Hotel Riu Bambu

Cng1971981 wrote a review September 2025
Derby, Derbyshire, England

Awesome experiences through TUI

had a fantastic holiday the rep for TUI Jerone was awesome very helpful and professional would recommend TUI as they helped every bit of the way on excursions and made my wife and I have a great holiday riu bamboo is a party hotel having riu parties pink,neon,white and some other themed parties but if you want a quieter time it’s got that to family orientated but the riu parties wouldn’t recommend for under 18 food wise good drinks good weather in September when we went 5th to the 19th very hot and humid met some lovely people Julia Denise from room next door very nice and informative which we had regular chats across the balconies on our experiences all in all well done jeroen the TUI rep where he is situated in the main theatre and thank you for giving us a great holiday Thank you
Carl and Gail

Date of Stay: September 2025

Voyage49709465548 wrote a review September 2025
Bronx, New York

Bare minimum

Worse food I ever had the only thing that was good were the fresh fruits. The food was terrible ! And it gave me diarrhea badly . The property was nice and the staff was friendly. The room had bugs running around and the power randomly shut off for like 4 hours there was no AC and it was very hot. Not very English friendly

Date of Stay: August 2025

444suzannek wrote a review September 2025
Manchester, Greater Manchester, England

Don't be put off by the negative reviews, my 3rd visit didn't disappoint

Just returned home frim my 3rd visit here, which didn't disappoint, it was only the weather which wasn't as good as usual - but that can't be helped.
Check in was extremely quick, I had already checked in online, but once at hotel had my band and key in less than 10 minutes- will depend on how many people arrive at the same time of course.
Room was kept extremely clean and mini bar re-stocked at least every other day, but can always request more on the Riu app.
Beach is just beautiful full of coconut palms, this visit the last few days a lot of seaweed arrived, but this also can't be helped.
Staff are all brilliant and friendly, sports bar has an amazing atmosphere, and at this hotel there's always a good mix of nationalities. Visit the swim up bar and you'll always find someone to chat too.
Lots of choice of food, and several speciality restaurants too. There is also a quieter pool on the other side of the complex next to the Spanish restaurant .
The parties across the road are always Brilliant fun, over 18's so no kids obviously allowed in, make sure you get your 'make up' done by the animation at the top of the slope close to the sports bar- 2 afternoon parties and 2 evening parties, I totally love them, and come home needing a rest 😉
Try to catch a sunrise, I caught a couple and they were absolutely stunning.
There are also shops if you walk along the beach path to the left, and I was told whilst chatting there is a large souvenir shop if you head right past the hotels, apparently good prices but will have to save that for my visit next year.
I got bit to death so definitely pack some good bite cream just in case.
I had a brilliant time again, so huge thank you to everyone who works at the Bambu, all your hard work is much appreciated, and I'll be back next year to see you all again.

Date of Stay: September 2025

DemiLouisa95 wrote a review September 2025
Winchester, Hampshire, England

Ignore all the bad reviews

Not sure why there are so many negative reviews, so please judge for yourself.

Check in and out was quick, and service from all the staff is exceptional, and quick.

Food, you have a variety of restaurants, with the Tui only Kulinarium, à la carte restaurant and Palm Beach, Steakhouse being personal favourites amongst the trip.

As for the pools, you have four, with an additional one if you are a Tui guest. Our personal favourite was the largest pool, next to Mamajuana. This is still a busy pool, near the bar and restaurants, but quieter than the main pool bar, with plenty of beds to choose from.

The rooms and hotel in general is in need of a refit and decoration, but this is not a fault of the staff/management. I am sure that Riu Bambu is not far off the list from being renovated.

Overall, if you can get over the decoration that is a bit lacking, you have a tropical, boozy paradise, directly on the beachfront.

