I visited the Rui Playa Park from 1st to 4th January 2008 with my husband, sister and brother-in-law, for a little New Year’s R&R.

We’d read mixed reviews before we booked directly with the hotel, but, having stayed at several other Riu properties around the world, decided to give it a go. The hotel cost approx €330 per couple for 3 nights on an all inclusive basis, so wasn’t “cheap” given the current exchange rate, but we were hopeful that the all inclusive experience would mean we would get our money’s worth.

On arrival we were checked in without any hassle at all. There was no champagne to greet us, however we were given our all inclusive bands, and allocated rooms on the same floor quickly. We were told that our rooms contained a safe and given keys to this also. We arrived at around 10:30pm, long after evening food service had finished, but were told that a cold platter had been kept for us and was in the dining room for us to collect when we were ready.

When we got to our rooms these too were quite functional and Travelodge-esque. Unfortunately my sister’s room smelt heavily of smoke (despite the smoking ban in force in Mallorca as in the UK). We each had twin beds pushed together, despite requesting double beds, but were later told that this was standard throughout the hotel.

We dropped out bags and headed straight to the dining room to collect our food. This was quite basic but did the job and consisted of bread, cheese, cold meats and fruit. There was beer and wine on tap in the dining room, together with juice, soda and tea / coffee from a machine. I tried the “juices” and was very disappointed – these all tasted of incredibly weak cordial and were definitely not fruit juices. My sister tried the fizzy drinks – these too tasted weak and tinny, almost like cheap sodastream pop, as if the syrup being pumped into the machine had run out.

Next we headed to the bar. This is where the real disappointment for us started. The boys happily ordered a beer each – Cruzcampo was what was on offer, and they were pleased with this. They were each given a small beer (approx half a pint), which would cost the princely sum of €1.50 to those not staying on an AI basis. My sister and I decided to try a cocktail, so started at the top of the list with a Vodka punch. Sadly, this was pre-mixed from a plastic contained and seemingly contained no vodka. Instead, it tasted EXACTLY like the weak cordial I’d had in the

Not to be deterred, we tried another cocktail – this time a pina colada. This too was horrific, and clearly contained none of the ingredients of a genuine pina colada. Sadly, every other cocktail on the menu was as bad. Each was either watery or tasted like too-strong sunny delight. None contained any fruit “juice”. Sadly the pop dispensers behind the bar were as bad as those in the dining room, so even spirits and mixers weren’t an option.

Similarly the wines weren’t very palatable either. Although I’m no wine buff and certainly not very fussy, these were particularly bad. We asked about whether Baileys, or a local alternative, was available. The bar only had the genuine stuff – charged at €6.50 for a shot. In the end we drank the non-alcoholic slush puppies for most of our stay. Very disappointing.

Later that evening we returned to our rooms, where we discovered that neither of the patio doors in our rooms locked, there were hairs on the floor in the bathroom, and that the sheets on my bed had stains that looked like blood on them. As it was now after midnight and we were exhausted, I reluctantly slept on top of the bed that night with the intention of raising the matter in the morning.

During the night it also became apparent that the walls to the rooms are paper thin. Although not a light sleeper, I was awoken several times by the people in the room next door coughing, or by people moving around in the corridors.

After breakfast the next morning, we came back to the room to find the maid in there, so waited in my sisters room until she had finished. When we went back later, however, the beds had not been made, let alone changed, but we traced the maid and showed her the stains, and she changed the linen immediately.

That day we also reported the problem with the patio doors, and although the receptionist pledged to get someone to look at them, this was never fixed during our stay.

The food during our stay, was OK. We were allocated a table on our arrival and told to use this each mealtime. On a couple of occasions other families were at our table, but as there were plenty of other tables free, this didn’t pose us a problem – although we were challenged by the head waiter on our final day for sitting in the wrong place!!

“First Breakfast” – ie proper breakfast – was good, and plentiful, with enough choice to keep us all happy. This finished at 10am and if you missed this, you had to go to “Second Breakfast”, which was very poor – literally bread and cheese, served in the bar. Lunch was also very good, and coffee and cake was available mid-afternoon, for those who got the munchies. The choice of cake was, however, limited, and the quality fairly poor.

Dinner came in two sittings (to ease the queues in the dining room I imagine). We were asked on arrival which sitting we would prefer, and chose the second of the 2, served from 7:30 to 8:30. Sadly, after this point, there was no food available at all until breakfast. During the entirety of our stay, even the snack machines near the pool were out of order, which necessitated a trip to a neighbouring pizza shop one night for the ever-hungry boys. This was also very disappointing, and something we’ve never experienced at any other Riu hotel.

