The moment we arrived we were made to feel welcome. All staff from reception, bars, housemaids and restaurant were most helpfull and pleasant. The room was ready on our arrival at 12.30pm and a courtesy call from reception shortly after we entered it to confirm everything was ok was a nice touch. The room was a good size with mini bar available. Although the decor and furniture was a little dated, all areas were very clean. At breakfast there was an exellent selection of both hot and cold foods. Dinner was a little repetitive but again exellent quality with a good selection of wines to buy at around 13 euro a bottle. Pool area again spotless and even when full was very relaxing. We will return to the Riu Papayas next year.

I liked the hotel, but did not like how it was connected to The Flamingo apartments, the pool was also shared. The busy time was at dinner, very hard to get through everyone. The food was lovely though, I am celiac and a lot of it did not cater to my needs. I had to avoid anything fried, in batter, with a rich sauce or with flour or wheat. No cereals for me at breakfast time but a lovely arrangment of food was on offer so i would recommend half-board.

The hotel sits on the same site as the Aparthotel RIU Flamingo with which all facilities are shared. We never had a problem parking on the hotel site which is close to the GC 500 and so quick to get to from the airport, the airport bus to Playa del Ingles (Number 66) also stops close by.

We arrived fairly early and the friendly reception invited us to sit in the sunshine outside whilst they took care of check-in. Ten minutes later we were being shown to our room with hotel staff moving our 2 large suitcases and also our two bicycles.

The hotel is situated next door to the Jardin del Sol commercial centre and is close to the Gran Chaparral, Kasbah and Yumbo shopping centres (in each of these there are a selection of shops, bars and restaurants). The beach of Playa del Ingles is a walk away for most however it tends to often be very windy, making it not great for sunbathing.

The hotel was clean everywhere. Our room was not particularly large though did come with a big balcony, and as normal the room had twin beds. We were close to the Jardin del Sol centre but we were fairly high up and never had a problem with any noise.

The hotel provided pool towels on exchange of a card given at checkin. The hotel was happy for us to keep hold of these on our last day so we could use the pool even though we had checked out. The pool was large and pleasant, and we never had a problem finding a sunbed. We found the pool bar to not be over priced.

The restaurant tended to be quite busy, on the first night we had to wait quite a few minutes to be allocated a table and it was not too clear what to do (a table was allocated to use for the length of our stay). No specific sitting existed at dinner so we chose to normally go towards the end when the restaurant had become quieter. The buffet breakfast and dinner was of a reasonable standard but nothing exceptional, always enough choice. So long as you are not overly fussy you can eat well.

We paid around £70 Half Board per night. We would describe the hotel as a nice 3 star, a nice place for a well earned relax. If you want a high end hotel however, this is not it.

The hotel is actually 2 hotels. Hotel Riu Papayas shares everything with the Aparthotel Riu Flamingo. So pool, restaurant, bars, everything is shared, and both are in the same building.
Riu Papayas is in my opinion in need of refurbishment, with smoking holes in the salon bar chairs while smoking is already some time not allowed inside, with torn plush in the bar, and with broken matrasses on the beds around the pool.
Our room was in 1960-1970 style, with furniture I know from visiting my grandmother. See also attached some room pictures.
The bathroom at first looked like it only had a shower, but opening the shower curtain revealed a shallow bath running in a hidden corner.
The population consistent of many nationalities, and the hotel staff speaks a lot of languages to. The staff is always very friendly.
You could either stay with logies only, or including diner. We included diner in our stay. If not you pay 22 Euro's per person. Including diner is exclusive drinks.

The hotel is strictly organized. Diner for example is at 18:00 or at 20:00. You are assigned at which time you can eat, and you are always seated at the same table.
We ordered a bottle of wine during diner once, and did not empty it, they marked the bottle and it was waiting for us the next evening again at our table. Food is in buffet form and good.
Breakfast was between 8:00 and 10:30. The start is a bit late a a lot of excursions start at 8:00, so you cannot have breakfast before leaving town. Also the food here was in buffet form and quite good.
Lunch could be ordered at the pool bar a la carte. Prices were reasonable for meals between 3 and 8 Euro per person, although prices went up on our last day on everything ranging from 5 to 60 cents per product. You can only eat between 13:00 and 15:30.
As you can see from the range above, it is not possible to eat at all times during the day, there even are no small snacks. Another thing is, the staf in the pool bar and restaurant start cleaning up while they are still open making you feel like rushing out.

The pool then was warmed by the sun, but that was not too cold for the people to use it. We also went to the beach, and there the water was really cold.
Around the pool there was during our stay enough beds to enjoy the sun, but not with much spare. I don't know how it will be in high season.

On the last day we flew back during the night, and we asked for the possibility to use the room longer. This was fine and would cost us 30 Euro's extra. So we decided to do this. Next we got reminded to still pay the bills before normal checkout time.
After staying the whole day at the pool, we went back to get a shower and get packed. It was a surprise for me the room was not made and the towels were not replaced with clean ones!

We had a nice time here, but I do not know if we will come back, the rules and staff rushing to get you away are not all really attractive. Last the fact we had no clean towels to take a shower before leaving was a bad closing for the stay for us.

The best improvement for the hotel would be an area with free wireless internet. No you needed to pay 10 cents per minute to some PC which you never can be sure of is properly maintained and without computer virusses.