This is a great little hotel with fantastic staff and a real warm and welcoming feel to it. We went back in 2003 and plan to return with our tow young children once they are a bit older. Rooms were a bit 'tired' but really clean and the food, entertainment, facilities were fabulous. Not many British - a good mix of all nationalities. Top hotel. Loved it.

Me and my partner stayed at the riu lupita for two weeks at the end of april,even though there is very few british staying there we had a wonderful time! The food was amazing! so much choice!The hotel was spotless and the stafff so helpful,you will have a great time as long as you do not mind a lot of french,spainish,american and canadian.

Let me start this review by saying that I would rate the hotel 1,5 rather than 2 out of 5. 1/5 is too few, but 2/5 is too much.

The Good:
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1) Small of Size: Riu Lupita is a small all-in resort. This small scale has some advantages, more particularly with respect to getting to know people. Since the place is small you spot people frequently and after a while they seem familiar and this reduces the barrier to have a chat with them. The other bigger Riu brother in Playa del Carmen have a much greater anonymity attached to them mainly because of their larger scale. Another advantage of the smaller scale is that it is easier to find a spot with some quietness, which is not always easy to find in larger scale resorts. More particularly Riu Lupita has a smaller pool where you can relax without having some kids running around and screaming all the time. That pool also has the advantage that it is somewhat removed from the animation team and the sometimes loud music.

2) The bar: the people working at the bar are delivering an exquisite job. They are very fast in serving you even when there's a lot of people at the bar and they are always friendly.

3) Approximately every two evenings there is live music.

4) Although we didn't participate at all in the activities we think the animation team did a great job.

The Bad:
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1) The food: the quality of the food is quite good, but it really starts to annoy after a while. Especially, if you're here for two weeks it become overly tiresome. We had dinner at the mexican restaurant didn't find much special about it. In fact, we found the buffet restaurant more tasty. The service at the restaurant is simply too fast. Almost empty plates are grabbed from under your nose even before you put the last bit of food in your mouth. There are cooks in the buffet restaurant which can prepare a customized mix of food but the cooks are most of the time already preparing the standard food such that there is few opportunity to ask for customized food. We went for lunch and breakfast in Riu Tequila and Riu Yucatan and there this situation does not exist.

2) Room Cleaning: we found that the rooms were not cleaned thoroughly. In the bathroom there are two rolls of toilet paper. Over the next couple of days they were never replaced such that at some point we ended up with none and had to explicitly ask for toilet paper.

3) Towels: the towels (both the ones for the use at the pool as the ones in the bathroom) are not clean. Sometimes they had a very bad smell attached to them. After having seen the cleaning boy using the towel to clean the toilet (this is not a joke!) we linked one thing to the other -- of course it is difficult to verify whether these towels are always replaced.

3) The window maze that prevents insects from entering the room was broken. We had to ask three times before it was fixed and after our little ordeal (see the ugly part) this was quite important to us.

4) The snack bar is closed one hour before dinner starts, whereas normally the snack bar is supposed to be open when the restaurant is closed and vice-versa.

The Ugly:
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We found cockroaches (3 different ones on one evening!) in our room. Even though the climate of Mexico is favorable to these creatures we think it is plainly unacceptable to find them in your room! At first we didn't get a new room -- they would send someone to treat the room against insects -- but after encountering another one the reception granted us another room.

Some Tips:
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1) Free internet: You can use the wireless networks if you take your laptop. You have to sit at a table in proximity of the internet shop where you can pay for internet (3 USD per 20 minutes) if you don't have your laptop with you. Much cheaper internet venues can be found in the center of Playa del Carmen.

2) Beach resort: Riu Lupita is not directly located to the beach. There are buses driving you to its private beach resort every half hour. The beach resort of Riu Lupita is small. Again, the advantage is that its small size warrants peace and quiet if that is what you're looking for. However, its small size also implies much reduced food possibilities. If you want better food facilities and a bigger beach combined with a pool in front of the beach you can visit the beach resort of Riu Tequila, which is about a five minutes walk further down the road than where the bus drops you off. As a Riu Lupita guest you can make use of all the other Riu hotels, except for the two Riu Palace hotels.

3) Excursions: although unrelated to this hotel in particular, you should know that excursions are a big deal here and a lot of money can be unnecessarily be spent on this. We were traveling with Jetair (TUI group). The host for this company is only interested in selling excursions to get commission. On more than one occasion we didn't get all the information. For example, after we booked and paid a trip to Sian Ka'an we heard that we had to pay extra for a taxi to move to the pickup point for this trip. Also, we did an excursion to Delphinus to swim with dolphines. We were explicitly told by Sabine that we would not be allowed to take pictures as they took pictures themselves and would sell these pictures. The latter was true but the former was not. If someone is not paritipating in the programme he can watch and also take pictures. Overall we recommend doing the excursions yourself. It enables you to avoid the crowds and have much nicer experience rather than having the typical school-bus feeling.

My dad and I stayed at RIU LUPITA!
I only have positive comments to say about this resort.
We have already planned are next trip for next year! Cannot wait to return!! loved the staff! (Geraldo, Hector, Ramses etc.. )
Food=fantastic
Entertainement=great
Room=very clean
Overall= An Amazing Trip


Thanks so much , and we will see you next year!