As previously mentioned on this site, the visitors to the hotel were almost exclusively German. The staff spoke English just fine, however, and this had no impact at all upon our stay.

Finally, a quick word about the “entertainment”. This was provided by 2 animation employees, and consisted of limited daytime activities (tai chi, aerobics, pool tournaments etc), a children’s disco from 8 until 9, some sort of “show” between 9 and half past, and then a disco (played from one of the staff’s CD collection) until 11pm. The entertainment room then closed, and guests were asked to return to the upstairs bar, which closed at midnight. The neighbouring area contained several bars and restaurants, but almost all were permanently closed as it was out of season. We had anticipated this before we went, however, and took card games and books to keep us occupied. Without these we would have been quite bored.

The hotel is approximately 5-10 minutes walk to the beach, which is pleasant and clean, but was far to cold for us to take a dip in January!!

So, would we return to the Riu Playa Park? Definitely not. Nor would I recommend it to friends. All in all, this is probably best ranked as a Spanish 3 * hotel, and on that basis the price we paid was overpriced. In retrospect, we were swayed by the Riu brand, but this adds nothing to the quality of the hotel at all.

We stayed at the Hotel Riu Playa Park during the last week of august 2008. We were given a glass of champange on arrival & the staff were all very friendly throughout our stay. The hotel itself is better than most other 3* hotels i've stayed in, food was excellent with a lot of choice. Rooms are a decent size and cleaned daily, towels will be changed when requested. communal areas are very comfortable with plenty of seating areas. There isn't any air con in the rooms but there is a ceiling fan that done the job fine, & the temperature was in the 30's. Pool areas are good with a lot of room in the garden area as well with plenty of sunloungers. We seemed to be the only english speaking people staying in the hotel, most of the quests are german, as is the resort of playa de palma, all the surrounding bars & restaurants seemed to cater for german quests. we didn't hear any other english speaking holidaymakers during our stay. All in all, good hotel but wouldn't go back to the resort as, to me, it's mainly for german holidaymakers.

My husband and I spent a week at Rui Playa Park from 13-20 October 2006. At first I was very concerned when I realised that there didn’t seem to be any other British people either in the hotel or when we went for a walk in Playa de Palma.

However we could not find any fault with the hotel itself. The rooms are scrupulously clean and comfortable and the food on offer in the dining room was amazing. We had spent our first week on a Thomson cruise and thought the food there would be a hard act to follow but we can honestly say that the food in the Playa Park was on a par with the cruise. It is buffet style and the variety and quality is extremely good with food being freshly cooked by the chefs at the counters. Salads, fresh fruit, breads, cheeses and wonderful deserts are laid out for you to help yourself and my expanded waistband is a testimony to the good food!

You can help yourself to wine (white, rosé and red), beer, soft drinks and coffee. The tea wasn’t to my taste – tea bags of all different flavours and hot water from the machine – but is a minor grouse. Spirits, liqueurs and cocktails are poured for you by the barmen in either of the two bars or by the swimming pool where there is also a late breakfast served and cakes in the afternoon.

We did meet up with two other British couples with whom we sat with in the bar on some evenings but we also managed to communicate (by various ways and means) with some of the other ‘foreign’ people in the hotel (mainly German, Dutch and Belgium) and found them to be very pleasant.

We would most definitely go back to a Rui hotel, the quality and service is first class, but we are a middle-aged couple who are quite satisfied having a quiet drink in the bar in the evening and not looking for riotous nightlife. For what we paid for the ‘all inclusive’ stay at this hotel, its close proximity to Palma and the wonderful beaches of Playa de Palma we feel we scored. However, our stay was late in the season when there seemed to be mainly people of our own age staying there and can’t vouch for earlier in the season.

Just returned from a wonderful week at the Playa Park with my Mum, Sister and Daughter. Booked direct with Riu on an all inclusive basis. Bedrooms basic but very clean. Two large pools with lots of shady areas. Staff very courteous and helpful. Food excellent with a varied choice. The restaurant was always busy but you never had to queue. Continental breakfast and light lunch available by the pool if you didn't want to use the restaurant. We were the the only English visitors the majority were German and very friendly. Had a look around the Riu Bravo 4 star, very nice but more expensive and the outdoor pool was quite small.
This is the first time we have been guests of the Riu group. We enjoyed our holiday and the Riu experience and hope to return to the Playa Park in 2007.