We (married couple, mid 50s) stayed at the Riu Mambo 17 June to 1 July and had a great time.

Initially I was disappointed at not booking and flying with Thomson (extra leg room and back of seat TV) but I have heard from others that Thomson (Monarch flights) are pathetic (major delays in the week we flew out and returned and awful meals on board) so when we booked and flew with Thomas Cook - guess what, extra leg room, back of seat TV and considerably cheaper than Thomson (TC 1, Thomson 0). transfer to hotel was good (45 minutes) but the 50 minutes wait around airport luggage carousel was a bummer.

A great resort. Three sister hotels on one complex and use of all of the facilities at each of them. However, we enjoyed the Mambo so much we only used the others for shops and the occasional show.

I really love Riu hotels (we've stayed in a few in Mexico and Spain); no form-filling check in, just a two-minute explanation of what's in the welome envelope (keys, safe key [free], luggage labels....) and then its straight off to lovely clean apparments - luggage followed within minutes.

Having looked about the adjacent Riu hotels the Mambo is much better than the Meringue.

The animacion team are the most enthusiastic bunch I have ever met (about 12 of them) they work from morning till early morning and without being pushy their engaging style had us joining in horse-shoes (greeted with cries of horsey horsey), boule and darts - we even won two of these on our last day (free bottles of rum!) At least one of the team is selling blackmarket copies of the Riu Hotels Club CD.

The evening shows are good - some by the animacion team others by acts that tour the adjacent hotels - Merengue and Buchata). The animation team's African show (which I wasn't keen to watch) was actually fantastic. We saw "Cats" at a neighbouring hotel, and that was great too.

We never had any trouble getting a sun lounger - either either beside the pool or on the beach even when i came down most of the time around 9.30 there where still loads of beds left. but get one under a sun shade - the sun is hot, the rain (when it happens for half an hour os so) is heavy.

The food is good, if a little repetative but I found something to eat at every meal we went to - after 3 days of All Inclusive I get a bit fed up with eating (no pun intended)

We tried the steak house three times without ever having to fight for a place in the early morning booking.

The beach is good - with pleanty of shady trees but not its not Caribbean it's Atlantic coast so don't go expecting white sands.

Rooms were cleaned everyday and spotless, also i would leave a tip for the maids becasue they leave the best decorations of animals mostly swans in towels they where fantastic and well done. Our room was also visited by two salamanders and a tree frog - the cleaners leave dorrs open while they clean.

At the weekends (Friday pm to Monday) a lot of the locals turn up and hog the sun beds and restaurant tables - Tuesdays are pleasantly quiet after the weekend.

We did three organised trips: Sunday all day horse riding which was great. Mega Trucks where you get to see the real Dominican lifestyle travelling in giant trucks and have fun in the process; and the half-day trip around Peurto Plata which was a right bore - the cable car trip was interesting but the wait to get on it was long and the view from the top, on a cloudy was, non-existant.

The Thomas Cook reps very really helpful and even the welcome meeting was interesting and only 45 minutes long. However, we paid $10 ($2 per card) to a Thomas Cook rep to send our postcards home via Miami rather than through the local post system. Those cards have still not arrived some 4 weeks later!

Overall a great place to visit and a good hotel and area to stay in.

What can i say about Riu mambo .... of course why would you be reading this then ^__^
Perfect all the way, i really can honestly say i enjoyed every minute !

Even though when we first landed it rained ..... but who hasn't ever had that

oh ! what ever you do !! do not and i repeat this do not fly with MONARCH!!
worse flight i have ever been on crap entertainment and the food ...well the food just looked like plastic terible but thank god as soon as i set foot at riu mambo everything changed for the better

First thing you will get is a nice cold refreshment of an Non- alcholic drink (sorry for those who where expecting something a bit harder but thats what those 2 weeks are for i'm i right)

then you are giving all the essentails of room keys saftey deposit keys etc you know the works
Once you have found your rooms you are quickly followed behind by the bell boys or porters or whatever they liked to be called so you don't have to wait long for your luggage

Entertainment.... you will know when you get there why i left it as it is
i can honeslty say they where the most enthusiactic people i have ever seen, clearly they love there job and they show it from morning till night they are up and ready to go
they make friends with you really easy, i recommend you play a game of horsey horsey easiest thing you can win and when you do you win a bottle of rum and go on stage absolutely fantastic

They are very ...whats the easiest way to put it ....damanding for you to join in any games but you'll love it

a word of warning the shows at night are fantastic especially the magic show a must and the african show which was performed by the animators themself (usually really boring dancers at times) but if you do want to see the show it's really hard to get a table mostly because of some german kid's club but it takes a way most of the tables ...well most of them where you don't have a great pillar in your view i tell you who ever designed the stage was .... you'll get my point if you go there but still top notch entertainment 5*

You can get a bed really easy either beside the pool or at the beach even when i came down most of the time around 9 there where still loads of beds left but i still recommend you get one in the shade just in case

The Food ! terrific loved it, it sometimes gets a bit repetative but i'm not complaining that only happens if you put everything on your plate so don't be greedy (jokes)

Also good tip i found that the italien ( even though it wasn't really italien) was far better then the steak house but try it for yourself might be different for you

If your expecting white crystal beach with beautiful clear water .... don't hold your breath, the beach is o.k but not what some people are lead to believe but i was never really there so it didn't bother me

Rooms as always where cleaned everyday and spotless, also i would leave a tip for the maids becasue they leave the best decorations of animals mostly swans in towels they where fantastic and well done

Note for people like me who hate pepsi (which is what you get instead of coke) they only really have some sort of orange juice that stains the hell out of your teeth do not recommend that and 7 up which surprisingly never comes in the mini bar

