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Travel Agent's room during a recent, four-night trip to Riu Palace Paradise Island in The Bahamas |
NASSAU, The Bahamas – I came back from The Bahamas on Sunday afternoon following a four-night trip to see the newly renovated Riu Palace Paradise Island. And, as sad as the conclusion of one of my best trips of 2010 was, the beginning still brings a smile to my face.
I arrived at my room, #1132, a newly renovated Oceanfront Suite located on the second highest floor of the building. The room was pretty big, offering a king-size bed on one side and a couch and living area on the other, with a rotating flat-screen TV separating the two.
The room wasn’t splashed with your traditional bright Caribbean colors, but rather subtle, deep purples. There’s something about dark purple that screams luxury to me.
Ok, maybe it also had a little something to do with the room-length balcony on the outside. I’ve had balconies before that couldn’t even fit a lawn chair. This one stretched from one side of the room to the next, offering not only full ocean views but also views of the property's swimming pool to the left.
The bathroom was pretty nice too. Since the TV can be rotated, you can position it so you can watch it from the bathroom while you get ready, do your hair or take care of other business.
The bottom line was this was one of the best rooms I’ve seen in the Caribbean this year and well worth the time and money RIU spent in improving it. In fact, this was one of 12 suites that were vamped up as part of a massive refurbishment of the resort. Other upgrades included a new restaurant, Krystal (which offers fusion cuisine), new linens and other decorations in all of the 379 total rooms and top shelf liquor in all the rooms as well and more.
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View of the pool from Travel Agent's oceanfront suite at the Riu Palace Paradise Island |
First and foremost, book this resort for couples but you’d be missing out on some clients if you ignored pretty much every other demographic including girls or guys getaways and multigenerational travel. In fact, I brought my brother on this trip and we bonded just as much, if not more, than we did when we celebrated his bachelor party in Vegas. But more on the rest of trip at a later time.
For now, visit www.riu.com and keep visiting www.travelagentcentral.com as I continue to reminisce about my recent trip to paradise.