Riu Playa Blanca - All Inclusive

Beautiful landscape, 4 pools - one for kids. Our room has a great view

The hotel was nice and all but not what i was expecting for all inclusive resort. No pool service, no waiters pool side for drink or food orders. The pool closing time of 6:30pm was the earliest I've ever come across. Just not a place i would stay in the future.

Ocean view room in front of complex, was simple, good size, clean, AC worked ok. All inclusive is ok, basic food but tasty. No reservations for specialty restaurants. Line up until the place is full, then they give you a pager and call you when there is space. You are on call for a couple of hours... Entertainment is ok. Pools are clean, good size, never crowded. Beach is nice. Construction going on next door. Had a good time for the price.

We ended our family vacation to Panama with this all-inclusive stay at Riu Playa Blanca. In general our stay was quite pleasant. The hotel, our room and all areas are quite clean. The staff are lovely and quite good at their jobs. And lastly, since it's an all-inclusive, I must mention the food. Starting with the al-la carte restaurants, the service was excellent, but the food was only okay. I would say it was generally under seasoned. As for the buffet restaurants, there was excellent variety and the food was good. This is the first all-inclusive where we opted for the buffet vs. the al-la carte. The resort has a nice beach and great swimmable water. The entertainment areas such as the lounge and the theater have lots of space and are very comfortable. The pools and lounging areas around the pools are great, the only issue is that they are too busy. You cannot expect to simply get a set of chairs by the pool at any point in the day, except by going down to the pool at 6:30 or so to reserve some chairs.

Had an amazing stay at Riu Playa Blanca, Rio Hato! Pros: - Option to relax in the quieter pools or on the beach - Entertainment at the pool with the swim-up bar, the nightly shows/performances, and the disco - 24/7 sports bar provides snacks, drinks, pool table games, and air conditioning - Several bars. We continuously felt accommodated. - Enjoyed the food at the buffets 3 à la cartes (no reservation required, but should arrive by 6:30pm to avoid long wait times) - Friendly and accommodating staff - Clean rooms - Organized driving service to take you to excursions or restaurants/entertainment off the resort. - Pleasant environment, overall. Not a “party” resort. Cons (would not rate badly for these, but small things to note): - If you are flying in to the Tocumen airport in Panama City, you will be travelling 2-3 hours to get to the resort. Our driver was friendly and made the trip entertaining for us, but the drive might be exhausting for tourists. - If you are looking to interact with other vacationers at the resort, most of them are only Spanish-speaking. We still made friends with several English and French speakers **Online weather predictions indicated rain and thunderstorms every day. However, we were fortunate to have beautiful, sunny weather for 6 out of the 7 days. Amenities remained open during the rain so it didn’t bother us, either way.

The place is nice but it could improve the night entertainment.

RIU was a good experience. However, comparing to other RIUs, this one does not have pool service and most of the time one has to walk up to the bar to get drinks. There are no snacks (i.e. popcorn, peanuts, chips served at bars as in other RIUs). Overall it was a good experience.

pros - Great staff - The food was great, lots of options - Night shows Cons - The pool is very crowded all the time. - Checkin and checkout can be very slow

Really enjoyed the stay. Beach was beautiful. Evening entertainment was excellent. Good food. Loved the brownies. Hotel ground was kept very beautiful and clean.

Every facet of our stay was amazing! Super clean, beautifully maintained grounds, amazingly welcoming staff, excellent food choices. I’d recommend and would definitely return in a heartbeat. Many people there were laid over due to travel/weather interruptions and the resort kept working hard to accommodate them. We had a door issue but they had staff show up at midnight to reprogram the door lock, very impressed with the response. Perfect home away from home

Had Bed Bugs!!!!!

The pool turned everything white or cream colored green! When you wiped off your body the towels were even green! The rooms smelled like mold/musty. Room service was called and asked to bring soap, toilet paper and fresh sheets…still waiting. Pictures of the resort maybe accurate from 8 years ago but sadly now not the case. Beach had dead fish and puffer fish on it, water was not clear. Didn’t go in due to all the dead fish. Thankful we met great people there but otherwise it was a 3/10 resort.

one of the cleanest hotels i ever stayed at. Food was very good and different variety every night with lots of salads and fruit in addition to fish and meats and sushi bar. Ocean front view and steps awway from hotel. Would definitely go back.

