Airport: We went promptly through Dominican customs both ways. We traveled with TravelCharter/Funjet vacations and had already paid our $10 arrival/departure taxes. If you use other travel companies (such as Apple Vacations) you will need to pay the $10. Check with your travel agent prior to travel. We were never asked to pay but were issued a travel voucher stating we had pre-paid just in case we were asked to pay again. I might suggest bringing drink/food from the resort on your way home. We bought two cans of soda and a bag of cheese puffs and were charged $11. The airport was open-aired and quite quaint except for one cockroach the size of a hummingbird I stepped on when I quickly interpreted a French Lady’s scream to be “Kill The Bug” lol.

Transfers: Our transfers were waiting for us upon arrival. There was a slight bit of chaos finding our bus, but other than that no problems what-so-ever. The bus was on-time for the return trip; however it left 4 hours prior to our plane departure. If this bothers you, take a cab. The bus ride from the airport to the Riu is approximately 30 minutes with plenty of information about your chicken (lol, you’ll see).

Check-In: We arrived at 11 p.m. and were greeted with cold Copacabana. Our check in was reasonably smooth and fast. Once checked in and unpacked, we went to the Tanio for a snack (the Melao closes at midnight). This was a rather frightening experience as all that was left were yucky hamburgers, French fries, bun-less hotdogs, and a corn dish I could barely recognize. I am pleased to announce that this was not the case the rest of the week; it was merely a function of it being so late. I would highly suggest bringing food for dinner if you have a late flight (anything arriving after 6 pm). We packed cold subs in our carryon and they were greatly appreciated that evening.

Room type and location: Contrary to statements you may read, there are ocean view rooms at the Melao, however there are only 3. Check our riu.com and do the virtual tour of the Melao pool and you can see the second story rooms which are ocean view. Granted, they are not on top of the ocean, but they are much closer than any room at the other resorts (with exception of the Tanio, which had rooms the closest to the beach). We emailed prior to arrival and asked for a 2nd story room where we could see and hear the ocean and were extremely pleased to receive just that!! There are two types of rooms at the Melao: Standard (one large room with a sliding glass door and balcony) and Suite (two rooms one with a double bed, couch, TV, and desk and the other with two twin beds and two nightstands). There was a balcony but no sliding door in the suites (you used the same door you entered the room). Again, check out riu.com and do the virtual tour of the rooms (they show a suite in the virtual tour). Do not request an ocean view room if you are a light sleeper because you can hear the show/dancing perfectly until midnight and other ‘pool’ noises until the wee hours. I would say that any room around the gazebo would be just wonderful for most. The rooms are clean and adequate, but not luxurious by any standard (more of a red roof inn compared to a Ritz Carlton).

Room Amenities: There are no washcloths at the Melao. The front desk gave me an adaptor for my curling iron (some people were asked to give a $5 deposit; others were told they could buy one on Caribbean street). There is no blow dryer, coffee maker, or iron. Some were told they could rent a blow dryer for $20, others were told that they could use one with a $20 deposit. I think this confusion was largely due to a language barrier and tend to believe the later of the two.

Maid Service: I would like to thank our maid Marlene who did a wonderful job cleaning the room. She moped our tile floors and balcony every day and left fresh flowers and swan shaped towels. We never had an issue with ants or mosquitoes as previously reported however there was a slight mildew smell in the room. Bring air freshener if this will be a problem for you. While we did tip daily, I’m sure our room would have been just as clean regardless.

Mini-Bar: There is a cabinet on the wall containing 4 bottles of alcohol. Ours had 2 white and 2 dark bottles of rum, although I’m sure they would have been changed to different liquor if we asked. The mini-fridge contains 2 bottles of coke, 2 coke-light, 4 beers (2 different brands), 2 tonics, and 2 club sodas. The mini-bar is restocked every other day. You will also be given a gallon jug of water (do not drink or brush your teeth with the tap water). More water is available on request. Our mini fridge was cold enough to freeze our water jugs each night.

Overall Service: EXCELLENT! The managers, Ernesto and Gustabo (spelling) were both wonderful! As was Ruddy the towel man who gave us new towels each night instead of having to hassle with towel cards, our front desk man “James” who gave us an umbrella one night it rained, our waiter Manuel and beautiful waitress (I apologize and forget her name) who spoke very good English. At dinner we were always served wine and brought coffee with dessert. We did tip at dinner and are not sure whether or not this is the reason we were served wine and coffee, but regardless, we felt the service was excellent and well deserved a tip. All of the bartenders always served with a smile and were more than happy to do whatever possible to please. Carlos even went in the kitchen to get coffee each morning because we found coffee from the ‘coffee-maker’ was extremely strong for our morning cup, although we did become accustom to the taste.

