unless you want food poisining and sickness.
Have just returned from 2 weeks at the Riu Mambo and was pleased to get home, despite the terrible flight conditions on Monarch ( don,t ever fly Monarch).
After 5 days myself and my wife went down with serious sickness, stomach cramps and diorreah, as did many other guests, and are still feeling the effects.

The food is plentiful however is of very poor quality,everything is fried and greasy. Flies can be seen around uncovered salds etc. Also much of the alcohol is either watered down or of very poor quality.

Rooms are basic, and extremley hot as the AC is either not working or innefective.

Also beware at weekends when the locals arrive, they just take over the place and are noisy and very rude, pushing in everywhere and helping themselves to whatever is around.

Entertainment is ok if you like Butlins, and the male staff seem more interested in younger women than anything else.
Deffinitley not a 5 star hotel, I would say 3 star at a push and certainly not caribbean beaches or standards.

I would be very interested to hear from others who have been to this hotel or the Merengue or Bachatta who have also been sick or ill, as I now understand the place has a long history of this.

Do yourself a favour and book somewhere else.

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!