Hotel Riu Palace Tres Islas

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Quick Verdict

Hotel Riu Palace Tres Islas has a location almost nobody else in the Canaries can match. It stands alone on Grandes Playas, the enormous white-sand beach that runs along the edge of the Corralejo dune field at the northern tip of Fuerteventura — no promenade, no neighbours, no rows of apartment blocks. Step off the sun deck and you are on open sand looking at Isla de Lobos and, beyond it, Lanzarote. That is the whole pitch, and it is a strong one.

It is also a 4-star hotel that opened in 1974, and that is the other half of the story. Guests staying in 2026 describe the same combination over and over: immaculate housekeeping, exceptional staff, decent food — and public areas and rooms that look tired. RIU appears to agree; multiple recent guests report being told the hotel will close in October for a six-to-seven-month refurbishment. RIU has not published those dates publicly, so confirm the hotel is open for your dates before you book anything.

On all-inclusive: this is a genuine all-inclusive rate, not an optional add-on, but RIU also sells the hotel on half board, and the plan here is the standard Canary-Islands local-brand format rather than RIU’s 24-hour premium service. Details below.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Alone on Grandes Playas inside the dunes park	Built 1974; parts of the hotel look their age
Staff quality is exceptional and consistent	Refurbishment closure reported from October
Krystal à la carte restaurant is a real highlight	Only two restaurants in total
Heated pool and heated kids’ pool in winter	Flies around buffet food; no UV fly control
365 rooms — calmer than the big Riu resorts	Lift breakdowns reported in 2026
Renova Spa, sauna, jacuzzi, free gym, tennis	Sunbed-hogging despite stated policy
Free parking and EV charging	No kids’ club — families score it poorly

The Resort at a Glance

Detail	Info
Rooms	365 (730 beds), five floors in the main building
Restaurants	2 — Main Restaurant (buffet, live cooking) and Krystal (à la carte, fusion, dinner only)
Bars	3 — lounge bar, piano bar and pool bar
Pools	2 outdoor (one heated in winter) plus a children’s pool, heated in winter, and a large sun deck
Beach	Directly on Grandes Playas de Corralejo; the water is roughly 100 m from the sun deck
Spa and fitness	Renova Spa, sauna, whirlpool, gym, tennis court with sea views, games room
Airport	Fuerteventura (FUE), roughly 35-40 km — about 35-40 minutes by road
Corralejo town	5 km; bus stop 200 m from the hotel
Opened	1974
Brand	RIU Palace (RIU’s premium tier); officially rated 4-star
Adults-only?	No — but there is no kids’ club
All-inclusive status	True all-inclusive rate; RIU also sells the hotel on half board

Rooms and Suites

Standard rooms

Six categories, and the split is between dune view and sea view.

Double with dune view (28 m², balcony or terrace) looks inland over the Corralejo dunes — which, to be clear, is not a bad view. The dunes are the largest in the Canary Islands and the light on them at sunset is the reason photographers come here. The rooms have a bathtub, hairdryer and bathrobe. This is the cheapest double and, at typical rates, around $5-10 a night below sea view.

Double Room with sea view (28 m², balcony or terrace) is the same footprint facing the Atlantic. Given how small the price gap usually is, take the sea view. Waking up to Grandes Playas and Isla de Lobos is most of what you came for.

Individual Room (no balcony) is a 24 m² single, fully equipped with bath and shower, designed for solo travellers — a category that has largely disappeared from Spanish resorts and one that recent solo and small-group guests specifically praise as well-sized. There is also an accessible room with ocean view (28 m²) with a walk-in shower.

Junior suites

Jr. Suite with sea view (34 m²) adds a separate lounge area to the sea-view double, with a bathtub and full Atlantic views. Jr. Suite Grand Terrace (40 m²) is the top category — the same separate-lounge layout with a substantially larger outdoor terrace. In a hotel this exposed to the Atlantic breeze, a big terrace with a windbreak wall is worth more than it sounds.

Our pick

The Jr. Suite with sea view. It is the smallest step up that buys you both a separate sitting area and the view, and at typical rates it runs roughly $60-70 a night above the dune-view double. If you are staying seven nights or more in winter, the extra indoor space matters on windy afternoons.

