Hotel Riu Palace Zanzibar - All Inclusive - Adults Only Reviews

Nice hotel just not much to do in evening

Excellent staff and clean facilities! Made our stay in Zanzibar a dream!

Friendly staff, hotel located on a beautiful beach but no restaurants, shops around. Often power cuts during the day.

Very good. Very good.

The hotel environment is good, the beach is very white, but the price is too high. Let’s talk about the service first, the room needs an extra bed, and I have to wait for a few hours before I come; I need to get a switch plug, and there is no shadow until I check out; I check out on the last day and call on time, I really won’t let you for a minute. Delay. Besides the facilities, the bed in the standard room will move, so there are sizzling sounds upstairs and downstairs every day, and the sound insulation is very poor. On the wall, the hand cramps when you press it. In the villa, all the sockets are European-style. You must bring your own adapter. The swimming pool in the villa can only be regarded as a footbath, because it is only 60 cm deep.

A great place to stay in the north of Zanzibar with some improvements required to make it perfect. Check in was quick, taking less than 10 minutes and our room was ready early. We received a free upgrade on check in, and were welcomed to the resort with cold towels. Disappointingly the only way to book the a la carte restaurants is via their app. Which displays ‘fully booked’ for every evening immediately on check in. You cannot book any prior to arrival, so after paying all that money, you can now find yourself unable to enjoy any of the 5 a la carte restaurants they have to offer. We managed to find late bookings (21:00 and later) early in the morning (Possible some customers cancelled) and what made it worse was the restaurant was half empty, with the staff telling us that tables had been empty since 19:30. So why is the app showing fully booked? The app booking system does not work, and needs a complete re-working. You cannot charge customers a full package that includes a la carte, when they cannot enjoy it, or can only book too late times. This was a massive disappointment for us, and we have stayed at many resorts with similar booking systems that work well and fairly to all customers. We managed to get a 19:30 slot on our last evening, but this involved multiple visits to the restaurant beforehand, and waiting on the basis of someone not turning up (which of course they didn’t) It shouldn’t be this difficult. Our room, was spacious and clean, with a nice view of the distant ocean from the balcony. Iron and ironing board provided in the room (However I would advise to bring your own, as it couldn’t iron any of our clothing well) The beach is beautiful with clear waters, white sand, and surrounding tropical palm trees giving it s very picturesque setting. However for those looking to stay, please know it is a public beach. You will constantly be hounded by sellers, fake “Masai” dressed people and water sports companies. It was actually disappointing that you couldn’t even enjoy a peaceful stroll on this beautiful beach, without being surrounded every 5 minutes. There is security on the beach at multiple points watching them, and they are not allowed to approach you on your sunbeds, but still it completely ruins the feel of the beach, and put us off going down there. It is a massive shame it is not private, or that they cannot move these sellers onto somewhere else. The sellers walking monkeys on leads was particularly disturbing to see, especially after most guests have come from a Safari. I’m surprised that this is allowed and nearby animal welfare companies are not on top of this. The food itself is very good, The buffet (Also extremely over busy with people) offers multiple food options which all tasted great. The staff are extremely friendly and when seated attend to you immediately, offering drinks and other options. The only thing we found disappointing was that breakfast does not start until 07:30. Which was quite late if you hav

Riu Palace is our favorite resort when we come to Zanzibar where locates on the best beach Kendwa beach white sands, turquoise sea and all in restaurants, bars Our room is junior suit 144 close to beach activities. Decorated well and comfy. House keeping is good Aziza is the housekeeper. restaurants are open buffet and quality of food is good staff are good especially Otilia and Philipo night shift at Promenade resturant did their very best to serve us. Breakfast is also open buffet variety of food there , Ibra Juma Suleyman always smiles and did good cafe Latte. By the way BETTER PUT SOME COFFEE MACHINES sothat people easily chiose the one they want otherwise guests have to wait long sometimes comes after breakfast finished. Second benefit guest can’t claim the taste of coffee as they do jt by themselves. Ginger bar is our favorite place to visit before and after meals drinking Margarita cocktail or wine always good there Nora always welcome with smile and do her best to please us. There are also night performers take stage every night. Beach Supervisor Kenya and Junior Juma do work hard to please and maje them comfortable during day time

Amazing stay at Rui palace Zanzibar, the staff were so friendly and attentive, we had waiter drinks service by the pool all day, and during the evening. They went above and beyond to ensure we had a fantastic time. The options for a la carte were great, and it was great we could also use Rui Jambo a la carte options. This was our honeymoon but also my 30th birthday, and the little touches they gave were so lovely with champagne and a birthday cake. The beaches at Nungwi were beautiful, and we have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here due to the quality of service, and food and drink on offer. A special mention to Rukia,Jemma,Joyce,Rehema for our drinks service And to abdul and nestory for the bar service in the morning shift!