Food: As a guest of the Melao, you may eat and drink at all restaurants except the Palace, and we did just that. We found that the food at each hotel was identical for the most part. The Pizzeria (free) offered slightly different lunch selection (more pasta choices and seafood). Our tip of the week is to eat on the second story gazebo on top of the Pizzeria. This is a secluded spot with a winding staircase and beautiful views!

Breakfast: We ate breakfast only twice. Once at the Melao and once at the Tanio. Both buffets were excellent although neither had an omelet cooking station which I found odd. If you enjoy standard American food, I would suggest filling up at breakfast and lunch.

Snacks: The snack bars are open from 10 am until 6 pm. And re-open from 9 p.m. until midnight at the Melao (2 am at the Tanio). The snack bar contains: Hamburger, Chicken, Hot Dog, French Fries, and Pizza every day. In addition, other items may be served (ribs, rice, vegetables, ect). Until 6 p.m. a salad bar accompanies the snack bar. You will not find ranch dressing; however the salsa dressing tastes very close to American Thousand Island. The salad bar also has a section of fresh desserts, fruits, and an ice-cream station where you can get a wide selection of excellent ice-cream and various toppings.

Lunch: We ate lunch snack-bar style. There is a pool party at the Melao on Mondays, and the Tanio on Tuesdays (I’m guessing the Bambo and Naiboa other days). I would suggest eating where you find the pool party because they grill shish-ca-bob, chicken, pork chops, and steak! We found the steak at the pool parties to be the best food all week (even better than the steak house restaurant). We never ate lunch in the dining room, but the menu looked very similar to dinner.

Dinner: The buffet dinners are plentiful. Veal, chicken, seafood, pasta, and pizza are served each night. In addition, there are other ‘theme’ style dishes along with a salad bar, dessert and ice cream station. We always found something good to eat, however the choices did become predictable. Our biggest complaint about the Melao is how hot it was at dinner (men must wear long pants). The Melao and Bambo dining rooms aren’t air-conditioned (Tanio, Palace, and Naiboa are). We had a table right beside a window and still found it almost unbearable. Perhaps it was just our table location, but I would suggest that the Melao either relax its dinner dress code (like the Bambo) or air condition the restaurant.

Steak House: Because of the heat in the Melao dining room, we found ourselves dining outside or at the Steak House. Many people complained about the steak, but we found it decent (not Outback, but good). We never tried the Mediterranean restaurant. At the steak house, you self-serve salad, soup, and dessert, but are served your main course. Our service was better at the Melao restaurant, but the outside cool atmosphere at the Steak house made it our number one choice. Please note- several people were told by funjet that they could only eat at the steak house once. We never had an issue making reservations (between 10-12) and had no indication that there was a limit to the number of times we could go. One last comment about the steak house: After several days, I was very excited to notice Caesar salad on the steak house menu. This Caesar salad does not resemble anything we get in the states, however the cold seafood salad was excellent.

Pools: We visited every pool on the Riu complex and would rank them in the following way: Bambo #1 (beautiful, great animation team, and largest swim-up bar), Naiboa #2 (very beautiful waterfall, zero-entry, no pool bar, but a bar very close), Palace #3 (gorgeous statues and fountains, but geometric in shape), Tanio #4 (swim-up bar, but people tended to save chairs here and it was crowded), Melao #5 (although quite nice, it is the smallest pool with the least amenities).

Beach: There was never an issue getting a shade or sun spot at any beach. In fact, I found it amazing the amount of shade spots that were available. We visited every beach in the complex and would rank them as follows: Melao #1 (no rocks, plenty of palm trees), Bambo #2 (least amount of shade, but no rocks), Palace #3 (they had shade, but rocks in the beach), Tanio #4 (very very rocky beach, but there is a decent reef to snorkel up to here). Note: The Naiboa is not beach front, but they do have an area of imported sand for guests to lounge in. I read reports that the Melao beach was the rockiest of the four. The resort must have purposely removed rocks from the Melao beach because we found it to be the least rocky.

Water Sports: The Riu complex has three water sport centers (Melao and Tanio share one, the Palace and the Bambo). The woman who ran the Melao water sports center was WONDERFUL (I apologize and forget her name). She would speak to us in understandable English, turn to another guest and speak in French, answer the phone in Spanish, and give directions to someone else in German! On two occasions the sun sail boats were all taken at the Melao and she called the palace and bambo until she was able to reserve us a boat. We used the sun sail, kayaks, and wind-surfers. I might suggest that if you are interested in wind surfing you research tips on the net because the lessons are given by people who speak very minimal English. We also suggest to the Riu management that they invest in hobbiecats for sailing in addition to sun sail boats. The Iberostar (right next door) had them available for their guests for free. Because we were Riu guests we had to rent them for $23 per hour. If you are really into sailing, you may want to consider a hotel that offers hobbiecats standard in the A/I price.