Food and Dining

Two restaurants. That is the number, and it is the single biggest structural weakness of this hotel compared with newer Canary Islands all-inclusives.

The buffet

The Main Restaurant handles breakfast, lunch and dinner as a buffet with live cooking stations and themed nights. Recent guests are consistently positive about it — one 2026 review from a self-declared buffet sceptic called it “very good, as buffets go, with plenty of choice”, and specifically praised the wine as decent for an all-inclusive and the cocktails as better than expected.

The recurring criticism is not about the food but about the flies. More than one 2026 guest has described fresh fish and salad sitting on open service trays with flies on them and no UV fly-control lighting anywhere in the restaurant. It is a widely reported issue across several RIU properties in the Canaries, and it is fair to raise it. If it bothers you, eat at the start of service rather than the end.

Note the dress code: long trousers for men at dinner.

Krystal

Krystal is the à la carte gourmet restaurant, open for dinner, serving fusion cuisine across meat, fish and dessert courses. It is included in the all-inclusive and it is the best food in the hotel by a distance. It is also relatively new — a 2026 guest who had stayed before noted it was not open on their previous visit and described it as “a real highlight”. Reserve on arrival; a two-restaurant hotel means Krystal fills fast.

Bars

Three: a lounge bar, a piano bar and a pool bar. The piano bar is the one that gives the hotel its slightly old-school Canarian character — live music and a proper evening room rather than a foam-party terrace. RIU has not published individual bar names for this property.

The all-inclusive drinks are the standard Canary Islands format: local-brand spirits, beer, wine, soft drinks and cocktails, served roughly 10:30 to 01:00 according to tour-operator fact sheets. This is not RIU’s 24-hour all-inclusive service, which the brand runs at some other Palace properties. If premium imported spirits matter to you, read our guide to what all-inclusive alcohol actually covers — in Spain, “included” almost always means local brands unless a hotel says otherwise.

Food quality verdict

Good food, thin choice. Seven nights across one buffet and one à la carte is a stretch, and it is the main reason people who love the location still only come for four or five nights. Corralejo town, 5 km away, has a genuinely good restaurant scene if you want a night off — the bus stop is 200 m from the door.

Beach and Pools

The beach

Grandes Playas is one of the best beaches in the Canary Islands and arguably the best in Spain: several kilometres of pale sand backed by the protected Corralejo dune field, with turquoise water and Isla de Lobos sitting a short boat ride offshore. Tres Islas stands on it directly, with roughly 100 m of sand between the sun deck and the water.

Two things to understand about this beach. First, it is windy — this is the northern tip of Fuerteventura and the trade winds are constant, which is exactly why the island is a world windsurfing and kitesurfing destination. Bring a windbreak or book a sheltered terrace. Second, it is a natural beach inside a national park, which means no promenade, no bars, no vendors and no shade beyond what you bring or rent. That is the trade-off for having the best address on the island.

Diving and windsurfing operate directly from the beach; banana boat, jet ski and waterskiing are available locally.

Pools

Two outdoor freshwater pools plus a children’s pool, surrounded by palms and a large sun deck with loungers and parasols. One of the outdoor pools and the children’s pool are heated in winter, which is the detail that makes Tres Islas a credible December-to-March booking rather than a summer-only one — plenty of Canary Islands hotels advertise winter sun and then leave you shivering at the pool edge.

The honest problem here is sunbeds. Multiple 2026 guests report people laying towels out at dawn despite the hotel’s published policy against reserving beds, and no visible enforcement. If a lounger at 10am matters to you, plan accordingly.

Activities and Entertainment

Daytime

This is a quiet hotel by RIU standards, and it markets itself that way — “an oasis of calm by the sea”. The activity offer is a tennis court with sea views, a gym, a games room, table tennis, and the water sports on the beach. There is no water park, no lazy river, no climbing wall. What there is instead is one of the best windsurfing, kitesurfing and diving locations in Europe, twenty steps from your sun lounger, and a dune field you can walk into for miles.

Off site, Corralejo town is 5 km away for shops, bars and restaurants; the ferry to Isla de Lobos and to Playa Blanca on Lanzarote leaves from Corralejo harbour; and there are two golf courses within reach.

