We have previously stayed at Riu Palace in Playa Del Carmen and the Riu Playacar. This was our 9th trip to AI in Mexico, 1st time in Cabo. The property is gorgeous, expansive and very clean. The service we experienced from check in until check out was excellent. No request was turned down, and everything was completed in a timely manner. The room was adequate and clean. Not huge but plenty for what we needed. I thought the bed was comfortable. If you like hot water, you will not be disappointed, it was some of the hottest water I have ever experienced in a hotel. Front desk gave me a code for WIFI good for the entire trip. Only one device could use the code at a time. The connection was consistent and very strong in the lobby, pretty good in the room and no signal near the pool or pool restaurants. Drinks were delicious and strong! We did not see any of the shows so I cant really comment on the entertainment.
Room for improvement: Tons of food available and well presented, but to me the quality was not there, and nothing tasted great. I don't eat seafood but my husband does and he liked the seafood. The ala carte Krystal was pretty bad. Mexican was Ok. Steak was prob my fave but just average. Even desserts were blah. There was a strolling quartet in that restaurant which was a lovely touch.
Our room was 1 floor up but open to the lobby. There was a lot of noise during the day while in the room if you want to nap or anything. I noticed there is no fan option on the AC or anything if you like white noise, no bathroom fan either, so that was one minor complaint.
Plenty of towels daily, we had towel animals or flower petals daily. Champagne was sent up for our anniversary too.

Beach is difficult to walk, near impossible without shoes and if you are not in good shape. Water is rough and I really didnt see anyone in the water. If that is a deal breaker you may be disappointed. There are multiple pools, infinity, jacuzzi, smaller private pools...which we used daily.
We loved downtown Cabo and took a taxi there many nights for entertainment and meals.

So, here's the deal -- I am used to going to Hawaii and staying at my aunt's house, which is a very different sort of tropical experience....less party, more relaxing.

If you are an all-inclusive pro or love the vibe of the main strip of CSL, then my review will probably not interest you.

If you are unfamiliar with all-inclusive or have not been to CSL, then maybe my experience will be helpful.

Two of my friends found a deal with Apple Vacations to go the Riu Palace, so I went with it. We went in August when it was incredibly hot, so there were few people around, which resulted in an upgrade to a first-floor ocean-side room.

Our room was great for hot weather - tile floors, heavy curtains, aggressive (adjustable) air conditioning. Housekeeping was excellent and thorough. Sound-proofing was good. Bathroom was huge. Exactly what I wanted me room to be.

What I was not expecting in the room was the built-in liquor dispenser -- endless rum, tequila, and something else (I think.) My inner 19-year old got very excited about this, but my adult self worried that the halls would be crawling with drunk 19-year olds. Fortunately (maybe because it was the off-season?), they were not and the hotel was relatively quiet.

The theme of Riu Palace was "endless everything you can put in your tummy" -- want a pork-chop at 3pm? ice cream at 2am? are you too lazy to get your own pina colada and need someone to literally step into the pool to bring it to you? All these things and more are yours for the taking.

Are you looking for authentic regional cuisine in an intimate environment? This is DEFINITELY NOT the place for you. Rather, they strive to offer comforting quantity of familiar foods, and they succeed. All without you ever having to leave your partially-submerged pool chaise.

There is the unavoidable general ickiness of staying in a super-touristy location: a man swam after me into the ocean to try to sell me bracelets, and when I told him that I obviously had no money on me ***because I was swimming*** he changed tactics and asked if I had a boyfriend. Not exactly the relaxing swim I had hoped for, but that's what you get for staying right along the tourist strip, albeit toward the end. I'm sure it's way worse in the middle of the strip, which is why some of the other hotels have little areas in the sand that the peddlers are not allowed to walk. Which also weirds me out.

More specific to Riu Palace, the shore in front of the hotel had a vicious break when I was there -- my friends and I didn't swim in front of the hotel at all because the pull of the waves was so strong. The pool itself was fine, with the infinity edges and fountains being a nice touch.

