Riu Palace Oasis

Hotel, location, Cleanliness, Staff, Gym, Pools, etc. were all incredible and amazing! We felt super comfortable as a family of 4. However 2 things need to be adressed:

• Breakfast is okay. After 09:00 it gets super busy and a bit chaotic.
• Availabilty of Parking Spots. There are 20-30 parking spots available (accessable with Hotel keycard) onsite. But during high season expect parking your car outside of the hotel area, because simply NONE are available. Took us last night 30 minutes to find a parking spot in Melonares, which is not acceptable in my opinion for 5 star hotel. Hotel staff could not help us either.

Beside the two points menitoned above we have had a great stay, enjoyed the pools and the nearby beach, which especially the kids liked.

A return visit , I love their pool rooms ( always ask for 1102-20 for private side , otherwise your own pool room can face onto a communal pool with children playing and the main path to the beach). Lovely food selection breakfast and dinner. Even though it’s buffet the food is hot and large variety tasty. I visited the spa for manicure good experience- there a gym and spa and indoor pool area and another smaller outdoor pool at the back of the complex. There a gate out of the hotel garden that leads you directly onto the beach by the lighthouse and a boardwalk to restaurants and some small shops, plus the boardwalk to the Maspalomas Dunes. Highly recommend and would return. Very clean hotel and friendly staff.

I’ll get the negative out of the way first, and sadly it’s the food.

We come to the Canaries every May or October and, over the years have stayed in plenty of four and five star resorts across the islands.

Buffet standards obviously vary but unfortunately, the buffet at the Riu Palace Oasis was the weakest we’ve experienced in a hotel of this class.

The ingredients felt low quality, cooked to a poor standard, and the food stations seemed random rather than curated. Which is a real pity, as almost everything else about the hotel is very good indeed.

We stayed in room 1234, which was well away from the entertainment areas and incredibly quiet. The room itself was well designed, comfortable and pleasant, and we were more than happy with it for our week stay.

The pool areas have a lovely chilled atmosphere. Sun loungers were a complete non-issue, with plenty available at any time of day, even though it was half-term week and the hotel was busy, which was extremely refreshing given what a pain this can be at many resorts. .

The gardens are beautifully maintained and are a real feature of the hotel. The main outside bar and entertainment areas are also lovely places to spend time.

Cleanliness was also to a high standard everywhere.

Service throughout the hotel was excellent. We did note that most of the servers didn’t speak any English, which is unusual in our experience of Spanish island resorts, but not really a problem. The main front-of-house staff were multilingual as you might expect.

The spa being included at no extra charge is a nice touch, although personally I would have preferred a warmer spa pool. The men’s steam room also wasn’t working very well, which led to the odd spectacle of the men migrating to the ladies’ steam room which was working fine.

The location is excellent too: right on the gorgeous main beach and very close to shops, bars and restaurants.

I really wanted to give this hotel five stars, because in so many ways it’s a great resort and gets things absolutely right. The setting, rooms, gardens, pool areas, service and location are all excellent. But for us, the food wasn’t really good enough.