Firstly if you want to hear English voices don't go here, the Hotel was all German & Spanish guests & at the weekend it was awash with weekenders from Seville etc & lots & lots of children, nothing wrong with that, just expect it that's all plus the usual problems with our Arian friends of being illmannered, rude & ignorant but we should be use to that by now, please someone tell them what a queue is.
The downside first; Hardly anyone spoke decent English, so it was hard to become understood, not a problem for us as it made us try & speak more Spanish but was hard work, I wanted my return boarding passes printing off but in the end had to get an e-mail sent from UK to hotel with them as I couldn't read Spanish on monitor & couldn't get anyone to do it for me.
The Air Con only came on after 5 days & this is not mentined anywhere & was one of the reasons we booked the hotel, also we had the noisiest ceiling fan in Spain but to be fair it was fixed as soon as we complained.
For some reason one day our room was not made up at all & sod's law it was the day we spent out & about returning at 10:30pm to unmade beds & no Towels but nothing could be done at that time of night.
Everything closed up by 5:30pm leaving only the main bar in the entertainment room open, which is fine if you have kids or want entertaining, we never bothered with the entertainment as until at least 9pm it was all geared to kids & I can only stand to hear the RIU Land song sang so many times without having a breakdown.
There are 2 restaurants, Buffet & Andaluz, the Andaluz supposedly doing typical local food but I'm afraid it was all the same, to me anyway, also the food was very monotonous, how many ways can you cook Perch (Lots & lots of Fish) & Pork plus how many names for stew, Casserole, goulash, stroganoff etc, also the Italian Restaurant & Grill was not open & that wasn't mentioned when I booked, I'm not saying the food was poor, on the contary the quality was excellent, it was just always similar.
The Good; The Hotel is very large as are the rooms & spotlessly clean, there's plenty of brollys & beds around the pool, the location is practically on the beach & excellent for exploring the area.
The entire staff were very helpful & pleasant, a special mention must go to Jose on reception who answered & helped in any & every way he could when I asked, as did Lorena who found me a Chinese restaurant nearby,also our waitress Jiuana (Spelling) who never had a smile off her face.

Wonderfully clean & pretty area. The beaches are fabulous too
We stayed for only 5 nights on a short break , wished we stayed longer ! The staff was so helpful and friendly They really go the extra mile which is sometimes not the case in an all inclusive . The food was excellent with a good variety and the entertainment was brilliant. The Animation Team gave us a super show everynight I felt like i was at the west end !!!

We stayed in the Riu Chiclana over the Easter weekend this year (2011).

At reception we were dealt with quickly and the staff were pleasant.

Our room was OK and had a sea view. The block that it was in had no lift so be prepared to struggle up the stairs with luggage. Also, with all the noise from other guests/families it did resemble a bit of a council tower block.

Due to the Easter holiday the hotel was packed with Spanish families with kids and this was something we would've gladly avoided. We wanted a quiet break away. Also as it rained a lot then people were congregated in the various halls/bars.

The restaurants.... This is an all inclusive hotel and it does cater for the lowest common denominator, it's handy if you want to get a coffee or beer when you fancy one.
Even in the 5 days we were the there the food was uninspiring, predictable and if you like rugby scrums then this is probably for you. There was no show cooking and school dinners springs to mind.

It did quieten down on the last day or so and the restaurant service improved but the food was still average at best. No traditional Spanish cooking (apart from Paella), no tapas....

The hotel is clean, most of the staff are very pleasant although some of the bar-staff need customer service training as they were rude, which was reciprocated. The pool area looked good, the large sandy beach is 2 mins walk away.

Will we stay at a Riu hotel again? Not sure. We definately won't return to this hotel. We did go and visit the Barcelo next door, it's a 5* and was much nicer, even had chirruping frogs in a pond!

On the whole a disappointing break, not helped by the thunderstorms! :(

Comfortable, but gigantic hotel. Rooms are dispersed on the hotel ground, which calms the typical stress of a big hotel. Several restaurants ensure a decent meal for everybody's wishes at almost anytime of the day. Two beautiful swimming pools (with integrated bar!) and a large sand beach nearby. We had an all-in formula and were very pleased with it.