Overall the property is immaculately well-kept and clean stuffs were always cleaning and on top of everything they were very friendly and helpful pleasant. My room was still my satisfaction, beautiful and comfortable food and drinks while in abundance. I definitely will recommend this place. Looking forward to going back again.

Salieron 3 cucarachas en la habitación , un día nos tocó aguantar 2 horas sin servicio de agua en la habitación... Al entregar las manillas nos dijeron en recepción que podíamos tomar alimentos y bebidas antes de salir y al llegar al restaurante y bares no nos proporcionaron

We had ants in our room and went to the front desk twice and all they did was send house keeping which didn’t get rid of the ants. There we legit ants in the beds. We had to put our luggage on the balcony

The stay was ok but too much flies in food area and pool area.was unable to eat in peace. Food was good room did not clean one of the day after 3pm wifi chip in and out.and few roaches i see in the room.

The area throughout the hotel are great and super clean. The staff in all areas are "AMAZING". Very friendly and willing to assist you at any time. Always with a great smile. One thing I noticed near by the vendors of souvenir by the beach was a few empy cans of soda ( 4). I hope they clean their area by the end of each day and no leave any pollution for the ocean. Also, going to the beach i had to be careful not to step on horse droppings. I thing the horse handers should clean it by the end of the day.

I’m a healthcare worker and was shocked by the unsafe conditions. All 3 rooms we booked had mold-infested mattresses. My child got sick, and one of our guests is a lung cancer survivor — this was extremely dangerous. Staff showed no concern, gave me the wrong email for complaints, and I was never able to speak to a manager. I had to move rooms at midnight and still no help. If you have asthma, cancer, or a weak immune system, avoid this hotel.

Falta mejorar la limpieza en habitaciones y en los restaurantes. Las almohadas muy malas. El servicio y la atencion de los empleados fue muy buena.

Beautiful landscape, 4 pools - one for kids. Our room has a great view

Rooms are spacious but they need new painting, it felt moldy and mold spots were present. Also the presumably white doors were more gray due to the hundred human fingerprints it gandered during the years. The biggest negative for us was house keeping. Sheets were usually stained, not changed every day, some of the pillows were having a bad smell.The food is average. But Riu isn't renowned for the food. It was ok overall . The variety wasn't that rich regarding the massiveness of the hotel. The day activities are loved by kids. The employees from the animation team are very friendly. The one's from the evening shows are very good dancers. Their shows are well executed. As a whole experience, we had a great stay, relaxing and fun ( Riu's are usually fun). The weather at the end of November, beginning of December was around 30 degrees Celsius during the day with passing showers from time to time. In 11 days only one day was raining most of it and one was mostly cloudy. But never felt cold. So the hotel was ok overall and has value for money (at 187 euro per night in my case). The beach is decent, not great, don't expect to be like the ones in Mexico. At least not on the Pacific side. They have nice beaches in the other part of the country, but less hotels offer and are harder to reach.

Overall I enjoyed this property. my smart TV didn't work which was a bummer and I am not sure why this location didn't have an ATM but that was hinderance. I was satisfied with my overall stay there!

The property was fair. I probably would visit again for the price; however, I would say the rooms could use an upgrade. The furniture and look of the room is dated. There were a lot of children on the property. The beach is at your fingertips but beware of the random dogs that stay on the property (friendly dogs but not my favorite). I would highly recommend private transportation as the hotel is 2.5 hours from PTY. I will say that I felt safe at the resort and that’s always important!

I've stayed at many RIU properties over the years and this one is absolutely low standards compared to the RIU brand. The bathroom had an odd sewer like smell. When the toilet is being flushed, it would literally spit water out of the bowl. The bathroom tub would fill up as you showered leaving you standing in a pool of your own bath water. The mini bar says that it's refilled every 2 days but ours was never refilled Multiple delays on our room while I watched other guests get checked in ahead of me. The room A/C was quite for the noisy for the entire stay, eventually it just stopped working, this was my last day so I didn't report it The ice maker on my floor was broken, I reported it was told to just go downstairs to the bar for ice. The tour guys out front sold us a tour that was literally nothing like what we were expecting. Overall the place wasn't horrible but the RIU brand usually has a fairly high standard. This was at best a 1.5 star experience.

