Just got back from the Riu Mambo, and it was a great stay. My wife and I are a young married couple and went for a short trip of four nights and five days. This was the first all-inclusive resort that we stayed at although we have gone on an all-inclusive cruise. It was a fantastic deal for the price, and it was great that you can use all three hotels. I would go back in a second but will probably travel to other locations around the world. We are very laid back people and not picky at all. The only reason I did not give it a 5 is because nothing is perfect but this is close to it.

Negative Aspects: My wife and I did not mind the walking because everything is spread out and actually enjoyed the exercise. There were people complaining but did not bother us. There is no transportation around the resort and would not recommend it for older or people with disabilities. The dinner reservations can only be made from 10 AM to 10:15 AM but that did not bother us because we preferred the buffet and found it to have better food. No restaurants to snack but we ate more than enough at breakfast, lunch, and dinner to hold us over. The shows at night were not good but we were drinking so it did not bother us.

Positive Aspects: The people of Dominican are extremely nice and have not found nicer people in our travels. The staff are quick to say "holla" and help you when needed. We are not picky eaters and found the food to be great! The buffet had a lot of options with a lot of choices, hard to leave the place not satisfied. We liked the variety of people with mostly Europeans and nice to hear British accents all over the place. The rooms we felt were very comfortable and big for two people with a balcony. The place is well kept and very clean. The beach is rocky and found mambo to have the best sand. No problem getting chairs at anytime during the day. The extrusions were awesome and highly recommend them. Quick service at the bars!

Stayed from 5/22 to 26. The only airconditioning they have is in the rooms. After a very long walk to our room we were soaking wet. The AC did not work. we called and this guy removed the filter and it looked like it was not changed in years. No view at all. Overall the place is very clean. The food was not good and the dinning room is soo hot. The shows are not good and it is also very hot. The pool and beach are very nice. Plenty of lounge chairs and great places for shade. The staff tries very hard to entertain you but the shows are poor. When you arrive at the Airport you must pay Ten Dollars a person in cash only to get into the country. We booked a car in advance from Isaira Tours (www.isairatours.com) 100 dollars for a nice , VERY cold van for the four of us to and from the hotel. I recommend them highly. They meet you with a sign and then return promptly for the trip to POP.That was the most cooling part of the trip.Overall for the price it is not bad. I don't recommend Riu Mambo for older people or families. For young couples it OK

My wife and I stayed may 5-11. we are in our 40's and have stayed at all inclusives in mexico. we knew the Riu was not "sandels" and didn't expect a 5 star..as a matter of fact airfare from atlanta, transfers from prieto tours, and 7 nights only came to $850 each which is comparable to a 3 star cancun deal, so we were expecting a lot less. I saw the ultra low prices for the riu's in DR for a couple of years and after reading a lot of good reviews finally went for it...bottom line is we would happily do it again. the good and bad are as follows:

Bad things first...the beds are very uncomfortable. for the last 2 days i used the pads for the pool loungers to pad the matress and slept on top of the slightly damp covers, if we go back i will pack an egg carton style foam pad or buy inflatable pool floats to sleep on. I doubt the other hotels had upgraded beds but if they did it would be worth the extra bucks.
The air conditioner barely cooled, even cranked down to its lowest with the ceiling fan going it was a little warm, I asked the desk to send someone to check it, but they never did which told me- thats as good as it gets unless we wanted to switch rooms. Since we were only in the room to sleep and change we stayed where we were 2016. we brought a smelly candle but the room still smelled like wet couch, the only way to air it out would require both doors open for most of the day and that wasnt an option so we dealt with it, you get used to it after a few days.
Minor annoyances included no washcloth until next to last day (good thing we packed a few)..no conditioner , just shampoo.
certain hours no food available just before dinner (they shut down snack bar to turn area into italian and steakhouse for dinner) and after dinner ...even though i thought they said merenge had 24 hour snack bar we could not find it.
No air conditioned bars or restaraunts ( the only places with air were your room, the casino, and the gift shops) with the breeze this was not a problem but one day it threatened to rain and when the wind stopped it became very muggy, reminded me of atlanta in july. would hate to be there in really hot months with no breeze and no place cool to eat or drink (ceiling fans can only do so much) House brand rums hurt my head the one night i tried them at the disco...the rest of the time i stuck with Brugal rum and had no problem, top shelf for DR!!
We got there at the end of a local holiday and a lot of locals and thier kids were there, sortta took the fun out of the swim up bar to have a bunch of six year olds drinking virgin frozen drinks all around us, thankfully most all of them left after only one day of crowded pools and buffets. Pool tables (3) were a joke, they were badly in need of leveling, had worn cloth and rails and i had to get a good sized crab out of the ball return to play, the pool room is blocked from the breeze and very hot. entertainment was hokey and not very good (even if you had a few drinks). Watch for ants on the beach i noticed a ring of different colored sand near a tree root and looked closer it was fire ants, a few bit my wife at the beach and shes still getting over them (they got inflamed after we got home) so be carefull where you put your chair!!
Last on my list of minor annoyances... the one beach bar had no alchahol except for some nasty tasting draft stout beer called Presidente.

