The Riu Palace Las Americas is simply the best hotel for the price I have ever stayed at in Cancun. I will keep it short and sweet on the highs and lows.
The Highs, all the food was excellent NEVER had a bad meal. The food was a step above other resorts and not the cheap stuff you get elsewhere on a 1-10 scale the food gets a 8+. The drinks were the same as the food EXCELLENT. Grey Goose, Absolut and Smirnoff vodka's. Bushmills and Johnny Walker scotch's so you do get name brand booze. I'll give them a 9 on the drinks. The rooms would rate an 7-8 only due to the hard bed and no coffee pot. We had a jr. suite. I have found there are no soft beds in Mexico in my opinion every hotel bed is like a rock so get over that... the rooms have marble everywhere with a couch and sitting area big bathroom with a shower (tub is too small). The a/c works great with NO MOTION DETECTOR to turn it off when you are out of the room like other hotels have (Barcelo Tucancun Beach is a hotel with these [--] things). Thank you RIU for the cold room. Just a note...always ask ahead if the hotel you are booking has INNCOM thermostats. They have motion detectors on them and you come back from wherever, like the pool, to a HOT room. Also note that if you do not toss and turn in your sleep you will burn up sweating at night because there is no motion...... At the Riu though, you come back from the beach to an ice cold room and its the BEST. The hotel beach is a 9 due to its beauty and ease of use. the cabana boy brings you drinks at the pools and beach. The beach is on the calm water side so you dont get beat to death by the waves and crystal clear, bring your snorkel and mask. The pools were and 8 with great swim up bar service vollyball and excercise each am.
The Staff gets a 10 ! they are the best, most helpful, friendly, courteous staff ever. This is what makes the trip when the staff tells you " welcome home". Oh did I mention 24 hr room service AT NO CHARGE !!!!!!!!!!!

The Cons. None really any but if i must list a couple it would be no coffee pot in the room but call room service and you have a carafe of coffee in 10 min. The main lobby pool does not have chairs around it but this is due to astetics and people taking photos. The pools close at 7pm which I hated. Other than that our stay was a 9 on the 1-10 scale.

Rember you pay for what you get and we decided to spend the couple extra bucks for this hotel and the rewards were well worth it. A true 4 **** star hotel.

Just arrived back from a 12 day stay at the Riu Palace. I have been to Cancun 2 times before this trip staying in other Hotels and I have to say that the Riu Palace had the best options for All-Inclusive eating. Krystal ("fusion") restaurant was our favorite followed by Tio Pepes. Food on the buffet was always fresh and they were continously cooking to keep it that way.

Pros: Beach in front of the hotel is very blue, clear, and clean. (much nicer than the Riu Hotel next door)

Lawn Chairs are plentiful on beach

Waiters are persistently on beach for drink orders

Cons: Not all employees at front desk speak or understand english very well (we were in Mexico anyways....we expect Spanish people to know English within the states) so this wasn't a frustrating or impossible problem..

Power blinked several times throughout our trip and one time we woke up sweating where it had been off the previous night.

Drinks at the outside bars are served in very small hard plastic cups. Seemed like a few minutes after we got our drinks we were ready for another one..

Overall we enjoyed the RIU and with the exception of the Cons listed above I would have rated this an excellent Hotel relative to the cost.

We stayed at the RPLA 5/4/08 thru 5/11. My husband and I went with his father, his sister and our best friend. We booked thru USA 3000/Apple Vacations. The only snag we hit upon arrival was that the Apple Reps did not have a "voucher" ready for us, couldn't find our names on their roster. They got that straightened out though.

Check in went fairly quickly. We arrived before noon, so our rooms were not ready. However, by 3pm our rooms were ready.

We never smelled any "musty" smell in the hotel. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. My father-in-law is deaf and the staff tried to be helpful and accomodating to him.

Our room was always cleaned each day by/before noon! We don't sleep in cause we don't "party" all night, so the cleaning crew was able to get into our room early.

We did have to reserve chairs early in the morning before we ate breakfast, but unlike others we did use them throughout the entire day.

The beds were firm, but we all slept GREAT!

The pools were relatively clean - but with all the people wearing all that sunblock and suntan oil, they did get a "greasy film" on the water by mid day. However, out of the other seven hotels I've stayed at in Cancun the pools were still clean in comparison.

Food was extremely good for an AI!!! We only ate at the buffet as there were 5 of us AND we were too lazy to make reservations. All of us were able to find things we liked on every buffet (breakfast, lunch and dinner) every day! The desserts are not as sweet as what we Americans are used to, but we usually found something we liked! Plus they always had fresh fruit available!!

We also incurred "rolling" power outages on 5/5 and 5/6, but it was not a big deal. The only big issue was that the elevators did not work at all for most of one day and it was a tough stair climb up to the 6th floor - especially for my father-in-law who is in his 60's!

The staff was ALWAYS cleaning EVERYWHERE! They were always polite, helpful and friendly - tips or not!

The beach while kind of small, was kept VERY clean and the water was fantastic!

Last year we stayed at the RIU Cancun next door, but the RPLA was much better! We would definitely stay at this hotel again.

We did do one excursion while in Cancun. We went to Garafon Park on Isla Mujeres. What a waste of money! The snorkeling was a big let down. Plus the restrooms and locker rooms smelled SOOOOOO bad that all us "gagged" from the stench!! Please don't waste your money on this excursion!!!

A friend and I just returned from a week at the Riu Palace Las Americas in Cancun. We went to escape to the sun for a week without husbands or children. We absolutely loved it and if I ever go back to Cancun I would stay there. The only small problem I had was that the beds were hard....although for my friend, this was a bonus as she has back problems and thought the beds were perfect. The food was varied and delicious especially the steakhouse and the fusion restaurants. The buffets were also excellent with a wide variety of foods to choose from. The grounds were clean and well maintained. The staff was the best!! Especially Allen the bartender and the entertainment staff.
I would definately return there at any time.