Date of Stay: September 2025

Tour13439370003 wrote a review October 2025

Not 5 star but a pleasant hotel

This is situated in such a beautiful part of the world, the beach is breath taking. The staff are very polite and helpful, This hotel however is in dire need of a refurb, I struggle to understand in what world this is a 5 star hotel. The rooms are below standard, they're dated, tatty. The sinks all cracked, the shower didn't work properly, the TV was broke, basically little things that make the room appear run down. The decor around the hotel is so strange, it looks like it's trapped in the early 00s compared to other RIU resorts.
The swimming pool advertises as 24hrs but guests are kicked out at 7pm every night while they barricade them off.
Some tips if this is your first time here:
Don't be put of by the reviews if you're on a budget, this is a good place to stay to visit Punta Cana... But this isn't the best place.
The food is great, a selection of food that suits everyone's needs and desires, the drinks are good - all in all great all inclusive range.
Bring a flask water bottle with you before you come. Use it to fill your drinks, keeps them cooler for longer, especially when you're heading the beach.
Bring everything you need before arriving at the resort. The shops here are VERY expensive. Sun cream is 27 dollars, a hat is 50 dollars, cigarettes 20 dollars and vapes 21 dollars etc.
There is a free bus to a souvenir shop 10 mins off the site, book this at reception. It is much cheaper to get all your holiday souvenirs than using the on site shop
Download the RIU app and book a visit to the wellness spa. It's free and a beautiful indoor space, good to visit of an evening when the sun has gone down. This does book up quick so reserve a few days before.
Too see Punta Cana on a budget, book a boogie tour, they're fun and you see the authentic Dominican countryside.
Don't bother bringing Dominican currency, just only bring dollars. It's easier to work with conversion wise and EVERYTHING in tourist spots deal with dollars. I've been the Dominican a few times and never ever used their own currency, even the hotel price in dollars.

Date of Stay: October 2025

juliewP3322MD wrote a review October 2025

Not As Expected

We booked a week at the Riu Bambu Punta Cana for our family of 4. 2 pre-teen boys (12yrs & 10yrs), my husband & myself. This resort was not at all what we expected. One of the main reasons we booked here was for the waterpark. The waterpark is so far away from the resort, we only visited once. It is located at least a 10 minute walk away from the resort. We also booked here as it appeared to be a family friendly resort. This was not the case for us. The rooms are NOT family friendly. There is NO privacy. The only privacy is for the toilet for which this space is too tiny to actually change in. The shower and sinks are open concept and while the shower door has frosted glass and some colored glass blocks, this is not private at all. The A/C in the room was so cold it caused condensation everywhere. I actually thought it may freeze over! We could not see out of the patio door, the floor of the room was slick with moisture and the door to the hallway was actually dripping with water! Both sinks in our room leaked. We had to put coffee cups under the pipes to attempt to catch the water.
This resort is also very large with a lot of walking. There are no carts whatsoever.
Lastly, this resort was too much of a party atmosphere and far too busy for our liking. We stayed a single night at the Riu Bambu before we transferred to the Riu Palace Punta Cana, which is located next door to the Bambu. We are so thankful we did. We would not have enjoyed our vacation had we remained at the Bambu. A huge thank you to Elvis Smith at the front desk for his assistance in getting us transferred.
For note, we did not have any issues with service, food, drinks etc. for the short amount of time we remained at the Bambu.

Date of Stay: September 2025

Pheely78 wrote a review October 2025

2 weeks in September/october

So we have come to the end of our 2 weeks here and this is our thoughts.

We were a group of 10, 7 adults, 2 teens and a baby and we are all fairly well traveled.

We all had a great time over all, our rooms were fine, clean and had everting we needed.

We had issues with our aircon leaking and after 5/6 attempts it was finally fixed, this didn’t affect our stay.

The food was hit and miss, never went hungry and didn’t get sick but not everything was to our taste and we aren’t fussy, we tried the steak house which was ok and the Asian which was very nice.

We spent most of our time on the beach or at the Tui pool as the others were just to rowdy for us and these were much cleaner and quieter.

