Hotel Riu Papayas

“Excellent hotel”

Lovely hotel. Great food. Entertainment is fantastic. Nicest hotel in the area. If playa del ingles is where you want to go this hotel is a must.

“Staff and service 5* - Food 2*”

Let me firstly say the people working at the hotel were amazing from the incredibly hard working bar staff, the friendly people in the restaurants, always happy reception and the room cleaners. The hotel room was clean and spacious, the location was 15mins from the beach, supermarket next door an… more

Let me firstly say the people working at the hotel were amazing from the incredibly hard working bar staff, the friendly people in the restaurants, always happy reception and the room cleaners. The hotel room was clean and spacious, the location was 15mins from the beach, supermarket next door and the daytime entertainers were very friendly and engaging, throughout the day they kept kids and adults entertained for long periods. The main buffet was ok and the chefs were very visible and welcoming but the mass production of food was not of 4* quality but it was the speciality restaurants that caused the most concern. The Spanish restaurant offered a sea bass where the dish turned up raw and certain foods were not cooked right through. Due to the people service, I have to score the resort a four but you need to review the food products for mass servings because we have been to two others this year and they have been of higher quality - palladium group. Well done on the hiring of some excellent people, they deserve a mention.

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“A Good Holiday!”

We had a really lovely stay overall and found the hotel to be clean, modern and welcoming. Check-in was very easy, and the lady who checked us in was lovely and explained everything clearly. The reception team throughout our stay were always friendly, approachable and happy to answer any questions … more

We had a really lovely stay overall and found the hotel to be clean, modern and welcoming. Check-in was very easy, and the lady who checked us in was lovely and explained everything clearly. The reception team throughout our stay were always friendly, approachable and happy to answer any questions we had. Room Our room was lovely, modern and very clean. The bed was comfortable, the shower had great water pressure and the temperature was consistently good. The air conditioning worked really well and kept the room nice and cool. We also had no issues sleeping and couldn’t hear any noise from outside, which was a big positive. Daytime Entertainment The entertainment around the pool was really good. The activities were fun to watch and easy to get involved in. I was initially worried that the pool would become overcrowded during AquaFit, but this wasn’t the case at all and there was still plenty of room to move around. The entertainment team were very upbeat, friendly and enthusiastic, which definitely added to the atmosphere around the pool. Evening Entertainment The evening entertainment was probably the biggest area of disappointment for us. We only really enjoyed two nights out of our week-long stay. We have stayed at RIU hotels previously and found the entertainment there to be incredible, so perhaps our expectations were quite high. The first two evenings were mainly live music. The singers were talented, but we found it quite boring and felt as though we had to entertain ourselves rather than the entertainment creating much of an atmosphere. Some of the shows were good, while others could definitely have been more engaging and entertaining. Another issue was the amount of smoking and vaping around the evening entertainment. When there was a popular show on, people were sitting very close together, meaning we often found ourselves breathing in smoke and vapour. We would strongly recommend having designated smoking/vaping areas, particularly as there are also children around. Staff Our room was cleaned every day, which was great. Some members of the housekeeping team were very friendly and polite, although a few didn’t acknowledge us when we passed them. Overall, though, the cleaning service was good. The bar staff were friendly and always happy to serve drinks. Our main issue was when asking for water. We were quite often given sparkling water despite asking for still water, or directed to the water machine, which was often dispensing warm water. This was a little disappointing, especially when wanting a cold glass of water. The cocktails and alcoholic drinks were nice, and the fizzy drinks were generally lovely and refreshing, although occasionally they were a little flat and had lost their fizz. Pool & Sunbeds The pool was really nice and refreshing. It could get quite busy, but there was still plenty of space to move around and enjoy it. We do personally prefer hotels with multiple pools, and this was something we missed during our stay, although it wasn’t as bad as we initially thought it might be. Before arriving, I was worried about not being able to get a sunbed after reading some reviews. However, we managed to get one each every single day by going down just before breakfast, and there were actually always some spare sunbeds that we could see. So, from our experience, this wasn’t an issue at all. Food The food was really nice overall and there was plenty of choice. However, after staying for a week, we did start to get a little bored as there didn’t seem to be much variation from day to day. A lot of the same dishes appeared regularly, so having a greater change in the selection every couple of days would have been nice. One small improvement would also be to label the desserts. There were lots of desserts that looked lovely, but we often had no idea what they actually were! Most hotels label their desserts, so this would have been a helpful addition. Overall, we had a lovely stay and would definitely say that the hotel has a lot of positives.

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