Evening

Shows and live music every evening, plus the piano bar. It is gentle, adult-leaning entertainment — cabaret and live musicians rather than high-energy animation teams. Guests who want a lively night go into Corralejo.

Kids

There is a heated children’s pool and childcare can be arranged, but there is no kids’ club and no RIU Land — the brand’s children’s programme runs at other RIU properties in the Canaries but not here. Family reviewers score this hotel’s child-friendliness poorly (5.1 out of 10 on Zoover), which is consistent with a 1974-built adults-leaning property with no kids’ programming. If you are travelling with children, look at Iberostar Selection Fuerteventura Palace instead, or read our best all-inclusive resorts for families guide.

Spa and Wellness

Renova Spa is RIU’s in-house wellness brand and it operates here on a paid-treatment basis: massages and beauty treatments, alongside a sauna and a whirlpool bath. The gym is free, as is the tennis court. There is a hairdresser and a boutique on site.

It is a modest spa rather than a destination one — no hammam, no thermal circuit, no thalasso. For a serious spa week in the Canaries you would look elsewhere; for an hour’s massage after a windy day on the beach, it does the job.

What’s Included vs Extra

Included in the rate	Costs extra
All-inclusive: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks	Spa treatments and massages at Renova Spa
Krystal à la carte dinner (reservation recommended)	Premium and imported spirits beyond the local-brand list
Local-brand spirits, beer, wine, soft drinks, cocktails (approx. 10:30-01:00)	Motorized water sports, diving, boat trips, golf
Two outdoor pools, one heated in winter	Airport transfers
Children’s pool, heated in winter	Hairdresser, boutique, laundry
Sun deck loungers and parasols	Room service (where available)
Gym, tennis court, games room, table tennis	Canary Islands accommodation tax, payable locally
Nightly shows and live music, piano bar	Car hire (available on site)
Wi-Fi throughout the hotel
Free parking with EV charging points

Be clear on the all-inclusive status: the all-inclusive here is a real rate plan, included in the price you book — but RIU sells this hotel on half board too, and the two look similar on booking sites. Check which board basis you are actually buying. And unlike some RIU Palace properties, this is not a 24-hour all-inclusive; service windows apply. Tipping is not expected in the Canaries and service is included, though the staff here earn it — see our all-inclusive tipping guide.

Pricing and How to Book

Fuerteventura’s pricing is inverted compared with the Caribbean: winter is high season, because northern Europe is escaping the cold, and the shoulder months are the bargains.

Season	Typical nightly rate (2 adults, all-inclusive)	Notes
May – June	$135-175	Best value of the year; warm, windy, uncrowded
July – August	$180-230	Spanish and mainland-European holidays; busy
September – October	$150-190	Warmest sea, excellent conditions
November – mid-December	$140-180	Quiet, mild, heated pools running
Christmas and New Year	$220-320	Peak. Book by summer
January – March	$170-260	Northern-European winter-sun season; strong demand

Rates change with season and availability — confirm the current rate and exactly what’s included before you book.

Best time to book

For Christmas, New Year and February half-term, book six to nine months ahead — the sea-view categories in a 365-room hotel are not a deep pool. For May, June and October you can usually book eight to ten weeks out.

More important than timing: check the refurbishment. Guests staying in 2026 report being told the hotel closes in October for six to seven months of refurbishment. RIU has not published a closure notice or reopening date, and we could not verify the dates from any official source. Before you book anything from October onwards, call the hotel on +34 928 53 57 00 or confirm in writing with your tour operator.

Where to book

Compare riu.com directly against your usual OTA. RIU’s own loyalty programme, RIU Class, gives repeat guests discounts and occasional free transfers, and RIU frequently runs direct-only rates. If you are booking as part of a package from the UK, Ireland or Germany, the tour-operator price including flights and transfers is often cheaper than assembling it yourself — and the operator will know the refurbishment dates.

Compared to Nearby Resorts

Iberostar Selection Fuerteventura Palace in Jandía, at the southern end of the island, is the stronger all-round resort: four pools, a wellness programme, teppanyaki, a Star Prestige adults-only enclave and a premium drinks list, from around $170. It is newer, better-equipped and better for families. What it does not have is the Corralejo dunes. If facilities matter more than address, book Iberostar.

