Riu Playa Blanca

By The Mantled HowlerHotels, Panama, Travel

Riu Playa Blanca is a five star all inclusive resort. The hotel is located on the Pacific coast of Panama, 5 kilometers from Rio Hato airport and 150 kilometers from Panama City.

The Lobby

Check in was quick and easy and the employees at the lobby were very friendly and helpful.

The huge lobby offers a beautiful lounge area with plenty of seating to relax.

The lobby bar is open 24 hours and offer, in my opinion, the best cappuccino’s on the resort.

The Room

Our fourth floor room was spacious and had a modernized bathroom. Furthermore, the room had a safety box and small refrigerator stocked with soft drinks and a few beers. There was also a mini bar but it was left empty for the duration of our stay even after having asked for it to be replenished.

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Additionally, our room offered gorgeous ocean, pool and garden views. Because of the hotel’s architecture, many of the rooms offer some form of ocean view.

The Restaurants

There are three à la carte restaurants and a main buffet on the premises.

We did experience some issues at the outdoor section of the main buffet. One morning, a gardener ran a hose right through the tables in the eating area. Not to mention that we also repeatedly noticed that many tables and chairs had bird droppings on them.

Food offerings are always plentiful, no matter at what time you chose to go to the buffet. Most of the time service is quick and efficient. Oftentimes, social distancing is not practiced by many of the patrons in buffet lineups.

Although food is abundant, we found that it lacked in flavor. In our opinion, most of the cooked options were much too salty, oily and, more often than not, overcooked.

Most of the staff at the resort were courteous and friendly. You are probably going to tell me that English is not always spoken or understood by some of the waiting staff in the restaurants. To that I will remind you that you are in a Spanish speaking country, not an English one.

The Pools

There are four pools on the resort.

  • The children’s pool
  • The activities pool.
  • General pool
  • The “adult only” swim up bar pool

The resort is spacious and well designed. We never had to wait very long for food or drink.

Nightly Entertainment

Nightly entertainment mainly consists of a variety of lip synch and dancing shows.

Since we were there during the holidays, the resort went all out and treated us to a huge beach party.  In fact, they had set up a few bars, live entertainment, a disc jockey and a display of fireworks.

The Beach

The pool and beach areas offer an extensive selection of beach chairs.

Set your alarm clock early in order to watch breathtaking sunrises. Conversely, if you are more of a late sleeper, you can still catch amazing sunsets.

The beach sand is a mixture of light grey sand alongside patches of beautiful gleaming black sand.

Since the beach is public, it is somewhat unkempt. Consequently, watch out for horse droppings as well as frequent horse, motocross and ATV traffic on the beach.

Moreover, due to it’s close proximity to the mouth of the Hato river, at low tide, the beach is littered with a combination of small rocks, seashells and debris. During peak sun hours, the sand becomes excruciatingly hot. Therefore, make sure to wear water shoes when going for a walk or for a swim.

If you’ve been to Riu Playa Blanca or if you’re planning a trip there and have any questions, let me know in the comments below.

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