Ok now for the good, I would say the best part of staying at the Mambo was you could use the other properties, nobody had a wristband except for some people at the Bachata (thier buffet must be something special) we used all the pools, all the bars, and the buffet at mambo and merenge.
the merenge had a better buffet with expanded choices (we ate there 3 out of 7 nights and a couple of lunches), the specialty resturants were nothing special (we did the steakhouse once and then hit the buffet) the breakfast buffet at the mambo was awesome, so many choices nobody will go hungry. look in the back for the fresh juices and smoothies, much better than the orange juice in the machine. never a problem getting a table for any meal.
Pepsi products only. Most of the mixers were very sweet and each bar had 4-6 frozen machines with unknown concoctions (whats in the orange? or purple colored) the answer would sometimes surprise me...most were too sweet to have more than one, I stuck mainly with Brugal and pepsi in my big insulated cup to cut back on trips to the bar. Unlike mexico all the bars were well staffed and all the bartenders smile and gave great service. Try a Mamawaunna (it's a local shooter type drink, tastes like watered down jagermiester to me) don't let the look of the bottle scare you. I did like the Brahma beer in the minibar. Bachata had some imported brands at one of thier bars. try all the mixers but always ask for brugal rum with them to avoid a hangover from the bar brand stuff.
The tv has a few english channels including cinimax and hbo, our reception stunk so we called the desk, in 15 minutes john the technician came and respliced the connectors on the cable and fixed it very nicely.
Large assortment of water toys to use, we brought our own snorkel gear and there is good sights off the beach here...the mambo end had all the shells and good sandy areas but only wildlife were sea urchins in the seagrass on far right and about 50 grey angelfish that will eat a hardroll from your hand. Lots of topless women, most looked good. the bachata end of the beach had more variety of fish to look at and if you swim to the left of the small sting of bouys and out a 100 yards you can see some great coral sections. brain corals the size of pool chairs and a good size grove of fan coral is on the back side of the first reef...its too shallow to swim over to get to it so you have to go around the left side to see the best stuff. I couldn't see the $50 for the snorkel boat when they had great stuff right off the beach. No problem getting chairs on the beach any time of day just drag a couple where you want them...we went to the right and hid under a big tree near the water for shade...was more relaxing than the pool because no kids screaming or people playing water polo. Other than a hokey animation dance at 10am there is no music by the pools or beach...sometimes the bartender would play a little boombox radio, so if you like tunes , bring your own. Merenge had a few rooms (suites it looked like) that had ocean view and a few buildings at Bachata had a view but that alone wouldnt justify the extra cost. The mambo was just fine.

thats all i can write for now hope it helps ease your mind ,the Mambo is a great place, be prepared for the little that needs to be dealt with, and enjoy the good food, drinks, and service that will make you overlook the bad stuff.

This resort is not the Sandal's,it is like being on a cruise but on land. Service tough people don't speak much english so hard to get point's across. Bad for people ,who are disable no shuttle service between other resort's on property. Had big problem with air condition in room could not regulate it in room no one came to repair or look at after several calls. Sent complaint e mail never heard back so custormer service not good.