H10 Playa Esmeralda in Costa Calma is the adults-only budget play, from around $110, with a long white beach, indoor pool, hot tub, sauna and Turkish bath. It is the cheapest credible all-inclusive on the island and it is child-free — a completely different proposition from Tres Islas, which is technically all-ages but has no kids’ programming.

Tres Islas wins on one axis and one axis only: nobody else puts you inside the Grandes Playas dunes. For everything else — food variety, room condition, facilities — the newer resorts are ahead. See our Fuerteventura sub-hub and the wider Spain all-inclusive guide for the full comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Riu Palace Tres Islas all-inclusive?

Yes, but check what you are booking. RIU sells this hotel on both an all-inclusive basis and a half-board basis, and the two appear side by side on booking sites. The all-inclusive rate covers breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and a local-brand drinks list — beer, wine, soft drinks, spirits and cocktails — served roughly 10:30 to 01:00 according to tour-operator fact sheets. It is not a 24-hour all-inclusive plan, and premium imported spirits are not part of the standard list.

Is Riu Palace Tres Islas closing for refurbishment?

Guests staying in 2026 report being told by hotel staff that the hotel is due to close in October for a six-to-seven-month refurbishment. RIU has not published a closure notice, a start date or a reopening date, and we were unable to confirm the dates from any official source. Given the 1974 build date and the number of reviews describing the hotel as tired, a renovation is entirely plausible — but treat the dates as unconfirmed and verify directly before booking anything from autumn onwards.

Is it adults-only?

No. Riu Palace Tres Islas accepts all ages and has a heated children’s pool. But there is no kids’ club and no RIU Land, the brand’s children’s programme, and family guests rate its child-friendliness poorly. In practice it functions as an adult-leaning hotel. If you want a genuinely adults-only Fuerteventura all-inclusive, H10 Playa Esmeralda is the direct alternative.

How far is the hotel from Corralejo town and the airport?

Corralejo town centre is about 5 km away, with a bus stop 200 m from the hotel entrance — the bus is cheap, frequent and the easiest way in for dinner or the Isla de Lobos ferry. Fuerteventura airport (FUE) is roughly 35-40 km south, about a 35-40 minute drive. Free on-site parking and EV charging points are available if you hire a car.

Is the beach good for swimming?

Grandes Playas is beautiful and the water is clear, but this is the exposed northern tip of Fuerteventura and it is genuinely windy most days — that is why the island is a world-class windsurfing and kitesurfing destination. Some days the sea is calm and glorious; others it is choppy with a real shore break. There are no lifeguard-patrolled lagoons here. If you want guaranteed flat water, use the pools, one of which is heated in winter.

How many restaurants does it have?

Two: the Main Restaurant, which is the buffet with live cooking stations, and Krystal, the à la carte fusion restaurant open for dinner and included in the all-inclusive. That is a thin offer for a seven-night stay, and it is the most common structural complaint about the hotel. Corralejo, 5 km away, has a strong independent restaurant scene if you want variety.

Final Verdict: 7.7 out of 10

Riu Palace Tres Islas is a hotel you book for its address and its staff. Standing alone on Grandes Playas inside the Corralejo dunes national park, with Isla de Lobos on the horizon and no development in any direction, is something no newer resort on Fuerteventura can offer — and the team here get praised in review after review with a warmth that reads as genuine rather than solicited. Add a heated pool that actually works in January, a Renova Spa, free tennis and gym, and Krystal, which punches well above what a two-restaurant hotel should manage, and $135-260 a night is fair.

What holds it back is the building. It went up in 1974 and 2026 guests keep using the same word: tired. Lifts fail. Flies circle the buffet. There are only two places to eat. And the refurbishment that will almost certainly fix the first three problems will also, according to guests, close the hotel for the best part of two seasons — with no published dates.

Book it if you want the best beach position in the Canary Islands, you are travelling as a couple or with older teenagers, and you plan on four to seven nights rather than a fortnight. Skip it if you need dining variety, a kids’ club, or a hotel you can book for October onwards without making a phone call first. Compare it against the rest of the island on our Fuerteventura page and the wider Spain all-inclusive hub.