Expect lots of germans and some domincans at the weekend but that doesn't really spoil this hotel it is fantastic better that it's sister i'd say Riu Merenge looked pretty cluttered in my opinion
can't miss it if you go to the carribean street (outrageous prices too there)

What more can i say this hotel has become one of my favourites i loved every minute of it and i'm still really sad that i left love to go back
If you are going best decision of your life thats all i can say

oh if you see a lady named janet jackson (nick name) tell her king kong's sister says hi she would love it thanks for reading

First time in DR was really excited.
Place sure was clean and had a hankering for hygiene! Maids and reception staff very friendly and helpful. Free access to alcohol in rooms - cool if you like rum, otherwise you gotta walk to the nearest bar - which can be quite a trek when you've got a powerful thirst going! Food was varied but soon grew boring after 3 days. Beach was not to our standards - no clear waters as it's on the Atlantic Ocean so pretty breezy and rainy some days, pebbles and seaweed on the seabed which was gross and harsh on bare feet. The sand was hot and gritty not like the white soft sands of the beaches on the caribbean sea. Entertainment team - well they sure made us laugh! If you want to sing along to Grease songs or any popular songs at least be able to properly mime to them! But no! But it did make us laugh loads though! They did take us on the "disco tour" which consisted of ONE outing to the local tourist club, Coco Bongo's. Great show of spiderman et al. Music and crowd were excellent which is why we returned two more times! Don't think the club at the resort was worthy of its name. Didn't even bother staying there longer for a drink to be drunk! Not to mention you had a 70 yr old and 12 yr both getting drunk (though not together I hasten to add!) at the same bar which kind of put you off!
Best thing about this holiday were the excursions. Went to a place called 27 Charcos (pools) aka 27 Waterfalls where you get a chance to climb (or be pulled up!) 7 waterfalls and slide and jump on the way down. This was excellent! The guides were entertaining, singing and making jokes the entire time! And boy were they strong! :-)
Second place we went was white water rafting on the Jacques del Norte river - again sheer fun! The guide - Wilson aka Superman - was the devil in disguise, pushing us into the water on purpose. He was great in pulling us out as well - and with only one hand! Be careful with the paddles though - unfortunately whacked the guy behind me by mistake and felt real guilty afterwards!
Last thing we did was quad biking! Now that was FUN! No matter what you wear - bikini or overalls you will get dirty! Warm mud flying everywhere, driving along the beach and on a sugarcane plantation, better than a day at the gym! Also the machines are quite heavy so if you've got puny arms like my friends I give you fair warning you will need to rest the next day!Which is why I highly recommend having a massage on the beach the next day! Very relaxing!
Overall, a good adventure holiday. Perfect for families and couples. The hotel facilities were good and the staff were helpful. Pity the beach wasn't all that!

We just got back from 7nights in the Riu Mambo and really had a fantastic time!
But firstly a couple of negatives out the way:
Maybe this is really obvious to most, but we were expecting the sandy white beaches and clear turquoise waters you always see in the pictures of the Caribbean .. but in the Riu hotels of Puerto Plata (being on the north coast and hence the Atlantic) it sooo wasn't! Perhaps me and my buddies have been spoilt by other places we've been to, but in the water, you get COVERED in odd bits and seaweed and can barely put your foot down as there are so many sharp stones about! So if you're after a beautiful beach, you're best staying in the south of Dom Rep.
The only other negative is the aircon in the rooms - as someone else mentioned in their review, it seemed to work in the daytime and nights in the room were pretty warm as the fan was so slow!

OK enough of that, here's the good stuff:

Hotel - EVERY area of the hotel was kept extremely clean, the maids kept the extremely rooms immaculate every day, the hotel toilets were very clean with an attendent there all the time, giving hand sanitizer as you leave - and also as you enter the restaurant. There was a great choice of food but very samey every day.
All the staff are very friendly and always always smiling and saying hello.
As the 3 Riu hotels are next to each other, you can use all facilities in all 3 hotels - we found the Bachata pools the nicest with nicer people as well.
The Ents staff were very cool and the "disco tour" they take you on twice a week is well worth the $20 - they put you all into the taxi, take you the same club each time (Coco Bongo where you get to see the very entertaining Spiderman which is erm .. memorable!) and 5mins before leaving time, will round everyone up and get you back to the hotel safely. The club was safe and had a mixed crowd of both locals and tourists. The music was mixed too - commercial stuff you'll know and stuff you may not, but great to dance to.
The hotel club (Pacha) seemed empty whenever we saw it and music didn't seem so hot either. The hotel has performances every night and involves a lot of rubbish miming but were fun if you like that sort of thing!

Activities - wouldn't advise booking actvities / excursions through the hotel as you can get it cheaper by hotel staff wandering around asking you .. a guy called Gigi got us some great deals - the number 1 activity which is really a once in a lifetime thing is climbing the 27 waterfalls. (Damajaqua Cascades) This was AWESOME and although we only went up 7 (in 3 hours) you end up climbing, swimming, sliding down natural slides and jumping into lagoons - is AWESOME and if you're up for a bit of adventure, soo sooo worth doing this.
Another activity worth doing is the white water rafting - this was so much fun, the guides make you feel really safe and again, prepare to get very very wet :-)
We also did quadbiking which you can book through the hotel - you get so much mud all over yourself (so careful which trainers you wear! flipflops are probably better!) and this was so much fun as well.
All in all, we had a 100% fab time there and if you're out to have lots of fun (and chilling if you want to) then the Dom Rep is a great place to do just that!