The "RIU: Our Home Away From Home" Story

The RIU on Paradise Island, Bahamas.

It was an ordinary day.  Just getting off the Majestic Tours bus after making stops at about a half dozen other resorts on Paradise Island to deliver passengers and luggage.  Paradise Island is a man-made island about 100 yards off the coast of New Providence, Bahamas directly across from Nassau, the capital city of New Providence Island.  Our stop is the final stop as we empty the bus and head to check in at the RIU Resort.  The RIU Resort and Hotel is a Spanish hotel chain founded by the Riu family as a small holiday firm in 1953.  There are over 100 RIU Resorts in 19 countries with many of them being all-inclusive, such as the one we are standing in right now. Carol and I as well as traveling buddies Jerry and Just Sue seem to be the only new travelers arriving at the moment so we check in quickly and in no time are in room 301 with our friends across the hall in 302.

Main desk at the RIU.

This building has 14 floors with the top being assigned #15, since there is no #13th floor.  A few notes about the resort.  The bedroom is roomy with dresser and TV as well as a full-size sofa with a table and side chairs.  Fridge is closeby with Rum, Vodka, Gin and a bottle of red wine in a cabinet above it.  

The lobby with the bar in the right rear.

All is included in the price of our room. Bathroom is adequate, but my wife loves the 10X mirror that is mounted to the wall above the sink.  Big closet with safe are on one side of the room and the other side has a sliding door that leads onto a small balcony.  Only bad feature is the view ..... or lack of one I should say.  We looked out over the roof of the lobby under us, two floors below.  

The nightclub and lounge

We barely could see the ocean.  The resort's lobby had a very large bar at one end of it with an exit closeby that led to the pool and beach.  Other doorways in the lobby led to the nightclub/lounge, gift shop, and restaurants.  There was one large restaurant that housed the large buffet as well as four smaller restaurants which were speciality restaurants.  

The main dining room.

Meals in all of them were included in the price of our stay.  The pool was adequate, but was frequented by mostly younger rowdy travel- ers who we came on vacation to escape.  The beach was much the same with annoying vendors and jet ski/powerboat owners trying to out-yell their competition for the clientele advantage.  

Pool area and beach as seen from the roof. Found a
door on the 15th floor that left me out onto the roof.

One thing that was nice was the beautiful beach sand and water.  That was until after the first two days when the water became treacherous and the red flag was posted.  That lasted for 10 days, two days before we were were to come home.  Our home base, the RIU, did provide us with a great second home for all our adventures on Paradise Island as well as in Nassau and in the sea around the islands.  

The beach in front of the RIU.  Packed and noisy.

Check out the other stories I have posted and will post regarding our journeys during our two-week stay in the Bahamas.  It was an- other extra- ordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Checkout the additional photos, remembering that you can click on them to enlarge the size.

The Jetski and Boat vendors were not only loud, but dangerous.  Carol had a close call while in the water when a Jetski renter didn't know how to operate it and almost hit her.

Another shot from the roof looking towards Nassau.  You can see the two bridges on the left side of the photo.  One took you into Nassau while the other brought you back to Paradise Island.

Just Sue and Carol adledgly reading on the beach.

Our away-from-home adopted cat we called "Tiger."

LDub feeding the fish.  I tried to find an area where there were few bathers and using my lunchtime cookies from lunch, broke them into pieces and fed them to the fish.  Here I was able to pick two right out of the water.  I would get close to 100 fish each time I fed them.