Riu Madeira

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

3462 reviews

• 

  Lovely Hotel

  Lovely hotel 2nd time here Beautiful room with large balcony Amazing food at every meal - breakfast, snacks, lunch, tea ate farrr to much. Aperol is now on all inclusive so that was the best bit for me. Would recommend you take your own metal straw as the hotel quite rightly does not use them to help the environment.

  Jun 13, 2025
• 

  Peaceful and clean hotel in a stunning location

  A clean and lovely hotel with friendly staff in a peaceful and stunning location. Not our first visit and it’s doubtful it will be our last. Riu Madeira is the perfect hotel for a relaxing holiday. The rooms are beautifully presented and kept incredibly clean. There’s generally a good choice of food available and for people suffering from allergies and intolerances, signs give warnings of what allergens dishes might contain. For vegetarians there’s generally a good choice but some days are worse than others. There’s always the option of pasta and salads though. The pool area always has plenty of beds available throughout the day with a good snack bar, and the promenade the hotel backs on to has a lovely walk. You have a fantastic view of the sea from the pool area too. The bus into Funchal is a great plus and a must visit. Whilst not an adults only hotel, we find that very few children actually visit. I think the only negative about the hotel comes from other guests but that’s something that might be organised by putting a one way system in the buffet, which can be really chaotic at busier times. If you’re also looking for nightlife, this isn’t the place. I should also note that there’s no nearby pharmacy; something we learned the hard way after being diverted to Tenerife for the night where the mosquitos had a good time!

  Jun 13, 2025
• 

  Elton John

  Everything about the hotel is great. Buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner and a random bookable restaurant...so always something to eat...and plenty of booze. The staff always seem to smile and are polite and there are multiple sun loungers so never a rush to 'secure' one. But...tonight the entertainment was supposed to be an Elton John tribute...but at the last minute it has changed to Adele?!?! But I spent 2 hours around the pool listening to Elton so I could sing along. The whole week is therefore ruined and I demand a refund...or I would accept another week at the hotel free of charge! The hotel can choose!

  Jun 12, 2025
• 

  Hotel or retirement home?

