My boyfriend and I really had a wonderful vacation overall at the Riu Palace. However we wanted to prepare ourselves prior to arriving at our destinations for 9 days, so we read up on the reviews. The concensus we saw was that everyone said "don't have the highest of expecations". We took ithis into mind and found it to be true. Even though Cabo is upscale for most of the other mexican destintanations out there, it is still Mexico, not Maui, so you just have to know that there are things just done differently than some would expect from other nice hotels.

In all the hotel is wonderfully landscaped and located. You will notice that it is a quick cab ride down to the marina, probably about $15 - 20 roundtrip. The staff is very friendly and helpful and if you're not one for really leaving the resort they create an agenda of activities daily/nightly for the guests to enjoy. Some of their caborey shows were cheesy but it was entertaining to say the least.

The pools, grounds, and view are so wonderful. We met a lot of visitors who came over from the new Riu hotel (Riu Santa Fe or something like that) who said the Palace is a much nicer place to stay so they ended up swapping their reservations to the Palace. They also said if you have a bracelet from the Palace you can go over to the Santa Fe pool but they can't come over to the Palace. The Riu Palace have two major pools and a couple swim up bars which were a ton of fun and again gave beautiful views to the beach and the famous Arch. Bottled water is always available whether it is in your room each day or at the bar., same goes with the alcohol. You will notice that the staff is constantly doing upkeep and maintenance to the hotel. Whether it is painting, replacing tiles, landscaping etc. They are always at work. Which is a good thing because it makes the place beautiful each day. This got in our way a few times though when they would shut down a common walkway for maintenance during the busiest traffic part of the day. So we learned the walkways of the hotel early in the beginning which helped us in the end in figuring out where to go. The hotel is quite large! So it is nice to venture out to the different areas of the hotel.

Everything is inclusive, so some may really like to take advantage of this. And if you are with a large group who likes to eat a lot and drink then you will find this completely worth it. They have a breakfast buffet in the morning and have food available at lunch, again buffet style, in a few remote areas of the hotel and for dinner you can either choose to eat at one of their restaurants (you need to get reservations for this a day or two in advance) or eat at their dinner buffet. All of which is good food. They offer variety of dishes at the dinner buffet as well as they have a different cusine theme each night i.e. Italian, Authentic Mexican, asian etc. at the buffet.

We personally are more of the sit down and dine kind of people and found this to be annoying that in order to eat at one of their actual restaurants you had to wait in line a couple days in advance early in the day to even get reservations. Because of this we found ourselves not taking advantage of the 'all inclusive' but instead venturing out to areas like the marina for dinner. It is easy to get burnt out on buffets during a long stay like ours. However we did end up trying just a few of their restaurants at the hotel during the trip, all which we felt were good except we did not enjoy their Sushi Restuarant that much. We love sushi and in the case you are too, we would not recommend eating here. If you don't eat sushi very much then you may find it to be an enjoyable meal. Their presentation is always nice though and make sure to tip at these restaurants.

One thing we noticed is that many people have said on past reviews that they were given the wrong bed than what they reserved. Well the same exact thing happen to us. We are not ones to cause a fight but made them aware that they gave us a room with two double beds pushed together to look like a King. We found this funny actually. That evening they did not have the correct room available to move us but instead had a maid come down and put a padding between the crack of the two beds to make it more comfortable. We had an awesome view of the Arch and the beach, so given that we were hardly going to even be in the room during the day and that we had a great view in return we decided to never change rooms the entire trip after all. It just wasn't important to us since we had an amazing view in return and didn't want to hassel with picking up and moving. We did meet some couples at the pool who said the same thing happen to them and they put a huge fight and got the right room with the right bed with the amazing view. That wasn't our thing, and is probably unlikely to get both, since most ocean front rooms are the suites (not jr suites like we all had reserved) but sounds like it worked for them.

Everything else was great, at the resort the bars make great drinks the location is ideal, the beaches and pools were relaxing and the grounds are gorgeous at the Palace. The package we reserved was a GREAT deal and that even included the 'all inclusive'. If you can get over the little things, this place can make for a wonderful and most importantly relaxing tropical vacation. We recommend the Riu and hope this will be helpful in your decison!

I mistakenly put this on the wrong place. The place with no security is the Riu Palace in Cabo San Lucas. Not only did I have a theft problem, but others we spoke to did as well. The hotel is totally uninterested. Plus, the food is not good. I have traveled in Mexico staying at beach hotels for 30 years and this is the first time I have ever felt the hotel was uninterested and there was no security.