All in all we would come back at the right price

Date of Stay: October 2025

700avam wrote a review October 2025

Felt Unsafe, Uncomfortable & not the 5 star experience i expected

Felt Unsafe and Uncomfortable - Not the
4/5 Star Experience We Expected
I don't usually leave negative reviews, but I feel it's important to share our experience at Riu Bambu, Punta Cana, especially for other young travellers or anyone considering this resort.
From the moment we arrived in the Dominican Republic, things went wrong. At the airport, two men grabbed our luggage and tried to take us to another bus, one even grabbing my wrist and offering me a card to "sell drugs." We were terrified - and although a TUl rep was nearby, she offered no real help or support.
Unfortunately, the resort itself wasn't much better. We experienced repeated unwanted attention from staff - from being asked if we were a couple at check-in, to staff calling out
"mamacita" and commenting on our bodies from below our balcony. We were followed from the beach to the bar by a man who made us feel unsafe, and this completely ruined the relaxed atmosphere we were hoping for.

The food was very poor for a supposed 4-star resort — unless you wait an hour for the steakhouse, the buffets are below standard and clearly not designed for British or American guests.
Thankfully, we met some lovely British guests who helped us feel safer during the rest of our stay. But overall, we would not return to this hotel or recommend it to others - particularly young women travelling alone or anyone expecting TUl's usual safety and service standards.
2 stars only because of the location and the few kind guests we met. Otherwise, an extremely disappointing and stressful experience.

The only good thing i can say about this hotel is, the lovely waiter in the buffet, WilFredo Nicest member of staff in the whole of the hotel, no flirtation, no aggressiveness over tips, just a very kind friendly member of staff! please if you ever end up going to this hotel, tip this man! only good member of staff in the building.

Other than this, i wouldn’t recommend for young girls alone.

Date of Stay: October 2025

GracieA822 wrote a review October 2025
England

lovely destination, if we return it will be to a different hotel complex

before we arrived we was really looking forward to our holiday.

well i can tell you something it’s a holiday we won’t forget but not for the right reasons. the first few days it was ok, until we found out there is hardly any night time entertainment and if there is most of it is in spanish.

95% of the staff can’t talk English, all they says is no english we don’t understand. its not a English holiday destination its a Spanish one

all the cleaning ladies are very very good at what they do, we have come back to our room and it has been spotless!

the rooms are very much is need of a full refurb as you can see in a few of the pictures below

we’ve had a really bad ant problem to the point they have been in our beds so far the maintenance have done nothing about it even though both my self and the person i’m staying with have been bitten several times.

don't even get me started on the food, i’ll be glad to get home for a proper meal.

a few of the British guest have either ended up with sickness or diarrhoea since being here

the tui exclusive pool is nice but in need of a good clean and guest with other colour bands try and sneak in

Date of Stay: October 2025

Lovinholidays2 wrote a review October 2025

Great Hotel

Fantastic time at this hotel, amazing TUI only bar and pool at the beach. Raymond was Fantastic as were his bar staff. Issy in the restaurant amazing service. Yes rooms are a bit outdated but spotlessly clean. Honestly had a fantastic time, can't understand why people leave bad reviews. Thank you to all at RUI Bambu. We stayed in 409 so quite central.

Date of Stay: October 2025

Polohouse1 wrote a review October 2025
New York City, New York

I will recommend to my friends come welcome RIU resort because RIU have everything than other hotels

The rate is 5 stars because RIU have everything that what they have to help this important for information because I am deaf special needs

Date of Stay: October 2025

vickysV4178RZ wrote a review October 2025

Avoid

AVOID ..cockroaches in my bed, and bathroom.we ended up in 3 rooms.All dirty.This is not a 5 star hotel it’s more like a 3 star Spanish .Food cold and very salty.Not English friendly.staff was not interested unless you were tipping them..pools were filthy and we got out covered in slime one day, we ended up poorly, and not able to leave our room for 4 days.HOLIDAY FROM HELL. Massive problem with drugs on the beach and round the complex.Not a place for young girls,as they kept getting harassed.Think twice before booking this hotel

Date of Stay: September 2025

272renatab wrote a review October 2025

Worth only if you find a nice promo.

