When to Visit Each RIU Destination: A Season-by-Season Guide

Mexico's Pacific and Caribbean Coasts

Mexico's coastlines split into two distinct climate zones. On the Pacific side, Puerto Vallarta (home to Hotel Riu Palace Pacifico and Hotel Riu Jalisco), Cabo San Lucas (Hotel Riu Palace Baja California), and Mazatlan (Hotel Riu Emerald Bay) see a dry season roughly from late fall through spring, with a summer rainy season bringing humidity and occasional tropical storms, especially from June through October.

On the Caribbean side, Cancún (Hotel Riu Palace Kukulkan, Hotel Riu Cancun, Hotel Riu Caribe, Hotel Riu Latino), Costa Mujeres (Hotel Riu Dunamar), and Playa Del Carmen (Hotel Riu Palace Riviera Maya, Hotel Riu Lupita) share the same general Atlantic hurricane season window, June to November, with peak storm risk typically concentrated in late summer and early fall. Winter and early spring bring drier weather and steadier trade winds, which is why that period is the busiest and why it pays to book well ahead if you want a specific room category.

Sargassum seaweed can affect beach conditions on the Caribbean coast in some years, more commonly in summer months. If a clean beach is a priority, check recent conditions before locking in dates, since it varies year to year and even week to week.

Punta Cana, Jamaica, and the Bahamas

Punta Cana (Hotel Riu Palace Macao, Hotel Riu Bambu, Hotel Riu Palace Bavaro) sits on the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic and follows the same Caribbean hurricane season pattern as Mexico's Caribbean coast. Winter through spring is the classic high season for both weather and demand.

Jamaica's north coast resorts, Montego Bay (Hotel Riu Palace Jamaica, Hotel Riu Montego Bay, Hotel Riu Palace Aquarelle), Negril (Hotel Riu Negril), and Ocho Rios (Hotel Riu Ocho Rios), run on a similar tropical calendar: a drier stretch in winter and spring, a wetter and more storm-prone stretch from summer into fall.

Nassau and Paradise Island in the Bahamas (Hotel Riu Palace Paradise Island) are also within the Atlantic hurricane belt. Because the Bahamas sit further north than the other Caribbean destinations, winter days can feel noticeably cooler for swimming, so late spring through early summer is worth considering if warm water matters more to you than avoiding the absolute peak crowd season.

Aruba (Hotel Riu Palace Aruba, Hotel Riu Palace Antillas) is the outlier in this group: it sits outside the main hurricane belt and has a drier climate year-round, which makes it a more flexible choice if you're traveling in summer or early fall and want to sidestep storm risk elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Costa Rica and Panama

Costa Rica's Guanacaste province (Hotel Riu Palace Costa Rica in Guanacaste and Hotel Riu Guanacaste in El Ocotal) has a defined dry season, roughly December through April, when the region's dry tropical forest lives up to its name. The rest of the year is the green season, with more frequent afternoon rain, lower prices generally, and lusher landscapes.

Rio Hato, Panama (Hotel Riu Playa Blanca) follows a broadly similar two-season pattern to Guanacaste: a dry stretch in the winter and early spring months, a wetter stretch through summer and fall.

Both destinations are good candidates for shoulder-season travel. Rain in the green season tends to arrive in afternoon bursts rather than lasting all day, so mornings are often clear even outside the dry season.

Riu Plaza City Hotels: New York, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Madrid, Berlin, Dublin

The Riu Plaza city hotels operate on a completely different logic from the beach resorts: weather still matters, but so do events, conventions, and school holidays, which can move demand independently of the season.

New York, Chicago, and Berlin have four distinct seasons, with cold winters and warm, humid-to-mild summers. Spring and fall are generally the most comfortable for walking around, though winter can bring lower demand outside the holiday weeks.

Miami runs on a subtropical calendar closer to the Caribbean resorts: hot and humid summers with an associated storm season, and a milder, drier winter that draws the most visitors.

San Francisco has a mild, fairly stable climate year-round by comparison, with cooler summers than people often expect and its own microclimate of fog; Madrid has hot dry summers and cold winters typical of a continental Spanish city; Dublin stays mild but often wet across most of the year, so packing for rain matters more than picking a specific month.