Ocean view room in front of complex, was simple, good size, clean, AC worked ok. All inclusive is ok, basic food but tasty. No reservations for specialty restaurants. Line up until the place is full, then they give you a pager and call you when there is space. You are on call for a couple of hours... Entertainment is ok. Pools are clean, good size, never crowded. Beach is nice. Construction going on next door. Had a good time for the price.

The service and facilities were amazing. Housekeeping is amazing and very helpful. Check-in was easy and the staff was very helpful. The buffet is by far one of the best I've ever seen. If you are planning on having two people in a bed other than a king-size, think again. The "regular" beds are a little larger than a twin and smaller than a double. They are perfect for just one person. There are also slipping challenges. The tile in the hotel is beautiful, but slippery, wear good shoes.

This Riu's rooms are extremely ran down with marker drawing on tables, pealing paint on tables, broken couches. We had to change rooms twice because the first room has bugs all over both the beds and it was very dirty. We basically had to beg to get bottled water in our room daily and they only stock your other mini fridge and alcohol every 2 days, which they didn't even want to do that. We paid for an ocean view and the last room we were put in, which was the one we stayed in the longest, was only a partial ocean view. We where also two hours from the airport with good traffic, so it took 3 hours most of the time and because we booked through Expedia they wouldn't provide us transportation. The taxi's and excursions are super expensive, it was 120$ just for a ride from the airport to the hotel. We will not be staying at this hotel again unless gets updated and better service.

Great place for vacations, nice location, great staff and aceptable food during the stay. The place laks maintenance and the rooms are just ok, need renovations works.

beds were not double size, you go to rest from our routine and the least you need is a bad sleeping, when i asked the front desk about it they said that's the standard in Spain, we were not in Spain...........

The food was wack! The staff doesn't speak English. The hotel is 3 hours from the city/airport. The staff is rude!

I stayed at this hotel for my best friend’s birthday weekend. While I was initially discouraged to learn that the hotel didn’t offer airport transportation unless the booking was made directly through their site, the overall experience was still great. Check-in was quick and easy, and both the food and entertainment were a solid 10/10. We checked out on Sunday afternoon and informed the hotel that our flight was later in the evening. Unfortunately, we were told we couldn’t sit by the pool or at the bar while we waited, which was disappointing. We ended up sitting in the lobby for an additional 3 hours until our transportation arrived. Despite that inconvenience, I still highly recommend this hotel for its atmosphere, service, and amenities.

Excelente atención de recepcionistas y del personal de restaurante y de los bares. Muchas gracias y felicitaciones a todos por su excelente atención.

The staff was extremely rude and not helpful. Especially guests that do not speak English

Had an amazing stay at Riu Playa Blanca, Rio Hato! Pros: - Option to relax in the quieter pools or on the beach - Entertainment at the pool with the swim-up bar, the nightly shows/performances, and the disco - 24/7 sports bar provides snacks, drinks, pool table games, and air conditioning - Several bars. We continuously felt accommodated. - Enjoyed the food at the buffets 3 à la cartes (no reservation required, but should arrive by 6:30pm to avoid long wait times) - Friendly and accommodating staff - Clean rooms - Organized driving service to take you to excursions or restaurants/entertainment off the resort. - Pleasant environment, overall. Not a “party” resort. Cons (would not rate badly for these, but small things to note): - If you are flying in to the Tocumen airport in Panama City, you will be travelling 2-3 hours to get to the resort. Our driver was friendly and made the trip entertaining for us, but the drive might be exhausting for tourists. - If you are looking to interact with other vacationers at the resort, most of them are only Spanish-speaking. We still made friends with several English and French speakers **Online weather predictions indicated rain and thunderstorms every day. However, we were fortunate to have beautiful, sunny weather for 6 out of the 7 days. Amenities remained open during the rain so it didn’t bother us, either way.

pros - Great staff - The food was great, lots of options - Night shows Cons - The pool is very crowded all the time. - Checkin and checkout can be very slow

