Hotel Riu Palace Aruba

Riu Palace Aruba reopened on July 31, 2026, after a four-month shutdown and a roughly $110 million rebuild, and the reason it belongs in this directory is the Elite Club — a physically separate adults-only section, 18 and over, carved into a resort that otherwise runs a kids’ club.

The water is the point, and it is all on one side of that line. Thirty-one rooms were added with private pools and swim-up access, and every one of them sits inside Elite Club. The categories that carry it are the Jr. Suite Swim Up and Suite Swim Up — your terrace opens onto your own water rather than a channel shared across the property. Elite Club also holds its own pool area with Balinese beds on a solarium terrace, a roped-off stretch of Palm Beach with self-serve bar service, its own restaurant, an à la carte breakfast room, a lounge pouring premium brands, and priority booking everywhere else on site. Book outside Elite Club and none of that is yours, including the swim-up rooms — this is a wing, not an address.

The rebuild reshaped the rest too. The garden and pool area was completely restructured, all rooms were refurbished in brighter tones, and the dining list is effectively new: a steakhouse, Milano for Italian, Sayuri for Asian, and Krystal for fusion, with Pepe’s Food and Tiki Taco for casual, plus a sports bar alongside the Daiquiri and plaza bars.

The honest caveats are the ones a two-month-old reopening earns, and they are not small. There is no track record yet. Early guests report real construction defects, including rooms without hot water, along with noise, some buildings without elevators, and a widely-held view that staffing and food quality were trimmed to absorb the cost of the rebuild. Specific to the reason you would book here: Elite Club guests report promised perks not materialising — the same complaint that follows the Elite tier at its sister property up the beach. Dining runs first-come-first-served rather than on reservations, which bites hardest when the specialty rooms fill.

Come for genuinely private water inside an adults-only wing on Palm Beach, at Riu pricing rather than Sandals pricing. Wait a season if you want the rebuild to settle, and price Elite Club on the room itself rather than on the perk list.