Riu Buenavista Hotel

We have just returned from a lovely stay at Hotel RIU Buenavista and overall had a fantastic holiday.

We booked two rooms – a two-bedroom family room and a double sea view room. Before travelling, I emailed the hotel to ask if our rooms could be next to each other. Although they weren’t directly adjacent, they were only a few doors apart, which was absolutely fine. The family room had a beautiful sea and pool view, while the double room also had a lovely sea view. Both rooms were spacious, spotlessly clean and had a fridge. The fridge isn’t stocked with drinks or water, but you can easily collect bottled water (and milk if needed) from the lobby bar. The Wi-Fi throughout the hotel was excellent.

The pools were lovely, with our favourite being the one overlooking the sea. The pool bar next to it was a great place to relax, offering stunning views and a lovely atmosphere.

The hotel also has a small rocky beach with direct access. We only visited it once, as we spent a day at the beach in Costa Adeje, which we preferred. However, we’re more pool people anyway, so this really wasn’t an issue for us.

The biggest downside for us was how busy the hotel was. Like many reviews mention, the sunbeds were mostly gone by 8am, with people reserving them from around 6am. It was also difficult to get seats for the evening entertainment. On several nights, members of our family had to take it in turns to eat so we didn’t lose our seats for the shows.

The White Party was brilliant and definitely one of the highlights of our holiday. There was also an England football match being shown during our stay, but despite the lively atmosphere elsewhere in the hotel, we couldn’t hear any noise from our room, which was great.

The hotel is built on a hillside, so there are a few inclines, but we found them manageable. There are a handful of shops, bars and restaurants around a 10-minute uphill walk away, and a taxi to Costa Adeje cost around €20.

Check-out was at 12pm, but unfortunately our transfer wasn’t until 8pm. The hotel doesn’t have dedicated changing facilities for late departures, so we had to get changed in the public toilets, which was a little disappointing.

The food was typical all-inclusive. It was quite repetitive, but there was always something available and we certainly never went hungry. I would have liked to see more vegetarian options and a better selection of fresh fruit. Ice cream is only available from the scoop stations in the restaurants rather than at the pool bars. The cocktails were fairly limited and the ones I tried were quite weak and very sweet, although there was plenty of self-service beer, wine and soft drinks available throughout the day.

The only other small disappointment was that there wasn’t a pool table, as that’s something our family enjoys on holiday.

The staff were all incredibly friendly and hardworking, and they really helped make our stay enjoyable.

Overall, we had a wonderful holiday and would definitely return to RIU Buenavista. If we came back, I would request rooms in the same area of the hotel with good views, as some parts of the hotel seemed to have much nicer outlooks than others. That said, I know that won’t matter to everyone. Despite a few minor negatives, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this hotel.

We stayed here in May 2026. Hotel was nice, food was average. During our stay we had hotel management call us to inform us of a bedbug infestation in our room. The cleaning provided shrunk most of our clothes and left us without clothes. The compensation offered did not reflect the hundreds of bites we had nor the impact to our clothes or the quality of our stay.

We stayed at the Riu Buenavista as a family of five (2 adults and 3 children aged 17, 15 and 13) and had a fantastic holiday overall. We'd happily return.

First impressions were great. The hotel was spotless, and the rooms were much bigger than we expected. The family room layout was ideal. There was one main entrance leading to two separate sleeping areas with their own doors, which gave everyone a bit of privacy. One room had a double bed, bathroom, snd balcony. The second part had a lounge area with a sofa bed, wardrobe and balcony, leading through to a twin bedroom with toilet and shower room with its own balcony. Both sleeping areas had their own air conditioning and ceiling fans, which made a huge difference in the heat.

The entertainment was definitely one of the best parts of the holiday. The team put so much effort into everything they did and really helped create a great atmosphere around the hotel. A special mention to Hector, Augustine (apologies if I've got the spelling wrong!), Pablo and Diego, who were all brilliant and made everyone feel welcome.

The White Party and Neon Party were excellent, and you could tell a lot of effort had gone into setting them up. The foam party was another highlight and was great fun for both adults and kids.

The biggest disappointment of the holiday was the organisation of some of the daytime activities. On more than one occasion, people were left waiting around 30 minutes for activities only to eventually find out they had been cancelled. What made it more frustrating was that nobody from the entertainment team came over to let everyone know. Guests had to go and find a member of the team themselves, then come back and tell everyone else who was waiting. It wasn't the cancellation itself that was the issue, these things happen, but it was the lack of communication.

The main buffet was good overall. We always found something we enjoyed, and there were some genuinely excellent dishes throughout the week. The only downside was that after a few days it became quite repetitive. While most food was nice, a few dishes were so heavily salted that they were genuinely inedible.

We also tried all three of the bookable restaurants. We were a little disappointed to find they were still buffet-style rather than table-service à la carte restaurants, as that's what we're used to at other hotels. The Asian restaurant was definitely the best of the three. The grill offered a few extra meat options, but several were overcooked, while the Italian was our least favourite as we found it quite bland. None of them were bad, but they didn't really feel much different or more special than the main buffet.

The drinks selection was very good, with plenty of choice for everyone, although the cocktails could be a bit hit and miss depending on who made them. Some bar staff muddled the fresh fruit properly and made excellent cocktails, while others skipped steps like muddling the fruit or adding sugar where it should have been included, so the same cocktail could taste completely different depending on who served you.

The staff deserve a lot of credit because they work incredibly hard, especially in the heat. Almost all of the staff were friendly, helpful and always smiling. We did have one member of staff who consistently came across as quite rude, but thankfully that was very much the exception rather than the rule.

Like most all-inclusive hotels, getting a sunbed can be difficult if you arrive later in the morning. However, even when we didn't get to the pool until around 10 or 11am, we still managed to find space by moving a few spare loungers together, so it wasn't as bad as some reviews make out.

Having food and drinks available 24 hours a day was a huge bonus and something we made good use of.

One small suggestion would be to move the self-service beer and wine taps closer to the staffed bars. Although everyone wears wristbands, some of the machines are in areas with very little staff supervision, making it easy for underage teenagers to help themselves.

Overall, we had a brilliant stay. The hotel is clean, the rooms are spacious, the entertainment team are fantastic, and there is always something going on. There are a few areas that could be improved, particularly communication around cancelled activities and making the speciality restaurants feel more special, but they certainly didn't spoil our holiday. We'd happily recommend the Riu Buenavista to other families and would definitely consider returning.