El hotel tiene muy mal servicio el personal en general contestan muy mal no tienen dispocision de servicio. El hotel tiene cosas absurdas para mencionar y que las personas tengan en cuenta esto antes de elegir este hotel:. No nos cambiaban las toallas de piscina si no estaban bien mojadas. Pará pedir una botella de agua solo se puede en un lugar en especifico. No colocan shampoo ni jabón cuando arreglan la habitación las toallas de la habitación son super viejas huelen terrible la habitación huele a humedad tenaz. Tuve que literal pelear con el hotel por que no me colocaban una cuna para mi bebe de seis meses. No colocaban café no limpiaban la cafetera. Los restaurantes especiales no se hace reserva la entrada es con fila jamás de puede entrar esperas hasta de una hora y más para poder ingresar. No hay jabon en los baños. No hay servicio de meseros en el hotel si estas en la piscina o donde estés te toca pararte cada vez para buscar algo de tomar.

Every facet of our stay was amazing! Super clean, beautifully maintained grounds, amazingly welcoming staff, excellent food choices. I’d recommend and would definitely return in a heartbeat. Many people there were laid over due to travel/weather interruptions and the resort kept working hard to accommodate them. We had a door issue but they had staff show up at midnight to reprogram the door lock, very impressed with the response. Perfect home away from home

The staff was friendly, easily approachable and very kind. Would highly recommend this resort to our friends.

The staff at the pool bar. I am a black woman who has stayed over four times at Riu Playa Blanca and a recurring Riu customer in other countries. My stay on February 2023 was not good overall, made us not want to return to your hotel in Playa Blanca, we will consider the Sheraton and The Buenaventura hotel in the future.The staff is discriminatory towards black people providing preferential treatment to caucasians. I stood at the pool bar and asked for a soda with my family next to me, your staff at the beach area bar were very rude, pretended not hear us, ignoring us, my 2 nephews and sisters were together, we had 4 rooms in multiple occasions we ask for sodas they ignored us continuing to serve people around us and rushing to people who had tips and whites over browns we felt as we were begging for equal service in multiple times. Please give your staff better classes in customer care and equal treatment to paying customers. Thank you

The food was wack! The staff doesn't speak English. The hotel is 3 hours from the city/airport. The staff is rude!

The property was clean, the people were extremely friendly and helpful. It was a little far from the airport at 2 plus hours. Besides that the resort was nice. The beach was really a beach. The black sands were beautiful. The entertainment was cool. The 4 pools were helful. The sound of the ocean at night is priceless. Late April the temp was great also. My 1st Riu hotel visit but it most definitely will not be my last. I had a great time. It was for my daughter's 30th bday. Thanks

The hotel could use some upgrading and there is a huge construction site going on right next door. The food is okay but not amazing. The beach and sea access are not the greatest. I could see how it could work for some but we wouldn't go back.

The property was fair. I probably would visit again for the price; however, I would say the rooms could use an upgrade. The furniture and look of the room is dated. There were a lot of children on the property. The beach is at your fingertips but beware of the random dogs that stay on the property (friendly dogs but not my favorite). I would highly recommend private transportation as the hotel is 2.5 hours from PTY. I will say that I felt safe at the resort and that’s always important!

Ocean view room in front of complex, was simple, good size, clean, AC worked ok. All inclusive is ok, basic food but tasty. No reservations for specialty restaurants. Line up until the place is full, then they give you a pager and call you when there is space. You are on call for a couple of hours... Entertainment is ok. Pools are clean, good size, never crowded. Beach is nice. Construction going on next door. Had a good time for the price.

Positivo: Me quedé encantada con la clase de resort all inclusive que es. La comida, las bebidas de primera ilimitadas, los productos en la habitación, las camas amplias, la atención, la limpieza y el personal muy atento, el entretenimiento. Sin duda el mejor resort a los que he ido en Centroamérica. Por mejorar: la playa es linda sin embargo tienen caballos y por ende dejan sus necesidades, entonces para atravesar la playa es desagradable, y me quito la ganas de ir nuevamente al mar. Tuvimos la última noche la desdicha que el vecino a altas horas de la noche con música y gritando en gran fiesta, llamé y si nos ayudaron llegando a callarlos, pero deberían ser más estrictos y recalcar este tema a los huéspedes.

