Hotel Riu Palace Santa Maria - All Inclusive

Can’t complain! Was a good beautiful hotel with plenty of food and drinks for all guests! Very easy to get there from the airport and everyone speaks English if you don’t speak the native language or similar. Most requests are done via their handy app which is easy to navigate and all inclusive is true to the name! You only pay for anything extra such as treatments in the Spa or items from the shop located on site otherwise everything else is included in the cost of your stay! I would have preferred more options for the 24hr “snack/food option” but this was only used out of hours so not many times for me.

Een aanrader!

This is a beautiful hotel in a perfect setting, sat right on the wide expanse of lovely white sand. Food: buffet was huge but food was plentiful and varied, we didn’t think it repetitive at all especially for dinner. We did try the steakhouse and the Italian but to be honest we both preferred the buffet! Staff here were very friendly as well. We did in the end prefer the small Praia buffet for breakfast and lunch, it was closer to our room and I could easily find my other half - in the larger one I often wandered around trying to find our table!plus the smaller one did have toilets, which is NOT the case in larger one, depending on where you sit it can take up to 5 minutes to have to walk to reception for the loos! Pepes food bar near the pool was good for a couple of hot snacks, especially the ribs and chicken! Pools: plentiful and lovely, plenty of space needs to be found but you do get the annoying people who put towels out first thing and not appear until mid afternoon - very irritating and I do wish hotels would not allow this. Fresh pool towels are readily available daily Bars: plenty of places to get drinks, one complaint I had was the girl behind the bar in the main lobby, serving in the lead up to our departure on 4th April - needs to learn to smile and say hello perhaps? The comparison between her and the other bar staff was extraordinary they were lovely and friendly. The only other complaint would be some of the music choices at the Escargo bar - not sure of the spelling! It went from relaxed to heavy metal!! Rooms: we were in block 4 which is near the pools, we had a lovely sea view and a balcony which was bathed in sunshine all afternoon- perfect. The towels were quite thin in the bathroom - should really be better quality for the 5 star rating in my opinion. Our mini bar was not refilled for a week from checkin, but this was soon sorted after a request on the Riu app. Housekeeping was very good, room was spotless This is a large resort, plenty of walking to get from pools to main hotel lobby etc but it was flat!! One other note - not about the resort but about Sal airport! You queue got over 1.5 hours to check in, to go through security and then through passport checks control - one after the other, so be prepared!! All in all we had a great time here and we will definitely be back!