you to sleep but it is the normal sort of entertainment you expect when you go abroad and they try their best. The beer was really nice, slushies were nice but check if you want alcohol added. Even though I had put on the RIU app and said on arrival it was our anniversary it was a little disappointing that nothing was done by the hotel for the occasion. Staff were really friendly, would recommend the day tour of the island to see different parts of the island. The hotel and grounds were really clean and the staff worked hard and would always greet you. We had a lovely relaxing time and would recommend this hotel.

This is not a 5* hotel, our room was OK but moved because of a technical issue (plumbing) 2 days in, it was our honeymoon. The food and restaurants are awful, I am vegetarian and there was little to eat, apart from Pizza and Pasta, we both had upset tummies. As for the free drinks on an all inclusive they are atrocious, as is the third rate entertainment, the best night we had was found and booked by ourselves at the one restaurant we come across that is independent from the hotel. The flight back was so bad too. Damn Tui, no decent food and they had ran out of water on the flight, so no hot drinks, my husband is diabetic so going without anything for over 12 hours is really bad and makes him poorly. All in all I would not recommend this hotel at all. We did however enjoy the trips that we sorted out a catamaran and horse riding, that is it really.