The beaches at the property were dirty with trash along the beach. Not once did I see anyone from the property cleaning up the trash on the beach. Also, the property allows people who harass you for horseback rides. The food was average at best. The alcohol is bottom shelf, and the drinks are not very well made. The property advertised water sports like snorkeling. However, the only snorkeling is an excursion that included a 3-hour ride and a 3 hour back. I would not recommend this property.

Property is nice But nothing around . No shutters to any stores

The only problem my griend & I haf was the distance form the airport to the hotel & vice versa

Far from center and limited things to do

one of the cleanest hotels i ever stayed at. Food was very good and different variety every night with lots of salads and fruit in addition to fish and meats and sushi bar. Ocean front view and steps awway from hotel. Would definitely go back.

The drinks, particularly at the lobby bar, were very good. Nothing to really complain about from the drinks perspective. The food, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired…generally not well prepared and not tasty. The entertainment was less and of poorer quality than we have been accustomed to after many years of experience with all inclusives.

We ended our family vacation to Panama with this all-inclusive stay at Riu Playa Blanca. In general our stay was quite pleasant. The hotel, our room and all areas are quite clean. The staff are lovely and quite good at their jobs. And lastly, since it's an all-inclusive, I must mention the food. Starting with the al-la carte restaurants, the service was excellent, but the food was only okay. I would say it was generally under seasoned. As for the buffet restaurants, there was excellent variety and the food was good. This is the first all-inclusive where we opted for the buffet vs. the al-la carte. The resort has a nice beach and great swimmable water. The entertainment areas such as the lounge and the theater have lots of space and are very comfortable. The pools and lounging areas around the pools are great, the only issue is that they are too busy. You cannot expect to simply get a set of chairs by the pool at any point in the day, except by going down to the pool at 6:30 or so to reserve some chairs.

The food was tasteless, breakfast every morning was almost the same beans, rice and beans once in a blue moon bacon. But definitely whoever cooks at the buffet can't season anything. The other restaurants were really slow with the service due to the lack of personnel and not to die for either. The beach was dirty packed of horse crap that washed off in the sea shore, I got bitten by sea lice several times and there are tiny fishes that constantly jump on your face and ears. Water was dirty. We had to drive every day to Santa Clara Beach and pay for our meals there where the fish was fresh and tasty. Pools were dirty not even wasting my time mentioning the state of them. The shows are good. The bar tenders are far from enjoying their job. The room shower was moldy. The place is a joke.

I travel often and ONLY stay at RIU locations. This location has a lot of good/positive things going on. The food is good, THE STEAKHOUSE is 10/10 .. the 24hr snack bar has very little options compared to other locations. Entertainment here is a vibe, good for the whole family. They even have a night club. If you do have more than one room make sure to put one room in someone else’s name that’s in your party, I had a 2 hour hold up checking in due to this. Also, book multiple excursions in one day if you can, the resort is 2 hours away. All in all, it was a good stay. Housekeepers on point with decorating rooms daily. I will be visiting again soon.

Quarto limpo e espaçoso, staff atencioso. Os restaurantes do jantar foram excelentes. O café da manhã era diversificado, frutas, pães, opções salgadas e doces. Mas o almoço deixava a desejar, eram muitas opções regionais, e fora isso, pizza, hot dog, hambúrguer e massa..depois de dois dias já enjoa.

The property itself is nice. The hotel itself I would give 3stars. Nothing aesthetically appealing, but clean for the most part. The hotel is far out from everything and transportation can be pricey depending on what you’re trying to do. However, the food was really good in the main buffet. It’s the best all inclusive food I’ve had.

We’d give it minus 10 if we could. A loud, noisy party want to be hotel that blared music day and night. Read not relaxing for a restful vacation. We were booked for 6 nights and left after one night. Relocating was a wonderful decision. The food was cold and lousy, the delux room spartan, cold and from the 70s and the minibar had 4 soft drinks and two beers. One of which was taken after maintenance fixed the bathroom lights. Speaking of the alcohol, it was water down swill. This lousy hotel has a leadership problem as it is directly opposite other RIU properties we stayed at.

RIU was a good experience. However, comparing to other RIUs, this one does not have pool service and most of the time one has to walk up to the bar to get drinks. There are no snacks (i.e. popcorn, peanuts, chips served at bars as in other RIUs). Overall it was a good experience.

Food was excellent variety and tasty.