Everything you want ✨ I couldn’t recommend this hotel enough, the staff - Joyce, Nora, Zabron, Hadija, Anna, Marrtin, Erasto, ALL the Cheffs! What an amazing group of people, always happy smiling and wanting to help. The food, is incredible! The details of the hotel, snack bars, room, maids, welcome drinks on a night to entertainment - cannot fault. The reception staff were super helpful. The ONLY bit of feedback I can give is to advise customers on how the restaurants work and possibly have a refundable deposit system as there has been a lot of no shows so this could be a slot for someone else. Otherwise everything is perfect! And the beach Thank you to everyone at RIU palace for an amazing honeymoon stay!

After 3 nights in Madinat Al Bahr near Stone Town, we had a 4 day safari in Serengeti and Ngorongoro. I will write a separate review for that great time. You Palace is class, awesome, beautiful, great staff, amazing food, and non stop beauty. We loved it. Our only hang up were the reception staff on check in, rude, unfriendly, and unprofessional! Sack them! However we were stunned by the house staff, the beach and pool team, restaurant team, and bars teams. Big thank you goes out to Joyce, Norah, Zabloni, Elasto, and Nestory! They are great. But Glory and Rebecca are fantastic too in the restaurant. Overall a fantastic holiday thanks RIU palace

One of our best holiday's. We loved this place and had such a wonderful two weeks in June 2024. The staff are so welcoming and friendly and every member deserves a mention from the grounds staff, the maintenance team to the restaurant and reception and the pool staff to everyone else. The staff make this resort as special as it is beautiful. We enjoyed every minute of our holiday and can't find fault in anything with this hotel. We felt rested and relaxed and totally spoilt when we left. Thank you!

We travelled here for 10 days end of June 2024. Overall we had an amazing holiday and would recommend this resort for a holiday. Here is a very detailed review: The pros: - Staff are all very friendly, some go above and beyond to make your holiday extra special. As everyone else has mentioned in their reviews, Paulina who works in the Ginger bar was amazing and she certainly stands out for her customer service in every way. Also special mention to chef Vyas who went out of his way to make me the amazing ginger pudding another day as I told him how good it was. And that I was able to take this away and eat this in bed after dinner was a delight. - Food was excellent. We are big foodies and must say the buffet was probably some of the best food we have ever had on holiday. I love seafood, so to be able to have mussels, lobster, prawns, octopus, grilled fish, squid etc pretty much every day (and it was delicious) was a dream. Always some variety but also some regular options. I must say vegetarians will be well catered for, so many delicious veggie options. We tried the steak house and Krystal - both were delicious but I still would have been happy with buffet. We tried the Jambo Chinese restaurant, would not recommend. Overall, we enjoyed almost everything we ate, and was hard to adjust to our regular meals when we came back! Only food we did not like was Pepe and not much outside the hours of buffet being open. - Beach is beautiful. White sand, yes a little seaweed but nothing too bad. And the issue with tides is not really bad here, so you can always swim. Water was clear but not crystal clear like Maldives, but very nice to swim in. Tip - try to get a sunbed on the beach to watch the sunsets, which are stunning. - Cleanliness; You can tell the staff work hard to make sure everything is clean and well taken care of. Nothing we saw was dirty or unkept. Rooms were spotless and plenty of towels given. Loved the towel animal designs on our beds and beautiful flower deco. - Rooms: We had the basic Junior suite and I specially requested a room near the beach as I had read of the steep walk from reception to the bottom (which is true). We had room 266 which was lovely and perfect size. View of the sea was blocked by huge trees but otherwise very spacious and had everything we needed, no complaints. Cons: - Towel cards needed: This was one of the biggest frustrations. We don't expect a 5* resort to give towel cards (1 per person) and you have to get a towel from the 1 hut available by the pool very early, and then exchange the towel at the end of the day for a card. We have travelled extensively and out of Europe have never had towel card policy. Some days when we went to exchange the wet towels for new ones in the day, we were told there were no towels available and did not know when new towels would be available. I think this is unacceptable, especially when you are only allowed 1 towel pp. Beach towels were also very thin, some ripped and fraye

Nestory and Latifa were amazing bartenders with amazing drink, ask for the passionfruit mojito and you Will be amazed. Hotel and service is above incredible and staff all helpful and at your service. All day long. Food is above top and amazing.

Amazing stay at the hotel. It is the second time I have been, and I will definitely be returning. The staff are amazing and very helpful. They always have a smile. The food is great with plenty of restaurants to choose from. The room is cleaned daily and is lovely. Ginger bar in particular is great. Rehema j , paulina