We arrived at the Punta Cana airport with ease. Customs was a breeze, arrivivg and leaving.They make it quick and painless. Don't take the free transportation unless you want to get on a bus with alot of people and waste about 2 hours of your vacation. By the time everyone gets on the bus and then everyone arrives at the resort at the same time you have wasted 2 hours.Take a taxi for $30.00 and get at the resort in 25 minutes and arrive at the resort with no wait in checking in, because you will arrive before the bus.

If you want a ocean veiw room, tip the manager in charge of the front desk ($20.00) and say its your birthday. We did this and after the 1st night we had a great ocean veiw room.

Remember to bring alot of one dollar bills for tipping. We tiped with one dollar bills and received excellet service. The front desk does not had much american money for you change for lower bills. A one dollar tip goes a long way. They will treat you like royalty.

The beach was awesome, be prepared , 30% of the women go topless.
The food at the buffet was great. We didn't go to any of the ala cart places because you have to get up early to make reservations.
If you like to drink alcohol, its available 24 hours. There is a built in dispenser in the wall with 4 types of spirits. Remember to ask for specific brands while you visit the bars, if not you receive the cheap stuff. Take large plastic cups (clear) , they only have real small cups which means plenty of trips to the bar.

The pool is only 4 feet deep so it always stays warm. The swim up bar was awesome.

The rooms were excellent, and very large.We had no smell in ours .
This is a five star resort which has 4 sister Riu resorts that you can eat ,swim, and enjoy for the price you paid for the palace.

IWe will defintely go back.

Not a great place for small kids.

Do not drink the tap water, we heard people got sick from the tap water. The resort supplies drinking water everyday in your fridge.

My wife and I decided on the resort from personal referrals. Also, we decided to do our own research. We ignored many of the negative comments that seemed to be prevelant. Found that they were correct.

As follows: the entrance to the resort is indeed impressive; the building (inside and out) looks very nice; the room DID have a very musty smell (I never experienced this in Jamaica, Puerto Rico or even Roatan); the sheets and sofa were damp, everyday; all staff was attentive; beach was very nice; setting overall very nice; food was less than quality; plenty of variety of food, but never with quality; Horrible reservation set-up for restaurant (reservation only in person and line/crowd shoved into the door at 8:30 in the morning- if not there by 8:00, forget getting a decent reservation); plan on waking early every day to make your reservation for that evening's dinner; Sir Oscar (French) was the closest restaurant to serve a quality meal; last evening, my stomach felt something it hadn't felt in many years (didn't think much of it until my wife was also sick the next day and then when I got back to work, was told by those that recommended this specific hotel that they too had nasty stomach problems from their 2nd to last day and lasting close to 1 week thereafter), my wife is now on her 5th day of stomach problems; shared the last meal at the steak house with a wedding reception that played very loud music and began 'barking' to the music, yes...barking. Some guests deserted their tables.

Conclusion: Very nice looking hotel, beach very nice, food less than quality, reservation and lack of restaurant space much less than adequate.

Recommendation: If we go back to Punta Cana, we would be looking for a different resort.
If you must have the Riu, then try the Macao. It would center you in the Riu complex and offer most of what Palace Punta Cana does.

We just returned from a 5 day trip to the Riu Palace Punta Cana and my husband and I loved it!!! The food was very good! The buffet at Don Manuels had a lot of great selections. The line to make reservations was very short and we always got our first choice. Every employee we encountered was very friendly and attentive. The room was beautiful and always cleaned early in the morning. The waiters at the pool bar were excellent and a small tip gets you great drinks all the time!! The beach was very beautiful and there were always lounge chairs available both at the beach and the pool. My only negative comment is that the a/c could have been better in all the areas. I would definitely return!

My stay at this so called 5 star resort was horrible. I would advise anyone to try going anywhere else. The room smelled musty. The TV was broken. Even the safe had to be fixed. which took someone from maintenance almost an hour to come to fix. We couldn't leave the room to go to beach without locking our things up. The food is almost uneatable everywhere in the resort. Great if you want to go on a diet. The pool bar closes pretty early so if you want a drink you have to go back to your room. You will most likely have to eat at the buffet every night since the restaurants are not big enough to seat everyone. But you are not missing much since the restaurants don't have anything good to eat either. Two nights in a row the power went out while we were eating. We were left sitting there in the dark. Nobody came around to even let us know if the food was still going to come out. The people on the beach could care less about doing anything unless you tip them. They didn't want to give out the kayaks or windsurfers. They will say that you need to make a reservation a day ahead of time. Even if there are plenty lying right on the beach. The next day they told me I didn't have a reservation. The fitness room is a joke. There is hardly any equipment. The staff is ignorant. I was given misinformation several times. Several other people in my party had the same experience. Apparently the staff likes to tell people who ask where something is that it is on the other side of the resort. So that they can laugh at you walking around like an idiot. the worst part was the casino which everyone should stay away from. girls are in the lobby directing guest over to the casino. There is no regulation in the Dominican Republic and the casino is run by a bunch of thieves. The games are fixed and there is nothing you can do about it. This is well documented. The hotel will tell you they have nothing to do with the casino. That it is a separate company. But that is not disclosed anywhere. The hotel promotes the casino on their website and it is in the building but when there is a problem the manager will not even return your call. I had a camera stolen out of the room and the air never seemed to blow cold. I would rather stay in a prison cell before going back to this dump run by bandits and scammers. If a server ever comes back with your drink order it probably won't have any liquor in it. I could go on and on but these are just a few of the problems.