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Just the standard RUI Hotel setup…unable to get a booking in any of the specialty restaurants. Buffet restaurants the same repetitive food. Polite cleaning staff. Reception staff need to be more customer focussed I arrived at 8pm given a keycard and a map and pointed in the direction of the room…no one to help with baggage. Requested late checkout on the RUI app had it confirmed and then I find keycard not working on the day after spending the morning by the pool headed to reception was told I should have requested this at reception…at no point in time did the app state this. I was told that the bell boy had put a note under my door..that’s ok if I could actually get into the room to read it, but there was no note ! Would not say this is a 5* hotel more a 4*.

We arrived as a party of four on Saturday small issue meant that we have to change rooms but that was on the start of our nightmare I have been a bit over 100 times and the rest of our party not far behind the beach bar is infested with them Certainly not recommend this hotel to anyone mosquitoes are Rife everywhere very little action from either Riu or tui regarding this matter can't wait to go home most people have nice pictures of cocktails on the beach and Lovely pool photos we have pictures of industrial sized mosquito spray and bite mark pictures all over my body.

We first stayed in March 2024 and decided to come back a year later….I’m so glad we did. This hotel has everything we love in a holiday - lovely staff, big grounds, amazing food, great entertainment, easy access to a great beach and cats. What’s not to love?! We stayed in block 2 which is nearer to the main entrance / reception and restaurant. Although we chose a superior room, it wasn’t much different to the regular rooms. The pool area is good but as usual, guests ‘reserve’ beds early….by 730 the best ones are taken. The beds themselves need updating….they are very worn and appear dirty. You can get a pool towel which will cover it, however a few we got had holes in them so they could definitely do with new towels too. We were there for the neon party….wow! They know how to put on a show. As it can get very windy, lots of people wearing jackets / coats and jumpers in the evening as it felt really cold. Not sure if it’s the same all year round? No issues at all with the food or room. I would recommend this hotel and will definitely be back next March.

In 2016 RIU Cabo Verde was RIU Palace Cabo Verde. I gave 95/100. In 2023 it was RIU Cabo Verde. I gave 7/10. December 2024. Terrible, 1/100. -- Accommodation Started with a toilet converted to a gas chamber - sewage gas leaking from the toilet pipe. The next room, infested with ants. When having suspected food poison, no running water to wash hands or other parts, (at 3 am). Towel, bedsheet, bedspread - homeless shelter would not serve what we got in 5* RIU. Pictures attaches, more available. Food Sea food, 4-5 names on the 'avoid' list Three types of 'yellow' cheese, cut in 10 ways to fool you there is good choice Goulash? just a joke Russian salad? another joke Four days before Christmas apple juice removed, cost cutting? Drinks Good replaced with something else, I would suspect something cheaper. Reception service Indifference to customer problems. Filthy sunbeds, past the recycle date by 2-3 years. White Friday Party OK, the rest just 1/10. --- Outside of control RIU Cabo Verde but affecting the hotel. Noise from RIU Palace (400 yards away) louder than the hotel entertainment. 16-21 guys outside hotel selling trips, Police arrived twice to control them.

Nice and relaxing holiday. Hotel’s 5* rating is a little far-fetched. We changed our room after the first night (due to some noise from the corridor and bugs), from the ground floor to the second floor. This second room was much nicer with a lot of natural light. Room was nice size with comfy bed. All the common areas were kept rather nice and clean. Beautiful walkways. Nice short walk to the beach, if you don’t mind the tour selling guys. The pool area is rather small and there clearly isn’t enough sunbeds for everyone. Go to the pool early. Especially on the sunny mornings the sunbeds are taken/ reserved early. Many RIU resorts have multiple pools and sunbed areas, well not this one. Even though the hotel covers so much land. Ordering white wine on the lunch or dinner is a little gamble, since it’s sometimes diluted with water. Sometimes even so much that it doesn’t even look or taste like wine anymore. We booked a table from the Hotel’s Italian restaurant Sofia one evening. Unfortunately lost our apetite completely after we saw two cockroaches climbing on the buffet’s heating cabinet where they served some bruschetta and pizza. We also saw one employee who was tiding up the buffet, sweeping something of the counter to the floor and then stepping on it.

Having been to a Riu hotel on Boa Vista, we had high expectations of this Riu on Sal. What a disappointment! Rooms: dated, cheaply furnished, unclean in areas, very noisy with endless doors banging from early morning until late at night, staff wheeling noisy trolleys around, air conditioning spasmodic, internet poor. Food - dreadful - we eat most things and are not fussy, but the quality was poor, the flavour - well, non-existent - nearly all the hot dishes were barely warm, cheap ingredients badly cooked. We ate once in the Italian restaurant - asked if we could sit at a different table to the one allocated and waiter said "this is a restaurant, not a pub" - how rude! We were looking forward to being served - wrong! Buffet starter and dessert with limited choice and main course unappetizing and only warm. We ate twice in the Kulinariam restaurant where portions were tiny but in fairness the steak was quite nice. Drinks - everything tastes watered down, from the optics in the rooms to the wine in every restaurant, to the juices at breakfast and so on. Staff - with the exception of the reception staff, they were indifferent, unfriendly, hardly ever smiling and generally made you feel like they were doing you a favour serving you. Bars were understaffed and long queues formed. Entertainment - well, if you want to feel like you're in a retirement home where they're scared you'll die on their watch, take a seat at the pool. The 'entertainment' crew endlessly walked around, clapping and shouting and whoop-whoop-whooping every hour to encourage you to join in darts, volley ball, swim aerobics, archery etc, accompanied by loud music and/or dancing . The chances of just resting, sleeping or reading were nigh on impossible and their noise was incessant - just please SHUT UP!! The pool - insufficient size for the number of guests - beds were so close together it was like a dating site. Oh and the beds - absolutely filthy! Towels? Old, worn and torn. The island - landscape like the moon - rubbish everywhere - very little to see, but the beaches are beautiful.