Has anyone heard of Riu Merengue Hotel??

what do you want to know?

Ive stayed at the RIU Merengue several times and its sister hotel the RIU Bachata several times.(10 times total) THe RIU Merengue has small villa style rooms which makes it quiet and they are set in a garden setting, where as the bachata has hotel style buildings. Food is the same pretty much at all three hotels. You have access to all three facilities except for dinner you have to eat at your hotel or book an a la carte. The pool is fairly small and I found alot of kids jumping and splashing around ( being kids) so if thats not your cup of tea hit the beach. The bachata has two larger pools- one with swim up bar and the other has the pool volleyball net and they play water pool in it. Lots of loungers with or with out shade. The beach there is pretty rocky. The Mambo has the best beach as fair as Im concerned. All the staff are great - in all areas. They always have a smile and making sure everything is ok. You cant go wrong with any of them. Right now there is some sort of stomach virus going around as reported on the global I think it was. I did speak to a friend of mine that works there and some people are sick - tourists and employees. I would recommend lots of hand washing and bring a small bottle of the water free ( alcohol based) hand sanitizer. From my understanding it has nothing to do with the food but person to person contact. Dont let this stop you from going.
Hope this helps, any more questions feel free to PM me.:bunny:

www.riubambu.com/RIU_WEB_PAGES/MENU/RESORT/MERENGUE/MERENGUE.htm

and

www.riu.com

Gregg

From one Gopher to Another

Snow bunny,
Snowbird here. Riu Merengue is managed by a gentleman named Ramon Ripoll. I believe it's located West of the city of Puerto Plata. For info, contact Ramon at: clubhotel.merengue@riu.com Ramon will be more than happy to assist you in any way he can.

It just so happens that Ramon is the Executive President of an organization called Fundacion Patria. FP was started by a group of hotel managers for the purpose of improving the schools in the Puerto Plata area. It would really be great if you would be willing to pack an extra checked bag filled with basic school supplies for the children.

To learn more about FP, locate the thread: Help The Schools Via Fundacion Patria. It's located in the General section of the Travel Forum.

Enjoy your Dominican experience

SB

FP Location

Look on page 2

SB

SPRINGFEVER said:

I have been searching till I'm blue to find info on this hotel in Puerto Plata. Please give me any and all info you might have. We're planning on late Feb. and this travel place is advertising it and I've never heard of it! It's -20 degrees tonight in Southern Minnesota

Snow bunny:bunny:

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yeah it's in puerto plata towards town of maimon. They are a family of 3 hotels next to eachother. The Riu Mamboo, The Riu Merengue and the Riu Bachata.

SPRINGFEVER said:

I have been searching till I'm blue to find info on this hotel in Puerto Plata. Please give me any and all info you might have. We're planning on late Feb. and this travel place is advertising it and I've never heard of it! It's -20 degrees tonight in Southern Minnesota

Snow bunny:bunny:

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Well i went with my girlfriend back in 2001 and we didn't enjoy it at all. We renamed it Riu Muerte because by 9 things were all calm and nothing much was going on. The food wasn't anything amazing and it was just a repeat the following day.
On a positive note the place is beautiful, really nice rooms-fridge filled with alcohol and we found what appeared to be a secluded beach on 1 of our walks. We never went to the other 2 hotels-actually we never knew we had access to them.
Re: staff we didnt have a good experience with that either esp with people at the front desk. My friend and I went partly on business to recruit some workers and so were expecting calls but the guys at the front desk never forwarded calls or kept our messages. They were quiet rude.
But hopefully since that was a while ago things have changed for the better.

Food Poisoning in Riu

I heard that the tour operators from Canada and the USA are pulling out there guests from the Riu hotels in Puerto Plata as there is a food poising epidemic. Check it out before you book there!

Check this for more information on illness at Riu hotels:

http://debsdrtravels.proboards35.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&num=1105764928

Martha said:

I heard that the tour operators from Canada and the USA are pulling out there guests from the Riu hotels in Puerto Plata as there is a food poising epidemic. Check it out before you book there!

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Are they going to close it down until this virus clears. To say if the USA and Canadian tour operators are shutting them out then there is no one left in their resorts.

Martha said:

I heard that the tour operators from Canada and the USA are pulling out there guests from the Riu hotels in Puerto Plata as there is a food poising epidemic. Check it out before you book there!

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Even the people who are returning and have been or still are ill are generally NOT blaming the resort's food or cleanliness. Most think it is a viral problem which was probably imported with a guest and found a fertile reproductive location.

Gregg

riu's empty

stallion said:

Are they going to close it down until this virus clears. To say if the USA and Canadian tour operators are shutting them out then there is no one left in their resorts.

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Hi I returned on January 17th from the Riu Merengue. It was my 5th trip in 2 years. Yes its wonderful and unfortunately at the present time Iam told the Riu is closed for cleaning. I did get sick and my husband within 48 hrs after returning to Canada. I do not believe the Riu is responsible and saw them taking precautions to stop the epidemic. mmanicom@hotmail.com

CBC News

This article was on the news tonight and does not give details as to where in DR the flight was from.

http://ottawa.cbc.ca/regionalnews/caches/ot-quarantine20050126.html

what's going on?

I call very often to some of my friends in Punta Cana area, Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and Santiago. I asked about any virus they say every thing is ok there, that there is not problem.

hey of course people get sick when they change weather from ice-15 and plus going to a country where weather is 28c or 30c then going back to ice

News about the problems the Riu Merengue Hotel are experiencing was reported in the Sun newspaper on Saturday.

Lots of people complaining that Thomson Holidays should not still be sending people there as they are aware of the problems. Thomson playing it down, but many people from the UK have been sick and are continuing their fight with Thomsons.

Unfortunately, there was an article in the Minneapolis paper yesterday about the Rui Hotels, and TransGlobal is rerouting guests to other hotels until this is cleared up. I forget the name of the virus, but they said it is the same one found on cruise ships a couple years back. Almost all Minnesotans coming back from POP and the Rui Hotels have reported having this virus. Bummer....