Anything that wasn't part of the all-inclusive, like snorkel gear or a shuttle ride, was not a great experience. For example, the woman who sold us our snorkel gear charged us for two sets when we bought one, and when I pointed this out, she denied it and refused to give us a refund. We took a shuttle in front of the hotel about 3 miles down the road to a drug store. The ride there and back was $15!!!! Let it be known that if it's not already paid for, people will proactively work to rip you off. Paying in pesos makes it easier to get less ripped off, as an aside.

With that said, Riu Palace did a good job delivering on its promise of an affordable, all-inclusive vacation. I simply now realize that all-inclusive is not the route for me, how important a swimmable beach is for my needs, and that CSL is not my idea of paradise.

My cousin and I stayed at this resort for 7 days, and let me tell you that we were very disappointed with the Riu Palace. The Riu chain is supposed to be one of the best, but this resort is far from a "5 star". I travel every year and this was the worst resort that I have ever stayed at.

The only good things about this resort were the property, the pools and the bars. The grounds are very beautiful and kept very clean.

The beach and ocean is beautiful as well, but the sand on the beach is not the greatest. However, as you get closer to the ocean the sand is much nicer.

The staff other than the front desk are very nice, and they work very hard to please everyone.

The check-in at this resort was smooth, I can't complain about that. However, I did have problems with my room. I had to change my room twice. The first room had a bad odour. The second room there was just too much noise. The mattress was horrible, and the sheets were not always clean. The couch in the room was also dirty.

The other big problem this resort seemed to have was the quality of the food, and the variety. I found that the quality of the food was poor and there was not much variety. I spoke to other individuals and they felt the same way about the food. I did not go to any of the restaurants, as the other individuals I spoke to said the food was not any better than the buffet. Thank god for Walmart, Burger King, McDonalds, and Dominos Pizza.

I understand that you can't please everyone, but this resort needs some major improvements.

This was our first time in Cabo San Lucas. We did a lot of research before booking the hotel. The reviews on TripAdvisor were mixed but very helpful. In the end, we made the right choice and would go back to this hotel. The staffs were friendly and spoke English. The service in the restaurants and bars was great.
They have four restaurants. We only had time to try Krystal (French Italian fusion), Steakhouse and La Toscana (Mexican) restaurants. The best was Krystal. Krystal only has 30 seats so they only take reservation for that day. Reservation desk opens at 7AM. The buffet restaurants had varieties of food and the majority of then was delicious.
At the bars, they have Absolute, Barcardi, Don Julio, Dos Equis, etc. They also have the best margarita mix. Their drinking water is Evian water. Their coffee is horrible so you should try their cappuccino.
The hotel is in a great location. It only took us 25 minutes to walk on the beach to town and 10 minutes to cab back to the hotel. The beach wasn’t crowded with local vendors like the beach near town. The water was also less congested with jet skiers, water taxi and people swimming.
There are some cons with the hotel. The sheet has two stains (red lipstick and yellow stain). The bed was hard. The bathroom smelled like mildew. Entertainment at night ended at 10PM. The ATM doesn’t take AMEX. Luckily, we didn’t live in our room.
Surprisingly, the hotel has travel agents from Expedia, Orbitz and Hotelbeds. They were station in the piano lounge bar. This was a bonus because the Expedia agent, Carlos, was extremely helpful with issues/concerns that were unrelated to the hotel or Expedia service.
Word of advice, the hotel does not offer shuttle service to/from airport. If you book your trip through an online travel agency like Expedia, you should also book your transportation through them. It’ll save you the headache. We didn’t know this so we booked it through Cabos Express. It cost us USD $96 plus tip for a one-way private car ride instead of round-trip. There’s a phone number on their website but we never connected to a v-mail or a live person. Adrian Lucero at Cabos Express only responded to e-mail and his lack of English cost us $96 instead of $14. Never again.
Here’s another advice, bring lots of one dollar bills or try to get changes. We couldn’t break the $20 peso at the front desk and got a snarky comment that no like changes. At the time, USD $1.00 was worth $13.00 peso so it was cheaper to tip the cabbies USD dollar bill.


Hope this helps.