Without getting into all the little details about the RIU Palace - Cabo, all I want to say is "I've been traveling to All-Inclusive Resorts for over 10 years and this is the BEST EVER". Anyone that complains about this resort doesn't know what some of the other 5 Star Resorts are like, I've been to 5 Star's in Cuba, the DR, Cancun, Myan Riveria, etc. and this is the BEST.

The people were great, our Ocean View Junior Suite was great, the Food was great, the Booze was top shelf all the way. My wife and friends always tell me I can be a handful on these trips if I don't like something about a Resort, well this trip I had absolutely nothing to complain about.

If anything (and I pushing it now) the Resort has a lot of stairs to climb to get to the Lobby, Lobby Bar, etc. By the end of our 1 week stay I was actually ok with the stairs, the first few days it was a chore (I'm basically lazy & out of shape).

Went into Cabo twice and that was just great as well, plenty of Cabs around so there was no waiting. The temp was just to my liking 80 degrees, sunny not a cloud in the sky, gentle breeze and NO HUMIDITY, you die in the DR from the humidity.

If your thinking of an All-Inclusive vacation and have never been to Cabo this is the spot, it's well worth the money. As I said, I'm a veteran of All Inclusive's and I travel the world on business and this was one great vacation. We would go back to this Resort in a heart beat, so to all the whinners out there, "travel a little and see what you get at a 5 Star Resort in other Countries and then tell me this place isn't the best you've been to".

I said I won't get into details about the little things, but the reviews about the drinks being "weak", what are you guy's booze hounds? Every night my wife would get a Bailey's to take back to the room and they gave it to her in a water tumbler (about 6 ozs.) They free poured the booze and I had to ask for more mix! They offered four (4) different red wines that were great, along with a variety of whites that my wife said were great as well. Also, if you're a golfer the Cabo Country Club is close and OK, I didn't care for it because I played terrible (3 times) the greens were very hard to read and the pin placement was downright un-fair (side of a slope). I could hit the green in regulation and then three (3) putt from six (6) feet, not Resort golf friendly on the greens, more like US Open pin locations (in my opinion).

Also, if you take the water taxi to see the arch & lover's beach have good dental insurance, it's a real chore to jump onto the bobbing boat in 8 foot waves and I thought someone was going to lose some teeth getting in or out. Once over there it's well worth the 12 bucks, just a little hairy getting there...almost like a commerical for the Marines landing on a stormy beach "It's not a job, it's an adventure"!

Hope the above is informative, if you want any details drop me an email and if you go, I know you'll enjoy the RUI Palace - Cabo!

Off the plance was an overwhelming experience with locals trying to act like they were were our transportation. I was glad that my agent had warned me before I arrived of this trick!

Arrival:
The check in was quick, but little information was given about reservation making and no direction or luggage help was given to our room.

Food:
At the beginning the food was OK, but after a few meals, I got sick of deep fired almost everything! If you are a healthy eater, this is not the place for you!

Food Staff:
They can be lazy and take a long time to bring you coffee at breakfast & some men made not appropriate comments to my friend and I.

Dinner Reservations:
These were an absolute joke and a waste of your vacation time!
The front desk tells you to line up at 10am and that you can make only two nights reservations at a time... when you arrive at 10, you find out that the numbers have already been handed out half an hour ago for the line up to make your reservation! People start lining up at 9 and wait up to 2 hours just to make a dinner reservation. I heard many people complain that they could never get the restaurant they wanted because it was booked.

Cleaning & Maintenance staff:
Turns out that Maintanence staff shows up without warning and they don't listen when you tell them there is nothing wrong.
The cleaning staff was also found in our closet one day & another day our clothes were moved to different shelves and ARTICLES OF CLOTHING WERE STOLEN. When this was reported, all that was said was that the cleaners should not be in the closet!!!
They also don't clean the room up very well, and we were left without toilet paper on numerous occasions and had to go source it out ourselves!

Beds:
These are hard and it took a few days to be able to sleep somewhat through the night.

Noise:
The entertainment echos through the resort, so if you like to retire before midnight, you will hear the music.

SMOKING EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yuckl

Bar Fridge:
We had to call daily for our water to be replenished and had to tell them we needed more when they would come.
Not the "replenished daily" that was advertised.

Room Service:
This sucked! Not only was there only 5-8 items on this menu, but when you do get it, it is cold and takes over an hour! Time and heat is of no concern for room service!

Grounds & Pool
The grounds and pool were very nice. About the only good thing this resort has.

All in all, this resort has amazing grounds and the weather was great, but the customer service isn't there and theft is an issue.