We stayed at the Riu Palace in Cabo all of last week and loved it. We read the previous reviews about the theft and poor food, but experienced neither. When we arrived, we were welcomed warmly by staff and immediately upgraded to an ocean front room. About 15 minutes later, the front desk called to make sure we were happy with our room. It was a little small -- with two double beds for ourselves and 2 children, but it worked. It was either that or a king bed and pull our couch. The room was to the side, very quiet and front on view of ocean. The room was beautifully cleaned every day, and we received chocolates and turn down service every evening. One night, there was even a towel swan sculpture on the bed. On the advice on the site, we brought about $80 in $1 bills and handed them out as thank you's wherever we received good service. It really helped!

We didn't bring anything valuable, kept the passports in the safe and locked our luggage to avoid a disappointing theft.

The food and drinks were a definite high point of the trip. We never tired of the different offerings at the buffet, and the kids always found somehting they enjoyed. We all loved the pina coladas, mojitos, mexican coffees etc. that kept coming our way at the pool. The staff even made the children virgin versions of the drinks without being asked first.

The evening entertainment was fun, though the children's program would probably be annoyingly boring if you have no kids. The 9:30 shows were fun, especially the dance numbers, though two of the nights had "frat type" drinking games that were best suited for the 20's crowd. There are lots of tourist wares being sold at night by the stage area, and if the roaming photographer took photos of you during the day, you could buy those in the same area in the evening.

The beach was nice, the ocean a little strong, and the vendors did not bug us if we just said "no, gracias." It was easy. Lots of horses running back and forth -- I think it was $25 a tour.

One day there was a cooking tour, where we were taken into all the different kitchen areas of the hotel, then given lessons on cooking some of the Mexican dishes. This was a fun, educational diversion.

I'd recommend this hotel. Lock up your stuff, bring money for tips to ensure continual excellent service, and enjoy your vacation.

My husband and I just got back from 2 weeks at the Riu Palace and had the best time. We were kind of worried about our choice when we read review of theft,,,, but if your not smart enough to keep you safe key on you the whole time of your stay. Your leaving youself open for theft.
We had 2 weeks to find problems and found only one...The margrita's were to sweet...Yep that was our biggest complaint.
If you have any issue, I suggest you go see Vincent (hotel manager) the english, bald man. Great Great guy. We loved our waitress Ceci for breakfast and for dinner Benito is outstanding.
My husband went down to the buffet to get a bottle of champagne to surprise me, but when he went to get it Vincent had it sent to our room with strawberries. So from that night on we had Champagne and strawberries on our balcony every night...
We enjoyed the Gourmet restaurant the best. I had the best lamb I ever and the best chocolate dessert is there also.
We took day trip's to town and kayak and snorkled at Santa Maria and Chileno Bay. Our guides Matt and Moses took PINK (singer) out the day before us. We ate fish taco's at Taco Loco and had margirita's at Cabo Wabo.
Would we go back?? Absolutely, without thinking about it twice..

We went with 3 families and stayed 12 Apr-19 Apr. The rooms are immaculate, views spectacular, food sensational. We kept any valuables locked in the safe so had no theft problems. Only complaint was the ridiculous system for booking a restaurant reservation, and they could use more restrooms by the pools. Also, did not feel safe swimming at the beach due to incredibly huge waves, but pools were fabulous. I would recommend this hotel to friends.

We just got back from the Riu Place Cabo San Lucas and we can't wait to go back. My finance and I were so impressed with it there that we've decided to get married there next year!

Check-in: We arrived at the hotel at around 11:30am, so our room wasn't ready yet. So they gave us all of our room info and told us to go have a drink, get something to eat and come back in an hour. By the time we ate and walked around a bit the room was ready.

Food: Amazing. The buffet was one of the best buffets I've ever been too. There was plenty to eat. Pasta, Pizza, Lots of fish, authentic Mexican food, slabs of meat etc. Usually at most resorts I'm scared to eat the vegetables, fruit and some of the cold seafood. I found everything was kept at its proper temperature and it was all cooked properly. No problems with upset stomachs here! We did only go to one of the specialty restaurants. We were not happy with the reservation system. Basically you lined up in the morning at 9am, and they gave out numbers at 9:30ish. I was one of the first people there in the morning, but everyone pushes there way through and i ended up with number 50. Not worth it, there was nothing left by then. We found at the buffet the have specialty nights that compensates for the specialty restaurants. They had an oriental night, around the world night, etc.

Pools: They have 2 pools. Each with something different to offer. The activities pool was heated but every busy. If you love the party life and having fun, this pool is for you. If you would rather sit back and relax the other pool is a lot more quiet. Though this pool isn't heated, you don't really need it, the pool was only cold on one day because of the breeze, besides that it was warm the rest of the time. They also have a swim up bar on both sides, but they are not attached to the main pools. I found the swim up bar on the activities pool was sometime really dirty because of the amount of people in it. But they were always cleaning it. Before leaving I read a review saying that the pools were in bad shape. I found there were some tiles missing. But someone was always out in there cleaning and fixing it all the time.

Bars: All together, not including the restaurants, they have 5 bars. They have low quality to high quality alcohol. When ordering my drinks I found out that if you don't want the house rum or vodka you need to ask for the better stuff. There mixed drinks taste so much better with Bacardi Rum and doesn't give you the gut rot after!!!

Town: The town is a higher class part of Mexico. It has been modernized with the tourism. I suggest you take the glass bottom boat out to the arch and lovers beach. This was a must... the sites we saw were amazing! Another must is the Bar Cabo Wabo downtown. This is Sammy Hagger's bar. It is also very safe downtown minus the traffic.

Entertainment: We were really disappointed with the entertainment. It just doesn't have that wow factor and gets really boring after a while. I've seen better at lower class resorts.

In regards to having things stolen. Just like an other resort, lock up all of your valuables in the safe and take the safe key with you. We did this every day and we never had a problem.

Safe: They are amazing there. They work so hard but love their jobs so much. They are so friendly and helpful. I miss a few of them... they really make your stay there pleasant.

Weddings: Most of the weddings we watched were done on the beach with the famous arches in the back ground. It was beautifully set up and seemed to be well organized. We spoke with a couple getting married there and they said they were treated so professionally and the planner was really helpful. We can't wait until we can get married there.

Weather: Can't Complain... it only rains there in October and November. Its a desert, so you're guaranteed amazing weather all the time. Plus they have 0 humidity, so in the sun its hot and in the shade its comfortable. I'll warn you, at night the temperature does drop, bring a light sweater! But we found at night it was the perfect temperature to sit around and have some drinks.

Rooms: The room were really gorgeous and comfortable. Rooms were always getting cleaned. And they always did an amazing job. We did actually have a full king instead of two doubles pushed together. 90% of the rooms have an ocean view.

To sum it all up... Can't wait to go back... I wish I never had to go home!