  Honestly don’t know how this hotel has so many 5 star reviews. These people must be having a vastly difference experience to us! Although I’ve now realised that beyond the first page of these reviews (which I wish I’d looked at beforehand), it seems a fair few people experienced the same problems. AVOID if you are younger then 60, have kids or want to avoid a retirement home atmosphere. Also avoid if you don’t want crippling belly ache and bloating issues from the atrocious food and drink. Food & Drink (0/10) This was the biggest let down of our whole holiday. The food was not as described, with the same boring food being churned out day upon day. Honestly like school canteen food, tasteless and very low quality. The breakfast was the nicest meal, with a decent selection being offered. However, the beans were slimy when you went to spoon them onto your plate and the eggs were left under heat lamps making them very rubbery. Luckily they had continental options which saved the day - the churros were amazing. The a la carte restaurant (you can use once per stay) was alright, nothing magnificent but slightly better than the buffet. Service was excellent and this made the evening a whole lot better! The cocktails were absolutely appalling. Maybe some people don’t go on all inclusive holidays solely for nice food and drink, but we expected to have a much higher standard. The cocktails were out of a slushy machine - I can’t express my disappointment. From staying in previous hotels and just being educated in basic hospitality - cocktails should not be pre-made. I was expecting (for the 2K price tag) cocktails made from scratch, with proper ingredients and branded spirits. The pool bar poured them out of a slushy ice machine, and the lobby bar pumped them out of a plastic jug. rather than being shook authentically, they were shook using a blender - absolute letdown. Whenever we drank the cocktails we had belly ache, felt sick and got terrible acid reflux. This has never happened to us before. The cocktails tasted overly sweet and sickly. Alternatively to the cocktails, we mainly stuck to the self serve fizzy drink machine - this was ok, but still feels lazy to offer self serve in such a premium hotel. The wine was ok, nothing special but manageable. Atmosphere 2/10 Please don’t go to this hotel unless you are under 60 years old. The atmosphere is atrocious, with every older person in sight being rude and very unfriendly - we are a young couple in our mid twenties and this hotel did not seem right for us. We don’t like party hotels or any kind of unruly behaviour, but honestly this hotel was like being in a retirement home (probably explains the food). Other reviews have said the same! I honestly don’t know what parents with children would do here because there is absolutely nothing for children or teenagers, the entertainment was truly shocking. There was no nice music around the pool, it was just exceptionally boring and lacking any sort of positive vibe. Pool 2/10 The pools look quite good when you arrive, but both pools are quite deep! At 1.45 or 1.55 metres, I could hardly touch the floor. The pool wasn’t very warm, and was surrounded at every angle by loads of sunbeds. You’d think one quieter pool would’ve been ideal - especially for those who don’t want to be centre of attention or struggle with swimming. I only went in the pool once the whole holiday as I couldn’t touch the floor and I’m not a confident swimmer! Hotel Room 8/10 We had a lovely 7th floor room which was quiet, with a balcony overlooking the roof/pool/sea. The bedroom had everything you could have hoped for, except the very old fashioned wardrobe decor which lets the room down. The hair-dryer was attached to the bathroom wall making it frustrating to dry my hair as a female. The shower was ok, but went very hot or very cold and wasn’t that powerful. Expected more from a 4* platinum, especially as we’ve stayed in RIU hotels before and they’ve been magnificent. Coach into Funchal 10/10 The only saving grace of the whole holiday. The coach was free, offered 3 morning slots into Funchal and 3 return times and the coach was always on time. Driver was friendly and the journey takes around 15mins. It was great to be able to take the coach and visit Funchal, there really is a lot to do there! Thank god we didn’t just have to spend our time in the hotel, or I think we’d have got very bored very quickly. Location 8/10 The location of the hotel is great to be fair, 15 mins away from the airport which was perfect for us and you’re right on the sea front. The hotel has its own gated entrance onto the promenade which was lovely, we spent quite a lot of time walking and enjoying the scenery. Beaches aren’t great here but we knew that beforehand, the sea is crystal clear though which is an upside. There is a lot of little shops around including a spa, which sells anything you need. Staff 9/10 Staff are lovely, apart from the one male member of staff who berated my boyfriend for wearing the incorrect clothes to dinner. Totally understand there is a dress code for the a la carte, but we weren’t aware of this for the buffet and had not been pulled up on the previous 2 days. Felt as though this could’ve been done more discreetly, instead my boyfriend was left quite anxious. This staff member seemed to be on a power trip. Not sure why he picked on my boyfriend when there were other men in the restaurant in the same casual attire - and women in gym shorts, flip flops and hoodies. Anyway we got changed and that was resolved thankfully. Doesn’t feel great to be spoken down to when you’ve spent such a lot of money and expect to be treated with respect and basic kindness. Also, in a hot country I’m not sure many people have full length trousers packed! Check in process 5/10 Could’ve been a bit quicker but it was busy and we arrived 2hours before check in. However a welcome drink might have been a nice touch! Our requests were catered for (high floor and quiet room), however I had mentioned my boyfriends birthday and this wasn’t mentioned until the housekeeper saw balloons I’d blown up in our hotel room and presumably made the effort of getting us a bottle of champagne. The housekeeping lady was absolutely lovely and she did a great job of keeping our room clean and tidy. We reported our food & drink issues to tui, and got a very small refund. Our rep didn’t seem surprised that we complained about the cocktails - I assume other guests have had similar complaints! We loved the island itself but would never return to this hotel and would strongly discourage others from staying here unless you get it considerably cheaper.

  Jun 12, 2025
• 

  Fantastic holiday resort.

  Had a wonderful week at Hotel Riu Madeira. Beautiful hotel. Fantastic view of the sea from our room. Large spacious room too. Extremely comfortable bed. Very clean throughout the hotel. Wide range of delicious food. Staff very helpful and pleasant. Truly amazing.

  Jun 12, 2025