The hotel is big and part of a "RIU hotel" complex comprised by 4 different RIUs. Bambú os a big one but very diversified in public. From young people to family and elderies. There are 7 different restaurants. One is only for VIPs. From the 6 others, 2 kept closed basically all week. The main restaurante offer a great variety a tasty foods. We had the unfortunate experience to be without power and water for 1 nighet and without power for half of the second day. Then power came back to rooms and some of the restaurants. The biggest one kept without power for 1 more night. Messy to see and grab food. People walking in the dark and a lady felt and hurt her knee. Bambu was the only one in the dark. All the others were fine. Nobody gave us any information and neither status updates. Terrible. Pools are fine. Bars doesn't have much diversity of alcoholic drinks. Club kids are small and not that exciting. Very Spanish speaking environment and not all employees speak English. We went for birthdays celebration. They did a sweet decor in our room as well in our table at the restaurant.

Date of Stay: October 2025

S4048BTdavidm wrote a review October 2025

Bad Experience - Not Going to Ever Come Back

Extremely bad experience. I don't understand how anyone could rate this place highly considering the cost and the claim of it being a luxury resort and that definitely not matching reality. I'll rank the bad things starting from the worst.

1. The service: The front desk person tried to scam my wife when she was exchanging currency. I actually didn't see this on any of the previous reviews so people please be aware and COUNT YOUR MONEY when they give it back to you when making an exchange. DEMAND A RECEIPT. My wife went alone to the desk and I guess she looked like an easy mark because the man there gave her the money back, larger bills then a smaller 50 and then shut the drawer and only once she started to count it did he open the drawer again and take out the rest and give it to her without saying a word. She was too flustered to say anything then, but I thought that was nuts and they didn't give her a receipt or document the exchange in any way. These are the people at the front desk of the "resort" and from that point on we knew that we shouldn't rely on or trust anyone working there. For the most part though the staff were friendly on a surface level, but there was always an expectation to tip for everything, which felt bad (even for American standards). I tried desperately to drink diet pepsi (they only serve pepsi products) but there was nowhere to get it myself and when I tried to get it from the bar it was not diet/lite 70% of the time. I asked for it to be added to put in the room, but they never did. In fact they never added anything in the room for the duration of our stay.

2. The food: I slowly felt myself getting sicker and sicker as the trip went on. By the end of it, 5 days because we left a day early by changing our flight, we had constant diarrhea and could barely stomach any of the food. The dinner and breakfasts were the only places to try to find some things to eat, do not eat the lunch food, but all of it slowly made us more and more sick. If food is important to you then please go somewhere else, everywhere I've been to has had better food than here for the buffet.

3. The bugs: There were bugs in the food areas and in the rooms and outside by the pool and beach. Bugspray costs $30 at the overpriced only shop they let you shop at, so definitely pack your own.

4. The people: This is not a place to relax and have a comfortable vacation, unless you love screaming small children and people walking by every 2 minutes (no exaggeration) trying to sell you random overpriced stuff on the beach. We were there in the off season and I actually can't imagine how bad it would be if it was more full of yelling people and their screaming kids. The only saving grace was that some days the beach didn't have that many people on it.

The good things were the beach and the water pressure/temperature and AC in the room.

Date of Stay: October 2025

Fluggs wrote a review October 2025
Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Great in most areas, Pools not so.

This hotel is far from a 5* as described by both Riu and TUI unsure when the last full review would have been done. Our biggest issue was cleanliness the main pools are not hoovered nor netted daily. Around the main pool is dirty, they use no chemical just water and they sweep the rubbish into the grass behind the chairs instead of sweeping it up. The scum lines around the top of the water from Sun cream etc were never attempted to be cleaned. This does not take a lot of work if it is kept on top of
I never witnessed any pool chair cleaning in the 3 weeks we stayed. After the first week we spent at the main pool we spent the rest of out time at the TUI only pool this one is cleaned a lot more then the others. We met some great people there which always makes for a great holiday and after all a holiday is what you make it.
We had no problem with our room, the food was great, always something to eat and most waiting staff were very pleasant.
What we had issues with was the A la Carte restaurants opening hours, they just opened when they felt like it the app has all 6 of them open 7 days a week. This is far from true the problem is that the hotel does not advertise anything and communication is poor.
Punta Cana is a wonderful place but possibly this hotel not for us British people they mainly cater for Spanish.

Date of Stay: October 2025