Tours: We only took two tours. One was a sunset tour from the Melao ($25.00 pp). This tour left daily at 4 pm with drinking and dancing on the way to a reef. We snorkeled the reef for about 30 minutes (this reef was only slightly better than the reef in front of the Iberostar and the Tanio). On the return you are offered more drink, dancing, and watch the sunset. This was a very fun tour for us. The second tour we took was to Catalina Island. I would suggest booking this early because friends of ours from the flight planned on going on Friday (they offer the tour Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays), only to be disappointed that the tour was cancelled. We left the hotel at 7 am, drove approximately 2 hours by bus to LaRomana, boarded a two-story boat, snorkeled a deep water reef, were taken to Catalina Island, snorkeled the ‘wall’ where we saw numerous fish and an eel (this was the best snorkeling we experienced on the trip), had a lunch buffet on the island, came back to the bus by boat, drove to Higuey for a brief shopping stop, then back to the hotel complex around 8 p.m. A long day, but it was a great tour because you got to see the countryside and experience two towns and pretty good snorkeling. The cost was $80.00 pp.

Animation Staff: The Riu complex offers a different show each night. The shows are rotated among the hotels. This is one area where the complex could improve. It is impossible to tell what the days activities are either because they are not posted regularly or are not posted in English. Be patient and walk to find out shows and daily events. We visited each animation team and would rank them as follows: Bambo #1, Naiboa #2, Tanio #3, Melao #4 (we only saw the Palace animation team once therefore do not feel it fair to comment). The animation team at the Bamboo and Naiboa were very entertaining and able to speak enough English so you could understand the show. The animation team at the Melao spoke very poor English, the stage was the smallest and least comfortable on the complex, and the we had two strange experiences with Melao animation staff: On one occasion a staff member felt it necessary to stop in the middle of a conversation to tell my partner that Fidel Castro was “excellente” and on another, a animation staff member jokingly referred to me as an American Capitalist. I do not believe that these staff members were being anything less than friendly; however it was a strange interaction to say the least. All animation teams tried very hard to ensure that their guests enjoyed the trip; some just did a better job than others. Note: The Palace, Naiboa, and Tanio entertainment areas are air-conditioned (Bambo and Melao are not). In addition, the Palace has an outside theatre where we saw a rendition of “Cats”. Although guests of the other complexes are not ‘supposed’ to visit the Palace, we did and never had an issue.

Casino: Small. Stay away from Keno. We played $10, won $14, quit and never returned. It’s not a bad place, just not Vegas style. Shopping and Caribbean Street: Contrary to previous reports, we did not find Caribbean Street extremely expensive on some items, although suntan lotion was $14 and Chips were $7. The internet café is 5 per half hour (10 per hour). You can use the internet at the Iberostar (next door) for 3 per half hour but the connection is much slower than the Riu complex. There are two “tin alley shops” a short walk down the beach from the Riu in both directions where you can barter until your hearts content. I would suggest pricing items on Caribbean Street first and using this as a baseline price. We also shopped at the Iberostar complex. Chris bought me a beautiful ring for $10 (starting price was $65). The Melao also brings in vendors on Wednesday (Tuesday at the Tanio). You may haggle with these people also, but don’t necessarily just cut the asking price in half, because on many occasions we paid 1/10 the asking price. We went to Bavaro Plaza one evening and bought two cartons of Marlboro for $20. Bottom line, decide what you are willing to spend and stick with this. We never felt we cheated the Dominican vendors, but weren’t willing to pay $25.00 for a Dollar Store item either. There is a Caribbean Party on Caribbean Street on Thursdays (again, this information isn’t available, you just have to walk to find it). This was a GREAT TIME, and I’d suggest you try to attend.

Suggestions for Improvement: 1) Improve communication of daily events (it was impossible to tell which show was playing, or what the daily schedule was because it either wasn’t posted, or was posted in a different language). We noticed that the schedule at the Bambo was much clearer to understand. In addition, the tour list at the Melao was not complete. You can visit the “Tui” on Caribbean Street for a more extensive list of tours offered.
2) Air-condition the Melao restaurant or allow shorts at dinner like the Bambo.
3) Invest in a few Hobbiecat sailboats.

You may not like the Riu experience if:
1) Luxurious Room Accommodations are a priority
2) You become frustrated by a communication barrier (this resort has only 10-15% English speaking guests)
3) You are uncomfortable with topless bathers (20-40% were topless)
4) You have difficulty walking (it is a 15 minute stroll from the Melao to Bambo)

You should love the Riu experience if:
1) Water sports are a priority (with the exception of hobbiecats)
2) Beach/Pool are a priority (many choices)
3) You are a flexible eater willing to try new dishes.
4) You are friendly and patient and willing to accept that as an English Speaking guest you are in the vast minority.

Summary of Tips:
1) Eat on the second story of the Pizzeria.
2) Request a room anywhere between the Gazebo and Pool.
3) Bring comfortable walking shoes (you will need them).
4) Price items on Caribbean Street before bartering with the vendors.
5) Learn some hotel Spanish.
6) A smile goes an extremely long way here.