Riu Bambu All Inclusive

Stay away from this hotel! 1. Rooms: very small and dirty, just enough space to go around the bad. Cockroaches in the room running at night. The bad sheeting was not replaced for 3 days and we talked to our Apple vacation rep about it, he was not surprised. After we complained, they did one bad but not the second one. Upon ordering the vacation we requested smoke free room but after we arrived we got stinky room for smokers, we were informed that there no non-smoking rooms and they can make this room for non-smokers, they would spray the room. They gave us another room of course for smokers. 3. Health club? Need to go to different hotel. 2. Restaurants: The tablecloths were not replaced for days. They were new one day in the morning for 30 minutes. After that when we got to the table the waiters push to the floor all left over food with bare hands, all the spills were on the tablecloth for days. Most of the soda machines did not work, only water was running from soda machines as well you were lucky if you would get a hot tea, the machines were always out of order. Waiters were shouting to each other, showing no respect to customers, I heard them laughing from bad tricks they did to some customers. One time after the restaurant closed I was passing thru and I saw a busboy dumping a dirty cloth to the ice spoon bin with water to soak the dirty cloth to clean the restaurant. 3. Beach They have very nice beach.

The food needs to step up its game and the service could be better

Entertainment staff was excellent. Made trip alot of fun.. Very Family oriented. Lush grounds. Wide variiety of food. Excellent Beach.

This hotel has ordinary amenites, what really makes it stand out is the staff and the location. Give me a clean room and helpful staff and a beautiful location and i am happy. What everyone has to remember that there is not a lot to do outside the resort....this is a developing country, this is not Playa del Carmen Mexico!

The hotel was very authentic! The grounds were well manicured, the lobby was beautiful but the thing that made this hotel so enjoyable was the staff. Especially the pool staff during the day. The food was descent. You could always find something enjoyable to eat. The beds were a littler hard but fine. We enjoyed our time and would go back. Our three children had a great time too! While dining at the restaurants it was obvious that people sometimes make reservations and don't show up for them. If people don't show up they should allow others to fill up those spots.

While they serve the Standard American Diet, the wide variety of foods lets vegans/vegetarians successfully "eat around the edges". For vegans, fresh tropical fruits, a good salad bar, breads (white flour), cooked vegetables and several starches are available at every meal. The juice bar at breakfast is not to be missed. But no hot cereal for breakfast. If you add dairy, you can include eggs, pancakes, and cheeses (breakfast), pasta with cream sauces (lunch), and pizza and desserts (lunch and supper). The dinner menu identifies 4 vegetarian dishes. These tended to be based on a single vegetable, such as roasted peppers, roasted tomatoes, or eggplant. I was not always able to find the vegetarian dishes, but that was balanced by (apparently) vegetarian dishes that were not listed. There were no vegan protein-based entrees, such as tofu or beans. And no nuts, except for peanuts (at the bar.) We tried the Italian-theme restaurant, and they had no vegetarian entrees, but we just took a second pass at the antipasto. In short, while they don't cater to vegans/ vegetarians, they allow for them. If you don't mind eating fresh tropical fruits instead of protein-based dishes, you'll do fine.

We had a great time at the hotel. The staff went out of their way to make our stay a comfortable one. The food was okay, no one starved. We really enjoyed the Italian restaurant. Entertainment was good. We would definately go back.

I would recommend this Hotel. It was clean and the staff were very good. The entertainment staff go out of their way to make your stay awesome.There is no lack of food or drinks. The grounds are well cared for and clean. If I had one complaint is that the rooms need to have a extra blanket, because the rooms are a little cold .

This was our third Riu Hotel and overall we were pleased with it. The rooms were very clean. Like all Riu's, the beds were very firm but we got used to them. One of our rooms smelled a little (I thought mildewy, husband thought the smell was lysol)- but leaving the doors open aired the room out and we slept with the doorsopen each night - enjoying the island breezes. The beach - beautiful and long - always easy to get a chair. The water was glorious! The food - the buffet was bountiful - there was always something for everyone to eat and I am a vegetarian. The Christmas eve dinner was lobster! Everyone enjoyed the drinks! The cons: Despite what we were told, you cannot eat and drink at the adjoining properties. Although the other riu resorts are opulent - we thought the Bambu was the prettiest and most relaxing! My sons (in their twenties) were very disappointed that they had to pay for their drinks at the Pacha nightclub (the Riu disco) !! In Puerta Plata, the wrtistbands got you free drinks there as well. The resort only restocks the minibar every other day - that is fine as far as sodas go but they only give you two bottles of water. Since we were advised not to drink the tap water, we felt we didn't have enough water to drink in our rooms. They only gave 2 bottles for the room that had 3 paying guests too. Don't bother with standing in line for the "specialty restaurants"! We always ended up stopping by the buffet afterwards to get something else to eat. This has been the case at all three Riu's we've been to.

Nothing special, it is OK but not more. Proc: stuff, I've never been waiting, all requests were handled immediately. Cons: all amentities are ordinary, no animals on site (we expected to see some as described for other hotels but nothing in this one)